The Council on Alcohol and Drugs and Georgia Law Enforcement Launch Statewide "Operation Drug Drop Off" Campaign

ATLANTA, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "One person dies every 19 minutes from prescription drug abuse in the United States." Many experts in the field of prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse prevention believe the number of deaths from these drugs will decrease as a result of communities having a safe and convenient way to dispose of leftover Rx and OTC drugs.

In response to the growing demand and need for a safe and convenient way to dispose of leftover Rx and OTC drugs, The Council on Alcohol and Drugs (The Council) has donated a drug drop box in virtually every county in the state that requested one (128 counties to date). Georgia now has more law enforcement-maintained drug drop boxes than any other state in the country. The name of the campaign is "Operation Drug Drop Off." The Council has also launched an associated statewide Drug Drop Box Media Campaign to publicize the presence of these boxes.

The goals of this program are to keep Rx and OTC drugs from getting into the hands of children and grandchildren, to keep them off the street, and to prevent overdoses and accidental poisonings. At the same time the Campaign also allows citizens to dispose of their out of date and unwanted Rx and OTC drugs safely and securely, avoiding environmental contamination via improper disposal methods.

Items that can be placed in these secure drug drop boxes include expired and unused Rx drugs (non-narcotics and narcotics) and OTC drugs, medication samples, medicated ointment/lotion, drops, inhalers, unopened epi-pens, herbals, and veterinary medications. Items that should not be placed in the boxes include needles or sharps, biohazard materials, and illegal drugs.

Georgia citizens can locate their closest drug drop box location by visiting this website: www.StopRxAbuseinGA.org. For additional information or questions concerning Operation Drug Drop Off, please contact John Bringuel, MA, ICPS, at (404) 223-2484 or email Mr. Bringuel at jbringuel@livedrugfree.org.

For more information on preventing alcohol and drug abuse please visit, www.livedrugfree.org.

SOURCE The Council on Alcohol and Drugs

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5 interesting nuggets buried in the latest round of campaign finance reports

Ever since the Watergate scandal broke in the 1970s, political reporters have taken the adage "follow the money" quite seriously. It's even more important since NPR reported that current campaign finance laws are not being enforced in an age of record political spending.

Now the guys behind Political Moneyline — a must-read new blog — are helping out by digging through campaign finance reports and coming up with dozens of interesting items.

SEE MORE: The new bride who had a horrifying allergic reaction to her husband's sperm

There's nothing scandalous, but here are five nuggets that caught my attention:

1. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) reported his campaign fund earned $75,637 from investments during the first quarter of 2013. In fact, his investment income almost equaled the $80,227 he received from individuals and PACs.

SEE MORE: Can Rand Paul sell black voters on the Republican Party?

2. Rep. Joe P. Kennedy III (D-Mass.), just elected last November, has jumped into the national fundraising arena with a new leadership PAC, which can take up to $5,000 per year from individuals as compared to the $2,600 limit for campaigns.

3. Major League Baseball gave over $100,000 to members of Congress in March, the biggest monthly amount the sport has ever given.

SEE MORE: 10 of the world's most bizarre taxes

4. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received over $1.3 million in leftover campaign funds from his failed presidential bid in 2008. Running mate Sarah Palin received nothing.

5. Political contributions from the 2012 election cycle are still being disclosed six months after the election is over.

SEE MORE: Want to raise winners? Give your kids a chance to lose

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Other stories from this section:

• Republicans move the budget goal posts again
• Is Washington gridlock starting to ease?
• Huntsman etches a new conservative brand

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McConnell Campaign Looks For 'A Needle In A Haystack' Against Potential Challenger

ABC News' Michael Falcone and Shushannah Walshe report:

It's clear that the most salacious details of the leaked Mitch McConnell campaign tape focus on what one McConnell campaign aide described as the "wealth of material" they were able to dig up on Ashley Judd. It's also clear that none of it will be of much use after Judd announced last month she would not be running in 2014.

