In an effort to discourage drug use and vaping, a Catholic high school in Ohio has announced plans to begin testing its students for drugs and nicotine, joining what education professionals are calling a growing trend.

Administrators at Stephen T. Badin High School in Hamilton, Ohio, said in a letter to parents this week that the drug-testing program, which they said had been shaped over the course of two years with help from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, would go into effect in January.

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MINFORD, Ohio - Inside an elementary school classroom decorated with colorful floor mats, art supplies and building blocks, a little boy named Riley talked quietly with a teacher about how he had watched his mother take "knockout pills" and had seen his father shoot up "a thousand times."

Riley, who is 9 years old, described how he had often been left alone to care for his baby brother while his parents were somewhere else getting high. Beginning when he was about 5, he would heat up meals of fries, chicken nuggets and spaghetti rings in the microwave for himself and his brother, he said. "That was all I knew how to make," Riley said.

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Auditor Dave Yost characterized the Department of Commerce's roll-out of its share of the fledgling program as "sloppy" with dozens of errors and inconsistencies. The program was supposed to be fully operational Sept. 8, but the state is months behind in having legal product on the shelves for purchase.

"The department didn't do a very good job launching this program," Mr. Yost said. "It did not exercise due diligence to make sure Ohioans could have complete confidence in the process. The department's work was sloppy. Ohioans deserved better."

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COLUMBUS - Mike DeWine, Ohio's attorney general and Republican candidate for governor, on Monday denounced as "irresponsible and dangerous" a proposed constitutional amendment to downgrade low-level, non-violent drug felonies to misdemeanors.

He stood with prosecutors, judges, treatment center operators, and addicts to argue that Issue 1 would remove the stick that gets addicts into treatment as an alternative to prison time.

"This threat, carefully used by our judges, has saved thousands and thousands of lives," Mr. DeWine said. "Issue 1 would take that away, and thousands would remain in the grips of opioids by not getting the treatment they need to recover. Because the truth is that some people just don't go into treatment unless they are pushed to do it. There's nothing humane about Issue 1."

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Northwest Ohio Syringe Services has begun distributing fentanyl test strips to active users of opioids and other drugs. The exchange, a program through the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, is part of a larger strategy of harm reduction to keep people with addiction issues healthy while using, and provide them with resources and help when they want to seek treatment.

Fentanyl has become the scourge of anyone trying to fight Ohio's opioid epidemic: deadly in small quantities and appearing in an increasing number of fatal overdoses.

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Reports that President Donald Trump now supports state-level marijuana regulation have primed him for an easy bipartisan win, which may also afford him a lane for further victories down the line.

Senator Cory Gardner (R., Colo.), who has been blocking several of Mr. Trump's Justice Department nominees after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an earlier Justice Department memo that protected marijuana operations in states like Colorado from federal law enforcement, has announced that he will end his blockade. He says that President Trump promised him "that he will support a federalism-based legislative solution to fix this states' rights issue once and for all."

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The Medical Board of Ohio this week approved certificates for physicians to recommend medical marijuana, another step toward the legal sale of medicinal pot in the state.

Of the three dozen doctors approved to issue recommendations for medical marijuana, only two are in the Toledo-area, although more can be certified later. Dr. Ryan Lakin, medical director for Omni Medical Services, is based out of Toledo. Dr. Mark Neumann is based out of Temperance.

Patients can't be prescribed medical marijuana because it's illegal under federal law, so doctors must recommend its use.

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State health officials issued a public warning Friday about a severe bleeding outbreak in the Midwest that has been linked to synthetic marijuana contaminated with a rat poison ingredient.

No cases have been reported in Ohio as of Friday.

A total of 94 people have exhibited symptoms in the past month in other states.

Most were in Illinois, which has reported 89 cases, including two deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases also have been reported in Missouri, Wisconsin and Maryland, and there is a suspected case in Pennsylvania.

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CINCINNATI -- Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner says he has had a change of heart on marijuana and will promote its nationwide legalization.

Known as an avid cigarette smoker, the Ohio Republican has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a multistate cannabis company. The company also announced that former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld has joined its advisory board.

Boehner says in a statement his position "has evolved" from opposition to legalizing marijuana. He says he believes legalizing marijuana can be helpful to the nation's veterans and as a way to help fight the U.S. opioid drug crisis. He wants to see federally funded research done and to allow Veterans Affairs to offer marijuana as a treatment option.

Boehner also says the move would curtail federal-state conflict on marijuana policies.

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Books, CDs, tennis balls, and a box of candy are just some of the places in which drugs, drug paraphernalia, and sexually-explicit photographs are hidden in this scene.

A permanent marker, a hair brush, a tennis ball, a decorative wooden plaque bearing the word "faith." All are seemingly innocuous items in a teenage girl's bedroom.

