Monthly Archives: October 2015

Smart Approaches to Marijuana releases presidential scorecard

This week Smart Approaches to Marijuana* released a presidential scorecard ranking all of the Republican and Democrat primary candidates according to their policy positions on marijuana. The ranking did not solely focus on the question of legalization, but also examined candidates’ positions on support for prevention and treatment as well as taking a scientific approach to […]

The Big Marijuana takeover of legalization efforts in Maine

The one area of common ground I had with Paul McCarrier and his group Legalize Maine was that we both agreed that Big Marijuana (aka Marijuana Policy Project; aka Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol) would be bad for Maine.  Certainly, we parted ways on the reasons why we didn’t want Big Marijuana here.  I […]

As marijuana use soars, the industry goes into spin mode

Recently, a new study was published in JAMA Psychiatry which details how marijuana use has doubled in the last decade.  Over the last ten years, we have seen the proliferation of states passing marijuana medicine by legislation, along with the handful of states legalizing retail marijuana. At the outset when Project SAM (Smart Approaches to […]

Bill proposal to eliminate Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey must not go forward

Earlier this month, the Maine Legislative Information Office released the list of bill titles the Legislative Council will be considering for the upcoming short session.  In all, there are 38 pages of bill proposals.  This is a big event in my world as a substance abuse prevention professional, as without fail, there are always many […]

Advances in Overdose Prevention in Maine

Today I am turning over Smart Approaches to guest columnist (and friend and colleague) Alison Jones Webb who has a great article on Maine’s new overdose prevention law that goes into effect October 15th.   If you live in Maine and you think that you are at risk for opioid overdose or if you know […]

How a recovery-oriented approach to substance abuse means economic development for Maine

Last week I posted this article talking about how moving to a recovery-oriented approach to substance abuse can also be a form of economic development.  In particular, I posit that employers implementing hiring programs for people in recovery would be one such strategy.  Lo and behold, there are indeed companies out there starting to do […]