In the News
CALENDAR OF EVENTS |
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2011-2014 Transportation Improvement Program |
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Crane Stationery Mill Re-Use Study |
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The Daily News of Newburyport DEA launches national Take-Back Day for prescription drugs By Angeljean Chiaramida, Staff writer The Drug Enforcement Administration, in conjunction with local law enforcement, will hold a prescription drug Take-Back Day on Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a variety of locations throughout the region and the nation, hoping to curtail the trend of prescription drug theft and abuse. The initiative will help law enforcement agencies collect unused and unneeded prescription drugs, allowing the public to drop off drugs free of charge at a number of take-back locations. The goal is simple, say law enforcement officials: rid local homes of dangerous drugs that can be stolen, sold or misused by those who abuse prescription drugs, especially teens. "Most teenagers have their first experience in abusing prescription drugs from pills they've taken from the medicine cabinets of those they know," said Tony Pettigrew, a DEA agent and Newburyport resident. "Prescription drug abuse here in New England is a big problem. It's a huge street drug. This will help people clean out their medicine cabinets safely, and the DEA will be taking all the drugs collected and disposing of them for the police departments who take part." Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett sees the program as a boon in the battle to keep teens away from temptation. "Any initiative that helps keep the public — particularly young adults and children — safe is an idea that I readily embrace," Blodgett said yesterday. Given the success of permanent drug take-back programs at the Seabrook and Newburyport police departments, the DEA initiative is being seen as a positive move in the war against drug abuse. "We've talked about doing this as an Essex County initiative with the DEA since February, and now it's gone nationwide," Newburyport Marshal Thomas Howard said. "At a meeting we had in April, almost all Essex County police departments were there and were supportive of a countywide drug take-back initiative. That's because we all understand that prescription drugs are the No. 1 drug that is abused by young people today. We see people here every day (at the Newburyport police station) making deposits into our drop-off box. "And we're trying to work with drugstores to make the public aware of this service we offer. This is a way to reduce the availability of these drugs in the community for young people to access and a way to properly dispose of this stuff in a way that doesn't pollute the water system." In Seabrook, the first police department in New Hampshire and the region to offer a prescription drug take-back box in its lobby, Lt. Michael Gallagher said the DEA's national drug Take-Back Day could be a motivating factor for police departments to start programs of their own. In the year its program has been up and running, Seabrook police collected tens of thousands of potentially dangerous drugs in its drop-off box, like oxycondone, the most abused prescription drug today, Gallagher said. "I think the departments involved will be surprised at what they receive during this one-day period, and it could be a motivating factor," said Gallagher, whose department established its program pretty much cost-free except for staff time, thanks to the generous donations of community volunteers. Howard added that for a police department that's resourceful, money should not be a limiting factor for getting a drug take-back program up and running. For other departments in the region that do not have their own take-back program, the DEA's Sept. 25 event is a prime way to get started. Amesbury, West Newbury and Rowley have signed up to take part in the program on Sept. 25, and more names are being added to the DEA website, www.dea.gov, every day, Pettigrew said. "We're happy to be taking part in this to make it easier for our residents to safely get rid of prescriptions they no longer use," said Amesbury police Chief Mark Gagnon. "Many teens are taking prescription drugs (recreationally) because they think they're a safer way to get high than buying a street drug like cocaine, because prescription drugs come from a pharmacy. "But prescription drugs are only safe for the people they're prescribed for and when used as directed. My biggest fear is when kids mix these prescription drugs with alcohol. As we've seen, that can be deadly." Gagnon said Amesbury could be considering starting a year-round drug take-back program in the future as well. Salisbury Police Department will take part in the Sept. 25 event, with a centrally located drop-off point on Elm Street (Route 110) at the Sheriff's Community Correctional Center. Prescription drug abuse is the nation's fastest-growing drug problem, according to Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy, with a prime source of pills, not from drug dealers, but coming right out of the family home. "Take-back events like this one are an indispensable tool for reducing the threat that the diversion and abuse of these drugs pose to public health," Kerlikowske said. "The federal/state/and local collaboration represented in this initiative is key in our national efforts to reduce pharmaceutical drug diversion and abuse." BEAT Note: It is critical that we support these efforts, given that the only previous methods of disposal for prescription drugs was to throw them out or flush them down the toilet. In both instances, the chemicals find their way into our water systems with disastrous results for both people and wildlife |
