Should Connecticut compensate a prison inmate who was injected with psychotropic drugs against his will? A trial set for January, in which the inmate is representing himself, will decide.

The inmate, Kacey Lewis, was taken from his cell, shackled and subdued with pepper spray for some of the 42 injections he received from the medical staff at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, according to court records.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant found the prison staff violated Lewis' rights to due process and ordered the civil trial, scheduled for the first week of January, to determine whether he is entitled to financial damages or other relief. The trial also will determine whether medical staff violated Lewis' rights against cruel and unusual punishment by being deliberately indifferent to his medical needs and through the suffering caused by the injections.

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Dr. Stephen Brown has become a believer in medical marijuana.

Since registering as a certifying physician 15 months ago, Brown has seen about 700 patients, and he believes it has helped a majority of them.

While certifying patients is required under state law for patients to buy medical marijuana, Brown takes pride in his physician's role. He spends time with each patient, takes a detailed medical history and follows up.

Brown was a reconstructive surgeon who retired from surgery when it became too physically taxing. He had started his career in the Army, repairing cleft lips and palates in a Saigon field hospital during the Vietnam War.

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Doctor Becomes Believer in Healing Power of Medical Marijuana

Dr. Stephen Brown has become a believer in medical marijuana.

Since registering as a certifying physician 15 months ago, Brown has seen about 700 patients, and he believes it has helped a majority of them.

While certifying patients is required under state law for patients to buy medical marijuana, Brown takes pride in his physician's role. He spends time with each patient, takes a detailed medical history and follows up.

Brown was a reconstructive surgeon who retired from surgery when it became too physically taxing. He had started his career in the Army, repairing cleft lips and palates in a Saigon field hospital during the Vietnam War.

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A Connecticut state worker fired after he was caught smoking marijuana on the job was punished too harshly and should get his job back, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Gregory Linhoff was fired from his maintenance job at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in 2012 after a police officer caught him smoking pot in a state-owned vehicle. He was arrested, but the charges were later dismissed.

State officials said firing the New Hartford resident was the only appropriate penalty for his conduct. An arbitrator disagreed and overturned the firing, saying Linhoff instead should be suspended without pay for six months and be subject to random drug testing for a year after he returned to work.

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The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has just issued a helpful reminder to all Americans. In denying a petition to loosen restrictions on marijuana, the agency repeated that the drug has "no currently accepted medical use" in the U.S.

This may come as a surprise, given that 25 states already allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to treat maladies from PTSD to Alzheimer's disease. Yet the truth is, research has yet to find firm evidence that marijuana can alleviate physical suffering.

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America's drug policies are largely misguided.

Many people, from common citizens to seasoned politicians, are aware of this, and have sought to change these laws in response to the needless incarceration of indulgers and addicts and, as a consequence, an ever-expanding population of prison inmates - the largest in the world.

However, the ethos of the War on Drugs has, since the early 1970s, remained a powerful motivation for lawmakers and justice officials to maintain the status quo.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as of Jan. 30, 2016, the U.S. prison population was made up in large degree of drug offenders, with 46.6 percent of all inmates having been incarcerated for such offenses. The second-largest group of inmates by offense, classed under "Weapons, Explosives, Arson," made up just 16.9 percent.

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Without a doubt, we Americans are in a bad way. The senseless deaths this week in Baton Rouge, La., Falcon Heights, Minn., and now Dallas are devastating beyond comprehension for the victims and their families. Each shooting is also an act in a shared national tragedy. The problems go down to the very roots.

The question of whether as a country we are headed in the right or wrong direction can no longer be answered simply with reference to policy matters such as the economy, education or foreign relations. Instead we face the fundamental question of whether we, the people, as a single people, are holding together and can hold together.

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Without a doubt, we Americans are in a bad way. The senseless deaths this week in Baton Rouge, La., Falcon Heights, Minn., and now Dallas are devastating beyond comprehension for the victims and their families. Each shooting is also an act in a shared national tragedy. The problems go down to the very roots.

The question of whether as a country we are headed in the right or wrong direction can no longer be answered simply with reference to policy matters such as the economy, education or foreign relations. Instead we face the fundamental question of whether we, the people, as a single people, are holding together and can hold together.

[continues 554 words]

On June 20, The Day published a guest commentary by Jim Spellman of Groton, "Stopping heroin at the source," which contended that "two appropriate recommendations have been offered to counter the heroin crisis - treat it as an epidemic and counter it as a village."

Left unclear was who determined that these are the two appropriate recommendations in all of Connecticut.

But, on his first point, I will agree that the heroin crisis in our state should be treated as an epidemic.

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The number of patients in the state of Connecticut receiving medical marijuana treatment has grown from 2,000 a few years ago to 11,000, according to Department of Consumer Protection Deputy Commissioner Michelle Seagull.

Connecticut legalized medical marijuana for adults in 2012. There are nine dispensaries in the state serving the more than 11,000 registered patients.

Seagull reported those numbers at a recent seminar entitled "Navigating Connecticut's Medical Marijuana Regulations," which was given at the Connecticut Bar Association's Annual Legal Conference.

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The number of patients in the state of Connecticut receiving medical marijuana treatment has grown from 2,000 a few years ago to 11,000, according to Department of Consumer Protection Deputy Commissioner Michelle Seagull.

