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OASIS Community Clinic Delivers 4000 Petitions To Save Drug Medi-Cal Programs

by Bill Hackwell (hckwll [at] yahoo.com)
After attempts to meet with Governor Schwarzenegger were met with silence, activist patients from OASIS community clinic in Oakland delivered 4,000 petitions to his office that call for no cuts to Drug Medi-Cal. The governor’s unresponsiveness is just one more example of how addicts with few resources are ignored when they ask for help. “People don’t think we can organize ourselves because we are bunch of junkies,” says Orlando Chavez a member of the Oasis Activism Committee. “Well they are wrong – and now that we have benefited from treatment we’re here to make sure others can do the same.”
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Approximately 1 out of every 8 Californians is living with addiction to drugs or alcohol and rates are on the rise, especially among young people. Although stigmatized as a moral issue, newer medical imaging techniques demonstrate that addiction is a chronic illness characterized by neurochemical changes in the brain. For many, highly effective medical treatments including methadone and buprenorphine are the key to maintaining prolonged abstinence, much as medications for asthma, high blood pressure, and diabetes are prescribed chronically to maintain health.

In addition, drug treatment is highly cost effective: studies show that for every dollar spent on treatment, up to $7 is saved in reduced criminal activity, incarceration, and spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C. “Cutting Drug Medi-Cal benefits will eliminate access to care for many people currently engaged or needing drug treatment” said Dr. Diana Sylvestre, Executive Director of the OASIS Clinic. “It is incredibly short sighted and costly while making our neighborhoods less safe”

Today's action by the OASIS Clinic in Sacramento was in conjunction with a budget cuts demonstration at the the state capitol called by the Health and Human Services Budget Network.
§4000 Petitions Say NO to Drug Medi-Cal Benefits
by Bill Hackwell
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§Patients Standing Up for Health
by Bill Hackwell
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§Petitions From All Over the State
by Bill Hackwell
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§Sacramento To Cut Programs for the People Who Need Them the Most
by Bill Hackwell
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§Drug Treatment Saves Lives!
by Bill Hackwell
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DATE
Tamella Jean Perkins
Tue, Apr 19, 2011 4:35PM
Orlando Chavez
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 6:25PM
Oakland Action
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 3:29PM
Earl Richards
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 3:59AM
Our Sacramento Partners!
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 2:54AM
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