DUI Effexor* 16/06/2010 Minnesota Politician Airs Video on How Effexor Interacted for Her With Alcohol: Compelling
DUI Effexor* 2010-06-16 Minnesota Politician Airs Video on How Effexor Interacted for Her With Alcohol: Compelling

http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=4291

Summary:

Paragraphs three through six read:  " 'At the time I was on a prescription medication known as Effexor to control symptoms of early onset menopause,'  Collett says in the video, looking gravely into the camera.  'I was unaware that in some women, Effexor can increase the effects of alcohol dramatically'.”

"Collett’s family had noticed her  'physiological response'  to alcohol had started to change, she explains, and she pleaded guilty to the charge after her blood alcohol level clocked in at 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of .08."

"Effexor, an antidepressant also used to treat symptoms of menopause, carries a warning about drinking alcohol and using the drug.  'Until you see how Effexor XR affects you, be careful doing such activities as driving a car or operating machinery. Avoid drinking alcohol while taking Effexor XR,'  the drug manufacturer, Pfizer, warns on its site for the medication."

“ 'I only recently learned of the interaction of Effexor with alcohol in the spring of 2010. I wish I had understood how Effexor multiplied the effect of alcohol at the time of my DUI,'  she says in the video, explaining that she served her community service sentence by  'mowing graveyards'.”



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38616.html


House hopeful comes clean on DUI

By KASIE HUNT | 6/16/10 12:50 PM EDT


Minnesota Republican congressional candidate Teresa Collett says her 2006 DUI conviction was the “most humiliating experience of my life.”

That was before Collett, a law professor, released a Web video explaining the conviction to the world.

“At the time I was on a prescription medication known as Effexor to control symptoms of early onset menopause,” Collett says in the video, looking gravely into the camera. “I was unaware that in some women, Effexor can increase the effects of alcohol dramatically.”

Collett’s family had noticed her “physiological response” to alcohol had started to change, she explains, and she pleaded guilty to the charge after her blood alcohol level clocked in at 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of .08.

Effexor, an antidepressant also used to treat symptoms of menopause, carries a warning about drinking alcohol and using the drug. “Until you see how Effexor XR affects you, be careful doing such activities as driving a car or operating machinery. Avoid drinking alcohol while taking Effexor XR,” the drug manufacturer, Pfizer, warns on its site for the medication.

“I only recently learned of the interaction of Effexor with alcohol in the spring of 2010. I wish I had understood how Effexor multiplied the effect of alcohol at the time of my DUI,” she says in the video, explaining that she served her community service sentence by “mowing graveyards.”

Collett posted the video after the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Tuesday on the 2006 conviction and a second alcohol-related citation for reckless driving.

Collett is running against Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum in the St. Paul-area Fourth District. “This is a private matter for them, and we don’t have a comment,” said McCollum’s political director, Will Blauvelt.

Collett isn't the only Republican running against McCollum who's had run-ins with the law: also competing in the GOP primary is Jack Shepard, a fugitive in Italy who has been convicted of two felonies and is on the run to avoid a third charge for arson. Shepard has run for office before, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, vying for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2008, for McCollum's seat in 2005 and 2006 and for president in 2008.

Shepard uses his Twitter feed, written in both English and Italian, primarily to attack Collett.