Billy Robbins wanted out of jail to deal with his drug addiction. The judge wanted to use his sad case to prove a point. "Your case highlights the struggles . . . in this courthouse with the dissolution of the drug treatment court and the position of the Crown attorney not to participate in the program," Ontario Court Justice Wayne Rabley said before sentencing Robbins to more jail time. Rabley oversaw the drug court for six years until it was put on hiatus last month. Main reason for halting the non-traditional justice program appears to be a lack of federal prosecution resources. [continues 505 words]
London drug treatment court, where addicts can avoid jail, suspends work, faces uncertain future London's highly-touted drug treatment court is suspending its work this week, at least temporarily, raising concerns from the judge who's overseen it since it began six years ago. Ontario Court Justice Wayne Rabley, in a written decision to send Darren Falconer, a crystal meth trafficker and user to prison for four years, said the court "is being shut down." "Sadly, we live in a time where Crown resources are scarce and the need to focus on enforcement is understandably a priority," he wrote. [continues 853 words]
Six New England governors called on health care professionals Tuesday to work with government officials to combat the opioid epidemic and control prescriptions, describing a grim reality of addiction across the region they govern. "There is not an issue more pressing I know for all of us at this table," said Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, addressing an audience at Harvard Medical School. "We are losing good people to the opioid crisis that is sweeping across America, and we need your help." [continues 542 words]
Editor's note: This is day two of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR The scars on Lori Caldwell's arms are still there, though they've begun to lighten. Caldwell wishes she could say the same for her mental and emotional scars. Caldwell's voice becomes a whisper as she tries to talk through her tears while recounting her plunge into addictions to heroin and crack cocaine. [continues 2706 words]
Editor's note: This is day one of a four-day series that examines the impact heroin is having on the community through the eyes of the addicts, their families, law enforcement and the groups that provide treatment. DECATUR Eric Buntain described the feeling of injecting heroin into his vein as "warm, euphoric, comfortable and relaxing: It feels great." About 30 seconds after injecting heroin, there's a surge of warmth coming from the low spinal area, a rush of sensation and an overriding sense of well-being. [continues 1448 words]
Lebanon, Va. - LATE on Christmas night 2013, April Hileman was summoned for a drug test. She had broken the curfew imposed on her by a drug court and relapsed with the opioid pills she'd been hooked on for six years. Earlier that day, Ms. Hileman had driven to a neighbor's house here in far southwestern Virginia to buy a handful of Suboxone pills, or "Box," as the drug is sometimes called. After she tested positive, Judge Michael Moore of Russell County ordered her to jail, and her 3-year-old daughter spent the rest of the holidays with relatives. [continues 1888 words]
There are no "safe heroin injection sites." The only "safe" approach to heroin is not to take it. For addicts, the humane public health response is to help them get and stay sober, or at the very least, opioid replacement therapy in sustained treatment. Any approach without these goals is cruel and dehumanizing - not healing, but perpetuating harm. Addiction is a treatable disease. Millions of Americans are in recovery - living healthy, productive lives. Supporting addicts' heroin use maintains their disease, administering the poison that causes their illness and diminishes their lives. A government-approved place for unlimited heroin injection creates the conditions for neverending addiction and gives government a drug dealer's power over the addicted. [continues 217 words]
The tomato seedlings in the urban garden were sprouting. The basketball court was filled with men in blue, gray, and brown uniforms shooting hoops and doing pushups. Inside, at vocational classes, men learned the art of tailoring a suit while a group of women studied toward their GEDs. In many ways, the South Bay House of Correction has become a microcosm of the country's evolving attitudes toward drug abuse and drug-related crimes. The facility just off Interstate 93 in Boston is a different place compared with the early 1990s, when leaders in Washington passed a stringent crime bill that authorized stiff penalties for drug crimes and nearly doubled the country's prison population. [continues 1055 words]
Authorities Are Filing More Drug-Induced Homicide Charges, but Complex Cases Show It's Hard to Decide Whether Offenders Deserve Prison or Treatment When police and paramedics arrived at her aunt's apartment in Carol Stream, Adrianna Diana told them she and her friend Christopher Houdek had cooked and shot up heroin the night before. Diana, 20, said she awoke covered in vomit, with Houdek, 21, next to her, unresponsive and "cool to the touch." Her aunt called 911. Paramedics rushed Houdek to a hospital, where he died. The DuPage County coroner ruled his 2013 death an accident by "heroin intoxication." But prosecutors decided it was homicide- and charged Diana and two heroin dealers. [continues 1911 words]
Pot ticket option, fewer cops lead to lowest narcotic bust numbers in three decades, but special unit arrests up ' considerably' The war on drugs may not be over in Chicago, but it's in retreat. In 2015, total drug-related arrests dropped to the lowest level in three decades, a Chicago Sun- Times analysis of city crime data found. And the rate of drug busts plunged more sharply in the first four months of 2016. Chicago Police are on pace to make 13,000 narcotics arrests by year's end. That would be the smallest annual tally since 1973, two years after President Richard Nixon declared a national war on drugs. [continues 967 words]
