Judge's ' Dealings With Three Drug- Court Participants' Battles to Be Highlights on Show Judge "Scary Mary" Chrzanowski will be fully introduced to the nation Sunday when her dealings with drug-court participants will be highlighted on NBC- TV's "Dateline." "Dateline" and NBC anchor Lester Holt followed Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Mary Chrzanowski and three people she helped shepherd through juvenile and adult drug courts for about a year. The story will broadcast at 7 p. m. Sunday. "It's an accurate depiction of how tough drug addiction is and how tough it is to kick drug addiction," said "Dateline" producer Fred Rothenberg. "There are 2,700 drug courts across the country. They have been one of the more successful weapons in the war on drugs." [continues 319 words]
Understand that heroin treatment is a treatment VANCOUVER * A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 359 words]
Five people filed a lawsuit alleging that Ottawa had violated their charter rights VANCOUVER - A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 454 words]
VANCOUVER - A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. Five people filed a lawsuit last fall alleging the federal government had violated their charter rights by denying access to prescription heroin to treat their addictions. [continues 485 words]
Addicts win right to resume medical access to drug until expected Ottawa legal challenge A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard. The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs. [continues 362 words]
Marijuana Supporters Encouraged by Politicians' Comments. Democrats want to turn Texas blue. Republicans want to keep it red. Now, members of a new advocacy group in Austin have something else in mind: They want to make Texas green. The Washington, D.C.based nonpartisan organization isn't blowing smoke about environmental causes. Rather, the Marijuana Policy Project sees an opening to loosen marijuana laws in Texas, following recent comments by Gov. Rick Perry and other state politicians. Heather Fazio, the newly installed Texas political director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said she, a lobbyist and several volunteers will work toward passing state laws that would permit the use of medical marijuana, decriminalization of the controlled substance and eventually allowing adults to possess small amounts of marijuana. Similar efforts will be made in several other states. [continues 724 words]
O.C. and Santa Clara County Sue Makers of Painkillers, Accusing Them of a 'Campaign of Deception.' Two California counties sued five of the world's largest narcotics manufacturers on Wednesday, accusing the companies of causing the nation's prescription drug epidemic by waging a "campaign of deception" aimed at boosting sales of potent painkillers such as OxyContin. Officials from Orange and Santa Clara counties - both hit hard by overdose deaths, emergency room visits and escalating medical costs associated with prescription narcotics - contend the drug makers violated California laws against false advertising, unfair business practices and creating a public nuisance. [continues 1071 words]
Man Fed Habit With Thefts, Wants to Stay Clean After Jail Fourth in a series. Marquese Seger already had a drinking problem and had already left rehab once for an addiction to prescription pills when he first tried heroin. He was 18, he was drunk and he was angry from an earlier argument. A friend was getting high. He offered heroin to Marquese. It's the best high he could get, he said. It'd take away the anger. Marquese was scared. The drug made him nervous, and he couldn't use the needle on himself. The friend tied off his right arm, inserted the needle for him. It was the start of a three-year heroin habit. [continues 1360 words]
Last month, NBC News ran a series of stories about the United States' "growing heroin epidemic." Last month, NBC News ran a series of stories about the United States' "growing heroin epidemic." Two things stand out in the reports: One is their sympathetic tone; the other is that almost everyone depicted is white. Drug users and their families aren't vilified; there is no panicked call for police enforcement. Instead, and appropriately, there is a call for treatment and rehabilitation. Parents of drug addicts express love for their children, and everyone agrees they need support to get clean. [continues 692 words]
Rehab, drug court gives NN teen new life NEWPORT NEWS -- Spice took over his life in middle school. Nothing else mattered. Being high became the norm. At 12, he picked up his first cigarette. Soon the Newport News teen, now 18, was smoking marijuana, too. "Cigarettes and weed," he said in a single breath, making no distinction. "Weed was just part of life. I smoked weed all the time -- after school, every weekend." Halfway through eighth grade, he moved on to spice, which had the advantage of being cheaper and, at the time, both legally obtainable and undetectable in drug screens. [continues 955 words]
Drugs today aren't the way they were when "we" were young, say police and parents who are dealing with their impact today. The drugs of the 1980s - cocaine and crack - have been replaced by opiates - prescription drugs and heroin - and a cheap high from a hit of heroin can turn into a death trip far more easily than a snort of cocaine, said Carver Police Chief Marc Duphily. "You may think you know what to warn your kids about when it comes to drugs and alcohol," Duphily said, "but there are startling trends and methods of use making their way through teen social circles." [continues 843 words]
