Self Help

Self help groups can complement and extend the effects of professional treatment. The most prominent self help groups are Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous. These help groups operate on the 12-step model. Most drug addiction treatment programs encourage patients to participate in self help group therapy during and after formal treatment. These groups can be particularly helpful during recovery, offering an added layer of community and social support to help people achieve and maintain abstinence and other healthy lifestyle behaviors over the course of a lifetime.

Retainer Medicine

Retainer medicine is practiced by physicians who have decided to drop out of all third party payer programs. These practitioners have offered a limited number of patients the opportunity to pay a fixed annual fee in exchange for premium services and amenities. Retainers doctors generally limit, by a drastic amount, the number of patients, which they will service. This makes the most sense for primary care physicians and those specialists who have ongoing and regular relationships with their patients. Many retainer practices also provide amenities which patients often do not get when Medicare or an insurer pays the doctor, including access to the physician’s cell phone, e-mail correspondence, same-day appointments, and plenty of face time during appointments. However, whatever the specifics of a particular practice may be, the key that defines “retainer medicine” is that the doctor works for the patient. It has become impossible in practical terms and in ethical terms for traditional primary care physicians to fight the pervasive pressures upon them to ration healthcare at the bedside. To escape this fate, they must become either specialists or a retainer practitioner. That is, primary care physicians must choose between remaining in a system that ruthlessly pushes them toward a practice of bedside rationing or, one way or another, getting out of traditional primary care medicine altogether. Retainer medicine restores the professional integrity of medical practice, and re-establishes a doctor-patient relationship in which the physician can again assume the duty of a true advocate. It is perhaps the only remaining means to restore the foundational medical ethic of always placing the patient first. Retainer fees let one practice handle more patients by phone or email.

Pediatrics

Pediatricians are doctors who care for children from birth to early adulthood. They specialize in diseases and ailments specific to young and growing bodies. Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The age limit of such patients ranges from birth to 18. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician. Pediatrics differs from adult medicine in many respects. The obvious body size differences are paralleled by maturational changes. The smaller body of an infant or neonate is substantially different physiologically from that of an adult. Congenital defects, genetic variance, and developmental issues are of greater concern to pediatricians than they often are to adult physicians. Treating a child is not like treating a miniature adult. A major difference between pediatrics and adult medicine is that children are minors and, in most jurisdictions, cannot make decisions for themselves. The issues of guardianship, privacy, legal responsibility and informed consent must always be considered in every pediatric procedure. In a sense, pediatricians often have to treat the parents and sometimes, the family, rather than just the child. Adolescents are in their own legal class, having rights to their own health care decisions in certain circumstances.

Driving Stoned

While no one contests the implications of drinking and driving, there is public policy debate concerning driving while stoned. Studies indicate that acute marijuana use can mildly impair psychomotor skills, but it is usually not severe or long lasting. Minor impairments in tracking, eye movement control and reaction time appear in close course and driving simulator studies. These studies also indicate that marijuana users tend to increase the distance between the vehicle ahead and to decrease overall driving speed. Overall the impairments exhibited by marijuana users are much less severe than those who consume alcohol. Unlike impaired alcoholic drivers, marijuana users are often aware of the impairment and adjust some driving habits accordingly, like by driving with more caution or putting off driving altogether until the driver feels competent to do so.

Not a High Level of Accidents

The impairment resulting from low level marijuana use does not indicate a high level of on-road traffic accidents. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study reported there was no indication that cannabis use was a cause of fatal crashes among drivers who tested positive for the drug. A study published by the Canadian Journal of Public Health that reviewed 10 years of United States auto fatalities found that drivers with a blood alcohol levels of 0.05 (a level below the legal limit of 0.08), were three times more likely to engage in unsafe driving practices that preceded a fatal crash than people who tested positive for marijuana use. A study in France revealed a similar conclusion, finding that drivers with blood alcohol levels not exceeding 0.05 had four times the risk of having a fatal accident than marijuana users who tested positive for high levels of cannabis, above 5 ng/ml. Both studies indicate that overall few traffic accidents were due to a driver operating a vehicle while impaired by marijuana use.
Driving while consuming marijuana is not a recommended activity. Since the psychomotor impairment from marijuana use is relatively minor and transitory it is advisable that users wait a few hours before operating their vehicles.
Source: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459