Tag Archives: prevention

The failed promises of marijuana legalization, cautionary tales for Maine

BDN File

If you’ve been following this column, and my comment section and page visits makes clear many of you are, you know I’ve written extensively about the failure of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington.  Well, this week has seen multiple stories highlighting yet more negative consequences from legalization along with failed promises from legalization advocates. […]

Marijuana would worsen, not improve, the opiate crisis

Back in October 2015, U.S Attorney Thomas Delahanty recruited around 3 dozen professionals from around Maine to sit on the three task forces making up the Maine Opiate Collaborative.  The law enforcement, treatment, and prevention task forces were to charged with developing comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to address the worsening heroin crisis.  Along with my fellow […]

The case for universal prevention as a solution to the heroin crisis

This article was inspired, in part, by a recent presentation by the great Dr. Dennis Embry at the recent 2015 National Prevention Network Conference. As you might imagine, working in the field of substance abuse, I have been a part of a few discussions with colleagues about this heroin/opiate crisis our state faces.  In a […]

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 […]

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 […]

Community coalitions are the change makers in substance abuse prevention

This week I’ve begun a transition professionally as I prepare to end my current role as Substance Abuse and Tobacco Prevention Manager at Healthy Androscoggin and begin my new role as the Director of Operations at AdCare Educational Institute of Maine, Inc.  As transitions in life tend to go, they bring up a period of […]

Preventing youth marijuana and alcohol use is a key to heroin epidemic

Tuesday, I was fortunate to have been invited by my friends at the Bangor Public Health Substance Abuse Task Force to a meeting they organized with Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli.  This followed the drug strategy round table featuring Mr. Botticelli and called together by Senator Angus King.  While the round […]

Maine’s Heroin Crisis: Solution Not as Simple as Enforcement vs. Treatment

The past week has seen some much-needed wall to wall coverage of the heroin crisis across most major Maine media outlets.  The most recent headlines have been around the recent rash of overdoses over the course of a 24 hours period in Portland.  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen that story.  There have been previous clusters of […]

Colorado Adult Marijuana Use Now Almost Double the National Average

So there was some pretty big, but sadly unsurprising news coming out of Colorado yesterday.  It was reported that a new statewide survey funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that 13.6% of adults in Colorado are regular users of marijuana.  This is almost double the national rate of 7.4%.  Denver, […]

A New Opportunity at Maine’s Disposal to Fight Rx Abuse

Late last month, the Supreme Court took (in)action on an item that could be a potential game changer in the fight to combat prescription drug abuse.  Specifically, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought to them challenging an ordinance in Alameda County, California that requires pharmaceutical companies pay for the disposal of unused […]