It's an uphill battle [photo] (John Dole / Scripps Research Institute) Kim Janda of the Scripps Research Institute is shown in front of a board that depicts molecule drawings of heroin and cocaine, with the structures of vaccines that potentially could target those two drugs shown beneath. In one picture, H. Joseph "Joey" Ressler is smiling at his mother and lifting her off the ground. In another, a selfie, he's grinning like a little kid as two motorcyclists roar up from behind. He was just 24, and the future seemed limitless for the happy, talented young man. [continues 1151 words]
A Richland woman died Wednesday in her apartment from a suspected heroin overdose, leaving her 3-year-old son alone in the residence until police found him. The woman was identified as Lauren Wilson, 34, of Thomas Village in the 5600 block of Community Center Drive. Police were called Wednesday afternoon by Ms. Wilson's mother because she was unable to contact her daughter by phone, Northern Regional Police Department Chief T. Robert Amann said today. Police found Ms. Wilson's body and a syringe. [continues 322 words]
Recent headlines tell it all: "9 dead from apparent heroin ODs over weekend in Kensington area"; "Medical examiner: Philly overdose surge may have killed 35 over 5 days"; "New Jersey's overdose nightmare hits a new peak"; and "Growth in the use of opioids is fueling a nationwide epidemic of deaths from drug overdose". Heroin mixed with fentanyl - or heroin alone - may be responsible for this surge in overdoses. In the past, Philadelphia typically had three overdoses a day and they were not all fatal. Last June, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office confirmed nearly 700 drug-related deaths in 2015, twice as many deaths as there were from homicides. At the current rate, 2016 will end with even more. [continues 619 words]
It looks like pot. It smells like pot. But it's hemp, marijuana's legal cousin, and it's taking over the Bluegrass state. Across the rolling hills of Kentucky, which just two decades ago was the most tobacco-dependent state in the country, farmers are planting less of the crop after rising health concerns shrunk demand. Instead, they're increasingly turning to hemp and have more than doubled sowings of the cannabis variety in 2016 to become the No. 2 producer in the U.S., trailing Colorado. [continues 405 words]
[photo] Heather Skorinko had hoped to grow industrial hemp on her North Whitehall Township farm, but the state's restrictive pilot program will lock out most family farms, she said. (APRIL BARTHOLOMEW/THE MORNING CALL) Industrial hemp returns to Pennsylvania in 2017. So why are advocates so riled up? Too often in recent years, Heather Skorinko has struggled to make money growing corn and soybeans on her North Whitehall Township farm, which has been in the family for more than 120 years. [continues 1839 words]
Pa. Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine during a meeting with the staff of the Twin Lakes treatment facility near Somerset for people suffering with alcohol and substance abuse. Pennsylvania's avalanche of opioids that rolled from factories through pharmacies to medicine cabinets, and then tumbled into the streets with tragic results, may finally be slowing thanks to pressure on the prescribing practices of its doctors. This year, the long-lagging state caught up with the regulatory steps of many of its neighbors, as Gov. Tom Wolf and legislators from overdose-plagued districts wrote new laws. Initial data suggests that attention to the overprescribing of opioids - widely blamed for starting addictions that progress to heroin use - has started to affect doctors' decisions. [continues 710 words]
The 44-year-old mother who answered the door in Lincoln-Lemington on the evening of Dec. 15 had the "pin point" eyes of "someone who has recently used opioids," a Pittsburgh police officer wrote. The officer was responding to a 911 call suggesting child endangerment. "I do suffer from using heroin and I'm trying to stop, but I keep using," the woman admitted, according to the officer's affidavit. She led police to the makeup bag under the throw pillow, where they found six stamp bags of heroin and three hypodermic needles, the officer wrote. [continues 3159 words]
[photo] Toby Talbot / APWith prescriptions dropping in the United States, companies have started to promote OxyContin and other opioid drugs in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. A former adjunct associate professor at Temple University has helped a leading maker of opioids promote potentially addictive pain medications in new foreign markets that have not yet seen an overdose crisis like that in the United States, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. The physician, Joseph V. Pergolizzi Jr., is based in Naples, Fla., and has not been affiliated with Temple since June 2014, the school said. [continues 331 words]
Two young parents died of apparent drug overdoses in a Pennsylvania home about a week ago. Left alone in her bassinet, the couple's infant died three or four days later. Authorities said 5-month-old Summer Chambers died of dehydration and starvation, the Associated Press reported. She and her parents, Jason Chambers, 27, and Chelsea Cardaro, 19, were all found dead Thursday in a home in the Kernville neighborhood of Johnstown, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. Officials with the Johnstown Police Department were unavailable for comment Saturday. [continues 376 words]
