SALEM - Every night, Shawn Meenan places a 12-foot piece of lumber against the main door of his third-floor condo, bracing it tight against intruders.

His girlfriend, Rachel Shellabarger, places a second board against another door. In a cubbyhole, a video monitor for a $1,700 surveillance system shows all activity outside the building - every car that pulls up, every three-minute visit, every mysterious packet that flutters from neighboring windows to people waiting below.

The couple bought the two-bedroom condo in January 2015 for its water views and affordable price. But instead of a fresh start, they say they feel under siege in a place where drugs are sold openly.

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Just how much marijuana is too much when getting behind the wheel? Is any amount safe?

Those questions emerged anew after prosecutors alleged last week that a driver had visited a medical marijuana dispensary an hour before his car struck a State Police cruiser, killing the trooper inside.

That motorist, who was authorized to use marijuana for medical purposes and had traces of the drug detected in his blood, was impaired, authorities said.

But gauging marijuana impairment is not clear-cut. The risks from drinking and driving have been studied for years, but the data about marijuana's effect on motorists are considerably less robust.

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There's no easy way to convict someone of being stoned while behind the wheel, and recent high-court decisions tied with patchwork sobriety tests have made things even tougher for state prosecutors.

And it could be very difficult to prove that David Njuguna was high, as prosecutors say he was when he crashed into a state police cruiser in Charlton in March, killing trooper Thomas L. Clardy.

Any defense attorney in the state would rather handle an OUI marijuana than a standard drunken driving case. Even before pot smokers are pulled over, they have more protections than someone who had one too many beers.

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More drugs, more problems - it's as simple as that.

If you legalize something, there's going to be more of it around. In the case of drugs, any drugs, that availability means more and more losers stumbling around stoned out of their minds, slackjawed enough to hurt innocent people, maybe even themselves, as a result.

Innocent people, in this case, like trooper Thomas Clardy, his widow and their six now-fatherless children, ages 4 to 17.

I'm pessimistic about the chances of stopping this marijuana-legalization question on the ballot in November. But if the voters are paying any attention whatsoever, this horrific crime in Charlton should certainly be a major issue for Big THC to have to defend.

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Some local doctors are calling for more scientific evidence to back marijuana's medicinal value, and say close oversight is needed for pot dispensaries and prescribers to ensure that it does not get into the wrong hands.

"I think there's a good place and time for use of marijuana," said Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, a doctor at Boston Medical Center who specializes in integrative medicine. "But we haven't as a society and as a medical institution done enough to oversee how people are getting prescribed marijuana."

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A Webster man was driving high on medical marijuana he had just bought at a Brookline dispensary when his car careened off the Massachusetts Turnpike, slamming into the back of a parked state police SUV and killing trooper Thomas L. Clardy, authorities said yesterday.

David Njuguna "had an active THC level in his blood at the time of the collision," prosecutor Jeff Travers said after the 30-year-old pleaded not guilty in Worcester Superior Court to numerous charges in the March 16 crash, including manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide by negligence and motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of drugs.

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BOSTON - The number of people treating their chronic pain, cancer symptoms or other medical conditions with marijuana has nearly quadrupled in a year, but a scarcity of licensed dispensaries and supply shortages are keeping many from getting their medicine, advocates say.

At least 24,196 patients are certified to buy medical marijuana in Massachusetts, according to the Department of Public Health, up from nearly 7,846 a year ago.

In April, patients bought 9,603 ounces of marijuana from six licensed dispensaries, according to the department.

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The tomato seedlings in the urban garden were sprouting. The basketball court was filled with men in blue, gray, and brown uniforms shooting hoops and doing pushups. Inside, at vocational classes, men learned the art of tailoring a suit while a group of women studied toward their GEDs.

In many ways, the South Bay House of Correction has become a microcosm of the country's evolving attitudes toward drug abuse and drug-related crimes. The facility just off Interstate 93 in Boston is a different place compared with the early 1990s, when leaders in Washington passed a stringent crime bill that authorized stiff penalties for drug crimes and nearly doubled the country's prison population.

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Reports of suspected elder abuse in Massachusetts have surged over the past five years, according to state figures - a troubling increase that law enforcement and elder advocates say is fueled in part by the opioid crisis and addicted adult children exploiting parents and other relatives.

Since 2011, abuse reports have climbed 37 percent, with more than 1,000 additional cases reported each of the past five years to protective services offices. The Executive Office of Elder Affairs, the agency that tracks and investigates abuse, recorded nearly 25,000 cases last year, but the state's numbers do not delineate how many involved opioids.

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Thank you, Dianne Williamson! I applaud your bravery (for admitting your own occasional marijuana use), and your integrity in calling for marijuana legalization and for calling out the absurd scare tactics being used by Massachusetts politicos to keep people from voting in favor of legalization. The debate over legalization needs more sane, honest voices like yours and less fear-mongering about marijuana's purported "dangers."

In addition to such personal commentary, we also need to hear voices speaking up for the thousands of people incarcerated for marijuana crimes. Peoples' lives have been ruined, and will continue to be ruined, by marijuana prohibition in this state and across the country. At least in our state, the voters can begin to redress this injustice in November by voting to legalize recreational marijuana use.

