Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Gangs On Community Life In Trinidad, Ericka Adams, Patrice Morris, Edward Maguire

Faculty Publications

Trinidad and Tobago has more than 100 criminal gangs, some of which engage in high levels of homicide and violence. Recent research has shown that gang members in Trinidad and Tobago are more likely than nongang members to be arrested for violent, property, and drug crimes. As gangs continue to proliferate throughout the Caribbean, there is a pressing need to understand the nature of these gangs and their impact on the communities in which they are entrenched. Using data from interviews with community members, police officials, and gang members, as well as ethnographic observations from 10 high crime, predominantly Black …

Please Excuse This Poem, Emily Loveless

Children's Book and Media Review

One hundred poems by a diverse cross-section of young American poets delivers a wide variety of human experience. This collection touches on a range of subjects, many of them uncomfortable, brutally intimate, and totally unapologetic. With evocative, symbolic, and sarcastic language, these poets saturate the pages with their hearts and minds. If you find some that particularly resonate with you, short biographies and personal Q&As are included at the rear of the book.

How To Love, Meagan Andrus

Children's Book and Media Review

Reena and Sawyer have known each other their whole lives, and Reena has loved Sawyer for about that long. In high school, she pined after him, especially when her best friend began dating him. After a tragedy, Reena and Sawyer come together and fall deeply in love. Then one day, Sawyer leaves without telling anyone where he's going or when he'll return. Reena is left behind, newly pregnant and upset about the loss of a future she could have had. Nearly two years later, Sawyer returns and expects to be able to waltz back into Reena's life, just like that. …

No Place To Fall, Meagan Andrus

Children's Book and Media Review

Sixteen-year-old Amber Vaughn is a singer, and a good one at that. She dreams of the day when she can leave behind her small town and complicated family When an opportunity to audition for a performing arts high school comes up, Amber spends all her time singing and preparing to hopefully wow the judges. She makes beautiful music with Will, her best friend's older brother, and enjoys fun with friends. However, things soon get complicated: two new boys at the school cause problems; the state threatens to take away Amber's nephew when her sister and brother-in-law are arrested; and Will, …

Little Peach, Emma Patton

Children's Book and Media Review

Michelle is in the hospital, and she has a decision to make. There is a professional woman who says that she wants to help, but Michelle doesn’t know whether she should tell the truth. Through a series of flashbacks, Michelle reveals exactly how she got to the be in this position. She remembers a positive early childhood, being raised by her grandfather until he passes away. Then, all she has left is her drug-addicted mother and her mother’s boyfriend, whose physical advances scare Michelle. At age fourteen, she leaves home to live in New York. Soon, she meets Devon, who …

Little Peach, Meagan Andrus

Children's Book and Media Review

Fourteen-year-old Michelle is kicked out of her house after her loving grandfather dies, leaving her with her crackhead mother. She runs away to make a new start in New York City but is quickly lured into a prostitution ring by a man named Devon. Michelle and her two other "sisters," Kat and Baby, sleep all day and work at night. Devon keeps them on narcotics to help them through the long nights. Eventually, Kat decides to quit the drugs, which makes Devon mad. After Kat's beaten senseless, Michelle, now called Little Peach, realizes that her "daddy" doesn't care about her …

Bluescreen, Abigail Packard

Children's Book and Media Review

Marisa lives in Mirador in 2050, when everyone is connected through a djinni—a device that’s implanted directly into a person’s head. Mari and her friends, Sahara and Anja, are always connected. But when Anja comes across a drug called Bluescreen that connects directly into the djinni, Mari’s carefree world begins to unravel. After an accident that nearly kills Anja while she’s plugged in to Bluescreen, Mari begins investigating the drug. She learns that the drug implants into a djinni a code which can be used to take over the mind and body of the Bluescreen user. Mari becomes embroiled in …

The Pharma Barons: Corporate Law's Dangerous New Race To The Bottom In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Eugene Mccarthy