[photo] MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff PhotographerCharito Morales, center, with Homequarters and Friends, passes out hot chocolate and candy to those that ask for it at 2nd and Indiana as part of a holiday program on Monday, Dec. 19. The sun gave off no heat and just a flash of orange light as freezing do-gooders sang Christmas carols Monday evening in Fairhill to an encampment of homeless heroin addicts. The singers, many from Home Quarters and Friends, a nonprofit faith-based community group, stood on the edge of the infamous El Campamento, a tent city of 75 to 120 addicts beside the Conrail tracks. [continues 416 words]
Officials, former inmate contrast the emphasis on treatment vs. incarceration When Leola Bivins was first sent away for dealing drugs, she was a 22-year-old high school dropout with a 2-year-old daughter at home. Addiction was the center of the life she knew in East Stroudsburg, where she was born and raised, she recalled recently. Bivins' mother was a heroin addict - she eventually died of an overdose - and seemingly everyone around her was either selling drugs or abusing them, Bivins said. [continues 2766 words]
The day after Gov. Christie signed a bill allowing vets to use marijuana for post-traumatic stress syndrome, he was greeted by cheers - - and some boos - as he exited his black SUV and walked to the entrance of the Trenton Statehouse. In a video clip posted on Facebook last month, he was more stunned by the group that was clapping. Over the last two years, the group of five to 30 protesters would occupy a spot near the door most Thursdays and deliver speeches about the virtues of treating health problems with cannabis. They would set up orange traffic cones as a nod to Bridgegate and the roadblocks they said the Republican governor had created to keep the medical marijuana program from growing. Christie had called the program a front for the legalization of recreational marijuana and was against expanding it. [continues 596 words]
Doctors in the United States are not terribly concerned about your marijuana use, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers presented a representative sample of 233 primary-care physicians with nine hypothetical patient behaviors -- tobacco use, alcohol use, obesity, etc. -- and asked them how much of a problem they thought these behaviors were on a 10-point scale. Their goal was to suss out differences in doctors' attitudes and treatment behaviors based on their political affiliation. [continues 447 words]
Borough could limit locations by zoning code LANSDALE) Borough officials are looking ahead to a topic that looks likely to lead to months of discussion. What sort of local rules and regulations should be put in place for medical marijuana facilities? "This particular use is legal, now, in Pennsylvania: the distribution of it, the growing of it, and the cultivation of it," said Assistant Borough Manager John Ernst. "However, the legislature has not come to a final conclusion and agreement on what the laws actually say, and when it will be finally brought to a point where it can be enforced," he said. Back in April the state legislature approved a bill legalizing the provision of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, and state officials said at that time it would take roughly two years for regulations to be fully written and facilities to be opened. Details are still far from finalized, Ernst told council's code enforcement committee, but early indications are that the state legislature will pass rules and regulations governing medical marijuana facilities similarly to pharmacies, with medical marijuana only available in pill, cream or tablet forms - not leaf. [continues 621 words]
Gov. Tom Wolf 's call last week for decriminalizing small-scale marijuana possession is not as controversial as it might seem. In effect, it is a call for a uniform state policy to ensure equal justice. Across the state many prosecutors and police agencies already have adopted policies to forgo prosecuting smallamount possession. Instead, they press treatment and rehabilitation, reducing costs associated with prosecuting the cases and focusing resources on more dangerous drugs and large-scale distribution. The state District Attorneys Association does not oppose the change advocated by the governor, but the Legislature regularly has failed to act on bills to that effect. [continues 97 words]
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania needs to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession, Gov. Wolf said Monday, yet he remains guarded about the kind of recreational legalization that is in place in several western states. While some cities have stopped arresting people for possessing small amounts and prosecutors have been downgrading it as a crime, the state should act because too many people are still going to prison for marijuana possession, Wolf said. "I think we need to do that in a more systematic fashion," Wolf told WITF-FM's Smart Talk program. "There are too many people who are going to prison because of the use of very modest amounts, or carry modest amounts of marijuana, and that is clogging up our prisons, it's destroying families, and it's hurting our economy, so I think decriminalization is the first step." [continues 202 words]