In his California laboratory, Kim Janda is amazed by the amount of heroin he can give to rats without killing them. Janda has created a vaccine that makes rodents immune to huge amounts of the drug and reduces the animals' urge to relapse into the dark hole of heroin addiction - a place all too familiar to a growing number of Americans. It is a ray of promise in the battle against opiate addiction. Drug overdose deaths - fueled primarily by prescription painkillers and heroin - have tripled in the United States over the last three decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [continues 2941 words]
Last month, NBC News ran a series of stories about the United States' "growing heroin epidemic." Two things stand out in the reports: One is their sympathetic tone; the other is that almost everyone depicted is white. Drug users and their families aren't vilified; there is no panicked call for police enforcement. Instead, and appropriately, there is a call for treatment and rehabilitation. Parents of drug addicts express love for their children, and everyone agrees they need support to get clean. [continues 690 words]
To the Editor: The May 9 Times editorial "N.J. drug courts reclaiming lives" praises New Jersey's drug court program as an effective treatment paradigm for the disease of addiction, as well as a fiscally responsible alternative to incarceration for nonviolent offenders. While drug courts are clearly preferable to incarceration, they are a misguided response to the fundamental problem of addiction. First, treatment access in general is underfunded and unavailable to the majority of people who seek it. The notion that those who are addicted to drugs do not want treatment is wholly false, as evidenced by the fact that waiting lists for publicly funded rehabilitation programs are miles long. It is perverse that we are promoting a system in which someone must get arrested before we agree to help them. [continues 143 words]
A discussion on drug use took center stage inside Laguna Beach High School's Artists Theatre Monday night. But unlike the venue's usual productions, the stories were real, explaining an epidemic experts say is sweeping Orange County. Photos of girls, boys, women and men - and their ages: 15, 17, 19, 21, 25 - scrolled on the screen as 400 attendees watched a portion of the documentary "Overtaken," featuring stories of adolescents who succumbed to illegal drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines and/or prescription pills like Vicodin and OxyContin. [continues 881 words]
On a recent Thursday at the Indiana County Court House, District Attorney Patrick Dougherty gathered in a courtroom with fellow members of the county's drug treatment court team and discussed the week's progress of several offenders in the program. There was no talk of fines and sentence lengths, just words of encouragement, even if tough. One man was having difficulty holding a job, so to keep moving in the right direction, it was recommended that he bring five copies of completed job applications with him to his weekly court sessions. [continues 1732 words]
Illegal drugs have become a deadly merry-go-round in West Virginia. Just when the authorities believe they are making a dent in one form of abuse, another one comes around to take its place. Sometimes the cycle repeats itself. Police and prosecutors seem to be having some success in cracking down on methamphetamine labs, synthetic drugs and prescription pill abuse. But some say that has resulted in more trafficking in heroin. Price seems to be a factor. In part because arrests of prescription painkiller pushers have made the law of supply and demand kick in, the pills have become more expensive in some places. Heroin actually is cheaper. [continues 311 words]
Program lauded for saving tax dollars THE future of Winnipeg's drug treatment court is in jeopardy due to a lack of stable funding and friction over which level of government should control the long-running program, the Free Press has learned. As of May 1, the drug court stopped accepting new applications from offenders because there's no guarantee its annual funding will be there as of April 1, 2015, justice sources confirmed Monday. The federal government is tired of funding the drug court without a commitment by the Manitoba government to take it over in the long term, sources said. [continues 711 words]
Former independent senator Dana Seetahal had advocated for a drug court to be established in this country. Seetahal served as an independent senator from 2002 to 2010. In 2007, she contributed to the debate on a private motion moved by former independent senator Ramesh Deosaran which focused on the then People's National Movement (PNM) Government handling of the crime situation. She had expressed concern about the drug trade and the increased addiction to cocaine and heroin. "So you know when I hear this acknowledgement of this and we have all this crime, look at what is happening in the world and so on; yes, yes, but what are we doing here? Why is there no drug court? When I say drug court, I am not talking about a court called, "Drug and firearms court" where you try people charged with drug offences," Seetahal had said. [continues 190 words]
Three prominent staff members of the Cape's largest substance abuse treatment organization have signed on to work for different medical marijuana clinics. Ray Tamasi, president and CEO of Gosnold on Cape Cod, has accepted the job as addiction prevention director for Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts, which received provisional licenses to open three dispensaries - one in Mashpee, Taunton and Plymouth. Tamasi said he plans to donate his projected salary of $100,000 to his treatment organization's prevention program. Shelley Stormo, Gosnold's director of family services, will be the CEO and president of Compassionate Care Clinics, which has a provisional license to open in Fairhaven. Her projected salary is $150,000, she said. [continues 1091 words]
