Physical Medicine

It’s summer, so it’s hot and it’s the perfect excuse for pregnant women to be in the pool!  Swimming is great for pregnant women because you’ll feel light and bouyant.  Try this simple exercise to tone your inner and outer thighs.  Standing in the shallow end step or lightly jump your feet apart then bring your feet back together.  Work up to 3 sets of 15-20 reps.  In between sets walk from one side to the other.

A great postpartum exercise for weight loss is what I call the “football shuffle”.  What you do is start at one side of a room squat down low and quickly bring your feet together then apart.  Shuffle across the room or outside about 20 feet.  Work up to two to three sets 10 repetitions.  Make sure to walk in between sets until your heart rate comes back down.  The ”football shuffle” is a great exercise because it tones your inner and outer thighs, and buttocks, plus it gets your hear rate up so you burn more calories.

The Washington Post and several other news outlets reported yesterday that the FBI has changed its hiring policy to make it easier to hire past drug users.

Apparently they were having trouble filling positions with the old requirement: applicants couldn't have used marijuana more than 15 times in their lives, or other illegal drugs more than five times.

This was causing a lot of people to flub the polygraph--and undertandably so. It's got to be a stressful process anyway, without trying to remember the exact number of times you smoked or figure out whether a joint or an evening of smoking counts as one use.

Under the new rules, you still can't be a current or recent drug user, but more frequent drug use in the past does not automatically mean they will send you packing.

Something I was surprised to read in the Post article is that the DEA will consider hiring people who have experimented with marijuana. You have to wonder how sincerely federal agencies believe their own rhetoric in light of these hiring policies... do they see applicants who admit to past drug use as the miraculous few who have come through the experience unscathed?

Posted by Megan Farrington.

A handful of California politicians are trying to undermine the state's successful treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative, Proposition 36, in a budget battle that could culminate in a vote at the end of this month.
 
Republicans in the state Senate have introduced a proposal to end state funding for the program, despite the fact that Prop. 36 has saved taxpayers $1.8 billion and kept tens of thousands of Californians out of prison in just six years. State-contracted research shows the program saves $2.50 for every $1 invested in it.
 
Margaret Dooley, Prop. 36 Coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance, said, “The proposal sadly illustrates that Senate Republicans’ distaste for drug treatment outweighs their interest in fiscally responsible policies. The more the state spends on Prop. 36, the more taxdollars we'll save and the more people we'll help become taxpayers instead of tax-spenders. De-funding this treatment alternative now would be the height of fiscal irresponsibility.”
 
The Senate Republicans' proposal to zero out funding follows a July vote by the state Assembly to reduce spending for Prop. 36 in 2007-08 to $120 million--a $25 million reduction from the previous year--while approving $500 million in tax cuts for large corporations.
 
Fortunately, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata is holding strong against the pressure to cut funding in exchange for corporate tax gifts. Before the Assembly voted to cut Prop. 36 spending, Senator Perata encouraged the Assembly Speaker to rethink the plan, writing, “I am alarmed and dismayed by rumors that you are considering a half a billion dollars in tax breaks for special interests…. Even the increases we proposed to the state’s Prop 36 program - aimed at keeping non-violent drug offenders out of prison and putting them into treatment programs - has fallen victim to concerns about the state’s long-term deficit…. We cannot continue to fund education, higher education and crucial human services issues…by providing tax giveaways.”
 
When the Senate returns to debate the budget, expected late this month, the Republicans are expected to put Prop. 36 funding up for negotiation again. However, the Senate President's strong support bodes well for the program. The final decision will be up to the governor, who has the ability to reduce any line-item in the legislature-approved budget bfore signing it into law.
 
Prop. 36 has national significance as a model for shifting the response to drug use away from the criminal justice system. DPA is closely involved in the ongoing fight to protect the program and raise awareness of its success in reducing drug addiction and saving taxpayer dollars.

For the first time ever this September, Washington, DC, will commemorate national Recovery Month, bringing together people in recovery, service providers, and policy advocates to show that treatment works and recovery can happen if the city invests in it.

Recovery Month, whose theme this year is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Saving Lives, Saving Dollars,” will feature 300 events around the country to highlight the financial and human costs of substance use disorders.  An initiative of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Recovery Month is designed to raise awareness of the benefits of drug treatment, acknowledge the contributions of treatment providers, and celebrate people in recovery and their families.

In the District, community partners from all over the city will host the first annual Recovery Weekend, entitled "Recovery: Help, Hope and Healing," September 12-16. Events will range from a city-wide rally to an intensive one-day policy conference. Sponsoring organizations include drug treatment centers, homeless shelters, re-entry programs, harm reduction organizations, and law enforcement agencies.

The weekend is co-sponsored by the DC Recovery Community Alliance, a coalition of which DPA is a founding member. Naomi Long, director of DPA's DC Metro Area office, is a member of the planning committee and will moderate a debate on treatment-instead-of-incarceration at the one-day conference.

DC has a particularly acute need for advocacy around treatment issues. 60,000 people in the city need drug treatment, but only 14% have treatment access. Funding for the city's Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration has remained flat since the 1980s. Currently the District spends 1.2 billion dollars on lost productivity and social service costs related to substance use. The DC jail and re-entry services continue to be log-jammed with low-level, nonviolent drug offenders and addicts.

For Long, having members of the recovery community at the forefront of drug policy advocacy is crucial. "The District has a huge network of people in recovery who are intimately aware of the shortcomings in DC's current approach to drug addiction. The Recovery Weekend is one step in the process of them organizing for a real public health approach to drug use that includes adequate treatment funding, more treatment options, and comprehensive services."

For more information or to register for the conference visit www.grm.org.