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Low prices and increased purity have caused heroin use to skyrocket in Massachusetts, with a new study showing the drug is the No. 1 reason for admissions to treatment programs and hospital detox units as well as overdose deaths. "This is a drug epidemic permeating every corner of our commonwealth, and as a society, we need to aggressively fight to end the human suffering," said Dr. Howard Koh, commissioner of the Department of Public Health, which issued the report yesterday. "Heroin deaths are suffocating our society," he said. The DPH report showed heroin is the most common drug for which...

Illicit drugs are in the news again, with talk of creating safe injection sites in major metropolitan centres, and the potential decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. These discussions cause me a certain amount of personal turmoil. I have written in this space before about my own negative experiences with substance abuse, as well as my belief that all drugs should be decriminalized and regulated. I continue to struggle to reconcile these apparently opposing views on illicit drugs. I'm not a believer of the 'harmless' theory of marijuana use. I'm one of those guys whose...

In a little noticed hearing of the House Government Reform Commnittee last week, Indiana Congressman (my homeotwn's Congressman actually) and longtime drug warrior Dan Burton made some stunning comments. In a hearing entitled "America's Heroin Crisis, Colombian Heroin and How We Can Improve Plan Colombia," Burton stopped just a hair short of advocating the decriminalization of drugs. Watch the video here (cut forward to 1 hour, 18 minutes into the hearing). Here's the transcript: Dan Burton: I want to tell you something. I have been in probably a hundred or a hundred and fifty hearings like this at various times...