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DUI Offenders Fitted with Alcohol-Detecting Anklets
Judges in Bexar County, Texas are requiring some DUI offenders to wear an ankle bracelet that uses sweat samples to check on whether the wearer has been drinking alcohol.
Leroy Chavez, a two-time DUI offender, was required to wear the secure continuous remote alcohol monitor (SCRAM) for 90 days. The device communicates with a modem in the wearer's home and transmits data to a probation officer. "It just eliminated the thought of me having another drink," said Chavez. "When you are sober, you start realizing how many problems there are with drinking and driving, how many people are getting killed, knowing that it could be me behind that wheel, killing someone or maiming somebody because of my alcohol drinking."
"The law requires in many instances that we give an offender the right to be out on bond until they're proven guilt," said Judge Oscar Kazen. "This is a great apparatus to ensure that while they're out, they aren't endangering others."
Chavez added that the SCRAM bracelet gave him a great reason to decline when friends ask him to go out drinking.
Offenders are charged $12 per day for the bracelet; the devices also are used in domestic-violence and child-custody cases where parents have been ordered not to drink.¤
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 OxyContin Maker Fined $634 Million Over Addiction Claims
By Bob Curley
Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical firm that makes the opiate painkiller OxyContin, has agreed to pay $634 million in fines for falsely claiming that the drug was less addictive and has less potential for abuse than other similar drugs. The fines were levied against both the company and three of its top executives.
The company pleaded guilty to felony charges of misbranding OxyContin with the intent to defraud and mislead; the executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. The drug has become a prominent drug of abuse as well as a popular painkiller.
The deal was announced by U.S. Attorney John Brownlee a day after Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle charges that it encouraged doctors to prescribe higher doses of the drug than authorized by the FDA.
"With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public," said Brownlee, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, the Associated Press reported May 10. "For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."
Purdue Pharma said... » » |