HARRISBURG (AP) - Pennsylvania needs to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday, yet he remains guarded about the kind of recreational legalization that is in place in several western states. While some cities have stopped arresting people for possessing small amounts and prosecutors have been downgrading it as a crime, the state should act because too many people are still going to prison for marijuana possession, Wolf said. "I think we need to do that in a more systematic fashion," Wolf told WITFFM's Smart Talk program. "There are too many people who are going to prison because of the use of very modest amounts or carry modest amounts of marijuana, and that is clogging up our prisons, it's destroying families and it's hurting our economy, so I think decriminalization is the first step." According to the marijuana advocacy group NORML, 20 states and Washington, D.C., have decriminalized certain marijuana possession offenses, making it either a summary offense, like a minor traffic violation, or a misdemeanor that carries no threat of jail time. [continues 199 words]
Federal Officials Remain in a Haze When It Comes to Articulating a Comprehensible Policy on Marijuana. Perhaps Last Week's Ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Curtailing the Feds From Prosecuting Legitimate Growers and Distributors Will Help Clear the Air. Half the nation's states, led by California, permit medicinal applications. Four states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use. In November, California could become the fifth. Yet the federal government still sees marijuana as a dangerous drug and dispensary operators as prosecution targets. [continues 359 words]
The federal government has for years employed a bizarre circular logic when it comes to marijuana. Officially deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical application, marijuana is listed by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act - on a par with heroin and LSD. Yet that very listing has severely limited the research that could settle the question of whether marijuana does indeed have therapeutic value, as attested to by countless ... ailing people and their physicians who report anecdotally that marijuana eases suffering. [continues 282 words]
Not everyone who takes marijuana gets high or feels good. Some users panic, the National Institute of Drug Abuse said on its website. Even among patients using marijuana for medical conditions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received "extremely limited reports" of adverse events. Ed Pane, a Hazleton drug counselor, said those adverse events include people who ingest edible marijuana, which takes effect slower than other forms so patients ingest more. After the drug kicks in, some users have developed paranoia and harmed themselves or others. [continues 307 words]
State among several to allow treatment not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Pennsylvania and the federal government disagree about the usefulness of marijuana as medicine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved marijuana as safe and effective for treating any illness, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as recently as Aug. 11 kept marijuana in the same drug category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. But Pennsylvania enacted a law in April that lists 17 conditions for which doctors can prescribe marijuana, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, posttraumatic stress disorder, autism, epilepsy and Parkinson's, Crohn's and Huntington's diseases. [continues 1090 words]
Health-care specialists in Pennsylvania prescribe the drug despite the federal government's reluctance to approve it as safe and effective for treating illness. Pennsylvania and the federal government disagree about the usefulness of marijuana as medicine. ELLEN F. O'CONNELL/Staff Photographer The van Hoekelen Greenhouses Inc. facility is located on Lofty Road in Kline Township. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved marijuana as safe and effective for treating any illness, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as recently as Aug. 11 kept marijuana in the same drug category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. [continues 1378 words]
The Libertarian Party's N.A. Poe Was Keeping a Sense of Humor Amid Challenges From Both Major Parties. The State Requires the Attorney General to Hold a License to Practice Law. Poe Doesn't. For N.A. Poe, a marijuana-legalization activist from Philadelphia, running for state attorney general was a lark to draw attention to the issue. The state Republican and Democratic Parties didn't find it funny. Both parties filed legal challenges Monday seeking to remove Poe - a stage name for the activism work and comedian act of Richard Tamaccio - - from the Nov. 8 general election ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate. [continues 367 words]
Philadelphia - This isn't your teenage son's marijuana industry anymore; it's your button-down dad's business - at least at the Democratic National Convention. Even as pro-marijuana activists marched this week in Philadelphia with a fake 51-foot joint, teams of industry leaders and lobbyists were busy doing the kind of work one would expect from the beer or pharmaceutical industry: holding receptions, talking to politicians and discussing regulations. In other words, the boring stuff. "We're dealing with an industry that's a lot more suit and tie," said Michael Bronstein, co-founder of the [continues 413 words]
Marijuana Execs Find Welcome Vibe Among the Pols Marijuana has gone mainstream at the Democratic National Convention this week. Democratic officials, including Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer and his state's attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, mingled with pot industry executives Monday night at a reception at a sleek bar downtown, miles away from the convention hall. A day earlier, the Marijuana Policy Project staged a fundraiser to support its work to push new laws around the country legalizing the use of marijuana. [continues 553 words]
