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How celebrities’ ‘golden glow’ shines on public health

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN

Updated 12:20 PM ET, Thu May 18, 2017

(CNN)When celebrities speak, it seems, the world listens — even when it comes to personal and public health.

Just look at what happened after Charlie Sheen’s HIV disclosure two years ago, said John Ayers, a research professor at San Diego State University.

 

Sales of in-home HIV testing kits reached record highs around the same time the actor announced that he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive in 2015, according to a study published in the journal Prevention Science on Thursday. Ayers was a co-author of the study.

 

About the same time, “in record numbers, people were going online, seeking out information on what the signs of HIV are, on how to find and appropriately prevent HIV with devices such as condoms and also how to get tested,'” Ayers said. “We’ve seen this … many times over.”

 

For the new study, Ayers and his co-authors monitored weekly sales of OraQuick, the only FDA-approved at-home oral HIV testing kit available in the United States, from 2014 to 2016.

 

The researchers found that there were 8,225 more sales than they expected the week of Sheen’s HIV status announcement. Elevated sales continued for four weeks after Sheen’s disclosure.
The findings show a correlation, not a direct causation. Yet in a previous study, Ayers and his colleagues also found that Google searches for HIV testing and related topics also spiked after Sheen’s announcement.

 

“The most common reaction is, ‘So what? What does a search really mean?’ Our new study shows not only did Sheen’s disclosure lead people to seek information about HIV prevention, it also corresponded with record levels of at-home rapid HIV testing sales,” Ayers said.

hey are not doctors, many celebrities have had both positive and negative ties to public health in recent years.

 

Full Read – http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/health/celebrity-health-charlie-sheen-study/
Blog, Business Law, International, Legal News

Luxury Italian shoe firm Gianvito Rossi accused of refusing to give Serena Williams a celebrity discount because ‘the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes’

 

  • Gianvito Rossi managers have been  accused of racism in a new lawsuit
  • Allegedly refused to give tennis star Serena Williams a celebrity discount because ‘the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes’
  • They also used ‘racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams’, suit claims
  • Whitney Wilburn, who is black, also claims her ex-manager Grace Mazzilli was ‘hostile to Wilburn based upon her race and age’
  • She was later fired without warning, replaced with a younger, white employee

Bosses at luxury shoe company Gianvito Rossi have been accused of branding Serena Williams ‘disgusting’ and refusing to give her a celebrity discount because she’s black.

Whitney Wilburn, who went to work for the shoe firm’s Manhattan boutique in 2015, has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.

Wilburn claims her old boss Grace Mazzilli had a ‘racial animosity toward African Americans’, New York Post.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4520376/Shoe-company-accused-racism-against-Serena-Williams.html#ixzz4hg7djlNt
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Drug Companies, International, Legal News, Organized Crime, Supreme Court

Physician and Pharmacy Help Fuel Demand for Illegal Pain Pills

He would visit the doctor during peculiar hours; between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday.

Under the cover of darkness, in a strip mall in La Puente, a man calling himself “Juan” came in search of powerful pain pills and other controlled substances. He didn’t have any identification and he told the doctor he was either drunk or on drugs.

It didn’t matter. He got what he came for.

Dr. Daniel Cham, who was a licensed physician in California at the time, handed “Juan” prescriptions for hundreds of pills including Oxycodone, a powerful opioid, Xanax, a sedative, and Soma, a muscle relaxer.

“Dr. Cham was not practicing legitimate medicine. Dr. Cham was, in the eyes of the law, a drug pusher,” said Ben Barron, an Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted Dr. Cham who was charged with narcotics trafficking, money laundering, fraud, and making a false statement to authorities.

What Dr. Cham didn’t know was that the patient who called himself “Juan,” was actually an undercover Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detective and that he was secretly filming his interactions with the physician.

During one visit, Dr. Cham asks the undercover agent, “What else do you need?” In response, the detective tells him, “How about some Soma?” Dr. Cham then asks how much he wants. “Let’s go with 3 times a day,” replies the agent.

Dr. Cham also asked the detective how he wanted the prescriptions filled out. “Is it all on one script?” asks Dr. Cham. The detective responds, “Can you make it two again like last time? Can you put the Oxy and Soma together and the Xanax on the other one?”

“Dr. Cham did no physical examination; he would tell the agent what symptoms he should claim to feel,” said Barron. “Dr. Cham demanded 300 dollars cash for a prescription for hydrocodone or vicodin.”

Barron says the doctor would sometimes ask for more money when the undercover agent asked for more powerful pain pills like oxycodone. The prosecutor says that’s typical in these cases. The more powerful the medication, the more money the physician wants in return for a prescription.

Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/Physician-and-Pharmacy-Help-Fuel-Demand-for-Illegal-Pain-Pills-423235214.html#ixzz4hgI92T68
Follow us: @NBCLA on Twitter | NBCLA on Facebook

 

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Marijuana dispensaries may begin recreational sales in Nevada starting July 1: Report

By Andrew Blake – The Washington Times – Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Marijuana dispensaries may start selling recreational weed within Nevada as soon as July 1, the state tax board voted Monday, six months earlier than previously expected.

While Nevadans voted last November in favor of legalizing marijuana, lawmakers aren’t expected to draft rules governing the state’s recreational weed program until January 2018. With medical marijuana dispensaries already legally operating across the state, however, the Nevada Tax Commission on Monday voted 6-1 in favor of granting temporary retail licenses to currently existing pot shops.

Monday’s decision means licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries in Nevada can submit applications to the state Department of Taxation starting May 15 seeking permission to sell their wares to patrons other than patients. Dispensaries deemed to be in good standing with the state are expected to receive the first temporary licenses July 1, at which point they’ll be legally allowed to serve medical and recreational weed customers alike.

Temporary retail licenses will expire January 2018, giving the state several months to study the immediate impact of legalizing marijuana before finalizing the framework for its voter-approved recreational weed program.

Indeed, politicians have said they expect retail weed will do wonders for Nevada’s coffers, provided of course its recreational pot program gets off the ground without a hitch. Gov. Brian Sandoval said he intends for recreational marijuana to rake in $70 million within its first two years, the likes of which may not be easily achievable unless some pot shops are given a head-start.

“If we don’t adopt the regulations, we will not have a temporary program. If we don’t have a temporary program, we will not have the revenue that’s included in the governor’s budget,” Deonne Contine, the director of the state Department of Taxation, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Blog, Civil Rights, Criminal, Legal News

Lloyd family attorney says lawsuit will proceed

By GLOBE STAFF 

An attorney for the family of Odin L. Lloyd said Tuesday that their wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of Aaron Hernandez will not be derailed by a judge’s decision Tuesday to vacate his criminal conviction.

Douglas K. Sheff, an attorney for Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, said a judge in the civil lawsuit had already made a preliminary finding that the former New England Patriots star was at fault in Lloyd’s death, before Hernandez killed himself in prison last month.

The only remaining questions are whether Hernandez’s estate could be liable for damages and to what extent, Sheff said.

“I believe we’re on very solid ground on the civil case, regardless of what happens in the criminal matter,” Sheff said, adding that the initial determination that Hernandez was at fault in the death will “be the governing law of the civil wrongful death suit.”

Full Read – https://www.bostonglobe.com/2017/05/09/lloyd-family-attorney-says-lawsuit-will-proceed/fv7VInBxfBvI9tjX2YSYuN/story.html

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