ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - As deaths from heroin and other opiate drugs rise throughout New York, state officials are planning to equip police with an antidote to reverse the effects of overdoses. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the Community Overdose Prevention program on Thursday, saying it will let every state and local law enforcement officer carry naloxone. They will get kits containing two syringes filled with naloxone - also marketed under the brand name Narcan - two inhalers of the drug, sterile gloves and a booklet on using them. The cost of the kit is roughly $60. Each has a shelf life of about two years. [continues 252 words]
It's here. It's legal. Yet parents are still afraid to ask for a drug that may help. HAILEY PEASE was 7 years old when she was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her first round of chemotherapy, in April 2011, "didn't work," says her mother, Shannon Maxim. And the second round "nearly killed her." Hailey, who was being treated at Boston Children's Hospital, started refusing her medicine, and then she stopped eating - a common symptom of both the cancer and its treatments. Doctors threaded a tube down her nose and into her stomach, making it possible to administer food and medicine. "The chemo had destroyed her esophagus to the point where she couldn't eat," says Maxim, a former certified nursing assistant. Other parts of her body started to fail: "It was like she was shutting down inside. [continues 2143 words]
MELROSE - Medical marijuana dispensaries would pose a threat to public health and safety, city officials said during a hearing Monday on a proposal to ban the facilities from opening in Melrose. "These stores will create access to a drug that, despite the recent vote, continues to be illegal under the law," said Dr. Frank Brinchiero, a member of the Board of Health. "This is going to be an attraction for a criminal element," said Police Chief Michael Lyle. The two spoke during a joint public hearing of the Board of Aldermen and Planning Board at City Hall to consider a proposed zoning amendment that would prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries. [continues 222 words]
As Massachusetts voters consider whether to legalize medical marijuana, Needham officials have drafted a proposal for a bylaw that would increase fines for consuming marijuana in public. The purpose, according to proponents, is to send a message to the town's teenagers that marijuana is still illegal. "We're not trying to design this to weaken medical marijuana, we were trying to design this to make sure there's clear guidelines on what's permissible in public spaces," said Jane Fogg, a member of the Needham Board of Health who has worked on the proposal. "We have no desire to comment on what people do in the privacy of their home." [continues 886 words]
Scott Gacek's friends call him the "Weed Master," a play on "Webmaster," to highlight his computer skills. He says he's the guy behind the marijuana spoof site that hijacked the website address listed in the state voters' guide for the committee opposing Question 3, which would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana. The committee submited VoteNoOnQuestion3.org for the voter guide but never registered the URL. When Gacek, 35, realized the domain was available, he bought it and set up the joke site in less than four hours on Tuesday. [continues 334 words]
Dick Evans, 66 and a Northampton lawyer, wrote S1801, an Act to Regulate and Tax the Cannabis Industry in Massachusetts, currently before the Legislature. How would the cannabis industry be regulated, under your proposal? It's modeled on the alcoholic beverage control law. The bill imposes rules and regulations on cultivation, processing, and distribution of marijuana, just as the government controls the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol. Why should we tax and regulate marijuana? Prohibition is the single most failed policy in our social fabric today. It's irresponsible of us to perpetuate it, and it's stupid of us to turn our back on the revenue prospects of a taxed and regulated market. Whether we like it or not, marijuana has become inextricably embedded in our culture. [continues 216 words]
The Globe's position "against using ballot questions to make public policy" seems misguided ("A misguided joint initiative," Editorial, Nov. 7). Responsible citizens should be allowed to choose to use the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana) instead of beer, wine, or whiskey with impunity. Cannabis prohibition is the "mess," not passage of Question 2, and citizens are fixing this mess the best way possible. Without the ballot initiative, how do citizens change bad, discriminatory laws? It is saddening to witness The Boston Globe unable or unwilling to recognize the American democratic process of progress in action. If the Globe can do a better job of fixing the cannabis prohibition mess, then it should do it; otherwise, move out of the way. Stan White [end]
Massachusetts residents got it right when, on Question 2, they voted overwhelmingly to turn possession of small amounts of marijuana into a civil violation rather than a criminal offense. So it was disappointing to see the Globe editorialize that the law will fail unless police are permitted to demand that a violator produce an ID upon demand ("A misguided joint initiative," Nov. 7). The Globe's scenario is entirely speculative. There are many laws that establish civil violations, including smoking in public and not keeping your dog on a leash, but almost none of these civil violations allows the police to demand, "Your papers please." Indeed, the Globe is unable to point to any instance in which enforcement of those civil laws and their penalties is hampered by the absence of an ID requirement. [continues 72 words]
The so-called Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative, or Question 2, was not sensible at all. Health and science were largely ignored, and the pernicious impact of this substance was barely acknowledged. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, today's marijuana is 175 percent more potent than in 1992 and 300 percent more potent than in the 1970s, and for some it is physically and psychologically addictive and a gateway drug. Potency is a function of THC, marijuana's primary psychoactive ingredient, and THC concentrations have risen. Marijuana is associated with impaired driving, problems with memory and learning, and poor mental health. [continues 80 words]
GUATEMALA CITY -- With Washington's attention focused elsewhere, Guatemala has quietly become the transshipment point for more than 75 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, according to US authorities. Loosely patrolled borders, two coastlines, staggering corruption, lax enforcement, and judicial impunity have long made Guatemala a favored transit point for contraband. But with US resources channeled toward battling drugs in Colombia and terrorism in the Middle East, organized crime has made even more dramatic inroads here in the past several years. [continues 1266 words]
In "Smoke Signals" (September 12), Lea Palleria Cox states that "the government is there to protect us." This statement can be either true or false, depending on what the government is trying to protect us from. If it's from others who are attempting to infringe on our "unalienable rights" as defined by the Declaration of Independence, then the statement is true. On the other hand, if it's to stop people from doing what they want to do when that act does not infringe on the rights of others, then the statement is false. When the question is applied to Cox's statement, i.e, using marijuana, Cox's statement is seen to be incorrect. [continues 70 words]
An interesting debate, but Lea Palleria Cox is obviously misled in her belief that marijuana is harmful. What is harmful is being caught up in the legal system for something that really should be no business of the federal government. The only young person I know who was destroyed by marijuana was not hurt by the drug but by the court system. Marijuana is not the danger being portrayed by the government. Mark Bowman [end]
