States with medical marijuana dispensaries saw "a significant decline" in opioid deaths over a 10-year period, according to a report published this week by the Journal of Health Economics.

"The evidence suggests that Pennsylvania will see a reduction in opioid dependence and a reduction in overdose deaths" following the opening of the dispensaries, said David Powell, an economist for the RAND Corporation, in an interview with the Inquirer and Daily News.

Pennsylvania is launching its first dispensaries next week, with the first medical marijuana products expected to be available to registered patients on Feb. 15.

[continues 390 words]

A Philly nurse on safe injection sites

"You want me to do what?" "Where's your compassion?" "What a waste of resources!" "I have an obligation to help people stay healthy."

These are conflicting responses I imagine nurses and health-care professionals may have when asked to provide care at safe injection sites, places where people can use drugs under medical supervision. There aren't any such sites right now. But the City of Philadelphia announced that it will encourage setting them up. Should health-care professionals participate? It's a dilemma wrought with ethical, moral, legal, and regulatory issues and more questions than answers. As a nurse, I can understand and appreciate both sides.

[continues 551 words]

Should New Jersey residents be able to grow their own marijuana at home?

A top-ranking Garden State assemblyman thinks so.

Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer) is the deputy majority leader in the Assembly and a prosecutor in Lawrence Township. He's also running to be mayor of New Jersey's capital city.

Gusciora believes residents should be allowed to cultivate up to six cannabis plants indoors for their personal use if recreational marijuana becomes legal in the state.

"Looking at the marijuana laws in place in California, Oregon, Washington and the like, I thought that homegrown should be an essential element of the New Jersey law, too," Gusciora said.

[continues 332 words]

A new multi-site study has found that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to engage in substance use than youngsters without the disorder and had higher rates of marijuana and cigarette use going into adulthood.

The study's takeaway message, suggested lead author Brooke Molina, should be that parents of children with ADHD need to keep in touch with their children's activities and friends, even into the teenage years.

"They should keep their antenna up," said Molina, a psychiatry professor with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

[continues 433 words]

It was an idea born in the middle of a devastating epidemic with an ever-rising death rate. It drew the ire of state officials, threats to arrest those who operated it, and fears that it would encourage drug use and addiction.

No, Philly did not just approve of 'Hamsterdam'

It was a needle exchange to prevent reusing hypodermic needles, and the year was 1991.

Twenty-seven years later, those involved in the struggle to open Prevention Point - still Philadelphia's only needle exchange - say the parallels are clear between that fight and the city's decision to encourage the opening of safe injection sites, where people in addiction can inject drugs under medical supervision and access treatment.

[continues 853 words]

On Tuesday, Philadelphia officials took a bold step in addressing the opioid crisis that has increasingly plagued the region, by supporting the creation of medically supervised facilities where heroin users can safely inject drugs.

While other cities, including Seattle and Baltimore, are also moving toward the safe site model, no city in the United States yet has an operating, sanctioned injection facility. The policy is controversial and polarizing, raising questions by public officials and citizens about legality, morality, and how to address a public health crisis - not to mention the logistical details of where and how such sites would operate.

[continues 207 words]

Safe injection sites where addicts can shoot up in a supervised setting could be a hard concept for many to grasp as anything but an invitation for users to inject poison into themselves with the city's blessing.

To believe that, though, would be a mistake. Philadelphia announced Tuesday it would support the idea of sites that would not only provide medical supervision to addicts but give them access to treatment and other services. Such a move won't solve the deadly opioid crisis, but is intended to be damage control ... literally. Such sites may control the fatal damage that drugs are inflicting, in a crisis that has laid waste to thousands of lives and families.

[continues 443 words]

When I think about the people I've met in Kensington over the last eight months, the people who've opened up to me about their addiction, about their lives, talking to me from the cardboard mattresses and train bridges and alleyways and library lawns where they live, I think about the ones I haven't seen in a while.

No, Philly did not just approve of 'Hamsterdam'

Could City Council block Kenney's proposed safe injection sites?

I think about how many of them by now are dead.

[continues 752 words]

When it comes to legalizing marijuana Congressman Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) is "one thousand percent on board."

When it comes to legalizing marijuana U.S Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) is "one thousand percent on board," he told me by phone on Thursday afternoon.

Evans officially signed on to HR 1227 Wednesday, a bill that would remove cannabis and hemp from federal drug scheduling completely.

"This is what the people want in the state," said Evans.

The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act is sponsored by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a rising Democrat from Hawaii, and Rep. Tom Garrett, a more libertarian-styled Republican from Virginia.

[continues 265 words]

A 10th medical marijuana grower has been approved to begin cultivation in Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health. Holistic Farms LLC was granted permission Friday to plant its first cannabis crop in Lawrence County, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

That leaves only two of the 12 companies with permits yet to be approved. AES Compassionate Care plans to open in Chambersburg in the south-central part of the state; AgriMed Industries of Pennsylvania is expected to operate in Carmichaels, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. It was unclear why they have yet to receive approval. Grow houses must undergo several inspections and be plugged into the state seed-to-sale tracking system. Representatives of the companies could not be reached for comment.

