Congress should change an outdated law that is hindering states in their battle against addiction Ohio's heroin and opioid epidemic has finally grabbed the attention of Congress. A recently introduced bill would expand treatment by changing an outdated law that restricts the use of Medicaid dollars to respond to addiction. The 1965 law bans Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and other medical providers that have more than 16 beds. The provision - called the Institution for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion - probably made sense when Congress created Medicaid. Fifty years ago, the federal government aimed to discourage the warehousing of mentally ill patients. [continues 463 words]
Kevin Spitler runs the Toledo Hemp Center, a Sylvania Avenue storefront that sells products rich in CBD, a chemical found in hemp that's associated with pain relief and muscle relaxation. Kevin Spitler is Toledo's homegrown hemp entrepreneur. Mr. Spitler, 41, of Allegan, Mich., runs the Toledo Hemp Center. The small, white-walled Sylvania Avenue storefront sells everything from soaps and sprays to vapor pens and chewing gum, but all the products are rich in cannabidiol, or CBD -- a chemical found in industrial hemp. [continues 506 words]
Groups Aim to Legalize Responsible Use -- Medical and Otherwise Rob Ryan isn't shy about the medicine he said has helped him tremendously -- even though it's illegal. After a cancer diagnosis about 10 years ago, Mr. Ryan, now 60, began a regimen of the usual suspects. Chemotherapy and pills led to pain and weight loss. Then he added marijuana to the mix. He said the improvements were undeniable. At that moment, he realized the earlier things he'd heard about the banned drugs' ill effects simply were not true. [continues 1573 words]
The opioid and heroin epidemic has eclipsed the crack cocaine problem of the 1980s as a public health crisis and, as a result, the number of babies being born to opiate-addicted mothers is increasing at an alarming rate, including in the Toledo area. Government and health-care officials are struggling with how to manage the care of the drug-dependent babies. Their numbers are increasing each year and the costs of care are skyrocketing and straining the resources of hospitals in some Ohio counties, health officials say. [continues 1842 words]
Society is increasingly coming to accept that marijuana has some legitimate medical uses. Though a bill to legalize it is still languishing in the Ohio General Assembly, medical marijuana is now allowed in 22 states, including Michigan, where voters overwhelmingly approved it six years ago. And those who love grass are also pushing for its legalization for recreational use. Colorado has effectively decriminalized pot. Up to a dozen Michigan towns may have largely symbolic proposals to decriminalize marijuana on the ballot this year. [continues 187 words]
The latest figures on heroin overdoses confirm the breadth of Ohio's opioid epidemic and the need for more treatment Newly released figures from the Ohio Department of Health show a spike in fatal heroin overdoses. That should push policymakers and politicians to expand the state's inadequate treatment network, which now serves only about one in 10 of those who need help. Heroin overdose deaths in Ohio rose nearly 60 percent in 2012, while the number of deaths from prescription pills dropped for the first time in more than a decade. Ohio's 680 heroin-related deaths in 2012, reported last week, represent the latest official count. [continues 541 words]
Old Spice cologne once reminded many people of their grandfather. Now, thanks to former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa and a series of humorous television commercials, it probably brings to mind a guy on a horse with great abs. The advertising industry calls this successful rebranding and that's what backers of a campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio are banking on to change the attitude of Ohio voters. The Ohio Rights Group is in the midst of a petition drive to collect nearly 400,000 valid signatures to place the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment on the ballot in 2014. [continues 383 words]
4th-Amendment Concerns at Heart of Disagreement Texas businessman Danny Zimmerman was preparing to fly a private airplane from his home airport in San Antonio to Houston - and hoping to get out before bad weather moved in - when a plainclothes officer walked up to him and flashed a badge. "He asked to look around, checked in the baggage area," Mr. Zimmerman said, adding that the encounter became uncomfortable when the pilot advised the lawman that he was carrying a pistol as allowed by a concealed-carry license. [continues 1932 words]
Ohio Advocates Hope to Avoid Mistakes of Other States DETROIT - Brandy Zink stammers, repeating words over and over before she's able to complete a thought. Sometimes she suddenly tastes or smells food. It's small things that signal the onset of her seizures. "I have little, tiny seizures throughout my day; they're barely noticeable. I might stutter and say a word five times in a row," said the 36-year-old, who suffers from epilepsy. "People think it's what you've seen in a movie, or in real life where you've seen someone fall down and foam at the mouth. Many seizures are like a record player where the needle skips." [continues 2159 words]
Substance's Acceptance Grows With Medical Use ANN ARBOR - John Evans' two-story rental is indistinguishable from the homes that line the streets of his suburb near Ann Arbor. The manicured lawns and neatly arranged flower beds blend together, portraying an idealistic middle-class life. Mr. Evans, 46, moved from Colorado to Michigan two years ago to take advantage of the state's fledgling medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2008. Largely independent of government inspection, medical-marijuana growers such as Mr. Evans are part of an industry that's emerging from the underground and entering the mainstream. [continues 2648 words]
