Former Sheriff Janney Has Stake in Application BALTIMORE - Today marks the day when Cecil County will find out whether its future will be green, benefitting economically from the development of potential medical marijuana growing and processing facilities. The Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, under the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which was formed by 2014 legislation to develop policies, procedures and regulations to implement the state's medical marijuana program, voted on its stage one license pre-approvals for 15 growers and the first 15 processors on Aug. 5. [continues 972 words]
I feel compelled to respond to your recent editorial, "Medical pot: No wonder." Sadly, the conclusions drawn in the piece are largely based on information that is (1) only peripherally relevant and (2) woefully out of date. The editorial does a disservice to readers by implying the "79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients" cited in the piece represent directly applicable - and current - research on medical cannabis. The first thing your readers should know is those 79 studies were not focused on what many experts would consider "medical marijuana." The study cited had "an emphasis on 28 randomized clinical trials of cannabinoids" - that is, 28 separate trials on individual molecules including mostly those that have been synthetically derived as only single, pure compounds. Experts overwhelmingly agree that whole-plant-based medicines, those including many molecules made by the plant, are physiologically superior to single-molecule approaches, yet most of the data cited in your editorial was derived from inferior single-molecule studies. It's fair to say that many of the questions and concerns raised by the research you cited are directly attributable to the deficient nature of the studies themselves. [continues 176 words]
Area Police Officers Teach Kids How And Why To Stay Off Drugs First Of Two Parts Nearly 20 years ago, former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates created a program aimed at mitigating the drug and violence problems plaguing the city's streets. D.A.R.E. - short for Drug Abuse Resistance Education - spread like wildfire to more than 80 percent of American schools, including sixth-grade classes in Cecil County. Cecil County Public Schools adopted the program in 1991. Since its inception, area police officers have spent numerous hours learning teaching techniques by attending nationwide conferences and interacting with students, all in an attempt to keep kids off drugs. [continues 1647 words]
A Whig reporter's two-part series this week analyzing the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in the county public schools included one very clear message for parents - drug prevention starts at home. The DARE program has received some controversial attention in recent years about its effectiveness. Nationwide, critics have said the program is not keeping children drug-free. But no anti-drug program will end drug use totally. That's not realistic. It appears the program, adopted for county middle school students in 1991 and modified since, is working very effectively here. State surveys show a slight decline in drug use here among teens. What the surveys cannot tell you is how many teens could have fallen prey to drug abuse. Yes, there are still occasional deaths from drug overdose here. But no one knows how many more teens may have died if drug prevention programs like DARE were not offered to youth. [continues 234 words]
Fighting Drugs: Second Of Two Parts Pop quiz: What is drug abuse? What is the legal age for purchasing and possessing tobacco products in Maryland? D.A.R.E. is short for what four words? Spencer, a sixth grader at Cherry Hill Middle School, almost received a perfect score on his 25-question multiple choice D.A.R.E. pretest. The only answer he didn't know was the words that form the program's acronym - it's Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Cpl. Scott Adams of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office later clued in Spencer and his classmates that it's written on the front of their D.A.R.E. books. [continues 1193 words]
It seems as though those at the Elkton town meeting with the exception of Mr. Fisona and Mr. McKeown missed the point which Mr. Fisona had stated, "It's evidence." That bag found on the street is evidence that drug dealers and those who use them (drugs) are careless not only with their own lives but also with the lives of the public, specifically children. That bag could have been picked up by a child. You fill in the blanks. We focus on the teen drug and alcohol problems, but it's primarily adults who provide the "stuff." Adults are also role models to children. Adults who think that it's OK to "recreationally" use marijuana, snort crack, take pills to get high or even beer blast on weekends are sending the wrong message to the children in their lives. At the least all these things are immoral if not most being illegal. [continues 69 words]
But County Says Edward Mccall 'May Be A Serious Liability Risk' Edward McCall wants his job back as a deputy -- three years after the Cecil County Sheriff's Office fired him because he allegedly tested positive for marijuana use. His bid for reinstatement comes six months after a court ruling in which a judge scrutinized the accuracy of the drug test performed on McCall. The judge also reversed a decision by the Disciplinary Board of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office, which found McCall guilty of conduct unbecoming a deputy and another violation in 1999, leading to his firing. [continues 1032 words]
ELKTON - Eyebrows were raised at the town meeting Wednesday night when one of the commissioners showed up with a bag of marijuana. The unusual show-and-tell visibly disturbed the mayor and town police chief. Commissioner Joe Fisona shocked town officials and audience members at the meeting when he displayed a bag of marijuana in his possession. Fisona said he had been handed the plastic baggie containing a small amount of what he identified as marijuana by an Elkton resident who found it on the ground near his Leeward Court home Tuesday evening. Fisona said he brought the marijuana to the meeting with the intention of turning it in to police. [continues 308 words]