Activists Had Been Concerned That Citation Policy Would Go Up in Smoke During Convention. Not wanting their protests during the Democratic National Convention to go up in smoke, the men who pushed for the decriminalization of marijuana in Philadelphia informally met with two of the city's police supervisors Friday to discuss how pot smokers and activists will be handled by authorities during the DNC next week. "We have a lot of cannabis consumers coming in from out of town - and some of them are delegates," said Chris Goldstein, cochairman of the board of directors of Philly NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). [continues 510 words]
NOT WANTING their protests during the Democratic National Convention to go up in smoke, the men who pushed for the decriminalization of marijuana in Philadelphia informally met with two of the city's police supervisors Friday to discuss how pot smokers and activists will be handled by authorities during the DNC next week. "We have a lot of cannabis consumers coming in from out of town - and some of them are delegates," said Chris Goldstein, cochairman of the board of directors of Philly NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). [continues 510 words]
Harrisburg - Three months after Pennsylvania legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law Wednesday allowing for greater cultivation of hemp, another cannabis plant. Farmers will be able to cultivate hemp in connection with state and academic research program as a result. The state Agriculture Department will oversee these programs. The law brings Pennsylvania in line with a recent federal law that allows hemp pilot programs at universities involved with agricultural research. Lawmakers gave final approval to the hemp bill earlier this month after lawmakers in both chambers pushed for its passage as a first step to reviving a hemp production in Pennsylvania. [continues 257 words]
UPPER MERION - Passage of legislation that legalized medical marijuana in Pennsylvania marked the end of seven long, hard years of negotiation. Now that Gov. Tom Wolf has signed the measure into law, the push is on to explain the ramifications, including possible business opportunities tied to the medical marijuana field. Wolf, who had adamantly backed the bill through approval by both the House and Senate, swiftly added his signature, which made the bill law. That kicked off the long process of working within the boundaries that the Commonwealth agreed upon to bring cannabis to medical patients. Doctors will need to be certified; growers and processors will need to establish a business model; and licenses for 150 dispensaries will be issued in the next year. [continues 490 words]
UPPER MERION - Passage of legislation that legalized medical marijuana in Pennsylvania marked the end of seven long, hard years of negotiation. Now that Gov. Tom Wolf has signed the measure into law, the push is on to explain the ramifications, including possible business opportunities tied to the medical marijuana field. Wolf, who had adamantly backed the bill through approval by both the House and Senate, swiftly added his signature, which made the bill law. That kicked off the long process of working within the boundaries that the commonwealth agreed upon to bring cannabis to medical patients. Doctors will need to be certified; growers and processors will need to establish a business model; and licenses for 150 dispensaries will be issued in the next year. [continues 1143 words]
Local officials - and more important state lawmakers - would be wise to study up on Harrisburg's new ordinance reducing penalties for marijuana possession within city limits. After nearly a half-year of debate, which included council meetings and meetings with the public, Harrisburg's city council unanimously approved a measure last week which would essentially equate being busted with a small amount of marijuana to receiving a traffic ticket. The argument for the move is that the punishment is more befitting the crime. A person now charged with possession of marijuana will face a $75 fine for a first and second offense with a third offense leading to a misdemeanor. Additionally, someone nabbed smoking the drug in public will face at $150 fine, an amendment officials said is to deter public use of the drug. [continues 244 words]
Proposals for Sites Starting to Bubble Up in Delco UPPER MERION - Passage of legislation that legalized medical marijuana in Pennsylvania marked the end of seven long, hard years of negotiation. Now that Gov. Tom Wolf has signed the measure into law, the push is on to explain the ramifications, including possible business opportunities tied to the medical marijuana field, including a couple that are being bandied about here in Delaware County. Wolf, who had adamantly backed the bill through approval by both the House and Senate, swiftly added his signature, which made the bill law. [continues 1189 words]
When are we going to get past all these drug arrests and imprisonments, repeated year after year without stemming their use ("With Addiction Primed by Pain Pills, Heroin Dealers Move In," June 12)? Can't we stop treating drugs as a crime problem, rather than a health problem? We stopped treating alcohol usage and sale as a crime over 90 years ago. As Michael Botticelli, the White House's director of national drug control policy, admitted recently: "We can't arrest and incarcerate addiction out of people . ... It's really inhumane, ineffective, and costs us billions of dollars." [continues 186 words]
