Five years after the release of a much-heralded drug that blocks opiate addicts' cravings, state officials are grappling with how to regulate the treatment. Federal officials spent years helping to develop and promote buprenorphine and encouraged doctors to dispense it. The hexagonal orange pill -- marketed as Suboxone -- is manufactured by the pharmaceuticals subsidiary of the British company Reckitt Benckiser. Providers say state regulations make it difficult for inpatient and outpatient facilities to prescribe the medicine and receive reimbursement. However, some obstacles to dispensing Suboxone could soon fall. In late December, state Secretary of Health Calvin Johnson, M.D., approved recommendations by the Buprenorphine Workgroup, a collection of addiction experts who studied barriers to the treatment. [continues 1151 words]
Past the skateboards, clothing and wooden racks of records at 167 1/2 Marshall St. lies a tiny room where the black carpet-lined shelves of Skye High showcases are nearly empty for the first time in the shop's seven-year history. Usually the shelves are covered in an array of multi-colored glass pipes, but a recent Drug Enforcement Agency crackdown on stores marketing illegal "tobacco" paraphernalia led to a half-price sale. More than a month after the DEA conducted its largest paraphernalia confiscation mission to date, worries have faded and some local sellers of bongs and pipes are now restocking. [continues 964 words]