But each was hiding a secret during the "Hidden in Plain Sight" training offered by Lucas County Children Services and the Drug Abuse Response Team of the Lucas County Sheriff's Office. Dozens of attendees, most of them employees with children services, rifled through the simulated bedroom Tuesday to search for more than 50 hidden items indicative of risky behavior like drug use and sexual activity.

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President Trump's proposal to invoke the death penalty for drug traffickers is an idea that is, in the practical scheme of things, unworkable. It is also probably unconstitutional and obviously simplistic. It is a gimmick, not a policy.

We need a policy.

The president likes dramatic gestures for difficult problems - a ban on all potential terrorists, a big wall next to Mexico, a 25-percent tariff on steel. This is not an altogether bad instinct. We need strong, decisive leaders and criminals need to fear punishment.

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A Whitehall man was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $25,000 in restitution for a series of crimes related to his proposal to create a residential treatment center for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts on the Near East Side of Columbus.

Johnny R. Marcum, 47, of Pierce Avenue, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of identity fraud, four counts of passing bad checks, one count of forgery, two counts of theft and one count of tampering with records.

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Ohio's drug overdose deaths rose 39 percent -- the third-largest increase among the states -- between mid-2016 and mid-2017, according to new federal figures.

The state's opioid crisis continued to explode in the first half of last year, with 5,232 Ohio overdose deaths recorded in the 12 months ending June 31, 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

The death toll increased by 1,469 or 39 percent, which trailed only the 43.4-percent hike in Pennsylvania and 39.4-percent increase recorded in Florida. Ohio's total number of dead also only fell behind Florida (5,540) and Pennsylvania (5,443).

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Eighteen businesses have applied for medical marijuana dispensary licenses in Lucas County, with Maumee and Holland joining Toledo as communities where businesses hope to sell medicinal pot, according to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.

The board received 376 applications for a maximum of 60 possible licenses, though some businesses filed applications for multiple sites. The state has also split Ohio into four regional districts, and northwest Ohio will only receive 10 dispensary licenses, with 39 applications competing for those spots.

The restrictions are even more complex, though, as each region is broken down further into districts. Lucas County, for instance, will only receive two dispensaries, creating heavy competition among the 18 applications in Toledo, Maumee, and Holland. A district made up of Wood, Hancock and Henry counties will only get one. Three firms have applied to open in Wood County, and no companies have applied to open a dispensary in Hancock or Henry counties.

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COLUMBUS - One day after Ohio announced its choices for larger growing sites that would fuel a fledgling medical marijuana industry, a legal challenge was announced that could throw a wrench into the works.

Ironically, such a lawsuit would be filed by some of the chief players behind 2015's failed ResponsibleOhio ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use.

"Whether we end up with a license or we don't end up with a license, that's not what this is about..." said Jimmy Gould, chairman and chief executive of CannAscend Ohio. "I care that this process is broken. I care that there should have been better oversight over this process, and I care where this ends up....

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For someone caught up in the heat of the moment at a local dance club or rave scene, taking ecstasy may not seem like a life-changing event. But as studies have shown, this decision may indeed be life-altering.

A frequent consequence of taking ecstasy is a trip to the hospital. This is because the short-term effects of ecstasy can produce life-threatening increases in temperature and heart rate, and hallucinations.

Stuart Collins is a PhD student in the neurosciences and neurological disorders at the University of Toledo college of medicine.

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WASHINGTON -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined 43 other state attorneys general to ask Congress to repeal a law they argue has damaged the Drug Enforcement Agency's ability to crack down on drug manufacturers and distributors that have contributed to the nation's sweeping opioid epidemic.

In a letter Tuesday to House and Senate leadership, the attorneys general argue that a bill passed by voice vote in 2016 made it more difficult for the DEA to take action against drug companies that were flooding communities with prescription painkillers.

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The Ohio Department of Commerce has approved 14 applications for small operations to grow medical marijuana, although only 11 will become operational.

The 11 sites on which up to 3,000 square feet can be cultivated, will be in addition to 12 sites on which 24,000 square feet can be cultivated. Successful applications for the large sites will be announced in coming weeks, Department of Commerce spokeswoman Stephanie Gostomski said.

Medical marijuana is expected to be available to consumers in about a year.

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More state spending, legislation and debate on Ohio's drug crisis don't appear to have made a dent as the statewide death toll from accidental drug overdoses soared last year to 4,050, a 33-percent jump over 2015.

Fentanyl, the deadly opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, is increasingly to blame for overdose deaths, with fentanyl and its derivatives accounting for 58.2 percent of the deaths, up from 37.9 percent in 2015. There were 3,050 overdose deaths in 2015.

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The site of the proposed warehouse is vacant land at Jason Street and Cassandra Drive.

A Cleveland-based company that has applied for a state license to grow medical marijuana won approval Thursday from the Toledo Plan Commission to build a 60,000-square-foot cultivation warehouse near Alexis Road and Suder Avenue.

Les Hollis, a consultant for Lake Erie Compassion Care, said the proposed facility would employ as many as 60 people, generating a $2.5 million to $3 million annual payroll.

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