Prohibited From Taking Drug Across State Lines Parents hoping to treat seriously ill children with medical marijuana cheered when Pennsylvania's new law included a "safe harbor" provision allowing them to import the medicines right away, rather than waiting for the law to take full effect in two years. Legal experts are now saying there may not be much to celebrate. That's because the state can't protect residents from federal laws against moving pot across state borders. In Pennsylvania, where it's not yet legal to sell marijuana products, the only way parents can get such drugs is to bring them in. [continues 626 words]
It Can't Be Bought Here Legally, and Federal Law Bars Bringing It In. Parents hoping to treat seriously ill children with medical marijuana cheered when Pennsylvania's new law included a "safe harbor" provision allowing them to import the medicines right away, rather than waiting for the law to take full effect in two years. Legal experts are now saying there may not be much to celebrate. The fact is, the state can't protect residents from federal laws against moving pot across state borders. [continues 656 words]
The high costs of incarceration have prompted most states and the federal government to reduce their prison populations. Now, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, there is evidence that doing so does not increase crime. Researchers analyzed prison and crime data from all 50 states between 2006, when the reform movement began, through 2014, the most recent year for which data are complete. They found that in 27 states that have decreased their prison populations, crime also has decreased. [continues 293 words]
On May 17, Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act (Act 16) went into effect, bringing me one step closer to the realization of a dream. I don't have a personal medical need for marijuana, nor am I looking forward to being able to legally smoke it; I've never been interested. No, as a "certifiable plant geek" my dream is to be able to try my hand at growing this intriguing, illicit plant with the distinctive leaves. To me, it's paradoxical that marijuana is off-limits. Poison ivy is a threat to many people, responsible for countless collective hours of itching, oozing, blistered misery, trips to the doctor, steroid use, and days missed from work. Despite all this, it grows freely almost everywhere. You can have it on your property and no one will come arrest you. [continues 512 words]
HARRISBURG - Children with serious medical conditions will have first access to legal medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, possibly as soon as next month, state Health Secretary Karen Murphy said Wednesday. Murphy, R.N., Ph.D., a Scranton native, outlined the department's plans to write temporary regulations so those children under the age of 18 and their caregivers can obtain medical marijuana in other states where it's legal while Pennsylvania's new medical marijuana law is fully implemented. The regulations to be issued in July will spell out how they can obtain ID cards so they can purchase marijuana from dispensaries in other states and not run afoul of current Pennsylvania law. [continues 222 words]
Experts in Several Fields Are Getting Ready Years Ahead of Medical-Marijuana Sales. Medical marijuana won't be available in Pennsylvania for at least two years, yet politicians, academics, and entrepreneurs are already scrambling to brand themselves as industry leaders and experts. The state's medical-marijuana law eventually will make pharmaceutical cannabis products available to residents who suffer from serious medical conditions. Eligible ailments include autism, cancer, epilepsy, and chronic pain. The details of the law still need to be hammered out. The stakes are high. The specifics, which remain unwritten, may determine how Pennsylvania's medical marijuana is grown, processed, and distributed and who will win the coveted licenses to do so. [continues 351 words]
Can the legalization of one drug help decrease abuse of another drug? It's possible that medical marijuana could be used to fight the epidemic of opioid addiction that has resulted in numerous deaths from overdoses in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2014, 46 people die every day in the United States from an overdose of prescription opioid or narcotic painkillers, such as Vicodin (hydrocodone-acetaminophen), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone. The CDC found that in 2012, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers, which is enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills. [continues 205 words]
Role As Medicine Remains Controversial Medical marijuana has been legalized in Pennsylvania, as well as 23 other states and the District of Columbia, but there are still many questions about how exactly the drug can be used as medicine. Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act (MMA), or Senate Bill 3, lists 17 "serious medical conditions" that qualify for treatment with medical marijuana. These conditions include cancer, HIV/AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington's disease, Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, intractable seizures, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia and autism. [continues 1190 words]
ANITA GUPTA first suspected that the Philadelphia heroin trade could be taking a deadlier turn months ago, when she saw overdose patients at Hahnemann University Hospital who didn't respond as they should have to the antidote drug emergency workers gave them. "The symptoms were worse than we were used to seeing," said Gupta, an anesthesiologist, pharmacist and pain specialist at Drexel University College of Medicine. "We were getting patients with symptoms of near-death, and often required multiple doses of the antidote naloxone." [continues 694 words]
