They are not like other mourners. They are raw. "Hysterical crying," said Jackie Berger, a florist. Some arrive at the other extreme, showing quiet resignation, even relief. "They knew this day was coming," said Frank Lettera, a funeral director. They are the parents and relatives of young men and women who died on Staten Island after overdosing on heroin. The grieving families are passing through the rituals of death in numbers never seen before: a record 72 suspected overdoses so far this year. That number far surpasses the previous record of 41, in 2014. [continues 805 words]
The man entered the Red Robin restaurant inside the Staten Island Mall two minutes after 6 p.m. on a Friday. He walked straight past the booths and tables and entered the men's room. A manager would find him there seven minutes later, lying on the floor with a needle and foaming at the mouth. His name was Jonathan Ayers, 27, and he was declared dead within the hour that evening, Sept. 9, apparently of a heroin overdose. Mr. Ayers's fatal overdose was the latest addition to a body count without precedent. So far in 2016, there have been 71 deaths that appear to be from heroin overdoses on the island, the Richmond County district attorney's office said, already on pace to more than double the record set two years ago. Nine people died of heroin overdoses in a recent 10-day period, prosecutors said. [continues 1789 words]
Medical marijuana patients were generally ignored when the Cannabis Patient Protection Act was up for debate this year. Instead legislators pushing this bill were more concerned with those who would benefit from restrictions on cannabis such as the pharmaceutical industry. The shortsightedness shown by those pushing this legislation may end up costing patients and others, including the state, in the long run. In 1974, medical researchers in Virginia discovered that the compound THC in marijuana killed cancerous tumors in lab animals. That research was reportedly withheld from the American public on orders of the DEA. However change is happening. Recently the National Cancer Institute reported, "Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory." Just imagine the benefits to patients and society if that research from 1974 had not been withheld from the public. [continues 108 words]
Re: Colorado's first year lucrative, Business, March 3 We are sandwiched between Alaska and Washington (not to mention Oregon and Colorado), states which have legalized marijuana in the last year. I am not a smoker, but B.C. would definitely benefit from the accumulation of new tax revenue from a change in the pot laws. This revenue could go to help with our ferry crisis, infrastructure decline, school necessities, health care etc. Why is this not happening? Shirley Wilson Pender Island [end]
My "back doctor" appointment went south. I had planned to praise the previously prescribed physical therapy, which had erased my back pain brought on by the onset of arthritis in my knee. I also intended to give away an extra unused prescription so that my doctor could give it to an indigent patient in need. In spite of my injury having occurred on my own time at home and not at work or in an automobile "accident," my insurance provided excellent coverage for my treatment and prescribed medications. [continues 572 words]
Change Policy and Look at Alternative Ways of Combating UK's Drugs Culture, Says Eliza Manningham-Buller The former head of MI5 believes the "war on drugs" has proved fruitless and it is time to consider decriminalising the possession and use of small quantities of cannabis. Eliza Manningham-Buller has backed calls for the government to set up a commission to examine how to tackle the UK's drug culture and consider the highly controversial move of relaxing the law. She was speaking at a meeting held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform on Thursday where senior government representatives met experts from across the world to consider ways of combating the issue. [continues 318 words]
Do I understand correctly that there are in excess of 160 registered dispensaries in our fair city? (I saw that figure quoted by the representatives of the "industry" following the City Council meeting on Nov. 18). I hazard a guess that there are not that many regular drug stores, liquor stores, gas stations, convenience stores or stores of any other such ilk in town. Are there truly so many "addicts", excuse me, "patients" in need of medical marijuana in the Springs? As with any other business, no one goes into it without some thought of profit. Why can these entrepreneurs assume success? Simple questions from a simple man who is naturally losing his thought faculties without the aid of drugs. Howard A. Wilson Colorado Springs [end]
Ventura County drug offenders could get less treatment and have to pay for it themselves if a proposal to ax all funding for the sweeping diversion program known as Proposition 36 is approved. Faced with a historic budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking legislators to eliminate $108 million for the program enrolling 36,000 drug offenders in California. So county officials are looking at new ways to comply with Proposition 36, the initiative state voters enacted in 2000 to divert nonviolent drug offenders into treatment and out of jail. [continues 737 words]
- - Police Say Gun, Ganja Found At Home Two men said yesterday that they were badly beaten by joint services ranks at their Nottinghamshire, Linden home, arrested and then released. Police in a press release issued yesterday evening said the men were in police custody assisting with investigations into the discovery of an unlicensed 12-gauge shotgun and a quantity of marijuana at a house at Nottinghamshire around 23:45 hrs on Thursday. However, when this newspaper spoke with the men at the Linden Hospital Complex, they were with their relatives seeking medical attention and were not under police guard. [continues 381 words]
But, Despite Protections Under State Law, Access to Drug Remains an Issue The number of medical marijuana patients in Hawai'i has grown 87 percent in the past two years, with the biggest gains on Maui and the Big Island. According to the state Department of Public Safety, 4,200 patients were registered state-wide as of June 30, with 444 more signing up since then. One reason for the increase is that more doctors have been certifying patients for the program, according to Keith Kamita, head of the department's Narcotics Enforcement Division. Still, a relatively few physicians account for most of the state's medical marijuana patients, he said. One Big Island doctor, for example, accounts for about half of the total certified patients statewide. [continues 1332 words]
