I strongly support the Medical Marijuana Patients' Rights Act (HB66) in the Alabama Legislature. I am a chronic pain patient and have tried all the strong drugs such as oxycontin, morphine, hydrocodone, valium and soma. Not to mention I've had 10 epidural injections and 12 nerve block injections. Nothing has helped, and I wish I had an alternative such as medical marijuana to try to ease the pain and suffering I live with daily. Not many people know what is feels like to hurt so bad you wish you were somebody else. I urge everyone to talk to politicians, business leaders, clergy, friends and family to try and get this bill passed this year to help so many like me who are tired of being in pain every minute of every day. Thank you, and God bless those of us who are suffering. Greg Phillips Oxford [end]
DURHAM -- When Kimberly Wallace felt badly about abandoning her husband and two children for crack cocaine, she'd seek solace in another high. When she felt ashamed at her inability to kick the habit, she did the same thing. "In addiction, you feel you should be able to stop on your own," she said. "I was afraid to ask anybody for help for fear of what they would think of me." After 10 years in and out of prison, the 30-year-old Wallace gradually is turning her life into a success story. She has only three months left in a two-year-recovery program at Durham-based TROSA (Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers). [continues 911 words]
DURHAM -- The Durham Center is getting just over half the $500,000 it asked for to kick-start an ambitious plan to battle substance abuse. County Manager Mike Ruffin has proposed adding $226,632 to the budget for the center, which also is getting an unexpected $60,000 from the state. That brings its total increase to $286,632. Officials at the center -- managers of the county's mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities services -- had asked for $516,300 to launch the 10-year campaign against substance abuse, which the N.C. Alcohol and Drug Council estimated cost Durham County $250 million in 2003. Ruffin squeezed the increase request and targeted his funding recommendation to managing individual substance abuse cases and strengthening partnerships with private providers who deliver services. [continues 398 words]
DURHAM -- To kick off an initiative to combat drug abuse, local mental health officials are asking Durham County for more than $500,000 in the upcoming financial year. The money would fund the first step in an ambitious 10-year plan with a $54 million wish list to address substance abuse in the county. Wednesday's budget work session was the first time County Manager Mike Ruffin and the commissioners had seen the proposal, which mental health staff finalized only last week. Ruffin will review it and present a funding recommendation to the board at the June 15 work session in which he'll also reveal any revisions to his proposed schools budget. [continues 615 words]
Social Service workers in Harnett County received training yesterday on dealing with families involved in illegal methamphetamine manufacture. The session followed Monday's seminar in Johnston County. Both sessions were funded by money awarded to just four counties in the state to fight the rise of meth labs. The number of labs busted in North Carolina more than doubled to 177 last year. SBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Van Shaw said yesterday 68 have already been discovered in the state this year, which will see the numbers doubling once again this year if the trend continues. A lab was dismantled in Harnett County last week, one of many in the area over the last two years. [continues 599 words]
Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins met with his counterparts in four neighboring counties yesterday to discuss a possible partnership for responding to the discovery of illegal methamphetamine laboratories. The roundtable discussion at the Southern Belle Restaurant in Mount Olive included Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell, Sheriff Jimmy Thornton of Sampson County, Duplin County's Sheriff Blake Wallace and Sheriff Carey Winders of Wayne County. Meth lab busts in the area have skyrocketed in the last three years and pose a distinct threat to investigating officers because of toxic fumes produced during the manufacture of the highly addictive form of speed. A State Bureau of Investigation hazardous materials team has to process meth lab sites before deputies can move in. [continues 431 words]
A guard at the prison in Lillington is facing criminal charges after he allegedly attempted to smuggle marijuana to an inmate at the prison. "That was the intent," said Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins. William Earl Faison, 29, of Webster Drive in Dunn was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and possession of a controlled substance. All three are felony charges. He was confined in the Harnett County jail - just down the street from where he guarded inmates for the state - under $150,000 bond. [continues 241 words]
Riverside lies a few miles outside Erwin, on one of only two routes that sheriff's deputies can take to get from Lillington to the eastern part of Harnett County. It can hardly be considered remote. But residents say they feel local law enforcement is failing the community by not solving Riverside's drug problem. Vivian Smith is president of the Riverside Community Association that is attempting to rid the area of its chemical problems and conceded that: "Drugs are a bad habit in our community." [continues 636 words]
