THE CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION on Monday approved new regulations that should, within months, let recreational marijuana consumers in Massachusetts get legal marijuana delivered to their home.  The final decision to license marijuana delivery companies marks a major shift for the industry, and a victory for minority entrepreneurs. But it also brings with it the threat of […]
Drugs
Posted inDrug Addiction
No marijuana ‘apocalypse,’ but legalization brings concernsÂ
Second of two parts. Read the first part here.  WHEN MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS were considering the 2016 ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana sales, opponents, including Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and a raft of public health and safety officials, raised concerns about everything from youth use to drug trafficking to impaired driving.  […]
Posted inOpinion
We must address black, brown mistrust of COVID-19 vaccine
MASSACHUSETTS IS IN DANGER of failing communities of color, once again, if we do not start preparing for a COVID-19 vaccine now. Black Americans, in particular, are both more susceptible to the complications of the virus and may be less trusting of the medical establishment responsible for producing a vaccine, due in part to historic […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Legislative panel backs 2 safe injection sites
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE endorsed a proposal to establish at least two locations in Massachusetts for supervised drug consumption, giving some momentum to a controversial idea that supporters say will lower the death toll of the opioid epidemic. The Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Recovery favorably reported a bill […]
Posted inEconomy
Marijuana consumers flock to medical market
MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS CAN no longer walk into recreational marijuana shops, which have been ordered closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But that doesn’t mean there’s no way to get weed. Instead, former recreational consumers are flocking to the medical marijuana market. “We’ve had a tremendous influx of patient appointments over the past week since they’ve […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
The folly of Baker’s drug price control plan
WHEN THE Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) selected Charlie Baker as Governor of the Year in 2018, the group may have misjudged Baker’s understanding of the industry. Baker recently offered legislation that would slap price controls on drugs—not just on the Commonwealth’s drug purchases, but also on those sold in commercial markets. Even a college economics major […]
Posted inEconomy
Vaping ban ends with mixed results
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE PUBLIC HEALTH officials acknowledged that they still do not know what is causing lung injuries and illnesses among some people who vape, and reiterated that the products should not be used. But the Public Health Council nonetheless rescinded a ban on sales of all vaping products and approved new regulations […]
Posted inOpinion
Why supervised drug injection sites make sense
SINCE 2000, 17,496 citizens of Massachusetts have died from an opioid overdose. Half of those deaths came in the last five years. That’s like one of at least 245 communities in the Commonwealth disappearing in 19 years. Enough people in Massachusetts have died from an opioid overdose to fill all but 69 of the seats […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Rate of growth in Mass. opioid deaths slows
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICERWE THE RATE OF DEATHS due to opioid overdoses is slowing in Massachusetts, but still nearly 1,500 people died of an overdose in Massachusetts through the first nine months of the year, the state announced Monday. The 1,460 confirmed or suspected opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts between January and September represent a […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
House bans flavored vaping and tobacco products
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE voted Wednesday to ban the sale of flavored vaping and tobacco products — including mint and menthol cigarettes — and to impose an excise tax on e-cigarettes. Rep. Danielle Gregoire, a main proponent of flavor ban legislation, said the vote marked “a chance to put an unprecedented nail […]