To the Editor: I'm sure the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals means well ("Marijuana Bill Draws Criticism, March 3"), however opposing cannabis (marijuana) legalization increases hard drug addiction rates, which is what Connecticut is experiencing. Selling cannabis in a regulated market removes sales from people who may also sell hard drugs. Some citizens who legitimately use opioids for medical conditions may choose cannabis if it is available over the counter like in Colorado. That could lower hard drug addiction rates. The plant hasn't killed anyone in over 5,000 years of documented use; that's safety on a Biblical scale. [continues 122 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]
Approved, Then Rescinded, West River Road Site May Be Appealed MILFORD - A state-approved-medical marijuana dispensary slated to open at 255 West River Road and opposed by nearby residential neighbors, is having an unexpected bumpy ride at the local level. A zoning permit that would allow the facility to open was both approved and rescinded on the same day. The city's Zoning Enforcement Officer approved the application of Arrow Alternative Care #2 for a dispensary on Feb. 23, a day after the application was submitted. [continues 593 words]
HARTFORD - Bills that would legalize marijuana for recreational use in Connecticut are considered a longshot by most political observers, but opponents want to make sure it stays that way. That's why the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals held a press conference this week at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. "Marijuana is not a harmless drug," said John Daviau, executive director of CAPP. Daviau, a community psychologist, was the main speaker at the press conference. He said they don't want politicians to be lured into believing that legalizing recreational marijuana would be "a financial boon" for Connecticut during a time when the state's facing a $1.2 billion deficit over the next 18 months. [continues 389 words]
New Haven Lawmaker Proposed Legalizing Recreational Use HARTFORD - Bills that would legalize marijuana for recreational use in Connecticut are considered a long shot by most political observers, but opponents want to make sure it stays that way. That's why the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals held a press conference this week at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. "Marijuana is not a harmless drug," said John Daviau, executive director of CAPP. Daviau, a community psychologist, was the main speaker at the press conference. He said they don't want politicians to be lured into believing that legalizing recreational marijuana would be "a financial boon" for Connecticut during a time when the state's facing a $1.2 billion deficit over the next 18 months. [continues 415 words]
Business Is Brisk, and Anticipated Problems Never Happened Montville - For a store that sells a product that was illegal in Connecticut five years ago, Thames Valley Alternative Relief has a pretty boring problem: parking. Laurie Zrenda and her niece, Meredith Elmer, both pharmacists, opened the Uncasville medical marijuana dispensary after a yearlong approval process in September 2014. "It was kind of a big, scary endeavor," Zrenda said. More than a year and a half later, a steady stream of up to 150 customers a day walk through the doors of the small shopping plaza just down the road from the Montville public safety building. [continues 773 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]
We recently buried our precious grandson who died from a heroin overdose. I was astounded to read in the article, "Accused heroin dealers free on bond, due in court March 4," (Feb. 23), that one of the heroin dealers who had been arrested last weekend was released on bail. This is insanity. People who sell heroin are purveyors of death. Heroin is like handing a young person a loaded gun to shoot themselves. The article spoke about ridiculous rules that allow criminals to be released on bond. Heroin is lethal and those who sell it are murderers and they should be put away for a long time without the privilege of being released. [continues 99 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]
It's sad that it takes so many recent deaths to bring heroin's ugly face to light. Think of all the young people out there with the disease of addiction, knowing that even if they try to quit, they will often come to a dead end under the process of getting clean in Connecticut. First they'll go to detox, where they'll have to prove that there's enough of the drug in their system to merit a bed (for about a week); if there isn't, they go use again, although they want to quit! Then, if they manage to get a bed and make it through detox, most likely they'll have to wait, their name on a list, until a treatment facility bed is available, at one of too few places, for too short a length of time (probably 30 days). The name of the game is waiting; and heroin addicts are not good at waiting. [continues 63 words]
