Alabama Schools Differ In Whether To Notify Parents Of Legal, Substance Use Trouble MONTGOMERY | Some universities in Alabama are using an exception to the federal student privacy law to involve parents at signs of student trouble involving drinking or drug use. The University of Alabama, the University of North Alabama and Jacksonville State University notify parents of alcohol or drug policy or legal violations by their underage students. The University of West Alabama and Auburn University do not notify parents if their child runs afoul of campus or civilian laws or policies, but West Alabama is considering changing that policy. [continues 1002 words]
MONTGOMERY -- Pharmacists say neither they nor their customers should have problems with a new law Gov. Bob Riley signed Tuesday that limits access to cold medicine that is illegally used to make methamphetamine. The law's goal is to make meth ingredients ephedrine and pseudoephedrine difficult to obtain in Alabama, where meth addiction is "ripping apart our communities and small towns,'' Riley said. "There is an epidemic going on in Alabama today, and it's a man-made epidemic,'' Riley said. He signed the bill at a Capitol news conference attended by bill sponsors and representatives of law enforcement agencies. [continues 330 words]
A former Gadsden doctor has asked a Montgomery judge to force a state agency to reissue his narcotics prescription license. Dr. Pascual Herrera Jr., now in private practice in Leesburg, lost his medical license in 2001 for allegedly prescribing pain killers such as OxyContin without justification. Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick told the Medical Licensure Commission in June to reinstate Herrera's license, saying the commission didn't have the evidence to prove its case. The ruling is on appeal. [continues 249 words]
Montgomery County Judge Reverses Commission's Decision Dr. Pascual Herrera Jr. Says He May Try To Re-Establish A Practice In Gadsden MONTGOMERY - A Montgomery County judge on Monday ordered the state medical licensing agency to immediately reinstate the license of Gadsden doctor Pascual Herrera Jr. Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick in a 24-page order told the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission to reinstate Herrera's medical license "and his right to practice medicine forthwith and without any further delay." Herrera said he was pleased with the decision, but wasn't sure how soon his medical license would be reinstated. [continues 469 words]
MONTGOMERY - Gadsden physician Pascual Herrera Jr. could get his medical license back as soon as next week, according to a lawyer for the state Medical Licensure Commission that revoked his license three years ago. Medical Licensure Commission attorney Wayne Turner said Tuesday that the commission may have no choice but to reinstate Herrera's license that was revoked in 2001 during the OxyContin scare in Gadsden, a situation a state senator said he "probably" reacted to politically. The commission meets June 23 in Montgomery. [continues 542 words]
MONTGOMERY - Alabama faces a decision on a defunct medical marijuana law after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in another state's case that could revive interest in pot for medicinal purposes. The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined the Bush administration's request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors for recommending the active drug in marijuana to sick patients, according to an Associated Press article. Alabama is not one of the nine states that have a medical marijuana law, but it does have a therapeutic marijuana research law that allows certain qualified physicians who are approved by a review board to prescribe pills containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. [continues 296 words]
MONTGOMERY - Alabama faces a decision on a defunct medical marijuana law after a Supreme Court ruling in another state's case that could serve to revive interest in pot for medicinal purposes. The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined the Bush administration's request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors for recommending the active drug in marijuana to sick patients, according to the Associated Press. Alabama is among the nine states with a medical marijuana law, but it does have a therapeutic marijuana research law that allows certain qualified physicians to prescribe pills containing the active ingredient in marijuana. [continues 291 words]
MONTGOMERY - Police chiefs Thursday braced for a new round of prisoner releases and higher traffic fatalities as a possible result of Gov. Bob Riley's plan to plug a $675 million hole in next year's budgets. Prison commissioner Donal Campbell said Riley will seek legislation to increase the number of parole board members from three to seven in order to speed the release of between 5,000 and 6,000 inmates in the next few months. School officials said $180 million would have to be cut next year and $140 million in fiscal year 2005. [continues 848 words]
MONTGOMERY - A Montgomery judge on Monday set a July 23 hearing on Gadsden Dr. Pascual "Pat" Herrera Jr.'s administrative challenge to a decision to revoke his medical license. The Medical Licensure Commission of Alabama revoked Herrera's medical license April 25, 2001, for supplying narcotics without medical justification, according to the commission. Herrera appealed on July 31, 2001, and the administrative case was assigned to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick. His office announced the July 23 hearing on Monday. [continues 142 words]
MONTGOMERY - The state's forensics chief said Friday that he may have to quit transporting bodies and shut down regional crime labs, including one in Tuscaloosa, because of money problems. Dr. James C. Upshaw Downs, the state director of forensic sciences, said he has written county officials advising them that his agency needs about $2.25 million next year to keep all the offices open. One money-saving option would be to consolidate a regional forensic lab in Florence with the one in Huntsville, the Tuscaloosa and Jacksonville labs with the one in Birmingham and the labs in Dothan and Auburn with the one in Montgomery. The Mobile lab would be unaffected. [continues 592 words]
MONTGOMERY - Gov. Don Siegelman said he wants OxyContin drug maker Purdue Pharma to pay for a prescription drug monitoring program to cut the illegal use of the powerful painkiller. "The problem has been largely that a small number of doctors has abused their prescription rights, and what I'm looking for is some means of tracking the issuance of OxyContin and other dangerous drugs so we can curtail the abuse of the sale and abuse of use of it," Siegelman told The Tuscaloosa News. [continues 525 words]
