Report: Long Islanders Love Drugs

Categories: Drugs
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www.photobucket.com
If you live on Long Island, there's a pretty good chance that you absolutely love drugs -- and we're not talking about weed, we're talking about real drugs like heroin, Oxycontin, and other opiates.

In response to last year's "Father's Day Pharmacy Massacre" -- during which a pill junky murdered four people while robbing prescription painkillers from a pharmacy in Medford -- Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota yesterday released a 98-page grand jury report about drug use on Long Island...and it ain't pretty.

According to the report, between 2006 and 2010, arrests for heroin possession has risen in Suffolk County by 170 percent, from 486 to 1,315. Additionally, Suffolk County has 70 percent more Oxycontin prescriptions than the average of any other state.

The report also finds that overdose victims with Oxycontin in their blood has risen 266 percent since 2004.

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Pot Policies: Weed's Legal Use Might Widen in Arizona

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New York still hasn't decided whether it's going to OK medical marijuana, but more developments across the U.S. suggest that it's spreading -- though with some legal blowback from the U.S. courts and feds.

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Goodbye, Chemical Cannabis? U.S. Senate OKs Fake Pot Ban

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The U.S. Senate has just put the kibosh on K2.

After a months-long effort to ban synthetic marijuana, spearheaded by the Empire State's very own Charles Schumer, the Senate voted today to ban the sale of fake bud.

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Medical Marijuana Ban Doesn't Hurt Disabled, Court Says

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More weed news from the West Coast: A federal court in California just ruled 2-1 that cities can ban medical marijuana dispensaries -- and that doing so doesn't violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

As detailed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco's Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal drug law does not make exceptions for disabled individuals who use pot for severe pain. Medical marijuana bans, the judges said, do not count as discrimination.

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Drug Policy Advocates: Cameron Douglas (Son Of Actor Michael Douglas) Doesn't Need More Prison Time, He Needs Treatment

Categories: Drugs
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E! Online
Cameron Douglas, son of actor Michael Douglas, really likes drugs.

In 2010, Cameron Douglas, the son of actor Michael Douglas, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he was in possession of heroin and was dealing large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine out of a New York hotel room.

Last year, while in prison, Douglas, 33 -- who has been injecting himself with heroin daily since his mid-20s -- was busted again, this time with a small amount of opioids. As a result, Douglas was given an additional 4 1/2 years in prison -- a sentence experts say is one of the harshest sentences ever handed down by a federal judge in a simple drug possession case.

Douglas has appealed the additional sentence, which has landed him the support of the Drug Policy Alliance.

In a 46-page amicus brief (which you can read below), filed by the DPA on behalf of several substance-abuse treatment experts, it's argued that Douglas' additional sentence is unjust and excessive. The group contends that drug treatment programs behind bars are inadequate, which is what led to Douglas' continued drug use.


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Pot Politics: Here's How Medical Marijuana Can Influence Elections

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As the medical marijuana debate continues in New York, there's a bit of news from the West Coast that might interest vote-seeking Empire State pols: Looks like prescription pot can make or break a candidate.

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Weed Wackiness: Here Are Common Drugs More Dangerous Than Marijuana

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As the debate over medical marijuana continues in New York and the rest of the U.S., there's bound to be a lot of conflicting information out there.

Opponents of medical marijuana tend to argue that it is dangerous and has no therapeutic qualities. We're not medical experts, so we're not going to debate the intricacies of cannabis' curative properties. But we have to wonder: Is weed really as dangerous as authorities make it out to be, since it seems a lot safer than common prescription and over-the-counter drugs?

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Will Gustin L. Reichbach, Pot-Smoking Judge, Get In Trouble for Using Medical Marijuana? (UPDATE)

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State Supreme Court Judge Gustin L. Reichbach outed himself as a pot-smoker in a New York Times op-ed today.

Reichbach, you see, has battled pancreatic cancer for three and a half years. His current treatment includes high doses of chemotherapy, which leads to constant pain, nausea, insomnia, and loss of appetite. Reichbach says that cannabis is the only thing that makes him feel more comfortable, so that he can eat and sleep.

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Marijuana Manners: Be a Good Neighbor by Keeping Pot Smells Inside Your Apartment

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Oh, city life!

The Daily News' Ask an Expert column today has a not-too-uncommon conundrum -- sober neighbors who live next to stoner neighbors and complain about them.

An Upper West Side woman wrote in for advice on this very issue, since she can smell pot smoke in her apartment. She's trying to get pregnant, and worries about a "contact high." The woman and her husband, worried about coming across as "complete squares" want to know: "Should we narc?"

You can read the column for that answer, but we're more interested in another important question: How do you smoke pot politely in the City's close quarters?

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New York City Really Has a Thing for Pain Pills

Categories: Drugs

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Not too long after data came out questioning whether America might be addicted to painkillers, additional details have been released about New York City's pill popping.

From 2008 to 2010, prescriptions for opioid analgesics surged 22 percent, according to The Associated Press (via CBS).

What's startling: just a fraction of docs wrote the majority of prescriptions -- 8,000 physicians, 15 percent of healthcare providers, doled out 80 percent of these meds.

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