WGCU Public Media’s quarterly initiative Your Voice: Addicted continues with another essay by Estero mental health counselor Linda Meyerholz.  She draws a comparison between alcoholism and work addiction.

When used in high doses, opiate medications can depress respiration and even cause death.  Mixing them with alcohol makes them even more deadly.  According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 169 people died from drug overdoses in Lee County during the first 6 months of last year.  Of those, 82-percent involved prescription drugs, mostly opiates like oxycodone.  Many addicts want help, but find it hard to stop.  As part of our Your Voice series “Addicted” Rachelle Grossman spoke to an addict facing the grim truth that his dependency on prescription drugs could end his life.

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott of Naples made a campaign stop in Fort Myers on Monday.  WGCU’s John Davis reports.

Twenty-one brown pelicans and 11 northern gannets were released Monday on a Sanibel Island Beach.  The birds were rehabilitated after being coated with oil from the Deep Horizon well blowout in the Gulf.  WGCU’s Valerie Alker prepared this report.

The parking lot at the Cape Coral United Way House was filled to capacity Friday morning with area residents taking advantage of Free Food Friday. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

WGCU Public Media’s quarterly initiative “Your Voice” begins again today, focusing on the effects of addiction on people, families and the community of Southwest Florida.  We’ll have a series of five essays this week from Estero mental health counselor Linda Meyerholz, beginning with this one which attempts to define addiction.

The Willough of Naples is a treatment center for chemical dependency. Self magazine has recognized it one of the top ten treatment centers in the United States. Reporter Rachelle Grossman reports on those the Willough treats who are addicted to opiates. They say the pills are far too easy to get in Southwest Florida.

U.S. Congressman Connie Mack met with Emergency Operations officials and a boom manufacturer in Bonita Springs Wednesday.  The Fort Myers Republican reiterated his anger about the federal response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf.  WGCU’s John Davis reports.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson made stops in Fort Myers and Sarasota Wednesday.  He’s introducing a bill directing the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to come up with a plan for measuring and dealing with oil in underwater plumes from the Deepwater Horizon blowout within 45 days.  The Florida Democrat is a vocal, longtime opponent of offshore drilling.  WGCU’s Valerie Alker has more.

The South Florida Water Management District recently airlifted 60 tons of aquatic vegetation into wetlands south of Lake Okeechobee.  As WGCU’s John Davis reports, the effort is a key component to Everglades Restoration.