Worth noting, however, is the comparatively meager body of opposition research McConnell staffers gathered on the Kentucky politician who appears most likely to challenge the Senate Majority Leader - Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

In fact, the aide leading the secretly-taped strategy session suggested researchers were struggling to find ammunition with which to attack Grimes, comparing finding dirt on her to searching for "needle in a haystack."

"The best hit we have on her is her blatantly endorsing the 2008 Democratic national platform," the aide said during the Feb. 2 meeting at McConnell campaign headquarters.

Grimes's relatively low name recognition in the state (recent polls have found only about half of Kentuckians know who she is) may be a disadvantage, but her relatively short time in public life (she began her term as secretary of state in 2012) could also be an asset for the 34-year-old lawyer. Still, Grimes comes from a well-connected political family: Her father was a former state party chairman and her family has close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

McConnell's campaign team was evidently planning to link her to the 2008 Democratic Party platform, which she supported, as well as President Obama, who she publicly backed in 2012. Even though Kentucky is a red state, neither move seems particularly surprising for Grimes.

But, as was the case with the Republican campaign's research on Judd, which identified the actress's mental health challenges and religious beliefs as potential vulnerabilities, McConnell's team appeared similarly interested in Grimes's quirks.

"If you see a lot of footage of her, she definitely has a very sort of self-centered, sort of egotistical aspect," one aide said. "She's very sort of a, sort of it's all about her, the theme that I would call this. And this is sort of an example about this. She uses her, like in speeches, she'll frequently use herself in the third person."

Indeed, Grimes has referred to herself in the third person at campaign events (a parody video has been circulating on the Internet) although it is unclear what practical effect that would have on voters in a Senate race.

Dale Emmons, a Kentucky Democratic operative and adviser to Grimes, said the early glimpse at the McConnell campaign's playbook should do nothing to discourage her from entering the race.

"If this is how small his thinking is, if this is how they begin their campaign planning, it should tell us a whole lot," Emmons told ABC News.

As recently as last weekend, however, Grimes said she was undecided.

"I don't know what the next step is for me," Grimes told a crowd at a Democratic fundraising dinner in Bardstown, Ky., according to a local news report.

Politically, Emmons said, "there wasn't really that much of a surprise" to the issues the Republican strategists raised about Grimes in the recording, which was leaked to Mother Jones. But if she does run, there is little doubt McConnell would employ the same take-no-prisoners strategy he has used against other opponents. (On the tape, the five-term Kentucky senator can be heard comparing the early months of a campaign to a game of "Whac-A-Mole.")

"It's typical of Mitch McConnell," Emmons said. "He guts his opponents and watches them bleed out."

Also Read

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Magazine releases recording of senior Republican's campaign meeting

By Steve Holland and David Ingram

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign said on Tuesday it has asked the FBI to investigate how a campaign strategy meeting was recorded in which ways to attack a potential rival, actress Ashley Judd, were reportedly discussed.

The magazine, Mother Jones, said it had obtained a recording of the meeting and that McConnell and his aides discussed criticizing Judd "for her past struggles with depression and her religious views."

Judd has since ruled out running against McConnell in 2014.

Mother Jones, which has a liberal slant, reported that at the February 2 meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, McConnell and his aides discussed how to attack Judd.

McConnell's campaign did not dispute the authenticity of the recording. "We've always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond," the McConnell campaign statement said.

McConnell's campaign said it is working with the FBI and at the request of the FBI had notified the U.S. attorney's office in Louisville about the recordings.

"Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell's campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation," McConnell's campaign said.

