Yet another article concerning heroin addiction has appeared in this paper. It is as if writing about the problem will change something. It won't. I lived in Fairbanks for 20 winters and observed that every spring as breakup approached, people would continue to drive down Small Tracks Road, past the "thin ice" signs, around the recently installed barricades, and across the Chena River ice road until someone, usually a 20-something male in a pickup, dropped through the ice thereby necessitating a tow and an expensive repair. It happens during the season that the sandhill cranes return to Creamer's Field. Both events are foreseeable but a Chena River dunking is preventable. [continues 117 words]
WASILLA -- Soaring heroin overdose death rates in Alaska still don't outpace the rate of fatal overdoses from prescription opioid pain relievers, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Deaths from heroin increased from seven in 2009 to 36 deaths last year, according to a bulletin released Thursday by the state Division of Public Health. The number of fatal overdoses from prescription opioids was far higher: 83 deaths last year, down from 104 deaths in 2009. Fatal overdoses linked to prescription pain medications dropped considerably in 2010 after pharmaceutical companies changed formulations to deter abuse but then began rising again, according to Dr. Jay Butler, the state's chief medical officer and director of the public health division. [continues 308 words]
Unlicensed marijuana growers who are discovered with more cannabis than allowed under personal grow laws may find themselves subject to both criminal and tax penalties, should a bill circulating the Alaska Legislature be signed into law. House Bill 337, sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, seeks to give the state Department of Revenue's Tax Division more enforcement power. "It's going to help the legitimate marijuana industry get off the ground," LeDoux said of the bill Saturday. "That's my purpose." [continues 583 words]
From Herbal Outfitters LLC to Dazed Dog Gardens, there's no shortage of creative and pun-laden business names in the nearly 200 marijuana business licenses that are currently working through the state system, which were released Tuesday. The public can now see all the in-progress marijuana business applications on the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office's website. For businesses that are far enough along in their applications, a public notice is also linked in the spreadsheet that provides the name of the owner and the exact location of the business, according to Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office Director Cynthia Franklin. [continues 625 words]
The company that will provide a seed-to-sale tracking system for every single cannabis plant in Alaska's commercial industry is the same company that tracks commercial cannabis in Colorado and Oregon, the state announced this week. Franwell, which calls itself a technology company focusing on supply chain tracking, has contracted with the state for more than five years, according to Alcoholic and Marijuana Control Office director Cynthia Franklin. The contract was finalized March 7 and lasts until June 30, 2021, Franklin wrote in an email. The total cost of the contract is $105,000. [continues 189 words]
State Rep. Dan Saddler, a Republican from Eagle River, indicated that heroin addicts and the Alaska Legislature face similar problems and it is time that they both face the problems head on instead of avoiding them with a needle or a bottle of alcohol. This is how he justifies cutting funds for recovery programs, implying that addicts need to "face the difficult choices and to make difficult choices." His argument is many things: uninformed, damaging, hurtful -- and that doesn't include the logical fallacies embedded in his perspective. Perhaps it could be best summarized as a fundamental attribution error. [continues 614 words]
WASILLA -- Marijuana entrepreneurs in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the state's reputed pot-growing capital, will have little time to get up and running before voters decide whether or not to back a commercial ban. The borough assembly on Tuesday night delayed a decision on a new permitting system for marijuana businesses. But it's the combination of the state's licensing schedule and a pending ballot initiative to be decided in early October that's causing the time crunch. Pot-related companies will probably be selling products for a few weeks at best before Mat-Su residents vote Oct. 4 on a proposal to outlaw commercial marijuana operations -- grows, testing labs, retail dispensaries -- throughout the borough except for those involving industrial hemp. The vote applies to all areas outside the cities of Palmer, Wasilla and Houston; Palmer and Wasilla already have bans in place. [continues 698 words]
I read (ADN, Feb. 28) that Wasilla has voted to ban retail marijuana stores. This from the so-called "meth capital of Alaska." Makes one wonder if meth dealers don't have lobbyists. - - Ken Flynn Anchorage [end]