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

In this Article, I argue that drug companies have created a highly profitable but dangerous business model by employing the same legal tactics as the nineteenth-century “robber barons,” the group of financiers who orchestrated corporate law’s infamous race to the bottom. Like these historical financiers, drug company executives have captured the legal apparatus and regulatory bodies that oversee them. In so doing, they have transformed the law from a system of governance into a set of enabling doctrines. The pharmaceutical industry has turned legislation intended to protect the public into a legal justification for marketing ineffective and unsafe prescription drugs. …

Paper Promises For Drug Innovation, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

Innovation does not stop when a new medicine is launched. Development of new uses for already approved drugs, in particular, can make profound contributions to the public health. Whether a new use is suspected during the initial premarket trials, identified through focused research after approval, or discovered serendipitously by physicians treating patients, however, it requires extensive clinical testing before it can be approved by FDA. This testing takes time and money — three to five years on average, and as much as $300 million. This Article considers the incentives that federal law offers to companies to make this investment: patent …

New Life, Madison Cotellese, Jahkiya Jack, Devaughn Lambert, Hammad Chaudhry, Mardochee Mallory

Nexus Maximus

Our final project is a drug rehabilitation facility in South Philadelphia. It highlights the problems of current facilities and proposes solutions to them.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will be supplemented with workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship, and content relevant to the theme, delivered by experts throughout the weekend.

Teams will also explore opportunities to leverage that data in meaningful ways that benefit and protect individuals and society. The team project work will be …

Judicious Imprisonment, Gregory Jay Hall

All Faculty Scholarship

Starting August 21, 2018, Americans incarcerated across the United States have been striking back — non-violently. Inmates with jobs are protesting slave-like wages through worker strikes and sit-ins. Inmates also call for an end to racial disparities and an increase in rehabilitation programs. Even more surprisingly, many inmates have begun hunger strikes. Inmates are protesting the numerous ills of prisons: overcrowding, inadequate health care, abysmal mental health care contributing to inmate suicide, violence, disenfranchisement of inmates, and more. While recent reforms have slightly decreased mass incarceration, the current White House administration could likely reverse this trend. President Donald Trump’s and …

Limiting State Flexibility In Drug Pricing, Nicholas Bagley, Rachel E. Sachs

Articles

Throughout the United States, escalating drug prices are putting immense pressure on state budgets. Several states are looking for ways to push back. Last year, Massachusetts asked the Trump administration for a waiver that would, among other things, allow its Medicaid program to decline to cover costly drugs for which there is limited or inadequate evidence of clinical efficacy. By credibly threatening to exclude such drugs from coverage, Massachusetts hoped to extract price concessions and constrain the fastest-growing part of its Medicaid budget.

Will Courts Allow States To Regulate Drug Prices?, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

Pharmaceuticals are consuming increasingly large portions of U.S. state budgets, and high prices are preventing patients from getting, and adhering to, essential medicines. In mid-May 2018, President Donald Trump announced a heavily hyped but relatively modest federal plan to bring down drug prices. Meanwhile, several states are moving forward with their own solutions, and Maryland’s approach is particularly ambitious. In 2017, responding to notorious cases such as the 5000% increase in the cost of Daraprim (pyrimethamine) and the 10-fold increase in the cost of EpiPens (epinephrine auto-injectors), Maryland enacted a statute that prohibits manufacturers from “price gouging” on any “essential …

2017 Tennessee Drug Overdose Deaths, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Drug Poisonings and Overdoses in Tennessee

No abstract provided.

2016 Drug Overdose Hospital Discharges In Tennessee, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Drug Poisonings and Overdoses in Tennessee

No abstract provided.