Connecticut legalized medical marijuana for adults in 2012. There are nine dispensaries in the state serving the more than 11,000 registered patients.

Seagull reported those numbers at a recent seminar entitled "Navigating Connecticut's Medical Marijuana Regulations," which was given at the Connecticut Bar Association's Annual Legal Conference.

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MILFORD - Robert Fiore's childhood onset epilepsy is long under control, but he made it his mission to legalize medical marijuana for those under 18 in Connecticut after watching the CNN special report, "Weed," which featured the remarkable change cannabis oil made in a young girl with epilepsy suffering some 300 seizures a week.

I thought, "Why not bring it to Connecticut?" Fiore said.

The bill he helped introduce and pushed through his organization Connecticut Epilepsy Advocate, passed in the Senate, 23-11, in April and Gov. Dannell P. Malloy signed it into law May 17. Patients under 18 may cannot use products that smokable, inhalable or vaporizable and only for certain severe conditions.

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MILFORD - Robert Fiore's childhood onset epilepsy is long under control, but he made it his mission to legalize medical marijuana for those under 18 in Connecticut after watching the CNN special report, "Weed," which featured the remarkable change cannabis oil made in a young girl with epilepsy suffering some 300 seizures a week.

I thought, "Why not bring it to Connecticut?" Fiore said.

The bill he helped introduce and pushed through his organization Connecticut Epilepsy Advocate, passed in the Senate, 23-11, in April and Gov. Dannell P. Malloy signed it into law May 17. Patients under 18 cannot use products that are smokable, can be inhaled or are vaporizable and only for certain severe conditions.

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Time is critical as respiration depresses from a potentially lethal dose of heroin, or possibly a cocktail including other opioids.

For those first on scene, they need access naloxone to quickly get the victim breathing again. Monday, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, which has seen a growing number of overdose patients, announced they will provide some municipal police departments with this drug for a year.

"Hospital leadership believed it was extremely important to get Narcan into the hands of first responders now," said Ron Kersey, the hospital's long-time EMS coordinator, in a statement. "There isn't the time for budget requests and grant submissions. They need the [naloxone] now because people are dying. The first day this Narcan was available to the Waterford Police Department, they saved a life."

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Bill Awaits Governor's Signature

HARTFORD - The Senate gave final passage to a bill Friday that would give children under the age of 18 access to non-smokeable medical marijuana.

The bill passed the Senate 2311 after more than three hours of debate.

The legislation, which received overwhelming approval in the House, faced stiff opposition from at least one Senator who introduced three amendments.

The bill would give minors with severe epilepsy and terminal illnesses access to marijuana after the approval of two doctors.

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Dr. Leana Wen, a practicing emergency care physician and Baltimore's health commissioner, has seen what addiction does to patients.

Speaking to reporters this month in Baltimore, Wen recalled a patient, who developed an addiction and would lie about illnesses to ensure she had access to treatment, but then died of a heroin overdose after multiple attempts to get appropriate treatment.

"Our overall goal: We have to get people into treatment at the time that the need it," Wen said.

But the rate of fatal opioid overdoses has skyrocketed in the United States. Opioid-involved deaths more than tripled from 2000 to 2014, including an age-adjusted death rate increase of 210 percent from the same time span, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014 alone, 28,000 people died of fatal opioid overdoses, according to the CDC.

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Those who claim legalizing marijuana has resulted in an increase in youth cannabis (marijuana) use [April 5, courant.com, "Marijuana Advocates Make Fiscal Argument For Connecticut Legalization"] are directly contradicted by Larry Wolk, the head of Colorado's public health department. Recently interviewed in the Denver Post, Mr. Wolk said "there's really no statistically significant data yet to demonstrate that there is increased use among adults or teens."

Further, what is the cost and the health consequences of caging people for using cannabis? Cannabis prohibition's expense is astronomical when everything is considered, and minorities foot most of that bill. Prohibitionists haven't considered the true social cost to perpetuate and maintain one of North America's worst policy failures in history.

Stan White, Dillon, Colo.

[end]

University of Connecticut student Jennifer Purdon is not shy talking about what she termed Tuesday as her "daily use of cannabis."

Purdon, who described herself as a double-major, honor student with a 3.6 Grade Point Average, said, "I just prefer it (marijuana) over alcohol."

Her testimony at a forum on recreational marijuana legalization brought a raucous round of applause from the largely supportive crowd that packed a hearing at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The informational hearing was sponsored by New Haven Democratic Reps. Juan Candelaria and Toni Walker.

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Hartford (AP) - Proponents of legalizing marijuana in Connecticut urged state lawmakers on Tuesday to act quickly and capitalize on the "novelty factor" of possibly becoming the first New England state to allow recreational use of the drug.

Tracy Helin, of Middletown, who is registered to use the state's medical marijuana program to relieve cancer symptoms, warned legislators who attended an informational hearing on legalization that time is of the essence. Recreational marijuana legalization is being considered in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Vermont.

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The Governor's Prevention Partnership announced Monday that it has formed a statewide coalition to prevent the legalization of recreational marijuana in Connecticut.

Along with the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals and others, the partnership urged lawmakers to "consider the best interests of young people in the debate over legalization," according to a news release.

"Parents especially need to understand that marijuana is very harmful and addictive," said Jill Spineti, president and chief executive officer of the partnership. "Marijuana has a significant negative impact on a child's physical and mental health, development and overall well-being."

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