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Clarksburg Looks For Dam Removal Alternatives By Tammy Daniels |
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New Americorps Position with Franklin Land Trust Americorps has announced positions for a new program designed to meet Massachusetts' needs for land protection. Franklin Land Trust will be hosting one Land Steward position beginning October 6, 2010. Gain valuable experience and receive a stipend for your work. For more information on this position go to the Mt. Grace Land Conservation Trust web site. Or download the complete description here |
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Preservation Ale Now Available The Franklin Land Trust is partnering with Bershire Brewing Company on the launch of a limited edition, private label beer: Preservation Ale. This special FLT beer will only be available from August 21 through November 21, and will help support land conservation in the region. Preservation Ale is availalable at the following locations: Stop in at your favorite beer purveyor and ask for Preservation Ale! |
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Transition Initiative prepares for new economic landscape By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Climate change. Dwindling oil supplies. A precarious economy. Disruptions to the national food supply. The future, some believe, is likely to throw a large wrench into life as we know it. The assumptions that we make - that there will be food at the grocery store, gas at the filling station, a regular job to go to on Monday morning - may be tested in a way that's hard to imagine. And there could be considerable hardship if we don't put those assumptions aside and begin planning for change. "There are so many things to consider," Barbara Friend says of life with energy shortages. The prospects can sound grim. How would human waste be handled if electricity shortages shut down a community's wastewater treatment plant, for instance? How could people without heat be helped? What might happen to medical care in a low-energy future? But Friend, of Northampton, says she doesn't see these preparations as steeling for a barren future, but rather as a way people can develop closer links to one another. "I think it can be a joyful experience," she says. Friend is member of Transition Northampton, part of a growing movement that might best be described as a community-driven model aimed at making communities more self-sufficient, with localized food sources and economies. People in the Transition Town movement, also known as the Transition Initiative, don't believe Armageddon is around the corner. The change that's coming will pose challenges, they say - but it will also be an opportunity for people to reconnect on a local level, to develop skills that were once second-nature in many homes, and to find meaning in life not through acquisition and status but through closer ties with neighbors and the environment itself. "The future doesn't have to be something we fear," says Lundy Bancroft, a Florence resident who has helped build a Transition Northampton group in the past year. The Transition Initiative, which began in Great Britain several years ago, is predicated on the idea that humankind is on its way to a low-energy future, one in which a global economy, with its international markets and complicated food-distribution networks, will no longer be viable. According to the nonprofit group Transition United States, there are 74 established groups across the country, including in Pelham, Northfield, Montague and Northampton. <MORE> |
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Berkshire Residents Free Admission Day Berkshire County residents and people who work in Berkshire County are invited to visit Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox free of charge on Saturday, September 12. The sanctuary grounds are open dawn to dusk, and the office and gift shop will be open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The sanctuary offers a well-maintained and clearly marked seven-mile trail system that takes visitors around beaver ponds, through hardwood forest, and to the summit of Lenox Mountain. Pleasant Valley also offers an All Persons Trail that makes the sanctuary accessible to everyone. Special introductory half-price memberships will be available, and our gift shop (where members receive a 10 percent discount) will be open as well. Registration not required. Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary |
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Between the Lines: To Disperse Oil or Criticism? Valley Advocate BP was slow to staunch the hemorrhage of oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout, but it wasted no time applying vast quantities of the dispersant Corexit. By mid-July, BP had released almost 2 million gallons of Corexit into the Gulf ecosystem. BP and Corexit manufacturer Nalco claim the chemical reduced damage from the spill, and was as harmless as dish soap. But dispersants do not lessen the amount of oil in the environment. Rather, they break oil into tiny drops that have different, but not necessarily fewer, toxic properties. Aside from questions of safety and efficacy, dispersants have proven useful, critics charge. Corexit has made the oil less visible, disguised the full environmental impact of the spill and helped BP limit its legal and financial liability. <more> |
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