I have been reading many things in the paper the past few months pertaining to marijuana growing, how marijuana affects the quality of life in this county, and Measure W. The one thing that has been missing in all of these discussions is commercial cannabis activity being completely banned by Measure W. Here are a few facts behind commercial cannabis activity according to California Assembly Bill 266 and Senate Bill 643: 1. Cannabis will be tracked from seed to sale. Each plant will have a unique ID zip tie at the base with a state ID number. This number will be used to track the plant and all its products through all channels until its sold to patients. [continues 644 words]
The Willits City Council medical marijuana regulation ad hoc committee comprised of Mayor Bruce Burton and Councilman Larry Stranske recommended a total ban on marijuana cultivation and other pot-related businesses inside the Willits city limits. The recommendation came at Monday's special meeting of the council. Following extensive public comments and an opportunity for each member of the council to speak, no action was taken and no future date was set for any further action on either a ban or to discuss potential opportunities opened up by the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act. [continues 580 words]
Online Voter Registration, Other Measures Approved Madison- In a final marathon of voting, the Senate adjourned Tuesday by sending Gov. Scott Walker a bill to allow people to register to vote online and by blocking a proposal to make it easier for parents to get a drug to treat child seizures. Senators also approved a bill that would prevent up to $5 million in property tax increases by public schools outside Milwaukee that lose students to voucher schools. Also Tuesday, the Senate passed a different version of a bill on high-capacity wells than one the Assembly approved last month. That appeared to kill the measure since the Assembly has already ended its work for the year. [continues 1039 words]
Montville Girl Had Moved to Maine for Access to Drug Montville - Just last week, Susan Meehan was in Hartford telling legislators that she left Connecticut to give her daughter, Cyndimae, a better life. But Cyndimae Meehan's life ended Sunday as she napped in her father's arms in Augusta, Maine. She was 13. The former Montville resident moved to Maine with her mother two years ago, as part of the family's fight for access to medical cannabis. Medical marijuana is not approved for pediatric use in Connecticut, but Cyndimae needed it to treat her Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. "She was a happy kid, she really was," Susan Meehan said Tuesday. "In between seizures, she had a smile on her face." [continues 732 words]
Norwich - If they're still breathing, there's hope. When somebody overdoses on heroin and is treated in the emergency room at The William W. Backus Hospital, they speak to an outreach worker before they leave. It's one of the steps members the Norwich Heroin Task Force, comprising social services agencies, health care providers, police and others are taking as they try to get a handle on the growing number of heroin- and opiate- addicted residents in the region. More than 120 people attended a forum on the growing public health crisis Thursday, with presentations from social workers, doctors, addiction specialists and parents of addicted children. [continues 869 words]
Some parents and educators are cautiously backing a requirement that students be screened at schools for signs of substance abuse, but expressed concerns about confidentiality and how the state would implement the program. The proposed drug screening is part of an opioid bill passed Thursday by the Senate and expected to be signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker. The screening would be verbal. It would not include drug testing and would happen at two grade levels in public schools. Parents or legal guardians would have the option to exempt their children from screening. [continues 817 words]
The Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation Wednesday that would require schools to screen students for drug abuse and work to curb opioid use by limiting doctors' initial prescriptions to seven days. The Senate is expected to approve the bill Thursday, and Governor Charlie Baker is expected to sign it. The measure is the Legislature's latest response to an opioid crisis that claims about 100 Massachusetts lives per month. It is not as far-reaching as a proposal Baker made last fall, which called for a three-day limit on initial opioid prescriptions. But the governor has praised the bill nonetheless. [continues 65 words]
Governor Charlie Baker sought much tougher legislation to deal with the opioid addiction crisis, but his spokesman said Tuesday that the current bill is "a strong step in the right direction. The Legislature is poised to approve a bill this week that would require schools to conduct screenings of students for drug abuse and work to curb opioid use by limiting doctors' initial prescriptions to seven days. Parents and students would have the ability to opt out of the screen, which would come in the form of a confidential interview with children at two still-to-be-determined grade levels. [continues 663 words]
Awareness Forum Addresses Growing Opioid Epidemic GOSHEN - "Northwest Connecticut has been reeling from an unfortunate epidemic," began Brian Ohler, director of the United Coalition of Northwest Connecticut to an audience of 25 at the Goshen Center School, "one that is plagued by rampant drug-related overdose deaths." Ohler moderated an Opioid Awareness Forum at 50 North St. Saturday. Various area drug counselors and health workers discussed the subject of the burgeoning heroin epidemic and treatment options and possible solutions in Litchfield County. Audience members included health care workers, concerned local politicians, and bereaved mothers. [continues 1321 words]
Anti- Drug Campaign Was Praised by Some, Dismissed by Others Drugs already had a strong grip in Compton High School when Maple Cornwell became assistant principal in 1983. Crack cocaine was just making its debut. Educators had few tools to fight what would quickly turn into an epidemic. Into this void came the voice of Nancy Reagan, with a message for children around the nation: "Just Say No." The campaign against drugs became Reagan's most memorable achievement - - lauded by some for showing the destruction addiction wrought, condemned by others who say it helped lead to mass incarceration and demonized black communities, and shrugged off by many who thought the message was naively simplistic and ineffectual. [continues 844 words]
