FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Gunnar Thorderson
gunnarthorderson@gmail.com
601.467.8233
"People are dying because of a simple lack of funding. We are tired of friends, family, and loved ones dying because of this lack of funding", the petition reads.
Seanna Williams, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) at True North Treatment Center in Utah County, is leading the fight against opiate deaths in Utah. She has collected over 1,500 petition signatures from those who have been most impacted by opiate addiction, many of whom have lost someone to an opiate overdose.
According to the petition (shown above), these citizens are calling for immediate action by legislators to fund treatment programs and medication for those battling opiate addictions. Reportedly, Utah is 5th in the nation for opiate related deaths.
As the petition notes, a crucial aspect of preventing more opiate-related deaths is the provision of life-saving medication. The petition calls for funding treatment centers that provide these medications like Methadone, Suboxone, and Vivitrol so that they can be provided for free to opiate addicts. These medications are expensive and would require substantial funding from the state.
In an interview with me, Williams provided a solution to this funding problem. She said, "Utah taxes heavy beer, wine and liquor at the fifth highest rate in the nation. Ten percent of these revenues fund Utah’s school lunch program, 1 percent goes to the Department of Public Safety, and the rest is transferred to the general fund. In 2014 alone, these alcohol taxes generated more than $126 million."
She continued, "The problem is what little money is spent on treatment is given to County authorities, who don't actually run any Opioid Treatment Programs. Treatment options are all private sector save one 501(c)3 organization."
Williams laid out a clear plan for funding these programs, "$500,000 for 14 clinics which total $7 million, leaving $119 million for the general fund (in 2014 dollars). Each clinic could keep their money in a scholarship fund to pay for the treatment of any one who meets certain criteria."
"With more funding, clinics could provide a higher level of case management and clinical therapy to clients, not just weekly group discussions which meet minimum federal and state standards. This would ensure that all clinics were providing evidence based treatment and life saving medication. Clinics who chose not to provide these crucial steps in treatment would forego the funding", Williams said.
"As soon as clients were able to pay their way, their payments could be placed back into the scholarship fund which would, if operated properly, become self-generating within 1-2 years", concluded Williams.
For any inquiries regarding our discussion, please contact Seanna Williams at (801) 319-1520 or by email seanna@truenorthutah.com.
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AFP-UT’s Everton Response to Gov. Herbert
AFP-UT applauds Governor Herbert right on commitment to low taxes, but wrong on calls for unconstitutional internet sales tax
SALT LAKE CITY – Americans for Prosperity-Utah (AFP-UT), the state’s leading grassroots advocacy organization for free market reforms is responding to Governor Gary Herbert’s State of the State address. AFP-UT state director, Evelyn Everton released the following statement.
"AFP-UT applauds Governor Herbert’s commitment to maintaining Utah’s low tax environment in order to continue our state’s economic growth in his State of the State address. We agree wholeheartedly with his assertion that attracting business and individuals to our state will result in increases to public education funding in the future.”
“But Governor Herbert’s apparent commitment to enforce an unconstitutional internet sales tax law goes against what most Utahns want to see their legislature work on. Passing an internet sales tax law will cost tax dollars to litigate its constitutionality, diverting valuable resources from being focused on providing Utahns with necessary infrastructure needs. We urge the Governor to cut spending where necessary instead of forcing collection of more revenue from taxpayers.”
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) exists to recruit, educate, and mobilize citizens in support of the policies and goals of a free society at the local, state, and federal level, helping every American live their dream – especially the least fortunate. AFP has more than 3.2 million activists across the nation, a local infrastructure that includes 35 state chapters, and has received financial support from more than 100,000 Americans in all 50 states. For more information, visit www.AmericansForProsperity.org
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Public School Students and Equality Utah Ask Federal Court to Halt Enforcement of School Laws that Target Gay Students
(Salt Lake City, Utah, January 26, 2017)— Equality Utah and two public school students, represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP, asked a federal court to enter a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of state laws that restrict classroom discussions and student clubs that include supportive speech about “homosexuality” in Utah public schools.