Anchorage officials will mark off the minimum 500 feet between schools and pot shops by using walking distances, not a straight line, the Anchorage Assembly decided in a unanimous vote Tuesday night. The decision means more potential properties will be available for pot businesses in Anchorage. The Assembly's vote, a reversal from two weeks earlier, effectively loosens restrictions on where businesses will be allowed to open by in some cases shrinking the off-limits zone around schools and other restricted places. [continues 531 words]
Shall Homer City Council ban commercial cannabis cultivation, testing, processing and sales from Homer? Already a majority of Palmer voters and the Wasilla city council have answered yes to a similar question. Others may answer their own way before too long. Alaskans and local governments around the state are posing similar questions in ordinances and local ballot items. But this question is being discussed right now in Homer, and I believe the entire state can benefit from listening in on Homer's dialog. [continues 781 words]
When it comes to setting up a pot business in Anchorage, the way its distance is measured from a school can make a big difference in whether the business is allowed or not. At its most recent meeting, amid a flurry of amendments to land use regulations, the Anchorage Assembly passed conflicting rules for the measurement method. One amendment, from Assemblymembers Amy Demboski and Bill Starr, specified that distances would be measured "as the crow flies" -- from the edge of a marijuana business to the lot line of a protected area -- instead of by pedestrian routes, which could be more circuitous. [continues 657 words]
Hoping to track how Alaskans use and perceive marijuana, the state health department has begun taking annual surveys -- but with the first results published this month, some professionals are raising a red flag about the study's findings. Alaska legalized the recreational use of marijuana in November 2014. With the shifting landscape, marijuana use and perceptions will likely change, the State of Alaska's section of epidemiology writes. The survey, released Feb. 1, is the starting point for tracking those changes. But is the data reliable? [continues 1034 words]
In nationwide surveys, Alaska has consistently had some of the highest reported rates of gun ownership and adult cannabis use. So the two topics were bound to intersect here. Given the controversy surrounding guns in our country, and cannabis for that matter, I'm going to take a few steady breaths and pause a little before getting into it. I hope everyone does the same. All around this topic, the air has the clean blue flavor of a fresh lightning strike. [continues 1001 words]
When pot businesses can legally open in Anchorage later this year, they'll have to be at least 500 feet from schools in most parts of the city, the Anchorage Assembly decided Tuesday night. The Assembly also narrowly voted against a proposal to allow on-site consumption in retail stores, at least for now. That question was referred back to the Assembly's committee on marijuana regulation. Assembly members said the city should wait for the outcome of still-evolving state regulations before adopting local rules on marijuana bars or cafes -- but left undisturbed laws for private social clubs, where customers can bring their own pot to consume. [continues 548 words]
Cannabis clubs have been in the news a lot, from the front page of the News-Miner to the top news story on TV to the community perspectives on the opinion page. It is a new industry, and the new business is causing some concern and trepidation. But very little has been said about why Fairbanks needs a cannabis club, and what such a business has to offer. AS 17.38, passed by the majority of Alaska voters, legalized recreational marijuana use and possession and set out guidelines for how much a person can grow at home and posses in public. [continues 658 words]
Last fall, I listened as a mother named Cary Dixon told her family's story at a forum I convened in West Virginia. It was heartbreaking. Cary's adult son has struggled with a substance use disorder for years, and she described the pain that families like hers have gone through. "We dread the next phone call," she said. "We don't take vacations for fear of the next crisis. We come back from vacations because there's a crisis." Cary and her family are far from alone. As the use of prescription drugs has increased over the past 15 or 20 years, so has their misuse - -- as well as the wreckage caused by other opioids like heroin. In fact, four in five heroin users started out by misusing prescription drugs, and then switched to heroin. As a consequence, between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related deaths in America nearly quadrupled. More Americans now die of drug overdoses than in motor vehicle crashes. In Alaska, overdoses claimed 124 lives in 2014 alone. [continues 493 words]
By a narrow 4-3 vote and with the mayor breaking the tie, the Unalaska City Council last week took its first step towards banning local sales and commercial growing, testing, and manufacturing of marijuana products. A local activist promised to put the issue on the ballot in the fall local election, and to oppose officials supporting a ban. Three seats are up for election this year -- two on the council now held by Roger Rowland and David Gregory, plus the mayor's. [continues 456 words]
