According to the magistrate’s complaint filed at the Superior Court of Guam, 30-year-old Tyler Van Tevid is suspected to have entered the Financial Aid Office to inquire about his GI benefit bill.  

Tevid is alleged to have verbally threatened financial aid workers with a fire extinguisher that he grabbed off the wall.

Tevid was charged with one count of criminal trespassing, one count of disorderly conduct, and one count of harassment all as a petty misdemeanor on all charges.

On the Wednesday prior to the event, Tevid was suspended from the UOG campus.  

Tevid is a 2016 graduate of UOG who holds a bachelors degree in Public Administration.    

When asked about the alleged incident, Jonas Macapinlac, director of Integrated Marketing at UOG, said: “Our priority at the University is the safety and well being of all our faculty and staff. As far as I know, Mister Tevid was a good student with no prior issues here in the University even after he graduated here.” 

Tevid served in the military for 7 years with 6 years in Iran and 15 months in Afghanistan.

Tevid confirmed with Triton’s Call that he did enter the Financial Aid Office to inquire about a delay on the issuance of his GI bill.   

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   In the last issue of Triton’s Call, I explored the methamphetamine epidemic on Guam.  I went into great depths about the types of treatment offered on the island.  

For this piece, I continue to investigate this issue, but instead focus on the question of whether Guam is properly equipped to prevent the distribution and abuse of methamphetamine.  

There is certainly no hiding the problem of “ice” on the Island.

Many experts in the drug and substance abuse fields have expressed just that the drug problem on Guam is a lot worse than what we see on the news.

Valerie K. Reyes, a director at Guam’s Lighthouse Recovery Center, expressed to me that sometimes crimes that happen on the island are linked with drug usage, but they are not labeled alongside with it.

   According to the Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA, “methamphetamine and marijuana are two of the principal drugs of choice on Guam.”

The DEA estimates the street value of methamphetamine on an island in the range of $500 to $700 USD/per gram. In the last year, GPD acquired about 18 pounds of methamphetamine in a singular drug bust.

Through the help of a mutual friend, I came in contact with Dennis Anthony Quenga Santos, the supervisor of the Guam Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit. Santos has served at GPD for more than 20 years.

I asked him about his thoughts regarding the meth situation on Guam.

“My stance is that I agree that it is an epidemic, there is absolutely no doubt about it,” Santos said. “And not only is the actual user the victim, but then you have the indirect victims as well, such as the user’s friends and families.”

Looking at the past couple years, the number of drug cases, criminal felonies and misdemeanors have gone up in both the Juvenile drug court and the adult drug courts for both.

With the rates only looking to go higher, I asked Mr. Santos on what exactly is GPD is doing to help prevent the spread of ice on Guam.

According to Santos, GPD has established the Mandaña Drug Task Force. This task force comprises of a group of law enforcement officers from different agencies, who not necessarily from GPD.  

The  Mandaña Drug Task Force was established in Feb. 10, 2017, by Gov. Eddie Calvo.  In a press release, Calvo’s said the task force’s goal is “to suppress the importation, distribution and selling illicit drugs in Guam.”

Santos also explained that through the help of the Mandaña Drug Task Force, GPD can have the multi-pronged approach to investigating drug-related crimes.

However, taskforce is not the only solution.

“We working alongside postal inspectors but also the customs ports of entry to see what we can do to cease what is coming in before it actually gets distributed down to the streets,” Santos said.

“We [GPD] also use intelligence information as to who is actually receiving these packages coming in from wherever they may come from wherever the drugs come from and try to identify who these packages are for so that way we can actually make the arrest and try to shut it down from the actual dealer perspectives rather than just the users,” Santos said.

The new programs to deal with drug use and distribution has been showing a great effect over this past couple of months.

Just in the news, we can see a greater amount of drug busts and arrests of suspected distributors and users.

Although we have made great improvements in preventing the distribution of drugs, this does not mean the problem will disappear overnight.

With his 20-plus years in the police force, Santos says that the island still has a long way to go, and that the ice epidemic is just not something that is going to stop overnight.

He feels that the solution will require a concerted community effort.

“I believe there should be education programs in the primarily and secondary school system to try and educate the children to stay away from drugs such as ice,” Santos said.   

The post Preventing the Epidemic appeared first on The Triton's Call.

Horizon Zero Dawn is currently retailed around $61.99 a price point for most to all big-named titles. Now is this game worth its price tag? My response is yes—it is worth its launch price and perhaps even more.

The game takes place on a post-apocalyptic world where Humans now live as primal versions of themselves similar to that of the old native Americans or of that of Eskimo in a world filled with ruins of old buildings and other structures from past civilizations.  Robots shaped and designed like dinosaurs also roam this world.

You play as Aloy, a girl who is part of the Nora tribe .  Aloy lives with her adopted father, Rost, and it is your job to find her birth mother and explore the secrets of the world.

Discovering a whole new world

Horizon Zero Dawn affords players the experience of an environmentally pristine fantasy world filled with predators that are a fusion of dinosaurs and robots–science fiction and Transformers fans might refer to them as “dinobots.”

At first glance, it is easy to get lost and fall in love with what the world has to offer as you traverse the grassy mellows into the snowy alps or even the desolate deserts of the world of Zero Dawn.

Clashing Of Science Fiction to create new enemies

Photo taken from PlayStation Horizon Zero Dawn page https://www.playstation.com/en-za/games/horizon-zero-dawn-ps4/the-machines/

Welcome to a new imaginary world that you take when diving into this game’s creatures. The design that is both simple and yet complex. A mashup of  dinosaur that we know and read about brought to life through machinery just to add even more fear and threat to what you will face while exploring the land , sea, and caves. Excitement rises as not all dinobots are the same and must be dealt with in their own special way that you the player must find and expose to take of these creatures.