Drug Approval In A Learning Health System, W. Nicholson Price

Articles

The current system of FDA approval seems to make few happy. Some argue FDA approves drugs too slowly; others too quickly. Many agree that FDA—and the health system generally—should gather information after drugs are approved to learn how well they work and how safe they are. This is hard to do. FDA has its own surveillance systems, but those systems face substantial limitations in practical use. Drug companies can also conduct their own studies, but have little incentive to do so, and often fail to fulfil study commitments made to FDA. Proposals to improve this dynamic often suggest gathering more …

Exploring The Association Between How Social Media Affects Attitudes Toward Marijuana Legalization, Troy Adam Aubut Ii

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

As support for marijuana legalization continues to rise, it’s important to explore how the use of social media may be affecting the attitudes of Americans around this controversial topic. Social media has become a part of everyday life for most as it allows easy communication to anyone anywhere and allows the exchanging of influential ideas over a broad range of topics, especially marijuana legalization. As such, this study utilized data from the 2016 General Social Survey to examine the relationship between how the general use of social media affects attitudes toward marijuana legalization. The findings of this study suggest that …

The Systemic Issues Associated With Violent Crime In Predominantly African American Communities, Abraham Coles

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the issues associated with violent crime in African American communities. The study discusses the theory of racism as a key factor in the societal conditions African Americans live in the United States. The researcher explains the methodology used. The study is a qualitative study, based on interviews of eight participants answers to twenty questions. The study discusses the research sites, who participated in the research study, and how the participants were selected. The study outlines the sampling method and why this method was chosen. The descriptive statistics of participants in the study …

Violence Exposure And Pathways To Hiv Risk Behaviors In Black And White Young Men Who Have Sex With Men, Donald Robert Gerke

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HIV remains a critical public health issue facing men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. Young MSM (YMSM) ages 13-34 years account for the greatest number of new HIV infections in MSM, with Black YMSM bearing the highest burden of disease. Sexual risk behaviors (e.g. unprotected sex) continue to be the leading transmission mode for HIV among all YMSM and studies have indicated that these behaviors are associated with a number of psychosocial and environmental factors, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), exposure to violence, substance use, and mental health problems. Moreover, recent studies based on the …

Sniffing Out The Fourth Amendment: United States V. Place-Dog Sniffs-Ten Years Later, Hope Walker Hall

Maine Law Review

In the endless and seemingly futile government war against drugs, protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution may have fallen by the wayside as courts struggle to deal with drug offenders. The compelling government interest in controlling the influx of drugs all too often results in a judicial attitude that the ends justify the means. Judges can be reluctant to exclude evidence of drugs found in an unlawful search pursuant to the exclusionary rule, which provides that illegally obtained evidence may not be used at trial. The exclusion of drugs as evidence in drug cases often …

Suggestions For State Laws On Biosimilar Substitution, Gary M. Fox

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Biologic drugs offer major advancements over small-molecule drugs when it comes to treating serious diseases. Biosimilars, which mimic innovative biologic drugs, have the potential to further revolutionize the practice of medicine. States now have decades of experience regulating the substitution of generic, small-molecule drugs for their brand-name equivalents. But the complexities of biologic drugs and biosimilars force states to confront novel scientific and legal issues. Many states have begun tackling those issues by passing laws that regulate when pharmacists may substitute biosimilars for their corresponding biologic drugs. Other states have yet to do so. This Note surveys five provisions common …

Informing Consent: Medical Malpractice And The Criminalization Of Pregnancy, Laura Beth Cohen

Michigan Law Review

Since the early 1990s, jurisdictions around the country have been using civil child abuse laws to penalize women for using illicit drugs during their pregnancies. Using civil child abuse laws in this way infringes on pregnant women’s civil rights and deters them from seeking prenatal care. Child Protective Services agencies are key players in this system. Women often become entangled with the Child Protective Services system through their health care providers. Providers will drug test pregnant women without first alerting them to the potential negative consequences stemming from a positive drug test. Doing so is a breach of these providers’ …