The Marijuana Control Board has released a big set of requirements and procedures. If you're interested in reading them, you can find them by snooping around a little bit on the Alaska state website - it's under "Online Public Notices." I was skimming through and something caught my eye. On about page 74, it is stated that a marijuana product may not be labeled as organic. I'm not sure why this regulation is in place. Anyone who cultivates cannabis to sell is required to report what nutrients and grow mediums are used in the cultivation process, so it would be quite easy for the authorities to determine that something is truly organic. What's the deal? [continues 130 words]
Commercial marijuana growers statewide have another avenue to deposit their cash taxes rather than traveling to Anchorage, the state Tax Division said. In an article published last week, the Tax Division said that growers must travel to Alaska's largest city to deposit excise tax payments, regardless of where they live, as it could only afford to invest in one drop deposit box. In reply to the news, readers asked whether they could use registered mail to send currency to the state. The answer: Yes. [continues 195 words]
All but two parts of Alaska's rules governing commercial marijuana were approved by the state government Friday, with one section addressing criminal background checks and another providing exceptions to marijuana testing for growers in rural areas struck down by the state Department of Law. On Dec. 1, the five-member Marijuana Control Board made its final tweaks to the rules outlining Alaska's commercial marijuana industry. The 127-page document outlines everything from grower operations to testing and processing requirements, and includes a provision allowing for on-site consumption of marijuana at retail stores, the first law of its kind in the nation. [continues 379 words]
Alaska marijuana businesses from Barrow to Juneau paying their monthly taxes in cash will have to travel to Anchorage to deposit the money, the state tax division said Wednesday. The tax division outlined its plans Wednesday, the first news of how Alaska's canna-businesses will pay their monthly taxes since the state held discussion sessions this autumn. "I'm sure the folks that are planning to do business anywhere but Anchorage are going to be disappointed," deputy director of the Revenue Department's Tax Division, Brandon Spanos, said Wednesday. [continues 520 words]
A ban on marijuana bars and social clubs and random marijuana testing for pesticides or other harmful substances at retail stores are among the more contentious elements of Anchorage's draft cannabis business license regulations released this week. Anchorage officials have been developing a local license for marijuana businesses as a way to give local government more control over enforcement. But industry leaders have said a local license would be redundant to a state license and overly burdensome, and have promised to fight it in the coming weeks. [continues 365 words]
I couldn't help but smile as I read your article, "Wasilla moves forward toward ban on sales of marijuana." Whenever friends in my age group discuss why we might leave the state, I always counter with, "but you wouldn't have Wasilla." Think of all they have given us: the Palins, a great ferry tale that you couldn't make up, and now this. I can't help but imagining that, right beyond city boundaries, there will be marijuana stores akin to Gorilla Fireworks to add a dash of class to a city that is already a visual treat to drive through. [continues 121 words]
WASILLA -- Wasilla's bid to prohibit marijuana businesses inside city limits took a step forward Monday night. The city council voted to set an amendment to Wasilla's marijuana regulations for public hearing on Jan. 25. The amendment would ban retail storefronts and commercial cultivation of marijuana in Wasilla. The city already bans marijuana clubs and manufacturing edibles for sale or commercial use. If the measure is implemented, Wasilla will join Palmer in banning commercial marijuana businesses. Palmer voters approved such a ban last year. Selling and growing marijuana is still legal in Houston and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, though Valley voters will get the chance to decide on a boroughwide ban this fall. [continues 261 words]
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night approved a ballot measure that will ask voters in April whether marijuana retail sales should be taxed, starting at 5 percent. The ballot measure would authorize the Assembly to increase the tax up to 12 percent without going back to voters again, but only once every two years and by a maximum of 2 percent each time. For the first three years, the revenue would fall outside the city tax cap. After nearly an hour of debate, the Assembly voted 9-2 to approve the measure, with Patrick Flynn and Amy Demboski in opposition. [continues 859 words]
FAIRBANKS (AP) - Proposed legislation in Fairbanks would make the city's first private pot club an illegal facility. The operators of The Higher Calling, which opened in November, could face a misdemeanor charge and a civil fine of $1,000 per day if the ordinance is approved, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Members at the club pay $10 per day or $25 per month to consume marijuana at the facility, which has been licensed by the state of Alaska and the city. [continues 298 words]
