It's obvious Orchard Gardens principal Andrew Bott is passionate about his school and cares deeply for his students. And he worries about them all the time. He worries about them walking to school when it's icy. He worries about them taking the T late at night. And now, there's a new worry. A medical marijuana dispensary is coming to Southampton Street, less than a half-mile from the cheery-yellow Roxbury school, which houses kindergarten through eighth grade. [continues 357 words]
Rutland nurse Allison Jones was crushed beneath a car four years ago after she stopped to help a woman in an accident. The accident left Jones with more than a dozen broken bones - including her neck, back, pelvis and all her ribs - as well as a head injury and chronic pain. A monthlong hospital stay and surgeries followed. She was put on a host of medications to try to ease the relentless aches, throbs and spasms, from morphine to Oxycontin to fentanyl patches, but they left her nauseous, depressed and in a "zombie state." She couldn't carry on a conversation. [continues 339 words]
Bay State health officials intend to crack down on abuse of highly addictive painkillers such as OxyContin by sharing prescription data and requiring people to show a picture ID when picking up the widely prescribed drugs. The state Department of Public Health is proposing new regulations requiring customers to show a picture ID before they can pick up Schedule II prescription drugs - drugs with a high abuse risk that include OxyContin, Percocet and Ritalin. Pharmacists are currently required only to make a "good faith" effort in verifying a customer's ID - but only 75 percent of customers actually show them, officials said. [continues 180 words]
As federal and state lawmakers rally to crack down on the Bay State's OxyContin epidemic, critics say pain specialists nationwide are being unfairly targeted and people with chronic pain are suffering needlessly. "The war on drugs has become a war on sick people and doctors are caught in the cross fire," said Harvard-trained Dr. Frank Fisher, a California pain doctor who was slapped with drug and murder charges in 1999 that were later dropped. Fisher is among a group of experts meeting today at a Washington, D.C., conference to discuss the effects of the Drug Enforcement Administration's "war on prescription painkillers." [continues 228 words]
The number of Bay Staters -especially young people - dying from overdoses of heroin, OxyContin and other opioids has skyrocketed, according to a new state report. Officials said 836 people died from "poisonings" in 2003. Of those, 574 died from overdosing on the class of drugs known as opioids. That's six times the number of Bay Staters - 94 - who died of opioid overdoses in 1990. Driving the spike is the cheap, high-purity heroin that hit Massachusetts streets - and streets throughout New England - in the mid to late 1990s. Health officials also have been concerned about the number of OxyContin overdoses during the past five years. [continues 220 words]
Oxycontin Goes From Streets to Suites An alarming number of Bay State professionals - lawyers, plumbers, construction workers and teachers - are getting hooked on OxyContin, the Herald has learned. Bay State counselors say some professionals are even taking the potent pills at work. One treated a man who ground them up during coffee breaks and knows of truck drivers with "Oxy habits." Another has seen OxyContin addicts that could literally "buy and sell" the clinics where they're getting treated. "I've seen blue-collar workers, highly skilled professionals and lawyers. You name it, and we've seen it," said Bob Potter, director of development for Community Substance Abuse Centers. [continues 641 words]
Boston's innovative drug courts that mix drug tests with intense treatment and monitoring for non-violent offenders received a $300,000 shot in the arm from the Department of Justice yesterday. The federal money, which came as funding was about to expire, will keep drug courts in Roxbury, South Boston, Brighton and Chelsea operating for two more years. The grant is expected to serve about 500 non-violent offenders. "It has been successful. The grant will allow the drug courts to take on more defendants," Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said yesterday. "It's not an easy program. It's no joke." [continues 86 words]
