America’s Psych/Neuro Crisis: Silence From The Medics

America’s Psych/Neuro Crisis: Silence From The Medics

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You might have noticed, if you're paying attention, that the U.S. has a major set of medical crises. An epidemic of mass killings from clearly deranged perpetrators who've slipped through the net of the psych/neuro professionals unnoticed. And an epidemic of broken vets returning home from the killing fields with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). . The response from the medical profession (using this term advisedly)? Silence.
General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 3, 2014

General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 3, 2014

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Admit it. Like me, you didn't see this coming.  $3 mill in funding earmarked for the University of Delaware in limbo while the Delaware General Assembly awaits word on what the U of D will decide in terms of the plan to build a data center and energy plant on university land. I have no problem in general with the General Assembly withholding funds from the University when UD is recalcitrant. I just wish they had done it to force UD to open its records to the public. Maybe they'll do that next year. This is clearly a power play by labor and some business interests to get this project moving. We're talking Jobs vs. NIMBY. I ain't got a dawg in this fight, but it'll make for a fascinating June. WWUDD? I also can't believe that the General Assembly will allow a $70 million swath to be cut through DELDOT's construction budget, I just can't. If we're talking about jobs, how does reducing road projects from around $190 million to about $120 million protect them? It doesn't. Now that Valerie Longhurst's power is on the wane, perhaps wiser heads will prevail in the General Assembly. Especially if a certain bridge on I-495 is in danger of falling down. Again, some great drama for the final month. Uh, not the falling down part, I hope, but the question of whether legislators will lay down on the job and bid a lot of jobs and important work adieu.
How to Transform the War on Drugs into Providing Drug Treatment and Compassion

How to Transform the War on Drugs into Providing Drug Treatment and Compassion

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Make the faces of drug use and abuse white ones. Interesting, yes? Most black and brown people have known this since forever. Last week, the WaPo published two authors who note that with the reports of the explosion of heroin use and abuse in the suburbs, that the news reporting as well as law enforcement sound much more compassionate, but that seems to be because they are now talking about white people:
Last month, NBC News ran a series of stories about the United States’ “growing heroin epidemic.” Two things stand out in the reports: One is their sympathetic tone; the other is that almost everyone depicted is white. Drug users and their families aren’t vilified; there is no panicked call for police enforcement. Instead, and appropriately, there is a call for treatment and rehabilitation. Parents of drug addicts express love for their children, and everyone agrees they need support to get clean.