Job growth in the hospitality and health-care industries won't be enough to stave off job losses in other sectors in Anchorage in 2016, according to a report released Thursday by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The city is likely to lose 1,200 jobs this year - a slight decrease of 0.8 percent compared to 2015 - and it's too early to be able to tell if the marijuana retail industry will soften that blow. Anchorage's leisure and hospitality sector, which includes hotels, restaurants and bars, is expected to grow by 200 jobs in 2016, and health care is estimated to gain about 400 jobs. [continues 207 words]
While Alaska's commercial marijuana market slowly forges ahead, some residents aren't waiting for retail businesses to surface and are instead providing cannabis to the severely ill and veterans, all free of charge. Alaska Green Angels is one of these groups that has been giving away free cannabis for the past year. It was started as reaction to what the group feels is a medical marijuana system that has failed its patients -- although the state disagrees. On a Tuesday afternoon in December, a dozen of the group's members gathered at a storefront in Anchorage. A seemingly disparate group, they ranged in ages and appearance. One young woman wore a neatly tied ponytail; another man with tattoos on his neck huddled in a camo jacket; an older woman in jeans stood the entire meeting. [continues 1377 words]
Sooner or later, anyone hoping for a permit to grow, test, manufacture or sell marijuana products in an Anchorage neighborhood will need to meet face-to-face with neighbors -- and sooner may be better. Neighborhood groups and community councils have no regulatory authority to block a proposed marijuana business or require certain conditions. But Anchorage Assembly members, who do have the regulatory authority, have said they plan to take those sentiments into account as Alaska continues on the path to commercial marijuana. And industry representatives have taken note. [continues 1305 words]
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has to back off of state medical marijuana laws and hemp research, according to riders tucked into the recent 2016 spending bill -- but many federal obstacles remain as legal marijuana gets off the ground in Alaska. Congress agreed to $1.8 trillion in tax and spending legislation on Friday, a bill that carries the government through the end of September 2016. It included several rehashed provisions regarding marijuana, but some issues of key interest to Alaska's legalization efforts -- particularly related to veteran care and banking -- remained on the sidelines. [continues 1231 words]
Nathan wonders something that a few other people have asked about too: "My understanding is that it is currently illegal to consume or possess any amount of marijuana within 500 feet of a school zone, regardless if you're on private property or not. I have a two-part question. 1. Will the law allow people to consume marijuana in their private residence, regardless of where it is in relation to a school zone? 2. Will businesses be allowed to sell marijuana within 500 feet of a school zone?" [continues 1099 words]
"Board OKs pot use at retail stores" was the Nov. 21 headline in the Alaska Dispatch News. But the Marijuana Control Board still "considers illegal" cannabis social clubs where someone brings their own cannabis products to consume. The position of the Kachemak Cannabis Coalition is: Social clubs are beyond the jurisdiction of the Marijuana Control Board. The Alaska Department of Law and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott now must decide whether social clubs lie within the jurisdiction of the Marijuana Control Board. Principles of the Alaska Constitution govern the key issue of cannabis social clubs. [continues 133 words]
KETCHIKAN (AP) -- A Ketchikan council member plans to ask for reconsideration of the city's recent pot shop vote. Members voted 5-2 to prohibit retail sales of marijuana within the city limits. The council can prohibit retail pot sales by passing an ordinance opting out of the retail sales portion of the state's voter-approved marijuana law, Ballot Measure 2, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. Councilwoman Julie Isom says she voted to prohibit retail sales, but later heard from residents who said they weren't aware of the vote. The agenda said there would be a "discussion of whether to allow retail marijuana businesses within city limits." [continues 142 words]
Anchorage Assembly members are proposing an April ballot measure to create a 5 percent tax on future retail marijuana sales. Ernie Hall, chair of the Assembly's committee on marijuana regulation and taxation, said Friday the marijuana sales tax should cover the costs of enforcement and oversight when the state starts licensing marijuana businesses in May. "We've got new expenses the city's got to cover," Hall said. "We've got to generate the revenue to be able to do it." [continues 319 words]