Medical marijuana has been legalized in Pennsylvania, as well as 23 other states and the District of Columbia, but there are still many questions about how exactly the drug can be used as medicine. Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Act (MMA), or Senate Bill 3, lists 17 "serious medical conditions" that qualify for treatment with medical marijuana. These conditions include cancer, HIV/AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington's disease, Crohn's disease, posttraumatic stress disorder, intractable seizures, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia and autism. [continues 1287 words]
Can the legalization of one drug help decrease abuse of another drug? It's possible that medical marijuana could be used to fight the epidemic of opioid addiction that has resulted in numerous deaths from overdoses in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2014, 46 people die every day in the United States from an overdose of prescription opioid or narcotic painkillers, such as Vicodin (hydrocodone-acetaminophen), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone. The CDC found that in 2012, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers, which is enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills. [continues 308 words]
Legalization Has Patients and Businesses Seeing Green Pennsylvania joined the growing list of states to legalize medical marijuana when Gov. Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 3, the Medical Marijuana Act, into law on April 17. To date, 23 other states and Washington D.C. have legalized either medical marijuana, recreational marijuana or both. It's been about a month since the passage of the MMA, as the law is known, but it will be a while before marijuana growers and dispensaries are up and running. [continues 1659 words]
To the Times: "Today is a beautiful day in Darby." I read these words from Mayor Helen Thomas and it brought back memories of all my favorite Darby traditions; the Memorial Day parade rich with culture, music, and a collective sense of Darby pride, the BVM carnival where I overstuffed myself on funnel cake and "wooder" ice, and the annual Community Day at the old Darby Police station in which I received my first license to ride a bike! That is truly what a beautiful day in Darby means to me, but these memories came flooding back amongst a statement that was made on a very tragic day. A statement that brutally confirms that Darby has seen its best days. I write this in frustration and through tears because I am a young woman who was born and raised in Darby to two wonderful parents who were also born and raised here as well. The faces in those mug shots staring back at me are my family, my friends, my first crush, and my last connection to a small town I left many years ago in search of better opportunities. [continues 320 words]
UPPER DARBY - The life of Bernadette Scarduzio wasn't always a struggle. As a young girl she was active, played sports, enjoyed freedoms that most neglect as liberating experiences - the ability to walk without support, the dexterity to open a can of soda, the strength to climb a set of stairs. At only 36 years old, due to a rare neurological disorder, she relies on a motorized chair for mobility and requires caretakers day and night to assist with otherwise uncomplicated tasks. Strenuous physical therapy multiple times a week is simply to stave off the rapid effects of muscle degeneration. [continues 2753 words]
When the 1849 Gold Rush hit, it wasn't the miners who got rich. The businessmen who sold blue jeans and pickaxes amassed the real fortunes. When Gov. Wolf signed a medical marijuana bill into law on April 17, Pennsylvania became the 24th state to legalize medical cannabis. In Old City on Saturday, about 450 entrepreneurs and venture capitalists gathered at the Chemical Heritage Foundation for what was billed as the "Innovation in the Cannabis Industry" conference. There were heady predictions - euphoric estimates of how large the marijuana industry could grow and the many opportunities for profits it might bring. "This eclipses the birth of the internet," said panelist Leslie Bocskor, an investment banker. "This is the greatest entrepreneurial opportunity we've seen in generations." [continues 562 words]
Editor: Medical marijuana has now been legalized in 24 states, with about 51 percent of the U.S. population. Its use it well-known for treating patients suffering from a range of serious conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and other disorders. In light of the effectiveness of medical marijuana, I urge our representatives in Washington, including U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright and Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, to take the initiative and sponsor a bill that would remove marijuana from its present classification as a Schedule I substance that has no medical use. That classification is outdated and clearly false. [continues 51 words]
Well. finally. State lawmakers have passed and Gov. Tom Wolf said he will sign legislation allowing usage of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. That only took . what, 20 years? California became the first state to allow medical marijuana way back in 1996. Sen Daylin Leach, D-Delaware County, has introduced medical marijuana legislation every session since 2009. Sen. Mike Folmer, R-parts of northeastern York County, has pushed for this compassionate treatment - on behalf of his "Momma Bears," parents of kids suffering from epilepsy and other ailments - for many years. [continues 515 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
