Tag Archives: substance abuse

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 […]

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 […]

Maine marijuana summit highlights the failures of marijuana legalization

In the face of a continued push to legalize marijuana in Maine, a full day, statewide summit on marijuana, “Marijuana in the New Millenium”, was held Wednesday.  This event was planned and coordinated through a collaboration between Bangor Public Health, Healthy Acadia, and their respective community-based substance abuse prevention task forces.  Smart Approaches to Marijuana, […]

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 […]

The Marijuana Movement and the Normalizing of Self-Medicating

This statement may not be terribly shocking, but I have some issues with medical marijuana.  I could go on and on about the reports that come out on a regular basis proving that medical marijuana has been based on anything but reputable science.  (It’s interesting that when this is pointed out that the reaction 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, […]