The plaintiffs’ motion, filed before Senior U.S. District Judge Dee Benson of the District of Utah, argues that the laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because they discriminate based on sexual orientation by prohibiting instruction, classroom discussions, and student clubs involving supportive speech about “homosexuality.” The motion also argues that the student club laws violate the First Amendment free-speech rights of students.
"Our state's anti-gay school laws contribute to a chilling culture of silence that stigmatizes LGBTQ students and treats them differently than other students,” said Troy Williams, the Executive Director of Equality Utah. “These anachronistic laws tell young people that who they are is so shameful that students and teachers cannot even acknowledge their existence in a supportive way. It is shocking for the law to single out a single group of students for such openly discriminatory and harmful treatment. We are bringing this lawsuit because we want LGBTQ youth know that they are seen, they are valued and that they belong in our schools and state just as much as other students do."
The lawsuit challenges state laws that prevent supportive discussions of gay people in curricula, classroom discussions, and student clubs. At least eight states have similar laws. The motion filed today argues that sole purpose of the challenged Utah laws is to express the state’s moral disapproval of “homosexuality,” which the U.S. Supreme Court has held is not a legitimate basis for laws that discriminate based on a person’s sexual orientation. The motion asks the court to halt enforcement of the challenged restrictions immediately while the plaintiffs’ lawsuit proceeds.
“Most people in Utah and other states recognize that discrimination against gay people has no place in our society,” said Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “The U.S. Supreme Court also held that a person’s sexual orientation cannot be the basis for treating people differently. The laws are divisive and harmful, especially to students, and we look forward to the day when all students can participate equally and safely in Utah’s schools.”
“These laws violate our most basic constitutional values—that every citizen has equal worth, and that the State cannot restrict what people can say about important issues in public discourse,” said Doug Hallward-Driemeier, partner at Ropes & Gray LLP. “By attempting to cut off students’ ability to advocate for the equal rights of the LGBTQ community, Utah has put itself on the wrong side of these core values.”
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About NCLR
The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the human and civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. www.NCLRights.org
About Equality Utah
Formed in 2001, Equality Utah is the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy group in the state. Its mission is to secure equal rights and protections for LGBTQ Utahns and their families, and its vision is of a fair and just Utah. For more information, please visit equalityutah.org
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PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 26 /CSRwire/ - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., (NYSE: TEVA) today announced the U.S. organizations selected as part of Teva’s 2017-18 Community Partnership Program. Now in its fourth year, this exciting Teva program provides charitable funding and employee volunteers to qualified local organizations that support patients and their caregivers and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs in geographic areas where Teva has a business presence.
“We are excited to partner with organizations that are committed to improving the lives of patients on a daily basis,” said Denise Bradley, Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Reputation. “Working with these inspiring organizations allows us to provide meaningful assistance to patients in need as well as our commitment to ensuring Teva employees can achieve their fullest potential by supporting those patients.”
2017-18 Community Partners:
Pennsylvania (Greater Philadelphia Area)
Kansas City Area
Northern New Jersey/New York City
Cincinnati, OH
Forest, VA
Salt Lake City, UT
South FL
Click here to learn more about Teva’s 2017-18 Community Partners.
About Teva
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE and TASE: TEVA) is a leading global pharmaceutical company that delivers high-quality, patient-centric healthcare solutions used by millions of patients every day. Headquartered in Israel, Teva is the world’s largest generic medicines producer, leveraging its portfolio of more than 1,800 molecules to produce a wide range of generic products in nearly every therapeutic area. In specialty medicines, Teva has a world-leading position in innovative treatments for disorders of the central nervous system, including pain, as well as a strong portfolio of respiratory products. Teva integrates its generics and specialty capabilities in its global research and development division to create new ways of addressing unmet patient needs by combining drug development capabilities with devices, services and technologies. Teva's net revenues in 2015 were $19.7 billion. For more information, visit www.tevapharm.com.
