ALBANY -- Political newcomer David Soares capped his quest to become district attorney with victory Tuesday night. Soares fended off GOP challenger Roger Cusick, a Loudonville lawyer who got a late boost when incumbent Paul Clyne dropped out of the race on Friday and endorsed the Republican in a last-ditch effort to keep Soares from winning. But the maneuver was not enough, as Soares was lifted on a tide of Democratic voters who also strongly backed John Kerry for President. With 71 percent of the voting districts tallied, Soares received 52,853 votes, 54 percent, on the Democratic and Working Families party lines, while Cusick had 42,558, 43 percent, on the GOP and Conservative party lines. [continues 731 words]
Albany City Could Vote Soon On Supporting State Measure After Committee Decides To Recommend It Albany city lawmakers could weigh in Monday on whether marijuana ought to be available legally as medicine to people with cancer, AIDS or certain chronic illnesses. A council committee voted Thursday to recommend support for a proposed state law that would legalize medicinal marijuana. Health Committee Chairman Glen Casey, 11th Ward, and Dominick Calsolaro, 1st Ward, supported the measure, which is sponsored by Richard Conti, 6th Ward. [continues 246 words]
Albany-- Treatment Facility's Managers Say State Agency Didn't Provide Promised Funding To Fix Building, Then Ousted Residents Managers of a longtime South End drug treatment program blamed a state funding snafu Tuesday for forcing out its clients and leaving it on the verge of closing its doors. About two dozen men in treatment for drug and alcohol addictions at St. John's Project Lift were moved into a downtown motel late Monday after state officials declared the program's building at 37 S. Ferry St. a fire hazard. [continues 465 words]
ALBANY - People with cancer sickened by chemotherapy someday may have something new to ease their pain - a marijuana patch similar to the nicotine patches used to help smokers quit. The first step toward that happened Thursday at Albany College of Pharmacy, where a researcher received a $361,000 grant from the American Cancer Society for a three-year study of whether a marijuana patch can work. To find out, Dr. Audra Stinchcomb will use human skin salvaged from "tummy tuck" operations to see if the active ingredients in marijuana - believed to help control nausea, vomiting and other chemotherapy side effects, and ease chronic cancer pain - can pass from a patch, through the skin and into the bloodstream. [continues 539 words]
"You look down into a cornfield and you can see the pot plants in small patches . . . like holes punched out in the middle of the field." Lt. Geb Wolf State police pilot Lt. Geb Wolf maneuvered the blue-and-gold state police helicopter over a cornfield in Schuylerville, giving directions to officers on the ground below. "Walk down that row . . . Turn right . . . some more . . . Down the row. It should be right there," Wolf intoned into his radio headset. The target: a 5-foot leafy green marijuana plant nestled amid row after row of corn. An officer armed with a machete hacked it down and dragged it away, along with about a half-dozen others. [continues 770 words]
