Madison - The state would expand the fight against heroin abuse and approve labor contracts with the few remaining state employee unions, under legislation unanimously passed by lawmakers Tuesday. Without dissent, the Assembly approved the measures on drug abuse and sent them to the Senate, which is expected to take them up in the coming weeks. Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen support the measures. If the heroin bills become law, users of the deadly drug would be immune from liability if they called 911 to report overdoses, and more first responders could carry drugs to counteract overdoses. People also would have to show identification when they pick up many prescriptions, and communities would be able to set up drug-disposal programs more easily. [continues 810 words]
Madison- Doctors will have to check a statewide database before prescribing narcotics and other addictive drugs, under a broad series of bills that Gov. Scott Walker signed Thursday to curb the abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers. "Wisconsin, like many other states across the country, is noticing a dangerous trend - an escalating number of cases involving heroin and opioid use, addiction, and overdose. The legislation we're signing into law today as a part of our HOPE tour works to combat this trend," Walker said in a statement. [continues 569 words]
[photo] Gov. Scott Walker announced the creation of a state task force to address the Wisconsin's troubling increase in opioid abuse at a Walgreens pharmacy at 3522 W. Wisconsin Ave.(Photo: Maggie Angst / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday called for a special legislative session to fight heroin addiction and ordered state agencies to ramp up their response to a drug that kills hundreds in Wisconsin each year. The Republican governor held series of events Thursday in Weston, Green Bay and Chippewa Falls to announce the special session and the executive orders, which seek to implement recommendations from a report issued by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette). [continues 714 words]
Probe Underway After Overdose Death at Oshkosh State corrections officials think multiple inmates will be charged in connection with alleged drug distribution within an Oshkosh prison and the recent death of one inmate of an apparent drug overdose, records show. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported on the May 5 death of the 33-year-old inmate within a segregated unit at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution. With investigations ongoing, officials at the prison said they are withholding any reports on the death or any potential probes into alleged drug distribution within the prison. [continues 539 words]
PRESIDENT Richard Nixon's former White House counsel John Dean says he's shocked by the claim that his boss' motivation for declaring "War on Drugs" was to lock up hippies and black people but admitted "it's certainly possible." Dean, 77, addressed the decades-old allegation by former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman a day after it surfaced in a new magazine article. "I was surprised by the statements," Dean told the Daily News Wednesday. "If this was indeed true, it would have been the Nixon-Ehrlichman private agenda. I can't believe (Nixon administration official Egil) Bud Krogh would run the program with that agenda knowingly." [continues 227 words]
Assembly Speaker Says He'll Again Push Bill to Treat Seizures Madison - Frustrated with last week's failure of a bill to help children with chronic seizures, the head of the state Assembly said he's going to push the proposal as soon as possible next session. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has described himself as a former skeptic who's become a convert to the possibilities of socalled CBD oil, a strictly controlled drug sometimes used to treat severely epileptic children with few other medical options. [continues 723 words]
Online Voter Registration, Other Measures Approved Madison- In a final marathon of voting, the Senate adjourned Tuesday by sending Gov. Scott Walker a bill to allow people to register to vote online and by blocking a proposal to make it easier for parents to get a drug to treat child seizures. Senators also approved a bill that would prevent up to $5 million in property tax increases by public schools outside Milwaukee that lose students to voucher schools. Also Tuesday, the Senate passed a different version of a bill on high-capacity wells than one the Assembly approved last month. That appeared to kill the measure since the Assembly has already ended its work for the year. [continues 1039 words]
Recently released state figures show a heartening drop in methamphetamine labs in the state - part of a national trend that could cut down on deadly explosions and help the environment. But that progress in the fight against the dangerous, addictive drug leaves state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and the three other candidates for her job to debate another issue: how to fight the out-of-state trafficking of the drug that now accounts for almost all of the meth seized in Wisconsin. [continues 936 words]