Ohio Would Benefit From a Carefully Regulated Experiment With Legalized Medical Marijuana Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana in their states, it's a matter of time before the issue reaches Ohio. If our state is not prepared to take that big a leap all at once, it still ought to look favorably at joining the 18 states - including Michigan - that authorize the growth, sale, and use of marijuana for medical purposes. A special report that begins today in The Blade looks at Michigan's experience since voters approved that state's medical-marijuana law five years ago. Business writer Kris Turner reports that marijuana cultivation, both legal and illegal, has become big business in Michigan, Ohio, and other Midwestern states. [continues 595 words]
COLUMBUS - Backers of the third attempt in less than two years to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio insist the latest effort will take root as it did in Michigan. "There's far more interest in people backing this one, particularly those who want to bring people into the political arena in 2014," said Bob Fitrakis, a member of the Ohio Rights Group behind the latest effort. The group just cleared two hurdles to get petition circulators out. Both Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Ohio Ballot Board have signed off on language that would be shown to potential petition signers. [continues 676 words]
Caravan for Peace arrives in Toledo A group of about 80 people denouncing the war on drugs walked Wednesday from St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on West Central Avenue to Corpus Christi University Parish on Dorr Street. Once they neared Corpus Christi, members of the Caravan for Peace -- many of them Mexican citizens who have friends or family among the tens of thousands who have died there in drug-related crimes -- chanted, "No more drug war." Through a translator, Lourdes Campos Romo said her son was shot five times inside his own home two years ago. [continues 212 words]
Three years ago, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative that authorized doctor-approved patients to use marijuana for medical reasons. There is considerable scientific evidence that carefully limited use of the drug relieves suffering from such diseases as cancer, glaucoma, and AIDS. Despite opposition from social conservatives, Michiganians were sympathetic. Yet the law has created big administrative and legal problems since it took effect. A few unscrupulous doctors have been happy to certify (for a fee) just about anyone to use medical marijuana. [continues 229 words]
Change Follows Moratorium on Growing Facilities TEMPERANCE -- Bedford Township has amended its zoning laws to regulate medical marijuana use, becoming the first government entity in Monroe County to address the voter-approved state law. The zoning ordinance, which was approved 7-0 last week by the township board, amended the "home occupations" section of the township's zoning law to comply with the voter-approved Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, allowing individual qualifying registered patients and registered care providers to possess and grow medical marijuana in their homes. [continues 361 words]
In 2008, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment that legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, making their state one of more than a dozen that have done so. But the amendment didn't spell out how legalization would work, and state officials haven't done much better since. The people the law is intended to help deserve an improved approach. Marijuana has been shown to ease the symptoms felt by patients who have glaucoma, cancer, and some other illnesses. There was widespread agreement among Michigan voters that legalization was an acceptable method of relieving these patients' suffering. [continues 311 words]
Group Supports Ohio House Bill 478 Twice a Week Four demonstrators waving cardboard signs near the Lucas County Courthouse got honks, waves, and thumbs-up from downtown drivers Saturday. Their hand-painted messages? "Honk 4 Weed" and "Legalize the Leaf." Their cause? Support for Ohio House Bill 478, which includes legalization of medicinal marijuana. The group has been demonstrating downtown every Saturday at "high noon" for several months. Demonstrators gather at Adams and Erie streets, near the courthouse's Ten Commandments monument, for an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the weather, and recently added weekly demonstrations at noon Wednesdays. [continues 285 words]
FOR decades, California has been a leader of American social and cultural trends. But when it comes to further liberalizing marijuana use, the state may have sent a signal to the nation, not by what it did but by what it didn't do. On Election Day, it rejected Proposition 19. Voters were asked whether they wanted to allow adults 21 years and older to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana. By 54 percent to 46 percent, they said no, and they did it across the social spectrum, with blacks and Latinos opposing it at about the same percentage as whites. [continues 233 words]
44 POUNDS OF HEROIN SEIZED IN CLEVELAND 24 Indicted; Bust Called Ohio's Biggest CLEVELAND - Federal prosecutors Tuesday announced what they called the largest-ever heroin bust in Ohio. The two-year investigation culminated Tuesday morning with the indictment of 24 people, including a Nigerian man nicknamed Shaka Zulu who lived in upscale Shaker Heights and a ringleader who lived in a $1 million home in Solon. Police believe he used drug proceeds to buy the house. Attorneys for two alleged ringleaders declined to comment. [continues 543 words]
WITH its lurid sensationalism, the film Reefer Madness about the evils of marijuana use has long been a cult classic. But marijuana also can help alleviate nausea for some patients, including those undergoing chemotherapy. More and more Americans have come to understand that marijuana for medical purposes is far from evil. That point resonates in the findings of a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducted last month with 1,500 adults reached by telephone. The Pew study estimates that nearly three-quarters of Americans are in favor of their state allowing the sale and use of medical marijuana, if it is prescribed by a doctor. Only 23 percent are opposed. [continues 180 words]
