A blog about substance abuse among our elected officials and all government officials. The purpose is not necessarily to embarass or humiliate, but to provide awareness of substance abuse and addiction problems.
Link Back to Substance Abuse CLE - Approved California MCLE Online
Last month a former California political party chairman was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. It was the former California GOP chairman. Though we caution you that no party has the monopoly on substance abuse. The story is here.
A driver tends to stand out while motoring down the freeway at 3:20 in the morning. When the driver starts weaving, he is sure to attract the attention of the California Highway Patrol, And that is exactly what happened. Worse, the driver smelled of alcohol, spoke with blurred speech, and failed a field sobriety test.
In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.
Of the 1,210 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2010, 211 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.
Of the 211 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, over half (131) were riding in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver.
In 2010, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.3 That's one percent of the 112 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.
Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.
Substance Abuse CLE unveiled new economic stimulus prices for Fall 2010. Each California MCLE lesson was only $14.00! Sorry if you missed it. Current prices have returned to $20.00.
Substance Abuse CLE provides quality and easily affordable continuing legal education classes that satisfy the MCLE requirement of the California Bar Association pertaining to the Prevention of Substance Abuse in the Legal Profession.
Substance Abuse CLE has just added a new lesson entitled An Attorney's Struggle With Methamphetamines. The purpose of this activity is to fulfill the California State Bar Rule 2.72 (A)(3) requirement by providing one hour of self-study credit in the prevention of substance abuse in the legal profession. Most lessons fulfilling this requirement provide generalized information on substance abuse, or are geared toward alcohol abuse and addiction. This new lesson focuses on facts about methamphetamine use and addiction by presenting a true case study about a California attorney’s struggle with methamphetamine addiction, the resulting misconduct, his resignation from the bar, and his recovery and petition for reinstatement to the bar.
This activity was approved by the California State Bar on July 16, 2010 for the period July 15, 2010 to July 14, 2012. The California State Bar provider number of Substance Abuse CLE is 15199.
Think one little alcohol related incident won’t ruin your day, or have much effect on your life? Perhaps that is what California State Senator Roy Ashburn thought as he left a Sacramento bar around 2:00 a.m. and drove off. That’s probably not what he is thinking now. After police saw him driving erratically, he was pulled over and arrested for DUI. That in itself could be a big deal for a Republican who has tried to position himself as being strong on moral family values. In such a case, just one DUI could ruin a person’s career. Well, as we hear so often on commercials: but wait, there’s more! It is alleged that the bar from which the conservative state senator emerged in his drunken stupor was none other than Faces, a well-known Sacramento gay bar!
Stories are all over the internet. For a story on his arrest, see this short AP report. For the more provocative stories concerning where may have been, see here and here.
Hey Senator, take a walk on the wild side? For the purposes of the Drunk Politician Blog, we could care less whether or not someone is gay, straight, Democrat or Republican. The point is that a person’s sexual orientation or political philosophy doesn’t have anything to do with substance abuse. Alcohol does not discriminate! Alcohol is a strong contributing factor in putting Senator Ashburn in the position he is now in.
There is some dispute about whether the senator really did come from a gay bar. See here. Perhaps this is just some political hit job perpetrated by opponents of California’s Proposition 8, a voter initiative which officially makes marriage in California between a man and a woman. Senator Ashburn is known to have been in favor of Proposition 8. He has also taken a position on other legislation for which he has been labeled as being “anti-gay.” He has made lots of political enemies.
Forget the political debate for a second. The point we are making here is that were it not for his excessive alcohol consumption and his apparent decision to drive while intoxicated, would Senator Ashburn be in the center of this controversy now? Most definitely not.
In the military, Senator Ashburn’s DUI would be classified as an alcohol related incident and annotated in his record book. This is just one occasion of alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse differs from alcohol dependence, in that it is not a disease. A person can abuse alcohol without being an alcoholic. A person may drink too much and too often but still not be dependent on alcohol. Some alcohol related problems include not being able to meet work, school, or family responsibilities; drunk-driving arrests and car crashes; and drinking-related medical conditions. Under some circumstances, even social or moderate drinking is dangerous--for example, when driving, during pregnancy, or when taking certain medications.
Something else Senator Ashburn should have considered is that alcohol depresses your central nervous system, lowers your inhibitions, and impairs your judgment. Drinking can lead to risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex - but we won’t go there in this post!
