During the 2014 General Assembly, Kay Godwin and I, co-founders of the Capitol Coalition of Conservative Leaders, and other conservatives even on the religious right supported the use of medical cannabis for intractable seizure disorder. My heart broke for children suffering day and night with more than 300 violent seizures per week that only had one medical choice, and that was to basically be put in a nearly comatose state by prescription drugs. The accounts of parents who had used medical cannabis oil and had amazing success - in some cases taking the seizures down to less than two per week - were encouraging. [continues 521 words]
Legislative Committee Discusses Drugs From A Law Enforcement Perspective WILMINGTON - Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins joined a mix of state representatives, public officials and local law enforcement gathered in Wilmington City Council chambers Tuesday to discuss the state's drug abuse pandemic - and, in particular, heroin. A legislative study committee kicked off the start of a four-hearing series scheduled for various locations across Ohio in Wilmington Tuesday. The meeting was called for the purpose of discussing Ohio's drug problem from a law enforcement perspective. [continues 550 words]
James Gardner was desperate to get high when he stole the diamond-and-platinum ring that landed him and his girlfriend in jail. The pair, heroin addicts, were having withdrawals. Stealing and pawning the ring was a quick route to drug money. "With that kind of drug, enough was never enough," said Gardner, 27, of Portland. His girlfriend, 22-year-old Kayla Ballew, said by then, the pair was spending $100 a day on heroin. She knew they would be caught for stealing the ring, "but at the time, it didn't matter." [continues 359 words]
In 2002, 27 people died of heroin overdoses in Wisconsin. A decade later, the toll skyrocketed to 187 deaths. Heroin has quickly become the most visible drug on the radar for those who work with addicts and in the state's criminal-justice system. Experts say it is the emergence of this drug that partially accounts for the racial disparities in Wisconsin's drug courts. "When I look at the racial numbers from 2009 to today, the proportion of African-Americans has gone down as the proportion of heroin addicts has gone up," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom, who runs that county's drug court. [continues 413 words]
Even before Dane County Circuit Judge Sarah O'Brien crunched the numbers, she knew something was amiss. Her strongest evidence: "The courtroom didn't look right when I walked in." O'Brien, who retired in 2012, was referring to the stark racial disparities in Dane County's drug court. The people in front of her - the ones who had gotten the chance to reduce or avoid criminal convictions in exchange for completing treatment and other programming - - were overwhelmingly white. In 2012, about one-third of those arrested for drug crimes in Dane County were black, according to the state Office of Justice Assistance. But African-Americans made up just 10 percent of those participating in the county's drug court that year, according to Journey Mental Health, a Madison nonprofit that provides treatment and case management for the program. [continues 1062 words]
Re "Pot politics engulf court programs," July 27 The article notes that in many areas, most participants in drug courts are low-level marijuana users. In fact, a mere 5% of drug courts serve marijuana cases; the rest serve hardcore addicts addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Two decades ago the earliest drug courts focused on lower-level possession charges because those were the only cases prosecutors would agree to divert from incarceration. However, as research proved that drug courts are most effective for hardcore addicts, prosecutors grew more confident and the programs began serving seriously addicted, prison-bound offenders. [continues 64 words]
Marinette County, with one of the worst heroin problems in the state, has taken the offensive in its fight against the drug and other opiates. The county has launched a drug specialty court, similar to one Brown County has been running for five years, but geared specifically to Marinette's unique situation. In 2013, the county of just 41,610 people had the state's 14th highest number of heroin-related court cases. It led the state from 2008 to 2012 in per capita seizures of heroin by police. [continues 905 words]
Municipal Judge Nanette DeGarmo Von Allman has come to the conclusion that putting heroin abusers behind bars is not always the best solution - for the individual or society. Seated behind her desk, Judge Nanette DeGarmo Von Allman pointed to the various motivational photos and phrases that keep her grounded day after day, week after week. Those mementos help her as she meets with people who seem to be on a path of self-destruction - taking loved ones and strangers with them as they go. [continues 1015 words]
There's a moment of some joyous hilarity today as an organisation calling itself "GrassIsNotGreener.com" takes out an ad in the New York Times opposing that newspaper's editorial line that the time has come to legalise marijuana. The fun comes from looking at who is supporting this campaign and then trying to work out why they're doing so. The co-founder seems to be one of the more addicted Kennedys, the former Congressman from Rhode Island, Patrick. I'm afraid that I stray from accepted wisdom here, I tend not to think that addicts, whether former or not, have any great insights into what the rest of us should be allowed to do. I'm much more likely to take seriously on these subjects someone like myself who has dabbled in all sorts of things over the decades but not really found myself even discommoded, let alone trapped, by any of them. Given that that seems to be the usual human experience, most of us have tried one drug or another and few of us have become addicted to any of them, that sounds like the more sensible group of people to listen to. Rather than, say, someone who blamed a car crash on the use of too much Adderall. [continues 478 words]
WASHINGTON - Attorney David West can't pinpoint precisely when he started to sour on the rapid expansion of drug courts - but the karate episode stands out. West, a criminal defense lawyer in the Atlanta area, was representing a client busted in a town north of the city for possession of pot. Faced with the prospect of losing his driver's license and being haunted by a criminal record, the client opted for treatment. The intensive, costly therapy was more appropriate for a heroin addict, West said. What he found particularly absurd was the requirement that his client enroll in and pay for three months of martial-arts training. [continues 382 words]