KETCHIKAN (AP) - Retail marijuana shops will not be allowed to open within Ketchikan city limits. Thursday's 5-2 vote came after public comment and a 20-minute discussion, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. Councilman Dick Coose voted in favor of the measure. He said residents can still grow and share their own marijuana if they are at least 21 years old, but that the city does not need to make the substance readily available by allowing shops. "I recognize the voters did it to themselves," he said. "Well, sometimes, the voters don't always get it right, and this is one of them. I think it's wrong, because there's too many dangers out there. If the people are going to smoke it, they've got that opportunity." [continues 133 words]
This week "Peabody" wonders, "If someone was robbed for marijuana, how would law enforcement officers choose to respond, if at all?" After polling Alaska's major law enforcement departments, the conclusion is pretty clear. If your legally compliant home garden or pot stash is robbed, pinched, cropped or burgled, you should not fear legal repercussions by reporting (unless you have other dirt going on), and officers will investigate your complaint like any other property crime. But that's not to say everyone will suddenly feel entirely comfortable identifying themselves as cannabis growers or victims of theft. People are still free not to report crimes for whatever reason they wish. [continues 1206 words]
Reversing an earlier decision, Alaska's Marijuana Control Board restored more stringent residency requirements for those hoping to take part in the state's commercial cannabis industry during a brief meeting Tuesday morning. The amendment adopted Tuesday reverts Alaska residency requirements to Permanent Fund dividend eligibility, which, among other qualifications, requires a person be physically present in the state. After little discussion, the amendment passed unanimously. The decision comes after much back and forth regarding how the fledgling legal cannabis industry should take shape in Alaska. [continues 548 words]
FAIRBANKS (AP) - A marijuana club that allows consumption but not sales quietly opened this week in Fairbanks, and its owners say they are operating within state law. Coffee and doughnuts were out for customers at The Higher Calling Club, which opened Monday in a remodeled former wine bar downtown, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Patrons could sit on overstuffed couches or use a foosball table. "We're going to have the whole cafe feel to it is what we're looking for," said Marcus Mooers, who owns the business with his wife, Megan. "As you can see, we're trying really hard not to just run some kind of stoner slum house." [continues 200 words]
The Marijuana Control Board will meet again to take a look at Alaska residency requirements after an 11th-hour change to its rules was met with shock and concern by both the state and industry supporters. On Dec. 1, the board "will discuss and may amend residency requirements" that were adopted last week, the board announced in an email. While marijuana businesses must be 100 percent Alaska-owned, on Friday the board changed the definition of what it takes to qualify as an Alaskan. [continues 313 words]
The board tasked with writing rules for Alaska's recreational marijuana industry voted Friday to allow people to use pot at certain stores that will sell it, a first among the four states that have legalized the drug. The 3-2 vote by the Marijuana Control Board also changed the definition of the term "in public" to allow for consumption at some pot shops, none of which are open yet. Colorado, Washington and Oregon have legalized recreational marijuana but ban its public use, including in pot stores. [continues 320 words]
At the end of an all-day meeting Friday to craft Alaska's first regulations over the cannabis industry, the state Marijuana Control Board adopted new rules that could blow the door wide open to Outside investment. Marijuana businesses must be 100 percent Alaskan owned, but the definition of what makes an Alaskan was changed from matching what is needed to receive a Permanent Fund dividend to matching voter registration requirements, which is far easier to achieve. Assistant Attorney General Harriet Milks called it a "sea change" that could "upend the whole program." [continues 819 words]
The Marijuana Control Board voted to allow consumption of marijuana at retail stores, which, if approved by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, would make Alaska the first state to permit a regulated area for marijuana consumption outside of a person's home or other private spaces. The change allows for people to buy marijuana at a retail store and consume it in a designated area on the premises. The board voted 3-2 in favor of the amendment, with Loren Jones, public health board member, and Peter Mlynarik, the public safety board member, dissenting. [continues 392 words]
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The board tasked with writing rules for Alaska's recreational marijuana industry voted Friday to allow for people to use pot at certain stores that will sell it, a first among the four states that have legalized the drug. The 3-2 vote by the Marijuana Control Board also changed the definition of the term "in public" to allow for consumption at some pot shops, none of which are open yet. Colorado, Washington and Oregon have legalized recreational marijuana but ban its public use, including in pot stores. [continues 65 words]
