and over-the-counter medications properly. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administrations. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. timothy condon, deputy director, national institute on drug abuse, national institutes of health, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. barbara krantz, chief executive officer and medical director, hanley center, west palm beach, florida; beverly gmerek, prescription drug abuse prevention program coordinator, peer assistance services inc., denver, colorado. dr. clark, how prevalent is prescription drug misuse in the united states? well, we estimate that there are approximately 15 million people who misuse prescription drugs in the united states, and that gives us an estimated 2.5 million new initiates per year, or, if you think about it, that's about 7,000 new initiates a day. and within that, do one age group uses it more than others? what is the distribution among the age groups? well, i think the most important thing to keep in mind is that prescription drug abuse affects the entire

and recovery field. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administrations. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. marco e. jacome, chief executive officer, healthcare alternative systems incorporated, chicago, illinois. john de miranda, president and ceo, stepping stone, san diego, california. william lossiah-bratt, board of directors, southeastern regional representative, faces and voices of recovery, cherokee, north carolina. dr. clark, why should we be concerned about ethnic and racial differences within the addiction and recovery field, as well as other differences? well, one of the things that we want to make sure is that people who have substance use problems are able to recover and that materials that we use can assist them in that process. and so, you know, there are differences associated with cultural values and beliefs, starting from how one physiologically responds to a particular substance misuse to how certain substances are used in a cultural context. so if we're going to facilitate recovery, we need to understand the

and substance use disorder treatment. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. richard cho, director of innovations and research, corporation for supportive housing, new haven, connecticut. robert kershaw, business owner and outreach worker, oxford house, incorporated, silver spring, maryland. dr. jesse b. milby, director, medical psychology, substance abuse and homeless research program, department of psychology, university of alabama at birmingham, birmingham, alabama. dr. clark, when is a person categorized as homeless? well, the most important thing is to recognize that when a person lacks a permanent, fixed residence, they meet the category of homeless. now, there are a number of temporary arrangements that people have; for instance, it's estimated that roughly 1.6 million people are living in transitional or shelters, and they also meet the definition of homeless. so it's-we're looking for people who have permanent, fixed residence, and if you don't have that, then you're defined as homele

joining us in our panel today are mark weber, director of communications, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; ron tannenbaum, president and co-founder, intherooms.com, fort lauderdale, florida; dr. w. douglas evans, professor and director, public health communication and marketing program, george washington university, washington, dc; sandra de castro buffington, director, hollywood health & society, usc annenberg norman lear center, beverly hills, california. the media obviously influences how people create their opinions, particularly about addiction and treatment issues in behavior health. and doug, why don't we review what we mean about media today. some time ago, marshall mcluhan said that the medium is the message and that is more true today than ever. media have proliferated and they now permeate our society. we're surrounded by it constantly 24/7 and users increasingly are defining what the media are and what those media mean to the rest of us. and mark, why is it important for the media to really understand addiction

and sustaining recovery. joining us in our panel today are pamela s. hyde, administrator, substance abuse and mental health servicesinistration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. a. thomas mclennan, deputy director, white house office of national drug control policy, washington, d.c.; dr. alexandre laudet, addiction and recovery scientist, new york, new york; james smallwood, founder and ceo, the choice is yours, inc., camden, new jersey. pam, how many people in the united states are in recovery? well, the estimates are about 20 million people are in recovery, working on being free of drugs and other-and alcohol. and, alexandre, what is recovery? what are some of the common paths to recovery? well, that's really two different questions. what recovery is, according to people in recovery themselves, is usually, especially for people severely addicted, it is abstinence from drugs and alcohol, as well as significantly-significant improvements in other aspects that constitute quality of life, such as employment, social relationships, mental health, physical health, housing, as well a

entertainment industries council incorporated in collaboration with the substance abuse and mental health services administration. the entertainment industries council has really been very fortunate in our ability to partner with samhsa on a number of different projects. the prism awards is probably the most high profile project that we do at samhsa. it's a good collaboration because our goals are very compatible, getting sound information to the general public in the areas of treatment, addiction, recovery, and also in the area of mental health. i've never struggled with anything myself. i do know from delving into this man, orrin hunt, who is dealing with his, you know, disorder, there is a lot of hope. it's not a thing you're stuck with; it's a thing that is a journey. it's part of a journey and it might be hard sometimes, but it's definitely, if you take the right steps, and everything is surmountable, i think. as we all were working on "crazy heart," we knew men and women who had struggled with addiction, we can't really know what that's like, how hard it is, but we used inspiration from friends and family

this starts with smaller agencies such as the cdc and health resources administration, samsa which is the substance abuse and mental health services administration. these agencies foster programs critical to addressing health and health care disparities that negatively affect communities of color, and communities of color suffer from high rates of mortality and morbidity and have more access to quality health care services and these agencies sponsor programs that promote disease prevention, healthcare screenings lead to the fight against kunkel and chronic diseases and the farm to the community health centers and promote and trade and physicians and other health care workers that work in underserved areas, and they provide substance abuse treatment and many other community-based services that enhance population. small cuts in these agencies have large impact on the community, and these impacts are disproportionately the most vulnerable in our society. so this time coming instead of reducing our deficit and the debt on the back of the poor, disabled for kaput children and seniors, let us talk about real shared sacrifice and let tho

this starts with smaller agencies such as the cdc and health resources administration, samsa which is the substance abuse and mental health services administration. these agencies foster programs critical to addressing health and health care disparities that negatively affect communities of color, and communities of color suffer from high rates of mortality and morbidity and have more access to quality health care services and these agencies sponsor programs that promote disease prevention, healthcare screenings lead to the fight against kunkel and chronic diseases and the farm to the community health centers and promote and trade and physicians and other health care workers that work in underserved areas, and they provide substance abuse treatment and many other community-based services that enhance population. small cuts in these agencies have large impact on the community, and these impacts are disproportionately the most vulnerable in our society. so this time coming instead of reducing our deficit and the debt on the back of the poor, disabled for kaput children and seniors, let us talk about real shared sacrifice and let tho

and the health resources and services committee. the substance abuse and mental health administration, these agencies run programs that are critical to investing in health and health care disparities that negatively affect communities to recover. communities of color suffer from high rates of mortality and have lower access to quality health care services. these agencies sponsor programs that promote disease prevention, health care screenings, lead the fight against communicable and cry diseases and did bonds community health centers and they promote and train positions and other health-care workers who work in underserved areas and they provide substance abuse on treatment. small cuts and these agencies can have large impacts on the community and these impacts are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable in our society great instead of reducing our deficit and debt, backed poor and disabled children and seniors, let us talk about real shared sacrifice and let those of us who are more affluent the first in line. thank you. >> i also want to start by thanking chairmanclaever and stianson.e chairchhri thank you for inviting me to

substance abuse mental health services administration use in conjunction with the department of justice are what's called prescription monitoring programs. so these are programs that monitor at the pharmacy level, the use of prescription opiates and other scheduled drugs, and we're able to determine whether a physician is misprescribing or a patient is presenting in multiple systems if they use the same id numbers, so that we can address that. but there are other prescription strategies, and dr. krantz was talking about one. correct. the one that has been helpful to me as a family practitioner is when i get the message from the pharmacy that did i realize that this particular patient was also taking this, this, and this drug. so that prescription monitoring program has been extremely helpful. the other thing i think we need to be mindful of with prescriptions, especially for talking about older adults, is that most of them can't read the directions on the prescription bottle. so, again, speak-as dr. condon has said, speaking with the pharmacist, speaking with their primary care physician is extremely important in understanding how to take the medication. and dr. condon, i mean, i think older americans sometimes are afraid to ask,