Florida Serenity Ranch Recovery CEO Convicted

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Following a six-week trial, the Serenity Ranch Recovery network CEO, Sebastian Ahmed, was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. After a trial that lasted over a month, a federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, convicted him of several crimes, including health care fraud and money laundering.

Fraud in the Serenity Ranch Network

While the people who came to him needed help for drug or alcohol addiction, the services provided by Serenity Ranch Recovery weren’t meant to keep them sober. The sober home network, like many others in recent years, was a moneymaking venture. Patients tended to be young, addicted adults who were still on their parent’s health plans. They were typically addicted to “hard” drugs such as Oxycontin or heroin.

Rather than receiving treatment, most young people were left to languish with a few 12-step meetings and little else. While this took place, Mr. Ahmed billed the …

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Some States Pass Involuntary Commitment Laws for Addiction Treatment, but Face Challenges

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What do you do if someone you love is abusing drugs or alcohol and refuses to seek treatment? This was the situation Sharon Blair (pictured, far left) found herself in when she spent 13 years trying to get her daughter, Jennifer Reynolds (pictured, far right), treatment for prescription medication abuse. Unfortunately, Blair was not able to get her daughter the help she needed, and Reynolds died from a drug overdose in 2009. 

Blair lives in Florida, where a person who is abusing drugs or alcohol may be involuntarily committed to a detox program. Florida’s involuntary commitment law for addiction treatment requires that a relative or loved file a petition, pay a fee, and demonstrate the addict’s need for treatment. After meeting all of these requirements, the court may only order involuntary commitment for a maximum period of 72 hours.…

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S.T.A.M.P. Website Aims to Bring Awareness and Change to Oxy Express

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A great new website is online about the prescription drug epidemic. 

Specifically, residents along the “Oxy Express” in states like Florida and Kentucky are being called upon to get involved and fight back against this deadly trend in drug use.

S.T.A.M.P. (www.stampexpress.org) is the new site and it was started by concerned residents who want to bring awareness to the abuse of medications.

We have often covered the escalating phenomenon and as we see more and more overdoses and incidences of pharmacy robberies, clearly more action needs to be given to this silent epidemic.

That’s what makes the S.T.A.M.P. website so great.  It has information and identifies ways to get involved and make a difference.  The founders want to turn the OxyContin Express (highway) to the “S.T.A.M.P. Express.”

Visit this great site, get involved, and spread the word!…

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Buju Banton – Facing 15 Years

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– Update in June 2011 – Buju was sentenced to 10 years which he will be serving near Miami – ed.

Grammy award winning Buju Banton faces 15 years in prison after he was found guilty for cocaine drug charges.

Mark Anthony Myrie is 37 and is much better known as Buju Banton – a Grammy award winner for best reggae album of the year, entitled “Before the Dawn.”

Banton was arrested December 10, 2009, in his Florida home. He is being charged with:

– conspiracy to obtain with intent to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine

– possessing a firearm during the commissions of the drug trafficking crime using communication facilities during the commissions of the drug trafficking

According to a report given by the DEA, Banton and two other individuals Ian Thomas and James Mack, were video taped in an undercover operation in Sarasota Florida on December …

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