Cold Medicine Access Restricted In Meth Fight When Lashonta Faciane went into her neighborhood Walgreens drugstore last week, she could hardly believe her eyes. In the cough and cold section, where boxes of Tylenol Sinus, Sudafed and other nonprescription drugs once dangled from hooks in the Mid-City store, she saw only tags bearing pictures of their packaging, along with instructions, in English and Spanish, to take the appropriate tag to the pharmacy clerk to make a purchase. "That's ridiculous," Faciane said, rolling her eyes. [continues 1077 words]
Statisticians To Assess Researchers' Efforts The Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse has received a $600,000 federal grant to devise ways to get more people into treatment and ensure they stay there and remain sober. The grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment is one of 12 awarded nationwide. It was announced this week during a news conference at Bridge House, a substance-abuse center in the Lower Garden District that will be the council's partner in the project. [continues 339 words]
Action Taken After Probe Into 2 Deaths Based on its investigation into the deaths of two patients, the state medical licensing board has suspended for three years the license of a New Orleans-area doctor who treated chronic pain. In suspending the license of Dr. David Michael Jarrott, the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners said, "The outcomes for two of his patients might have been different" had he followed standard rules for treating and monitoring them. One of the two, whom the report describes as an addict, died of an overdose. The other patient died of a combination of factors, including respiratory failure and chemical abuse, according to the report. [continues 324 words]
Doctors Can Prescribe Treatment In Office A new weapon against addiction to heroin and painkillers increases the chances for success because doctors can prescribe it in their own offices without having to send patients to drug clinics, substance-abuse experts told local doctors and counselors Monday. The drug is buprenorphine, a small pill that dissolves under the tongue and can deliver the equivalent of a high dose of methadone, said Dr. Kenison Roy III, a longtime local specialist in substance abuse. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved it in October. [continues 293 words]
Don't Worry If It's A Lie, Parents Told Note to boomer parents: It's OK to lie to your children about your youthful drug use, the federal drug czar said Thursday in New Orleans. "They're your kids, not your confessors," said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Don't treat them like your peers. Treat them like your children." But if parents feel their credibility will be ruined with less-than-full disclosures to inquisitive youngsters, Walters said they can still steer their children away from experimenting with narcotics. His suggestion: Temper accounts of youthful folly with tales of cultural icons whose deaths were tied to drugs, ranging from '60s figures such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to grunge rockers such as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. [continues 504 words]
Some School Officials Ready To Try Again More than two years ago, the Orleans Parish School Board approved a broad drug-testing policy for students that appeared to anticipate Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but administrative problems kept it from being put into effect. The program, which would have allowed random tests of students in most extracurricular activities, not just sports, "fell by the wayside," board member Jimmy Fahrenholtz said, but he would like to see it revived. Some Louisiana school districts already test high school athletes for narcotics, including those in St. Bernard, Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes. However, some officials said lack of money probably will prevent expanding the programs to test students in other activities. [continues 396 words]
by JOHN POPE Staff writer Several times a week, at an apartment deep in Central City, someone taps at the door. The man inside may not know every visitor's name, but according to a state health official familiar with the man's work, he knows what each person wants: clean hypodermic needles for shooting up intravenous drugs. The man, who refused to let his name or address be published, goes to a box to fish out one syringe in exchange for each used needle brought to his doorstep, the state health officer said. He puts the dirty needles into a proper container for disposal the kind doctors have, to keep anyone from getting stuck accidentally. [continues 871 words]
