Category Archives: substance abuse

Supporting families to prevent substance abuse

Despite what the lack of snow and downright balmy temperatures would tell us, Christmas is indeed coming up this week.  My house is abuzz with excitement amongst my family including my three children.  A couple of weeks ago, as is tradition, we picked out the tree and put up the ornaments.  With a daughter approaching […]

How marijuana legalization could sink new plan to tackle Maine’s drug abuse crisis

Republican and Democrat leaders today unveiled their $4.8 Million plan to address the substance abuse epidemic facing the state of Maine.  It is a comprehensive plan that provides additional resources and supports for law enforcement, treatment, prevention, and recovery services.  It includes funding for the 10 new Maine DEA Agents Governor LePage has been requesting […]

Gov. Christie has the right equation to address addiction crisis

By now, you probably have seen the now viral video of New Jersey Governor and GOP Presidential candidate Chris Christie talking about the drug abuse crisis.  If you haven’t watched it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it now before reading the rest of this article: For me, what is […]

Why Sanders’ support for marijuana undermines his education policy

Democratic Presidential Candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders has made some waves on the topic of marijuana.  First, in the Democratic Presidential Debate, he said he would vote in favor of legalizing marijuana if it were on the ballot in Vermont.  More recently, he announced that as President, he would push removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances […]

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 […]

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 […]

What Maine can learn from Colorado’s legalization of marijuana

A newly released report in Colorado doesn’t give marijuana legalization many positive marks. In fact, it points to a troubling 32-percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths in just one year from 2013, with a 92 percent increase from 2010 to 2014. What’s more, drug-related suspensions and expulsions increased 40 percent between school years 2008-2009 and […]

HHS finds marijuana use up 12%, perception of harm down

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services found that marijuana use among all Americans 12 and over – especially those over 26 – significantly increased in 2014 compared to 2013. The number of 16 and 17 year-olds using marijuana in the past month also increased, (14.2% versus 15.0%). “We should not be surprised […]