Substance Abuse Treatment and Public Safety

The Substance Abuse Treatment and Public Safety brief found that the sooner substance abuse is treated, the bigger the long-term cost savings and increases in public safety. At a time when some have raised concerns about the release of people convicted of drug offenses from federal prison due to U.S. Sentencing Commission reforms, the research shows that substance abuse treatment helps individuals transition successfully from the criminal justice system to the community. The policy brief -- the last in a series that examines the impact of positive social investments on public safety -- found that: Increases in admissions to substance abuse treatment are associated with reductions in crime rates. Admissions to drug treatment increased 37.4 percent and federal spending on drug treatment increased 14.6 percent from 1995 to 2005. During the same period, violent crime fell 31.5 percent. In California, where Proposition 36 diverted thousands of people from prison and jail to treatment, violent crime fell at a rate that exceeded the national average. Increased admissions to drug treatment are associated with reduced incarceration rates. States with a higher drug treatment admission rate than the national average send, on average, 100 fewer people to prison per 100,000 in the population than states that have lower than average drug treatment admissions. California, in particular, experienced decreases in incarceration rates when jurisdictions increased the number of people sent to drug treatment. Substance abuse treatment prior to contact with the justice system yields public safety benefits early on. Research has shown that drug treatment programs improve life outcomes for individuals and decreases the likelihood that a drug-involved person will be involved in the criminal justice system. Substance abuse treatment helps individuals transition successfully from the criminal justice system to the community. Community-based drug treatment programs reduce the chance that a person will become involved in the criminal justice system after release from prison. Substance abuse treatment is more cost-effective than prison or other punitive measures. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) found that community-based drug treatment is extremely beneficial in terms of cost, especially compared to prison. Every dollar spent on drug treatment in the community is estimated to return $18.52 in benefits to society in terms of reduced incarceration rates and associated crime costs to taxpayers

Housing and Public Safety

"Housing and Public Safety," one of four briefs, finds that increased availability of quality, affordable or supportive housing is associated with public safety benefits. The release of this brief corresponds with concerns about the U.S. housing market and economic stability.Key findings from "Housing and Public Safety" include:Some studies found that substandard housing -- particularly where exposure to lead hazards is more likely to occur -- is associated with higher violent crime rates. Studies have shown that exposure to lead -- associated with older, deteriorated and lower-quality housing -- can result in increased delinquency, violence and crime.For populations who are the most at-risk for criminal justice system involvement, supportive or affordable housing has been shown to be a cost effective public investment, lowering corrections and jail expenditures, thus freeing up funds for other pubic safety investments. Additionally, providing affordable or supportive housing to people leaving correctional facilities is an effective means of reducing the chance of future incarceration. States that spent more on housing experienced lower incarceration rates than those states that spent less. Of the 10 states that spent the larger proportion of their total expenditures on housing, all 10 had incarceration rates lower than the national average. Of the 10 states that spent the smaller proportion of their total expenditures on housing, five states had incarceration rates above the national average (with two states having incarceration rates just below the national average)

“Online Pharmacy Regulation: How the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act Can Help Solve an International Problem”

There is an unaddressed anomaly with respect to regulating online pharmacies when compared with traditional pharmacies. Online pharmacies serve the same ends as traditional brick and mortar pharmacies, i.e., to bring medication to consumers as a part of a profitable business. The raison d’étre of traditional pharmacy regulation—to protect consumers —should logically apply to online sources of the same inherently dangerous pharmaceuticals. However, traditional pharmacies are regulated, while online pharmacies have long eluded effective regulation and now constitute a lawless source of purchase and abuse that is far from real physician control, effective standards, or accountability.... This Comment will establish a foundation for analyzing the problem by describing online pharmacies in the marketplace today. Part III will describe how the international community has thus far attempted to address the problem of online pharmacies. Part IV will address how the United States has approached the problem, including a specific analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Ryan Haight Online Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (“Ryan Haight Act”). Part V will summarize the current problems still facing the global marketplace of consumers and citizens. Part VI will recommend a solution to the problem in the form of an international compact that draws upon the Ryan Haight Act and international approaches to date. Part VII will present the objectives and suggested content of such an international compact