Patrick Warner

Worcester

[end]

Sacha Pfeiffer's powerful Globe report ("Overwhelmed by overdoses, clinic offers a room for highs," Page A1, April 26) on Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program's new safe space project, where drug users can receive medical monitoring and support while they are high, is a ground-breaking and essential new intervention in treating and helping those whose lives are most at risk from opioids.

Today's unprecedented opioid crisis requires creative interventions on many fronts. The safe space project is highly innovative for Massachusetts, deeply humane for the individual, and realistic in the kind of new interventions we must consider implementing if we are to get ahead of this epidemic.

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Social workers across Massachusetts are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. We work in treatment programs, community-based coalitions, sheriffs' departments, jails, drug courts, and hospitals. Every day we live with the newly released data on opioid and heroin deaths ( "Heroin, prescription drugs weigh heavily on Mass," Page A1, May 2) as our clients die.

These drastic numbers, unique across the country, cry out for new solutions. Our historic attempts to prevent and reduce substance use through harsh penal sanctions have failed.

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This just in: Overdose deaths in Massachusetts increased 7 percent last year. That figure is significant because the rise in deaths is slower than previous years, an indication that greater awareness and legislation are making a small dent in the epidemic. And the comprehensive opioid legislation signed by Governor Charlie Baker two months ago, including the first law in the nation establishing a seven-day supply limit on first-time opioid prescriptions, should help make a difference over time.

Still, there were nearly 1,400 lives lost statewide last year to opioid and heroin abuse, an unconscionable toll that shows there's more to be done. Policy makers must turn their focus to what happens to addicts after they detox or get treatment, a vulnerable population in dire need of community-based, sustainable pathways to recovery. Legislative action must address the real needs for additional services or the Commonwealth risks losing addicts in an overwhelmed provider network.

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Massachusetts voters are evenly divided over a proposed ballot question that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana, but they strongly support another proposed referendum that would allow more charter schools in the state, according to a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll.

Voters also overwhelmingly back legislation that would protect transgender people from discrimination in malls, restaurants, and other public accommodations - and allow people to use the public restroom that matches their gender identity.

Even more popular was a proposed "millionaires' tax" that would raise rates on residents with annual incomes of $1 million or more. It garnered runaway support in the poll.

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BOSTON (AP) - Supporters of a November ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana have misled voters about its ramifications and the measure should be blocked, opponents say in a lawsuit filed with Massachusetts' highest court.

The suit, filed with the Supreme Judicial Court, claims the ballot question would allow for the sale of genetically modified forms of marijuana with THC concentrations of 60 percent or higher, the Bellotti Law Group says. It also alleges voters have not been told that high concentrations of THC could be added to food or beverages, such as candy, cookies or soda. Bellotti filed the complaint this week on behalf of 59 voters.

Under the proposal, Massachusetts residents 21 or older could possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for recreational use.

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Marijuana shouldn't be more regulated than alcohol ("Legalization battle bound for state's highest court," April 29).

The states of Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado have moved to end marijuana prohibition and legalize and regulate pot just as we do alcohol. After almost 50 years of enduring an incredibly harmful and ineffective war on marijuana, the people of these states have finally and rightly concluded that there is no rational or humane reason to criminalize and outlaw the purchase or sale of marijuana.

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The anti-marijuana legalization committee headed by Gov. Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is publicly urging legalization backers to come clean about the high potency of the drugs the measure would legalize - and acknowledge that the marijuana industry depends on these high-octane pot products to make a profit.

The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts cites claims in a legal challenge - currently pending before the state's highest court - - alleging that the marijuana legalization ballot measure is based on misleading information about the potency of the drugs it would legalize.

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The former drug-addicted chemist who got high at work nearly every day for eight years handled more than 500 cases in Suffolk County alone - and up to 1,500 total were processed at the Amherst lab during her time there - according to officials sorting through the fallout of the state's latest drug lab scandal.

The case count in Suffolk likely represents only a fraction of those district attorneys across the state are now scrambling to identify in the wake of a damning attorney general's report on the misconduct of ex-chemist Sonja Farak.

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A state chemist at an Amherst drug lab got high on methamphetamines or other drugs almost every day at work for nearly eight years, consumed the lab's own supply of drugs, and cooked crack cocaine in the lab after hours - actions that jeopardize an untold number of cases - according to an investigative report released Tuesday.

Investigators for the attorney general's office found that chemist Sonja Farak had tested drug samples or testified in court between about 2005 and 2013 while under the influence of meth, ketamine, cocaine, LSD, and other drugs, according to the report, much of which is based on Farak's own grand jury testimony. She even smoked crack before a 2012 interview with State Police officials inspecting the lab for accreditation purposes, she testified.

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One delivery service offers gluten-free marijuana brownies. Another promises a free marijuana-laced lollipop with each order. A third touts trained "caregivers" and delivery until 4 a.m.

These marijuana delivery services - the objects of an unsuccessful crackdown by Massachusetts health officials two years ago - were expected to fade away once the first state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries opened last year. Instead, they have proliferated.

More than two dozen of these Internet-based services are now openly advertising long menus of marijuana strains and edibles, plus prices and user reviews, the Globe found.

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