Mother Jones was the magazine that obtained a recording of a fund-raising speech by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year in which Romney said 47 percent of Americans were dependent on government and unlikely to vote for him. When disclosed, the recording dealt Romney a damaging blow.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Louisville declined to comment on the existence of an investigation. An FBI spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One thing any investigation would focus on is whether any law was in fact broken. Federal law and the law in many states prohibit the intercept of oral communication, but that might not apply depending on who made the recording and how.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Fred Barbash and Jackie Frank)

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Campaign Launched to Stop California SB 635 that Would Extend Last Call at Bars, Restaurants and Nightclubs to 4 a.m

LOS ANGELES, April 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to Alcohol Justice, community organizations concerned with public health and safety have joined the statewide coalition to STOP Leno's 4 a.m. Bar Bill.  They will be joined by police chiefs and Los Angeles city council members Monday at a Los Angeles City Hall press event to launch their campaign and support Council Member Bernard Parks' resolution to oppose passage of SB 635. The bill, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) would make it possible for any California bar, restaurant or nightclub to extend drinking hours from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130406/DC89996LOGO )

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110727/DC41105LOGO )

What:       Press event and rally

When:      Monday, April 8, 2013 10:00 AM

Where:     Los Angeles City Hall South Steps (W 1^st. St.)

Who:         Speakers Include:

• Bernard Parks, Los Angeles Councilmember Dist. 8, (former L.A. Chief of Police)
• Richard Alarcon, Los Angeles Councilmember Dist. 7
• Jorge Castillo, Advocacy Director, Alcohol Justice
• Ruben Rodriguez, Executive Director, Pueblo y Salud, Inc.,
• Richard Zaldivar, Founder and Executive Director of The Wall Las Memorias Project
• Jeanne Shimatsu, Prevention Coordinator AADAP, Inc.
• Paul Scott, WCTU
• Sarah Blanch, Institute for Public Strategies
• Margot Bennett, Executive Director, Women Against Gun Violence
• Leonard Lee Buschel, Founder Writers in Treatment, & Reel Recovery Film Festival
• Sara Cooley, MA/MPH, Project Coordinator, P³ Partnership for a Positive Pomona
• Susan Blauner, Director of Operations, Saving Lives Drug and Alcohol Coalition
• Dennis Hathaway, President, Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight
• John O. Whitaker, Jr., CDS, CATC II, President, Paso Por Paso
• Kevin M. Key, Community Organizer, United Coalition East Prevention Project
• Crystal Cedillo, Community Organizer Koreatown Youth and Community Center 

Why: 

• Extending hours of on-site alcohol sales into the wee hours of the morning will benefit a few bar, restaurant and nightclub owners, as well as alcohol producers and distributors, while increasing alcohol-related harms and costs at public expense
• Evidence shows that two more hours of alcohol sales will nearly double alcohol-related violence, crime, police calls, emergency room visits, etc.
• California already suffers $38.4 billion a year in alcohol-related harm, with local and state governments paying $8 billion annually
• Alcohol-related deaths in California top 10,000 per year with over 900,000 alcohol-related incidents of harm (crimes, injuries, high-risk sex, etc.)
• The last time the California alcohol excise tax was increased was in 1992
• State, city and county public health and safety providers do not have the resources to mitigate the current alcohol-related economic and social harms, so who will cover the damages of two more hours of late-night alcohol consumption?
• Taxpayers will pick up the bloody tab for Leno's bar bill 

Statewide Coalition Members include:

Alcohol Justice
Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP)
Ban Billboard Blight
Bay Area Community Resources (BACR)
County Alcohol & Drug Program Administrators Association of California (CADPAAC)
California Council on Alcohol Problems (CALCAP)
California Narcotic Officers Association
California Police Chiefs Association
Friday Night Live
Institute for Public Strategies
Lutheran Office of Public Policy California
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca
Metro United Methodist Urban Ministry
P3 Partnership for a Positive Pomona
Paso Por Paso, Inc.
Phoenix House
Pueblo Y Salud, Inc.
People Reaching Out
Prevention Institute
Social Model Recovery Systems
The Wall – Las Memorias Project
WCTU
Women Against Gun Violence
Writers In Treatment
Youth Leadership Institute (YLI)

For More Information: STOP Leno's 4 a.m. Bar Bill

Take Action against SB 635 here!

CONTACT:    
Michael Scippa 415 548-0492
Jorge Castillo213 840-3336

SOURCE Alcohol Justice

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