A coalition of groups is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times this weekend, advocating against the maturing movement to legalize marijuana. The ad comes in response to a New York Times editorial series launched last weekend arguing for an end to marijuana prohibition. The newspaper's editorial board advocated for an end to the federal ban on the drug. The ad features a businessman with the pasted-on head of a hippie, a visual metaphor for what the groups warn is the disconnected perception and reality of legalization. [continues 234 words]
Therapy Often Bars Serious Addicts WASHINGTON - Attorney David West can't pinpoint precisely when he started to sour on the rapid expansion of drug courts - but the karate episode stands out. West, a criminal defense lawyer in the Atlanta area, was representing a client busted in a town north of the city for possession of pot. Faced with the prospect of losing his driver's license and being haunted by a criminal record, the client opted for treatment. The intensive, costly therapy was more appropriate for a heroin addict, West said. What he found particularly absurd was the requirement that his client enroll in and pay for three months of martial-arts training. [continues 1118 words]
A consensus stretching from one end of the ideological spectrum to the other has coalesced in support of the view that the war on drugs, as currently waged, is not working. Despite millions of arrests and billions in expenditures, the country's punishment-only approach has failed to stem drug use. Some states, including Virginia, have launched alternative approaches such as drug courts - a reform this newspaper has reported on at length. Now localities are getting in on the act. [continues 235 words]
Cultivation of Cannabis to Remain Illegal White Paper on the decriminalisation of drugs suggests the introduction of medical use of marijuana and new ways how to tackle users who are caught with small amounts of the drug. It would still be considered illegal, however, to grow the plant. In order to take cannabis for medical use, persons must have a recommendation from someone holding the rank of consultant. Medical marijuana refers to sprays or other medical items which contain marijuana, and not the kind smoked on the streets, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici explained. [continues 461 words]
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - Closely mirroring its past positions, the Obama administration's 2014 drug policy will focus tightly on curbing heroin use and prescription painkillers abuse while continuing to oppose the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use. Officials are particularly concerned about preventing fatal overdoses, said Michael Botticelli, acting director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. He outlined the administration's blueprint at a news conference Wednesday at a drug treatment facility in Roanoke. [continues 221 words]
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Bruce Weiss isn't so worried about legal sales of recreational marijuana to adults. As presiding judge for the county's Juvenile Offender Drug Treatment Court, he is more concerned by what he sees as "normalization" of a drug he knows is ruining many kids' lives. Dr. Leslie Walker isn't worried that teens will now get marijuana from legal pot shops, where sales are only allowed to those 21 and older. As chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Childrens Hospital and co-director of the hospital's Adolescent Substance Abuse Program, she is troubled by what she sees as a "decreased perception of risk." Walker knows weed is harming many kids' brains. [continues 603 words]
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie states a mission for 2016. Trenton, N. J. (AP) - On no one's early list of issues likely to headline the 2016 Republican presidential primaries is the nation's "war on drugs." Chris Christie plans to put it there. The New Jersey governor, pushing himself back into the 2016 discussion after a political scandal at home, recently marked the 43rd anniversary of President Richard Nixon's famous declaration by expanding a program that equips first responders with a drug to combat heroin overdoses. [continues 496 words]
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - On no one's early list of issues likely to headline the 2016 Republican presidential primaries is the nation's "war on drugs." Chris Christie plans to put it there. The New Jersey governor, steadily pushing himself back into the 2016 discussion after a political scandal at home, recently marked the 43rd anniversary of President Richard Nixon's famous declaration by expanding a program that equips first responders with a drug to combat heroin overdoses. The next day, he told recovering addicts at a drug treatment center that "there is simply no more important issue to me, in my heart as governor." [continues 812 words]
TRENTON - A pilot program to equip New Jersey's police and first responders with a drug that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose will be expanded statewide, Gov. Christie announced Tuesday. The program, which trains police and emergency medical technicians to administer Narcan to overdose victims and equips them with the drug, began this year in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Since April, 40 overdoses have been reversed in the two counties, Christie said. "We have the ability to prevent this type of tragedy and help save lives," the Republican governor said at a news conference outside the Rescue Mission of Trenton, which provides addiction treatment. "We need to be involved in doing it." [continues 336 words]
Over the last 18 months, The Enquirer has used a team of reporters to cover the heroin problem locally. We joined with Gannett papers in Arizona, Delaware and Vermont for this series on heroin nationally. First of five parts. When it comes to fighting a sharp and frightening influx of heroin, the Cincinnati area is not alone. In Burlington, Vermont, the police chief sees soccer moms hooked on heroin. In Knoxville, Tennessee, addicts desperate for help are waiting six months to get into treatment facilities. [continues 2255 words]