In a commentary printed Nov. 11, I wrote about the broken structure our addicts face when they enter the criminal justice system. But the question still remained, "How do we fix it?" While the United States is still warehousing drug addicts in prisons and watching them come in and out of what has become known as the "revolving door," many countries are starting to look to decriminalization to solve this problem. Related: Heroin story underscores need for Alaska to treat addicts, not imprison them Mat-Su grapples with lack of detox options as heroin use rises [continues 736 words]
PALMER -- Despite what one Alaska state trooper described as "a huge rise in heroin" in recent years, Alaska's fastest-growing region has no place where addicts can undergo detox when they make the hard choice to get clean. That's according to panelists at a substance abuse forum hosted by the Mat-Su Health Foundation and attended by about 130 people at Mat-Su College's Glenn Massay Theater Monday night. Detox is the process of clearing the chemical dependence on drugs or alcohol from an addict's system. Most experts advise doing it under medical supervision. Symptoms of heroin withdrawal can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or seizures -- none generally considered life-threatening in the way alcohol detox can be. Many addicts end up detoxing in jail after getting arrested on drug-or alcohol-related crimes. [continues 870 words]
Back in my misspent youth, I was a registered nurse for a nanosecond. Then I realized that real nurses had something I didn't have ... a desire to be a nurse. So I got out of the profession. But before I did, I spent more than my fair share of nights in the emergency room of Long Island College Hospital, a hospital that handled some of the meaner streets of Brooklyn. Overdoses were pretty much a daily routine. On the weekends, overdoses became something close to a marathon. [continues 634 words]
Part of an occasional series In emergency medicine, naloxone is as close to a miracle drug as they come. Usually sold under the name Narcan, the medication can instantly yank a person near death out of an opiate overdose. Paramedics around Alaska use it almost daily to revive overdose patients they encounter slumped in cars, on couches or in public bathrooms. In Anchorage alone, firefighters administered 352 doses last year. Some in Alaska think the medication should be in the hands of more people, so families and friends of addicts are equipped to quickly stop overdoses themselves. They envision a world where Narcan could be picked up at the drugstore and stored in a heroin addict's bathroom cabinet, the way the family of someone suffering from a severe peanut allergy might keep an EpiPen around. [continues 883 words]
Regarding Mike Dingman's op-ed (ADN, Nov. 11), Alaska needs to get legal marijuana sales up and running. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows states with open medical marijuana access have a 25 percent lower opioid overdose death rate than marijuana prohibition states. This research finding has huge implications for states like Alaska that are grappling with prescription narcotic and heroin overdose deaths. California physicians documented the substitution effect long before the JAMA research. Legal marijuana access is correlated with a reduction in alcohol and opioid abuse. Marijuana is incapable of causing an overdose death. Not even aspirin can make the same claim, much less alcohol or opioids. The phrase "if it saves one life" has been used to justify all manner of drug war abuses. Legal marijuana access has the potential to save thousands of lives. - - Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
Cannabis social clubs should not be prohibited. This is the position of the Kachemak Cannabis Coalition, which I help direct. On Oct. 22, the City of Homer Cannabis Advisory Commission unanimously agreed with that position, including commission member Homer Police Chief Mark Robl. Robl reasons that concentrating cannabis consumption at businesses makes the "no public consumption" rule more enforceable. Cannabis clubs are a key issue. The state Marijuana Control Board has proposed a regulation that prohibits "marijuana clubs," including "private clubs, associations or corporations" where a membership fee or cover charge entitles a patron to bring already purchased cannabis to consume on the premises. If you violate the prohibition, you're subject to a civil fine. [continues 635 words]
Our children and neighbors are dying from a preventable disease. As a community, it is incumbent upon us to stand beside our brothers and sisters in pain and provide them with the support they need to fight this deadly disease rather than throwing them in a jail cell and leaving them to rot while we cruelly judge them from afar. Alaska Dispatch News has just started an occasional series titled "Overdosed: Heroin in Alaska." Michelle Theriault Boots' first piece in the occasional series, titled "Juneau's Heroin Heartbreak," ran in print Sunday, Saturday online. Heroin is a growing problem in Alaska, and right now it is one of, if not the, most popular drug in the state. The problem grew, sources in the report said, when addicts of the prescription drug Oxycontin went looking for a cheaper fix, but also found a stronger and deadlier one. [continues 659 words]
Inside Alaska