Affordability, availability and more potent forms of marijuana are spurring alarming trends in pot use among teenagers, law enforcement and school officials say. Not only are more youths being cited for minor in possession, but how they view and use the drug is shifting as marijuana becomes more socially acceptable - and legal. "Pot's chill," says Kate, a 17-year-old North Medford High School student whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity. "It just chills you and opens your eyes. I don't see it as a bad thing." [continues 1717 words]
Surveys Show Marijuana Among Youths on the Rise in Connecticut Hartford - With surveys showing marijuana use among youth in Connecticut on the rise, substance abuse prevention groups gathered at the Legislative Office Building on Monday to launch a pre-emptive strike against any move to legalize marijuana for recreational use. "We should not consider marijuana innocent until proving guilty given what we already know," said Dr. Sandra Carbonari, a Waterbury pediatrician and immediate past president of the state's chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "Increased access for adults will increase access for youths, regardless of age restrictions." [continues 746 words]
Heroin, Prescription Opioid Deaths Continue to Rise, Despite Controls Gary Mendell Created Nonprofit Called Shatterproof to Save Other Parents' Children California Medical Association Lobbies Against Legislation Intended to Fight Opioid Epidemic Like the pragmatic businessman he is, Gary Mendell came to town armed with facts to make his case, although a few years ago, he never could have imagined discussing the topic at hand, drug addiction. Prescription opioid sales increased almost fourfold between 1999 and 2010; overdose deaths rose fivefold. There are 25 million addicts; 15 people die every hour of every day of addiction. And so on. [continues 898 words]
Last month, an official with the Drug Enforcement Agency made a presentation before the Senatorial Committee on the Judiciary in Washington, D.C. During the report, the country's newest public enemy was unveiled. The south-of-the-border rival has no link to terrorist organizations, viruses, or Donald Trump-so-hated Mexicans. Based on figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DEA's document underlines that drug overdose by heroin usage is now the leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States, surpassing deaths from car accidents and firearms. [continues 737 words]
The Volunteer- Run Nonprofit, Started by Uci Medical Students, Aims to Lower Addicts' Exposure to Infections. A year ago, a group of UC Irvine medical students realized that Orange County was missing what they considered an important public health service that every major city in California had access to: a clean- needle exchange program. So they decided to do something about it. The students organized with partners across the region and submitted a plan to the California Department of Public Health. The agency rejected the plan last summer, noting a lack of community support and funding for a program. [continues 544 words]
No one of these steps will solve the crisis, but collectively they can achieve progress. This will take time. Drug addiction will never go away, but as a community and as a nation, we can do much better. In recent weeks our community has had an extraordinary discussion about the heroin crisis that confronts it. That discussion has included families touched by the disease of addiction, law enforcement, educators, the medical and substance abuse and treatment community, and elected leaders. The conversation has provided some consensus, if not universal agreement, on a way forward. Addressing the problem will take time and persistence will be paramount. [continues 647 words]
Substance Abuse Prevention Expert Tells Rotary Parents Must 'Stop Teenagers From Using Anything' New London - Since most addiction starts in the teenage years, the most effective way to combat the rising rates of heroin and prescription opioid addiction it to "stop teenagers from using anything," one of the region's leading substance abuse prevention experts told the New London Rotary Club Thursday. "We need to keep the vulnerability envelope of teens closed for as long as possible," said Karen Fischer, a longtime mental health counselor currently working for the Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut at the Lymes' Youth Service Bureau on a five-year substance abuse prevention grant. [continues 475 words]
When the state Senate in New Mexico this week considered a measure that would have asked voters whether to legalize marijuana, the debate inevitably became as much about Colorado as the lawmakers' home state. When making his case against the measure, Sen. William Sharer, a Republican from Farmington, pointed to Denver, where he said crime has increased since retail marijuana stores opened in the city in 2014. The measure ultimately failed, 24-17. Marijuana policy experts and Colorado officials urge caution when trying to grade legalization's impacts - which are the subject of debate all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where this week justices are scheduled to discuss a lawsuit over pot filed against Colorado by two neighboring states. But there is one thing that legalization supporters, opponents and neutrals within Colorado agree on: It's unlikely marijuana has much to do with Denver's recent uptick in crime, as Sharer suggested it did. [continues 406 words]
As former Arizona superintendents of public instruction, we have spent our professional careers dedicated to seeking positive outcomes for our state's youth and its education system. Given what we know about the challenges involved in education reform, we are compelled to go on record in vociferous opposition to current efforts to legalize marijuana in Arizona. Most critically, we take great exception to recent campaign efforts to promote legalized marijuana as a net positive benefit to education reform. Legalizing a drug whose dangers have become more widely known and documented overturns decades of prevention work in our education and health-care systems. [continues 418 words]
Levy on Marijuana Cultivation in Sacramento Would Raise Money for Youth Programs Children's Services Don't Get a Big Enough Share of City Budget Children Don't Have a Lobbyist, So Council Should Let Voters Decide Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council has the opportunity to make a statement of its values and priorities with a proposal to place a measure on the June 7 ballot to create a dedicated funding source for children and youths. It will provide desperately needed resources to help our young people succeed in their education, career and life. The proposal is to place a small tax on the cultivation and manufacturing of marijuana. The real decision before the council is not whether to tax this industry but where to direct the funds. [continues 356 words]