On Drugs: Preemption, Presumption, And Remedy, Elizabeth Mccuskey

Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores the role of litigation in drug safety regulation and the role of drug safety regulation in litigation, exemplified by the 2017 National Health Law Moot Court Problem. Using the example of failure-to-update claims against generic drug manufacturers, this essay argues that pharmaceutical preemption doctrine would benefit from a tailored application of the presumption against preemption. It proposes a presumption that Congress does not intend to displace historic state remedies for injury without clearly saying so, focusing on the role of remedy to account for the evolving overlap in federal and state police powers over health and to …

Addiction Treatment Outcomes And Religiosity: What Is The Relationship?, Sidney Harrington Smith Iii

Honors Theses

This study examines how religiosity, specifically, church attendance, prior to admission into an addictions treatment facility (Teen Challenge) is related to the treatment outcomes of completing the program and the participants’ length of stay in treatment. Additionally, the study investigates how other factors such as marital status, ethnicity, alcohol and drug use, and level of education may be related to treatment outcomes. Using archival data of 388 enrollees in a Teen Challenge program in southern United States, the results show that religiosity prior to treatment admission is significantly related to program completion. However, the second outcome variable, length of time …

Improving Generic Drug Approval At The Fda, Kathleen Craddock

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Generic drugs are the store-brand cereal of the drug world. While they lack the vibrant colors of and exciting commercials behind name brands, generics are still effective. Most importantly, for some people, they make the difference between accessing essential treatment and going without. Getting generics to market as quickly as possible means fewer people will cut pills in half or skip doses to save money, which also saves billions of dollars across the U.S. health system. Because a new generic does not offer lifesaving changes for people with rare or complicated diseases, generics lack the “cultural capture of rhetoric about …

Pharmacy For The Future: A Student’S Perspective On Pediatric Pharmacy, Madelyn Mays

BU Well

Children make up a special patient population which requires careful attention and precision. Healthcare professionals should be well equipped with the knowledge and tools to properly care for this delicate group. This article addresses a pharmacy student’s perspective on pediatric concentration within the field. Pediatric pharmacists possess the power of specialized care and effective commu­nication which can potentially save children’s lives. Children are the future, and it is crucial that pharmacists help protect the destiny of that future.

Prescribing Placebos, Kelsey Cupp

BU Well

The use of placebos in medicine is an area of ethical questioning, but we often do not consider the effect of placebos on daily life. One’s preconceptions on the outcomes of exercise physically affect health. Studies show being aware of the advantages of exercise is beneficial to aspects of health such as blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and depression. This article analyzes how the placebo effect applies to exercise and how it can be taken advantage of to improve health outcomes.

Books Have The Power To Shape Public Policy, Barbara Mcquade

Michigan Law Review

In our digital information age, news and ideas come at us constantly and from every direction—newspapers, cable television, podcasts, online media, and more. It can be difficult to keep up with the fleeting and ephemeral news of the day.

Books, on the other hand, provide a source of enduring ideas. Books contain the researched hypotheses, the well-developed theories, and the fully formed arguments that outlast the news and analysis of the moment, preserved for the ages on the written page, to be discussed, admired, criticized, or supplanted by generations to come.

And books about the law, like the ones reviewed …

Trying And Dying: Are Some Wishes At The End Of Life Better Than Others?, Oliver J. Kim

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the United States, efforts to create a "rightto try," or to provide access for the terminally ill to try experimental drugs, have seen overwhelming success in passing state legislatures. This success provided the foundation for advocates' long-term goal of a federal right to try. Yet proposals ranging from very modest advance-care-planning consultations to the "rightto die,"or medical aid in dying, face steep political challenges despite seeming public support. This paper discusses the legal underpinnings of both "rights" and the current political and policy debate over each. More often than not, these "rights" are grantedthrough legislation rather than judicial decisions, …

Prescription Drug Overdose Program 2018 Report, Understanding And Responding To The Opioid Epidemic In Tennessee Using Mortality, Morbidity, And Prescription Data, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Drug Poisonings and Overdoses in Tennessee

No abstract provided.