Addiction And The Law

Young lawyer Jake Rutledge returns to his hometown of Oakley, West Virginia, after his twin dies of a drug overdose, and joins with an attorney from one of the country's most powerful law firms to seek justice for Big Pharma's greed.

This book considers how largely accepted 'legal truths' about drugs and addiction are made and sustained through practices of lawyering. Lawyers play a vital and largely underappreciated role in constituting legal certainties about substances and 'addiction', including links between alcohol and other drugs, and phenomena such as family violence. Such practices exacerbate, sustain and stabilise 'addicted' realities, with a range of implications - many of them seemingly unjust - for people who use alcohol and other drugs. This book explores these issues, drawing upon data collected for a major international study on alcohol and other drugs in the law, including interviews with lawyers, magistrates and judges; analyses of case law; and legislation. Focussing on an array of legal practices, including processes of law-making, human rights deliberations, advocacy and negotiation strategies, and the sentencing of offenders, and buttressed by overarching analyses of the ethics and politics of such practices, the book looks at how alcohol and other drug 'addiction' emerges and is concretised through the everyday work lawyers and decision makers do. Foregrounding 'practices', the book also shows that law is more fragile than we might assume. It concludes by presenting a blueprint for how lawyers can rethink their advocacy practices in light of this fragility and the opportunities it presents for remaking law and the subjects and objects shaped by it. This ground-breaking book will be of interest not only to those studying and working within the field of alcohol and drug addiction but also to lawyers and judges practising in this area and to scholars in a range of disciplines, including law, science and technology studies, sociology, gender studies and cultural studies

Brian Cuban was living a lie. With a famous last name and a successful career as a lawyer, Brian was able to hide his clinical depression and alcohol and cocaine addictions—for a while. Today, as an inspirational speaker in long-term recovery, Brian looks back on his journey with honesty, compassion, and even humor as he reflects both on what he has learned about himself and his career choice and how the legal profession enables addiction. His demons, which date to his childhood, controlled him through failed marriages and stays in a psychiatric facility, until they brought him to the brink of suicide. That was his wake-up call. This is his story. Brian also takes an in-depth look at why there is such a high percentage of problematic alcohol use and other mental health issues in the legal profession. What types of therapies work? Are 12-step programs the only answer? Brian also includes interviews with experts on the subject as well as others in the profession who are now in recovery. The Addicted Lawyer is both a serious study of addiction and a compelling story of redemption.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

For nearly three decades, methadone hydrochloride has been the primary means of treating opiate addiction. Today, about 115,000 people receive such treatment, and thousands more have benefited from it in the past. Even though methadone's effectiveness has been well established, its use remains controversial, a fact reflected by the extensive regulation of its manufacturing, labeling, distribution, and use. The Food and Drug Administration regulates the safety and effectiveness of methadone, as it does for all drugs, and the Drug Enforcement Administration regulates it as a controlled substance. However, methadone is also subjected to a unique additional tier of regulation that prescribes how and under what circumstances it may be used to treat opiate addiction. Federal Regulation of Methadone Treatment examines current Department of Health and Human Services standards for narcotic addiction treatment and the regulation of methadone treatment programs pursuant to those standards. The book includes an evaluation of the effect of federal regulations on the provision of methadone treatment services and an exploration of options for modifying the regulations to allow optimal clinical practice. The volume also includes an assessment of alternatives to the existing regulations.

This book analyses the voluminous and meandering case law on gambling of the Court of Justice from an empirical perspective. It offers a comprehensive overview of the legal situation of gambling services in the EU Single Market. Additionally, the book presents the current state of research on gambling addiction. It then seeks to answer the central research question as to what extent the views of the Court of Justice on gambling find support in empirical evidence. The Court of Justice granted exceptionally wide discretion to the Member States due to a so-called ‘peculiar nature’ of games of chance. With the margin of appreciation having played a key role, the book inquires whether the Court of Justice followed the principles and criteria that normally steer the use of this doctrine. Noting the Court’s special approach, the book elaborates on its causes and consequences. Throughout the book, the approach of the Court of Justice is contrasted with that of its sister court, the EFTA Court. Finally, the potential role of the precautionary principle and of EU fundamental rights in the area of gambling law is examined. Situated at the intersection of law and science, this book seeks to bridge the legal and scientific perspectives and the unique vocabularies common to each. It illustrates the direct relevance of science and empirical research for court cases and policy making. And it contrasts science-informed policy making with the on-going morality discourse on gambling.

The book includes an examination of sources of law important to addiction and its treatment. The foundations for forensic work in professional legal testimony is explored (e.g., legal system, case law precedent, statutes governing addictions, civil and criminal procedures). The science of addiction is featured including the biology of addiction, addiction as a brain disease, responsibility vs. loss of control, development of addictions, and the role of genetics and environment. Drug testing, its uses with forensic populations, what the tests show and do not show, controversies in using tests in the general population also receives extensive treatment. Addiction and mental illness in forensic populations is highlighted for addiction treatment and continuing care. Case studies and landmark cases illustrate the role of alcohol, drug use, and addictions in legal decisions. Focused primarily on alcohol and drug addictions Case studies and landmark cases are included to illustrate the role of alcohol/drugs in legal decisions (e.g., the Exxon Valdez case) Brief overview of legal system and drug courts will be useful to clinicans, lawyers, administrators, and other professionals

Views on addiction are often polarised - either addiction is a matter of choice, or addicts simply can't help themselves. But perhaps addiction falls between the two? This book contains views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and the law exploring this middle ground between free choice and no choice.