[continues 181 words]

Pennsylvania will no longer provide the names of medical marijuana patients to law enforcement agencies.

The state Department of Health made the announcement late Friday afternoon in the wake of an Inquirer and Daily News story that called attention to the fact that marijuana patients would not be able to buy firearms.

The department also called for the federal government to reclassify marijuana, essentially demanding that it legalize cannabis on a national level. Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration considers all forms of the plant to be "without any accepted medical use," "highly addictive," and on par with LSD and heroin. Last week U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed Obama-era policies and said federal prosecutors had the discretion to crack down on participants in state-legal marijuana programs.

[continues 376 words]

The second coming of industrial hemp in Pennsylvania is entering its second year, with greater opportunities available to interested farmers, researchers and entrepreneurs thanks to the expanded scope of the Department of Agriculture's pilot program.

But you still need approval from the state to grow hemp, and the Jan. 19 application deadline is fast approaching. Here's what prospective applicants need to know:

How to apply: Here's the agriculture department's industrial hemp landing page, and here's a direct link to the application.

[continues 863 words]

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Charles Grugan's drug addiction took a toll on his family.

They tried to help him, but on Oct. 12, 2011, Grugan 33, overdosed on heroin. He never recovered.

While on life support in a regional hospital, doctors approached his family and showed them his driver's license.

Grugan had made the decision to be an organ donor when he was 18 years old.

His heart, liver and kidneys were successfully transplanted into three people.

"It was a silver lining for us," Grugan's' mother, Eileen Grugan, said. "Donating Charles' organs to others was the thing that kept our family together and pulled us through this grief.

[continues 893 words]

Police in Buffalo Township, Penn., were looking for marijuana when they raided a home on Oct. 7, taking the female homeowner out of the house without pants after she answered the door.

But there was a hitch. The homeowners weren't growing pot. They grow hibiscus plants in their backyard.

Edward and Audrey Cramer filed a civil lawsuit last week against the police and Nationwide Insurance Co.

Among their allegations: false arrest, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy.

[continues 551 words]

Patient response to Pa. marijuana program 'extremely positive'

What if Pennsylvania had a medical marijuana program but few people knew about it?

With hundreds of millions of dollars invested in cannabis growing facilities and dispensaries -- and the health of thousands of prospective patients on the line -- alerting state residents to the program should be a priority. But there's effectively a gag order on nearly all players involved.

The state Department of Health, responsible for the program's roll-out, has no budget to pay for advertising. Marijuana growers, processors and dispensaries are prohibited by law from actively promoting their wares. And doctors who write recommendations for medical cannabis are forbidden from publicizing that they're participating.

[continues 565 words]

The owner of a pipe and bong store in the Philadelphia suburbs, caught up in a crackdown on head shops, was convicted Monday of selling drug paraphernalia.

Craig Hennesy, 49, whose Piper's Smoke Shop opened in 2016 in Limerick near Ursinus College, could get two years in jail and be fined $10,000 when he is sentenced on two misdemeanor counts.

Hennesy was convicted by a Montgomery County Court jury despite hearing testimony from a retired county chief of detectives who said the products sold were legitimate.

[continues 272 words]

Federal agents arrested a Philadelphia police officer Tuesday, accusing him of conspiring with officers in Baltimore to sell cocaine and heroin seized from that city's streets.

Prosecutors say that Eric Troy Snell, 33, earned thousands of dollars serving as a conduit between corrupt members of a Baltimore police task force who stole the drugs and his brother, who sold them in Philadelphia.

Investigators also have accused Snell of threatening the children of a Baltimore officer who pleaded guilty in the case.

[continues 362 words]

The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Wednesday pledged to make medical marijuana available to patients by May and released a list of 109 approved practitioners statewide.

It also launched the medical marijuana patient and caregiver registry, with instructions on how those interested can sign up. More than 200,000 patients across the state could qualify for medical marijuana treatment.

Pennsylvanians with 17 medical conditions are eligible for medical marijuana patient ID cards.

Those conditions are Lou Gehrig's disease, autism, cancer, Crohn's disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord damage, chronic pain, neuropathies and intractable seizures.

[continues 410 words]

More than 130 administrative appeals have been filed against the state Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana over a secret evaluation committee's handling of applications to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.

More than 130 administrative appeals have been filed against the state Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana over a secret evaluation committee's handling of applications to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. (HARRY FISHER / THE MORNING CALL)

The competition for 39 permits to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania was bound to leave many applicants speed-dialing their lawyers to complain about unfair evaluations.

[continues 1874 words]

Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery -- who temporarily moonlighted as a medical marijuana lawyer -- held a news conference in the state Capitol in which he accused a Bethlehem company of threatening to destroy the law with a lawsuit.

Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery -- who temporarily moonlighted as a medical marijuana lawyer -- held a news conference in the state Capitol in which he accused a Bethlehem company of threatening to destroy the law with a lawsuit. (Steve Esack)

Prior to passage of Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law, politicians and advocates spoke with compassion about how it would provide alternative care to the sick and infirm.

[continues 822 words]