Concluding Remarks

Although the hype and excitement of the Nintendo Switch and the new Legend of Zelda game Breath of the Wild may have taken all the glory and headlines, Horizon Zero Dawn is not a game that can be overlooked.

If you have a PS4 and are not aware of this game, I can tell you that Horizon Zero Dawn is one that you should pick up if you are looking to just get lost and spend countless hours of enjoyment that this game will offer you.

To those who don’t have a PS4, and are thinking about getting one, them I would say that this game is probably a good selling or starting point to get into consoles.

Finally, for those who do not have or plan to get a PS4, this is not a review for you, but rather something to consider when the game of the year award comes around and also we appreciate your views anyways.
For a full extensive review of the gameplay and mechanics check out my full review of the game on https://thechonation.wordpress.com/2017/03/04/review-of-horizon-zero-dawn-ps4/.

The post Discovering a new adventure with Horizon Zero Dawn appeared first on The Triton's Call.

Obesity is a condition of excessive body fat for a given height and gender. The intake of the calories must harmonize with the output of work done physically, to burn up the calories. Else the unused calories get stored up in the body as fat. The calorie requirement differs for each individual according to the pattern of work he undertakes. Eating just what the body needs followed by regular exercise is the only solution to deal obesity, improve your dietary results with meticore pills.

Common Causes of Obesity

• Lifestyle
• Excess calorie intake
• Quality of diet (too much of fatty foods)
• Spacing of meals (eating very often)
• Hormones
• Metabolism
• Genetic factors

Home Remedies for Obesity

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Make a mixture of 1 teaspoon of honey and lemon juice in a glass of warm water, mix well and have this mixture daily in the morning.

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Over the years, there has been a rise in methamphetamine use on Guam.

Just the previous year, we have seen a massive drug bust that occurred when a man was caught with 18 pounds of methamphetamine in his possession.  The meth, acquired from the mail, was reported to have a street value of well over $5 million.

The annual report of 2015 indicates there have been over 233 cases in juvenile drug court and 229 cases in the adult drug court, which was double the amount of cases since 2014.

In December 2016, The Guam Daily Post devoted an entire Sunday edition of their paper to report on the island’s meth problem.  On that edition, an article asked the question of “Are we entering another ‘ice age?”

As we face this dangerous era of methamphetamine abuse, one may ask: is Guam properly equipped to both assist those who are suffering from substance abuse and prevent those from acquiring methamphetamine altogether?

The topic of this current piece covers the first part of this question—whether the island has the means to assist those needing treatment for meth addiction? Learn more about exipure healthy benefits.

Through my research, I have found there are four locations in total that provides treatment for those undergoing probation for substance abuse and those who just wishes to recover from substance abuse.

New Beginning started as the drug and alcohol branch of the Guam Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and during the transition into Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center the drug and alcohol division split off and became New Beginnings to symbolize a new start for those who are  undergoing substance treatment. The happy hour patch can help prevent a hangover.

New Beginnings contracts with three other organization to help offer services and housing for those who are recovering from issues that resulted from substance abuse. These organizations are Salvation Army Lighthouse Recovery Center, Sagan Na Homlo Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility for Youth also known as Sanctuary Inc, and finally Oasis.

When question about the state of treatment on Guam, Athena Duenas the Director of New Beginnings stresses a point  “that no one truly chooses to be an addicted, they just become an addict, it is a disease and it is a disease in the brain…. Treatment is important because treatment is all about getting someone’s life back on track”.

Within the last fiscal year(Currently as of 2017) of 2016, there has been 958 accounts of individuals who have gone  to substance treatment.

The rise in the methamphetamine epidemic is also mirrored in the rise of patients who are undergoing treatment.

A problem in this data is that certain amount patient that attends one of these treatment centers also attends the other treatment centers which may or may not skew amounts of total patients undergoing treatment.

The general mission of these facilities is get one’s life in track.

Jeremiah Santos, a peer recovery specialist at New Beginnings, the goal of the treatment program is to “do everything it takes to help those who are addicted to recover from themselves and get them back to society and back to their family.” He stresses the point that the methamphetamine problem on Guam is an epidemic and we should treat it as a disease that requiring treatment.

Mr. Santos invited me to attend a NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting at the New Beginnings to see a sample as to how people receive treatment.

It was compelling to see there appears to be go amounts of people who were in attendance at this meeting were around my age.

Throughout the meeting, there were those whom you see are trying to recover, evidenced by the way they engage in the conversation and how they take pride in the fact that they are staying sober.

One thing I had learned is the treatment process is based on a common practice here on Guam—one that is akin to the concepts of “inafa’maolek” and interdependence.    

In a NA meeting, those who are undergoing treatment treat other members as family or friend. They show compassion and empathy for one another and they try to help motivate each other to make sure that they can overcome their addiction and come back as a proud member of society. NA establishes the concept of trust that no one will exploit or reveal the secrets that the others have spoken within the meetings.

The most important part is they help remind each other that they are not alone in the process of recovery.

No one is truly safe from substance abuse as it can happen to anyone, regardless of age, sex, and/or ethnicity and at times it seems like we forget about that fact.

No one is perfect but at times like these, we must learn to give forgive and help treat those struggling with methamphetamine addiction, rather than shun them from society. To ignore and to destroy is not going to end the epidemic, rather awareness and treatment can solve it.

Valerie K. Reyes a Director at Lighthouse Recovery Center chimes in that significant  amount of crime can be prevented and lives can be saved we get those who need help the treatment they need “It is not just a legal issue but also a public health issue”. The problem is here and already affecting the people of Guam. Although it may seem like dark times are coming we should be aware that there is help out there and that no one should ever face it alone.

The post Hoping for a Cure appeared first on The Triton's Call.