Social workers across Massachusetts are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. We work in treatment programs, community-based coalitions, sheriffs' departments, jails, drug courts, and hospitals. Every day we live with the newly released data on opioid and heroin deaths ( "Heroin, prescription drugs weigh heavily on Mass," Page A1, May 2) as our clients die. These drastic numbers, unique across the country, cry out for new solutions. Our historic attempts to prevent and reduce substance use through harsh penal sanctions have failed. [continues 140 words]
This just in: Overdose deaths in Massachusetts increased 7 percent last year. That figure is significant because the rise in deaths is slower than previous years, an indication that greater awareness and legislation are making a small dent in the epidemic. And the comprehensive opioid legislation signed by Governor Charlie Baker two months ago, including the first law in the nation establishing a seven-day supply limit on first-time opioid prescriptions, should help make a difference over time. Still, there were nearly 1,400 lives lost statewide last year to opioid and heroin abuse, an unconscionable toll that shows there's more to be done. Policy makers must turn their focus to what happens to addicts after they detox or get treatment, a vulnerable population in dire need of community-based, sustainable pathways to recovery. Legislative action must address the real needs for additional services or the Commonwealth risks losing addicts in an overwhelmed provider network. [continues 511 words]
With Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Coming Soon, the Debate Shifts to Decriminalizing Some Drugs Thirteen years after Hawaii legalized medical marijuana, the state is finally forging ahead with licensing marijuana dispensaries, issuing licenses to eight applicants on Friday. As it has in other states, that policy shift could usher in a new era of social norms. Back in 1973, Oregon was the first state to decriminalize small amounts of cannibas for recreational use. Four decades later, Oregon voters said yes to legalizing marijuana, as Colorado and Washington had already done in 2012. Twenty states and Washington, D.C., have decriminalized marijuana possession. [continues 1148 words]
To the Editor: Re "Outrageous Sentences for Marijuana" (editorial, April 14): Whether or not the Supreme Court rules that draconian mandatory sentences for marijuana use are constitutional, they are an ineffective, harmful and extremely costly policy approach to substance use. Marijuana use should be treated as a public health problem, not a crime. Incarcerating people for using marijuana serves neither the individual's nor the public's interest. Having a criminal record for marijuana use is damaging to people's livelihoods and life opportunities, particularly for youths. [continues 96 words]
A sentencing hearing for a Portage woman charged with reckless homicide overflowed with emotional testimony, culminating in a decision in which the judge lamented the court being ill-equipped to deal with such cases in the absence of a drug treatment court. [name1 redacted], 27, of Portage, was accused of first-degree reckless homicide as a party to a crime in connection with the August death of [name2 redacted], 27, of Lodi. The Columbia County Sheriff's Office responded Aug. 18 to a Lodi-area home for a death investigation. [continues 885 words]
President Obama's recent speech on the opioid overdose epidemic offers a ray of hope that the country's approach to drugs might one day adopt what has been called the first rule of American business: When all else fails, try doing it right. Noting with considerable understatement that "treatment is underfunded," the president proposed $ 1.1 billion for expanded opioid- addiction treatment. This is a good step in the right direction. But it is still $ 50 billion less than the U. S. will spend this year alone on its current, fatally flawed policy of the war on drugs, and only onethird of what the federal government allocates to lock up drug criminals - whose incarceration accounts for half of the entire Bureau of Prisons budget. [continues 939 words]
We've Got the Epidemic All Wrong, Maia Szalavitz Says America's epidemic of heroin and prescription pain reliever addiction has become a major issue in the 2016 elections. It's worse than ever: Deaths from overdoses of opioids - the drug category that includes heroin and prescription analgesics such as Vicodin - reached a high in 2014, rising 14 percent in a single year. But because drug policy has long been a political and cultural football, myths about opioid addiction abound. Here are some of the most dangerous myths, and how they do harm. [continues 1535 words]
Tim Ryan, a Former Heroin Addict Who Lost His Son to the Drug, Aims to Bring Users into Rehab and Recovery, but Some Question His Methods Two years after emerging from prison on drug-related charges, Tim Ryan has become a beacon for families scarred by Chicago's heroin crisis. The brash and salty former corporate headhunter has launched a public crusade to take addicts "from dope to hope" by running recovery groups, performing interventions and handing out advice via Facebook. He claims he ushers hundreds of people a month into rehab, and that he does it with remarkable speed. [continues 2910 words]
The fight against drug addiction took a new direction this week when Massachusetts Environmental Police and New Bedford police boarded fishing vessels in New Bedford Harbor, searching for fishermen carrying illegal drugs for personal use. "Commercial fishing is a dangerous enough job as it is," said Environmental Police Major Patrick J. Moran. "Using drugs makes it even more dangerous. Our intention was to stop the drugs from getting out to sea aboard the fishing vessels." Over two days, four law enforcement vessels stopped 11 fishing boats heading out of the harbor, leading to arrests of at least six people on drug possession charges and of two people on outstanding warrants, officials said. [continues 355 words]
Addicted Offenders Find Help Getting Sober, Starting Fresh On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Michael stood before Vancouver provincial court Judge Harbans Dhillon and told her he was ready to change his life. "Before I came in here, I was on the longest drug run of my life. I was using for four years daily," Michael said. Dhillon called for a round of applause to mark Michael's formal admission to the 15-year-old drug treatment court. And she asked Michael his views on the program to which he was committing the next year of his life. [continues 918 words]
