Dear Pharmacist: I live in chronic pain. No one is sure why. I take hydrocodone and ibuprofen daily but I’m still in pain. Can you recommend any vitamins to help me? — M.C., Dallas

(StatePoint) What do you do with your unused prescription pills and over-the-counter medications? Do you throw them away? Flush them down the toilet? Simply leave them in your cabinet for a rainy day?

Dear Straight Talk: After reading the warning signs of Adderall abuse in your column (March 19), I’m 99 percent sure my older brother is on Adderall or something similar. He’s paranoid about his grades being perfect so he can get into a top college.

Dear T2T: I am kind of thinking about trying one of those pot brownies. I have never tried any type of drugs, but these seem to be pretty safe from what I hear. Do they work? What will it make me feel like? Will I get sick? — Curious Cannabis

Between the hours of 8 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Lodi Police Department received 136 calls for service. Below is a sample of those calls.

(BPT) - Prescription drug abuse has reached epidemic proportions across the United States. More than 6 million Americans abuse prescription drugs and much of the abuse begins at home, according to a national survey on drug use and health. In fact, more than 70 percent of those who illegally use prescription pain relievers obtained them through friends or family, including surreptitiously raiding the home medicine cabinet. However, a recent study revealed that only 19 percent of parents are concerned about the misuse of narcotic pain medicines in their own families, showing that many do not recognize the severity of the problem.

Dear Straight Talk: My stepfather has a son a year older than me who didn’t live with us because my stepdad didn’t have custody. Since we weren’t blood related, I had a crush on “Unknown.” I didn’t hear much about him for a few years, then sophomore year, “Unknown” was getting out of a troubled-teen boot camp and none of his family wanted him. My mom and stepdad took him in.

Have you ever gotten a fresh start after a big failure or time of trouble?

A Lodi woman was arraigned on charges of embezzling from a local real estate firm in Lodi court on Friday.

Dear Pharmacist: I’m going through a lot right now. This year, my New Year’s resolution is to exercise more, hoping to take my mind off everything. My schedule only allows me to go to the gym twice per week. Will this help me feel better, in terms of anxiety or mood? — F.A., New York

Lodi's Tony Amador, who lost to Democrat Richard Pan in November's 9th Assembly District race, was recently elected chairman of the San Joaquin County Republican Central Committee.

(BPT) - When a person is in pain, he or she will seek options to attempt to reduce or eliminate the pain. For minor pains like headaches, muscle aches and small wounds, often over-the-counter drugs can help reduce suffering. But people with chronic pain may have to search for other solutions.

Like most Lodi football fans, come Sunday I'll be rooting hard for the San Francisco 49ers and local hero Colin Kaepernick. This may be more surprising to readers than they suspect. I'm a native Californian and thus a seemingly obvious 49ers booster. But once in my life the 49ers, named after the 1849 prospectors who mined Northern California, were the team I loved to hate.

Dear Straight Talk: This generation is not just born and bred on the Internet, but on an insatiable diet of violence in movies, video games and rap. The other thing uniquely part of their world are mass shootings. If these shootings were terrorist attacks, everyone would be rallying against the terrorists, but instead, everyone watches in horrorstruck fascination, with no rallies against the makers of the violence. Is media violence too addicting and does this generation enjoy it too much for that? Are mass shootings the price of a culture steeped in gore? — Curious Reader, Fairfield

(NewsUSA) - If used moderately and as directed, prescription medicines help ease many health conditions and cure others. But some people don't know the risks of keeping medications unsecured in the home, especially medications that have a high potential to be abused, such as stimulants, tranquilizers and pain relievers.

(NewsUSA) - For teens, peer pressure or wanting to escape emotional stress can often lead to prescription drug experimentation, which in turn can lead to abuse, addiction and sometimes a drug overdose.

(BPT) - Congratulations! You have made it through the holiday push – the parties are over, the house guests are gone and things are slowly returning to normal. You’ve spent the past months doing things for others – preparing meals, purchasing gifts, decorating the house, visiting friends and family – but now it’s time to do something for you and your health – quitting smoking.

(StatePoint) It’s at the top of many New Year’s resolution lists -- quitting smoking. In fact, 15 million people try to quit smoking cigarettes yearly. Only 5 percent succeed when they use no support or go cold turkey. Moreover, the average smoker will attempt to quit up to nine times before successfully quitting.

News-Sentinel staff share their wish lists for Christmas.

(NewsUSA) - Even as outrage over the national fungal meningitis outbreak continues to mount, cooler heads are asking questions that could have long-term ramifications for the way we treat back pain.

Dear Straight Talk: I am 21, my little brother is 15. We are very close. The problem is he lives with our dad, and my dad and his wife aren’t food-conscious like my mom, who shops organic. They let him eat candy, fast food, and drink Cokes on a daily basis. He has developed psoriasis, intestinal problems, food allergies and is becoming overweight, all within a couple of years. I am polite when I visit, but I try not to eat there because the food is honestly disgusting and mostly genetically modified. How can I get through to them, or at least him, not to eat this kind of food? It hurts me to see his health going downhill. — “Foodie for Life,” Sacramento

More and more high school and college graduates and are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment.

Dear Readers: Here it is again, folks, the “teen-n-twenty” shopping list that’s direct from the source. I probably sound like a broken record, but I continue my progressive advice to “think outside the box” (or in this case the flat-screen) and avoid addicting and social-skill-depriving gifts such as video games, or TVs and computers for the bedroom.

At the age of 11, Betty Davis began a life of addiction. A sixth-grade drop-out, she took to the streets living a life filled with alcohol, meth and marijuana. Thirty-five years later, the now 49-year-old grew weary of hitting rock bottom. While incarcerated, she began asking for a program to help her get back on her feet.