Dr. Jack Fishman helped create naloxone, a treatment that was more powerful and had fewer side effects than its predecessors. Dr. Jack Fishman, who helped develop naloxone, a powerful medication that has saved countless people from fatal overdoses of heroin and other narcotics, died on Dec. 7 at his home in Remsenburg, N.Y. He was 83. His death was confirmed by his son Howard. No cause was given. Finding drugs to counter the addictive and potentially fatal use of heroin, morphine and other narcotics was an area of increasing research in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While some solutions were found to be somewhat effective, they had strong and even dangerous side effects and could be addictive themselves. [continues 604 words]
SEATTLE -- Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but that has not stopped a fuzzy industry of marijuana farms and dispensaries from rising to serve the 15 states that allow the drug to be used for medical purposes. Under President Obama, the federal government had seemed to make a point of paying little attention -- until now. As some states seek to increase regulation but also further protect and institutionalize medical marijuana, federal prosecutors are suddenly asserting themselves, authorizing raids and sending strongly worded letters that have cast new uncertainty on an issue that has long brimmed with tension between federal and state law. [continues 1002 words]
SEATTLE -- Washington State law prohibits the possession of marijuana except for certain medical purposes. Hempfest is not one of them. Yet each summer when the event draws thousands to the Seattle waterfront to call for decriminalizing marijuana, participants light up in clear view of police officers. And they rarely get arrested. "Police officers patrolling are courteous and respectful," said Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. One reason for the officers' approach, said Ms. Holcomb and others who follow law enforcement in Seattle, is the leadership of R. Gil Kerlikowske, the chief of the Seattle Police Department and, officials in the Obama administration say, the president's choice to become the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the drug czar. [continues 808 words]