Rapid Targeted Gene Disruption in Bacillus Anthracis

Anthrax is a zoonotic disease recognized to affect herbivores since Biblical times and has the widest range of susceptible host species of any known pathogen. The ease with which the bacterium can be weaponized and its recent deliberate use as an agent of terror, have highlighted the importance of gaining a deeper understanding and effective countermeasures for this important pathogen. High quality sequence data has opened the possibility of systematic dissection of how genes distributed on both the bacterial chromosome and associated plasmids have made it such a successful pathogen. However, low transformation efficiency and relatively few genetic tools for chromosomal manipulation have hampered full interrogation of its genome. Results: Group II introns have been developed into an efficient tool for site-specific gene inactivation in several organisms. We have adapted group II intron targeting technology for application in Bacillus anthracis and generated vectors that permit gene inactivation through group II intron insertion. The vectors developed permit screening for the desired insertion through PCR or direct selection of intron insertions using a selection scheme that activates a kanamycin resistance marker upon successful intron insertion. Conclusions: The design and vector construction described here provides a useful tool for high throughput experimental interrogation of the Bacillus anthracis genome and will benefit efforts to develop improved vaccines and therapeutics.Chem-Bio Diagnostics program from the Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense program through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) B102387MNIH GM037949Welch Foundation F-1607Cellular and Molecular Biolog

Can Family Formation as a Source of Parental Strain Contribute to Juvenile Delinquency Using a GST Approach?

Family structure and formation play a role in how children and teens develop behaviors, including the rate in which they become delinquent. Wells and Rankin (1991) report there are mixed results in studies looking at the relationship between family structure and delinquency from the past 70 years. Parents tend to be a behavior model for their children, which can reflect their relationships with a spouse, partner, or other close relationship. When there is a shift in the family structure, parent strains may be affected, including parenting practices and relationships within the household. This study addresses the relationship between parental strains and juvenile delinquency from a General Strain Theory perspective. From the data collected, it can be concluded that the closeness of the relationship between a child and caregiver has a bigger impact on juvenile delinquency than their living situations. However, teens who are living in a two-parent household are less likely to engage in delinquency than those living in a single-parent or cohabitating household

Years of life lost to prison: racial and gender gradients in the United States of America

© 2008 Hogg et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

The Status of CIF Contracts between the Sale of Goods and the Sale of Documents

The intricate nature of international trade is encapsulated in the complexities of CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) contracts, which stand at the intersection of the sale of goods and the sale of documents. This paper seeks to dissect the pivotal roles played by documents and goods within CIF contracts and to ascertain whether these contracts are more accurately defined as sales of documents rather than sales of goods. By examining legal cases and dissecting the contractual obligations of parties involved in CIF contracts, this study aims to shed light on the essence of these contracts in the context of international law and trade practices. The research is divided into four main parts. Initially, it analyzes the duties of parties and the role of CIF documents in the sale of goods. The second part delves into the implications of documents and goods concerning the transfer of risk and property, probing into the critical claim of documents. The third part scrutinizes the buyer's right to refuse the documents or the goods, and which aspect takes precedence. The fourth part evaluates the claim that CIF contracts made en route are essentially 'sales of documents'. This study culminates by presenting arguments on the nature of CIF contracts, weighing the significance of documents against the goods themselves. Despite the increasing tendency to use documents to represent physical goods in trade, this paper concludes that CIF contracts inherently constitute contracts for the sale of goods. It highlights the distinctive rights related to the rejection of either documents or goods, thereby reinforcing the primacy of the actual goods over their documentary representations in CIF contracts

Progress in the Challenge to Regulate Online Pharmacies

Imagine for a moment that after borrowing a credit card, a teenager strolls down the block to the local pharmacy. At the pharmacy, a doctor is at the door waiting and willing to prescribe anything to anyone. After answering a few questions, the teenager receives his prescription, where he takes it to the drug counter and places an order for a dangerous amount of painkillers. Imagine further that the teenager develops an addiction to the drugs and purchases an increased dosage each visit until finally, the teen dies from an overdose from the easily obtained prescription drugs. The situation described above is drawn from a real event. Nearly the very same chain of events happened to seventeen year old Ryan Haight. The only difference was that Ryan never even had to leave his home. Ryan visited an online pharmacy and obtained a prescription from a doctor he had never met for drugs he did not need. Using his father\u27s credit card, Ryan had the drugs delivered to his home. Tragically, Ryan became addicted to the drugs and eventually died of an overdose at age eighteen