PA'IA, Maui -- The head of a medical marijuana advocacy group on Maui and six other men have been charged with running a drug trafficking ring. The suspects were arrested Tuesday following a two-year investigation surrounding the Patients Without Time organization located on Baldwin Avenue in Pa'ia, said Capt. Gerald Matsunaga of the Maui Police Department. As part of the investigation dubbed Operation Weedkiller, Maui police, assisted by other county, state and federal law enforcement agencies, recovered more than 335 plants, nearly 16 pounds of marijuana, a small amount of hashish and more than $14,000 in cash from several homes and businesses, he said. [continues 778 words]
Initiative to Require More Treatment Ventura County is laying plans to deal with hundreds if not thousands more offenders bound for drug treatment if a little-noticed measure known as Proposition 5 passes on Election Day. A special panel of county and court officials met Monday, as it's been doing monthly since July, to discuss the possible repercussions of the initiative dubbed the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, or NORA. The initiative has drawn comparatively few television commercials or polling. But with less than a year to prepare for implementation of the sweeping measure, drug treatment agencies in the state's large counties are laying groundwork. [continues 500 words]
Life without heroin didn't look good to Melinda Greene. The Ventura woman used the narcotic for 16 years, turning over her children for others to raise and serving time in prison. Then in mid-2005, her body shrunken to 98 pounds as she mourned her fiance's death, the forces collided. She was tired of her addict's life when authorities gave her the choice of treatment or two more years in prison for heroin possession. "I gave up," she recalled. "I said, I'm through.'" [continues 1521 words]
Roderick Moore Previously Convicted Of Drug Counts In Caddo A former Shreveport police officer who was convicted in Caddo Parish for supplying strippers with drugs in exchange for sexual favors has admitted to seven drug charges in Bossier Parish. Roderick "Ricky" Moore pleaded guilty as charged Friday in Bossier District Court to one count each of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, methadone, marijuana, oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam and lorazepam, according to the Bossier district attorney's office. Two days prior, the 53-year-old pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. [continues 308 words]
Re: 'Legit grower takes helm at pot club' (Daily News, June 19) As a "legal" medical marijuana user, I applaud the courage of these people who are taking on the "establishment," in order to provide relief to other sufferers. I know all too well the problems medical marijuana users face, from being unable to access the medication that works, to being forced to utilize "legal" drugs, to being ostracized by the community. When you consider that marijuana is a very benign medication compared to oxycontin or morphine, with far fewer side effects and much less cost, it baffles me why so many people are against it. [continues 66 words]
A MAN who grew a ?10,000 cannabis farm escaped with a ?150 fine after claiming that smoking the drug eased his cravings for heroin. Today, a top politician slammed the sentence as "soft" while a leading town detective called for consistency in punishing drug criminals. John Arnold, 42, appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court after police uncovered his stash of cannabis plants during a search on his former home in Jesmond Gardens. Our picture shows the ?10,000 crop of 41 mature plants that were found during a police raid on the property on January 11. [continues 433 words]
ASHEVILLE- Youth in Western North Carolina appear to have a serious prescription drug problem. More WNC high school students reported taking prescription drugs without a doctor's permission than students in any other region of the state. About 25 percent of WNC high schoolers said they have used medicine such as OxyContin, Percocet, Adderall or Xanax for recreational use one or more times during their life, compared to about 17 percent in the central and eastern regions of the state, according to a 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by N.C. Healthy Schools. [continues 1284 words]
'It's Only Beginning' As the child of a drug addict, Angela Coronado couldn't trust her mother to show up at school events or take her shopping. "Our relationship was really nothing," said Angela, 17. Her mom, Tina Benavente, began smoking methamphetamine heavily in the beginning of the decade and by 2002 was drifting on the streets trying desperately to score more of the drug. She took Angela and her two younger brothers to live in a motel room with their grandmother so they wouldn't be homeless with her. "I was so far gone into drug use, that's where most of my check was going," Benavente said. [continues 2446 words]
Like a lot of folks in this country I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck I am required to pass a random drug test, which I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a drug test. Shouldn't one have to pass a drug test to get a welfare check, because I have to pass one to earn it for them? [continues 71 words]
While legitimate concerns prevail among patients and dispensaries involving the reliability of California's medical marijuana ID card program, a thorough discussion of the ongoing confusion must include the motives behind the federal government's refusal to cooperate with the state. The federal government's stance hinders medical research, stalls meaningful legislation and clings to marijuana prohibition. Repealing marijuana prohibition allows all states to comply with approved medical protocol and accepted standards of distribution for medical marijuana. Why is the federal government stalling? According to FBI estimates, upward of 80 percent of all drug arrests are exclusively marijuana: Taking marijuana out of the drug war equation leaves 3 million to 4 million addicts of heroin, cocaine or meth. [continues 88 words]