On April 3, 2013, the City of New London, and other municipalities throughout New London County were ground zero for a series of drug raids that the Department of Homeland Security called "the largest in State history." This 15-month long operation originated in the New London Police Department but grew to involve the U.S. Attorney's office, the FBI, Homeland Security, the State Police, and the U.S. Secret Service. In all, over 100 arrests were made on state and federal charges. [continues 648 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]
Americans consume opioid painkillers at twice the rate of our neighbors in Canada. Since it can't be because people on this side of the border are in twice as much pain as Canadians, we have to conclude that there is a difference in the way that pain medication is distributed. That difference is important to understand. America is in the middle of a prescription opioid epidemic. There are more than 2 million people addicted to pain medication, and more people die of drug overdoses - mostly involving prescription drugs - than are killed in car crashes. [continues 286 words]
Chief Margaret Ackley Says All Resources Deployed to Combat Crisis New London - Police Chief Margaret Ackley said her department is focusing all of its resources to combat the city's heroin problem as a survey of state records shows that proportionately more people are dying from heroin in New London than other municipalities in the state. According to statistics kept by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner from January 2012 through September 2015, heroin-related overdose deaths have been occurring at a disproportionately high rate in New London for years. [continues 745 words]
Prescribing Habits Have Changed, Doctors Say; State Touts Database A lot of Dr. Jeffrey Miller's patients come to him in severe pain after car accidents, traumatic falls and sports injuries. But over the 22 years the orthopedic surgeon has been practicing in New London, he's seen a marked change in attitudes within the medical community, from patients themselves and from health care regulators, toward how that pain is treated - a change that has become even more pronounced with the recent heroin crisis. [continues 1420 words]
In the headlines, "Heroin is a disease," (Feb. 17), though commendable, isn't accurate. Heroin is just one substance that, like many, can cause the disease of addiction. As one long free of his addiction to another substance, alcohol, I'm concerned because the recent publicity over heroin deaths masks the fact that alcohol is a deadlier killer. Alcohol-related deaths dwarf those caused by all illegal drugs combined. Despite my near-fatal addiction, like all serious observers I don't suggest banning John Barleycorn; Prohibition failed miserably. But so, all too obviously, has the so-called War on Drugs. In fact, the war has only made things worse. [continues 110 words]
Jerry Cunningham (Letter: Discourage demand for drugs, Jan. 24) must not be aware the discredited D.A.R.E. program is history because studies (including government studies) indicated it caused more drug use than no anti-drug program at all. One of the ways it increased hard drug addiction rates is by claiming cannabis (marijuana) was the worst "drug." It parroted prohibitionist government's laughable notion that cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while meth and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. How many Americans were taught heroin is no worse than cannabis and when they tried cannabis thought hard drugs must not be so bad, either, only to find themselves suddenly addicted to hard drugs? Prohibiting the relatively safe, extremely popular God-given plant and labeling it alongside heroin creates contempt for drug laws and the farce must end for hard drug addiction rates to diminish. - - Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
I must be getting old. I actually found myself sympathetic to the message Sean Penn was trying to deliver on CBS. Let me explain. Two days before the Sean Penn interview aired, there was a story in the local paper of yet another young man dying from a heroin overdose. If Sean Penn's point was that if we want to stop the death and destruction caused by drugs, the war on drugs must be fought on two fronts, I wholehearted agree. [continues 232 words]
I must be getting old. I actually found myself sympathetic to the message Sean Penn was trying to deliver on CBS. Let me explain. Two days before the Sean Penn interview aired, there was a story in the local paper of yet another young man dying from a heroin overdose. If Sean Penn's point was that if we want to stop the death and destruction caused by drugs, the war on drugs must be fought on two fronts, I wholehearted agree. [continues 233 words]
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In January 1964, the Beatles first broke onto the Billboard chart with "I Want to Hold Your Hand;" by June, Ringo Starr had collapsed from tonsillitis and pharyngitis. In January, the surgeon general announced that scientists had found conclusive evidence linking smoking to cancer and thus launched our highly successful 50-year public-health fight against tobacco. In August, the North Vietnamese fired on a U.S. naval ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the public phase of the Vietnam War. Alongside an accelerating deployment of conventional troops would come their widespread use of marijuana and heroin. [continues 765 words]
Inside Connecticut
