If you live in Iowa, a doctor can write you prescriptions to treat numerous ailments. If you move to any other state, the same medications will be available. That is how things work in a country where the federal government, not state government, approves and regulates drugs. Then there is marijuana. Whether you can obtain that to treat a health problem depends on where you live. Many states have legalized marijuana or its derivatives for people seeking to treat symptoms caused by serious illnesses, including cancer. In Colorado, those aged 21 and older can buy it for personal use. Last year Iowa law was changed to allow only people with severe epilepsy to possess cannabidiol, an extract of the drug. Now some state lawmakers want to expand access to other sick Iowans. [continues 762 words]
On Sept. 17 members of the Long Beach community gathered to see a concept shaped by a 13-member Stakeholder Advisory Committee that envisioned a plan for a $99 million pool facility. The community meeting presented what the deputy city manager called the latest design suggestion for the pool. He also announced "This is not a done deal, it is an interactive process." The next day, on Sept. 18, members of the Long Beach community gathered to listen to a discussion by members of the Planning Commission related to a medical marijuana ordinance proposed by City Hall staffers from the Planning Department and the City Attorney's office. [continues 590 words]
Karen R., a victim of ovarian cancer, age 35, is aware of her prognosis. Dying, like birth, and every other stage of living, is difficult, she often ponders. Her chemotherapy, which offers a partial or perhaps full redemption, is arduous at best: she suffers violent nausea and vomiting during her very necessary phases of chemo: connected ("chained") to an IV, her repose on the gurney is interrupted, quite quickly, by her urgent anxiety, pulling her IV alongside, to the rest room to vomit her guts out. [continues 705 words]
A recent study by the Institute on Urban Health Research at Northeastern University reported that Massachusetts has the highest rate of illicit drug use in the country and exceeds national average rates of alcohol use. A bill currently working its way through the Legislature would require hospitals and physicians to notify parents when their child is treated for a drug overdose. Supporters of the bill say it is aimed at helping drug-addicted kids get treatment. But while demand for treatment is on the rise, Massachusetts has seen an alarming trend toward cutting funding for substance abuse programs. State funding was cut by 24 percent between 2001 and 2004. While other programs were cut 5 to 10 percent, substance abuse-related service cuts resulted in a 50 percent loss of the state's treatment center detoxification beds. [continues 304 words]
To the Editor: Regarding Joe Burns' Aug. 18 story on drug testing ("Parents can test kids with drug kits"), parents should think twice before asking their kids to urinate on demand. Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only illegal drug that stays in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a deterrent. Marijuana's organic metabolites are fat-soluble and can linger for days. Synthetic drugs are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. A teenager who takes methamphetamine, OxyContin or heroin Friday night will likely test clean Monday morning. If you think teenagers don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test. Drug testing profiteers do not readily volunteer this information, for obvious reasons. The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is almost impossible to detect with urinalysis. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more young lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, DC [end]
MCAS may not be the only test that some Cape adolescents will need to be concerned about passing. New England Drug Test Consulting, an Eastham-based business, is marketing a home drug-testing kit for concerned parents. "I thought I could do well by doing good," says owner Nancy Zarchan, an accountant, who purchased the franchise from The Drug Test Consultant Inc., a nationwide company based in Los Angeles. The company provides kits that test for marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine and opiates. The package, which can be purchased on-line for $52.95, includes one saliva test kit and one urine test kit. The tests do not have to be sent out for analysis and the results are available within two to five minutes, depending on the type of test. [continues 398 words]
Christina Maccarone wished she had a young adult to talk to her about drugs when she was a pre-teen. But she didn't, and so the 21 year-old Lowell woman spent her teen years descending deeper and deeper into addiction. Six months clean and sober, Maccarone now tries to impart her hard-earned lessons to middle school students facing the same choices and pressures that she once succumbed to, On Tuesday afternoon, Maccarone was one of three speakers that came to Camp Lyndon in Sandwich to talk to the kids enrolled in the camp's All Stars Program about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. The free after-school program is for youngsters who may be in need of some guidance. The program has, at maximum, 15 youngsters, but only three were on hand for the talk. All were from the Dennis-Yarmouth area. [continues 383 words]
Not too long ago Darrell Gray was looking at a 2 1/2-year-jail sentence, but on Tuesday Gray was at the Cape Cod Museum of Art looking at works from its collection and at a drug and alcohol-free future. The reason for Gray's turnaround was the Gosnold BAND Drug Court Treatment Program. BAND is the acronym for Barnstable Action for New Directions Program. It was created by Barnstable District Court Presiding Judge Joseph Reardon in conjunction with Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe and Ray Tomasi, president of Gosnold, which provides treatment for substance abuse. [continues 356 words]