Teva's Safe Harbor Statement under the U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on management’s current beliefs and expectations and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks relating to: our ability to develop and commercialize additional pharmaceutical products; competition for our specialty products, especially Copaxone® (which faces competition from orally-administered alternatives and a generic version); our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of Allergan plc’s worldwide generic pharmaceuticals business (“Actavis Generics”), and the timing of realizing such benefits; our ability to fully and efficiently integrate Actavis Generics and to achieve the anticipated cost savings, synergies, business opportunities and growth prospects from the combination; the fact that we are now dependent to a much larger extent than previously on our generic pharmaceutical business; our ability to develop and launch new generic products from the Actavis Generics pipeline on the anticipated timelines; potential restrictions on our ability to engage in additional transactions or incur additional indebtedness as a result of the substantial amount of debt we have incurred to finance the Actavis Generics acquisition; the fact that we will have significantly less cash on hand than prior to the consummation of the Actavis Generics acquisition, which could adversely affect our ability to grow; our ability to achieve expected results from investments in our pipeline of specialty and other products; our ability to identify and successfully bid for suitable acquisition targets or licensing opportunities, or to consummate and integrate acquisitions; the extent to which any manufacturing or quality control problems damage our reputation for quality production and require costly remediation; increased government scrutiny in both the U.S. and Europe of our patent settlement agreements; our exposure to currency fluctuations and restrictions as well as credit risks; the effectiveness of our patents, confidentiality agreements and other measures to protect the intellectual property rights of our specialty medicines; the effects of reforms in healthcare regulation and pharmaceutical pricing, reimbursement and coverage; competition for our generic products, both from other pharmaceutical companies and as a result of increased governmental pricing pressures; governmental investigations into sales and marketing practices, particularly for our specialty pharmaceutical products; adverse effects of political or economic instability, major hostilities or acts of terrorism on our significant worldwide operations; interruptions in our supply chain or problems with internal or third-party information technology systems that adversely affect our complex manufacturing processes; significant disruptions of our information technology systems or breaches of our data security; competition for our specialty pharmaceutical businesses from companies with greater resources and capabilities; the impact of continuing consolidation of our distributors and customers; decreased opportunities to obtain U.S. market exclusivity for significant new generic products; potential liability in the U.S., Europe and other markets for sales of generic products prior to a final resolution of outstanding patent litigation; our potential exposure to product liability claims that are not covered by insurance; any failure to recruit or retain key personnel, including, in particular, former Actavis Generics personnel who have transitioned to Teva or to attract additional executive and managerial talent; any failures to comply with complex Medicare and Medicaid reporting and payment obligations; significant impairment charges relating to intangible assets, goodwill and property, plant and equipment; the effects of increased leverage and our resulting reliance on access to the capital markets; potentially significant increases in tax liabilities; the effect on our overall effective tax rate of the termination or expiration of governmental programs or tax benefits, or of a change in our business; variations in patent laws that may adversely affect our ability to manufacture our products in the most efficient manner; environmental risks; the possibility of additional adverse consequences arising from our recent FCPA-related settlement with the U.S. government, including limitations on our conduct of business in various countries, adverse judgments in shareholder lawsuits and fines, penalties or other sanctions imposed by government authorities in other countries; and other factors that are discussed in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or other information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information, please contact:
Phone: 4846125407
For more from this organization:
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RAGNAR IS HEADED ACROSS THE POND!
Ragnar started in 2004 with a handful of runners and a single relay across Utah's Wasatch Mountains. Since then, we've grown into the largest overnight relay series in the nation. And we're about to grow again!
This year, Ragnar will launch it's first relay in Europe! We're headed to the motherland for Reebok Ragnar White Cliffs in the U.K. This fall, runners will start the adventure in North Downs, about an hour train ride from London. From there, they will run through quaint English towns, across picturesque countryside, and along the iconic White Cliffs that dot the coast. Teams will finish their journey in the seaside town of Brighton where they will earn the title Ragnarian.
If this race strikes your fancy, click the button below to join the VIP list. We'll let you know when registration opens and enter you in a drawing to win a head-to-toe Reebok training kit! We hope to see you in jolly old England!
