GREENSBORO - John McCullum didn't realize it at the time, but his life would soon change for the better after a Winston-Salem police officer carted him off to jail one day in 1998. McCullum, 53, an unemployed Vietnam War veteran who began drinking and using drugs when he was 9, faced the grim prospect of spending 18 months in jail on drug charges. "My lawyer says, 'Let's send him to drug court to see if that will help,'" McCullum said. He credits that with saving his life. "This December 2001, it will be three years of being clean and sober," McCullum said. "If it wasn't for drug court, I wouldn't have had that chance." [continues 611 words]
Schofield Barracks bans the beautiful blossoms. Emergency room doctors have stories about patients who have experienced its devilish highs. Now parents in Kailua are taking notice of a pretty plant that carries a potent punch. They say the Brugmansia species plant commonly called Angel's Trumpet, known for its long, white or salmon bell-shaped flowers that face the ground, is angelic in name only. A 15-year-old Kalaheo High School student ended up in the Castle Medical Center emergency room last week after experimenting with the drug-like flower. The toxic effects made him so sick he was hallucinating, out of control and later embarrassed by an experience he doesn't remember. [continues 894 words]
Medical ethicists hope last week's jury decision in favor of a dying man who claimed he was not given adequate pain medication will improve the treatment of the seriously ill. It is a measure of the scope of the problem that the children of the man, who died of lung cancer three years ago, felt they had to sue. The jury found his California physician guilty of elder abuse for undertreatment of pain. It's difficult if not impossible to comprehend the horror and agony of the pain faced by those with terminal cancer or AIDS until one has experienced it or cared for a seriously ill patient. But health-care surveys show the scope of the problem is staggering. Recent studies indicate 75 percent of surgery patients and 70 percent of cancer patients did not receive enough pain relief. [continues 101 words]
The political cartoon by Kirk in the AC-T on June 15 is just the latest of many cartoons I've seen showing the Supreme Court as the bad guys in the recent decision which held that marijuana is illegal with no exceptions. The implication is that if we nominate compassionate justices, they would allow marijuana use when it can alleviate suffering. This shows either a complete misunderstanding of our Constitution, or a willingness to disregard the law in pursuit of a higher moral outcome. [continues 105 words]
The state Department of Health will begin holding community meetings this week to enlist residents in a federally funded effort to fight substance abuse among youth. About 18 Community Prevention Partnerships will be funded by the Governor's State Incentive Grant Program to help prevent alcohol and drug use among young people. "It is the community, families and individuals that will make the real difference in our efforts to reduce alcohol and drug use among our youth in Hawaii," said Health Director Bruce Anderson. [continues 372 words]
It's funny that a nation, rooted in the revolutionary oratory of men like Patrick Henry and the pamphletry of Thomas Paine, the fiery rhetoric of Samuel Adams and the sermonizing from the pens and pulpits of men like the Revs. Jacob Cushing and Moses Mather, would have such a hang-up with language. America was forged in the smithy of the spoken word and printed page. The founders regularly met in pubs and inns both before the War for Independence, to hash out justification and agreement for secession from England, and after, to begin the arduous task of making a government. Adams' Committees on Correspondence kept revolutionary ideas in circulation, while incendiary tracts by the likes of Paine and others gave backbone and resolve to the colonials. [continues 1019 words]
The historically cautious group is being asked to change policy to assist seriously ill patients. CHICAGO - One month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the medical use of marijuana, the American Medical Association is being urged to endorse the illegal drug as last-resort pain relief for seriously ill patients. At its policy-setting annual meeting starting here yesterday, the AMA also is being asked to support a moratorium on executions nationwide, although it rejected a similar proposal last year. The measures are among more than 250 reports, resolutions, and proposals that conference delegates are asking the nation's largest group of doctors to approve. [continues 637 words]
Coca Crop Spraying Still Evokes Ire, While A New Study Supports A Greater U.S. Role In The Country's Civil War. WASHINGTON -- For the drug war in Colombia, these are signs of trouble: Angry coca farmers. An irritated environmental minister. An influential study calling for deeper U.S. involvement in that nation's civil war. Last month, the minister of the environment in Bogota issued a resolution castigating the country's drug policy office for failing to provide adequate data on the environmental impact of a U.S.-sponsored aerial spraying program. [continues 1067 words]
