"Health & Medical News"

People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

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NASCAR driver Aaron Fike reached an agreement with a Warren County (Ohio) judge to deliver anti-drug messages to youths in exchange for avoiding jail time in his arrest for heroin possession last summer, Associated Press Sports reported Nov. 27.

NASCAR driver Aaron Fike and his fiancee Cassandra Davidson was arrested in an amusement park parking lot in Cincinnati. After four months of rehabilitation, Fike presented a proposal to the judge to avoid jail time by going to schools and racetracks to deliver an anti-drug message.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Medical-marijuana supporters in Michigan say they have gathered more than enough signatures in a petition drive to get the issue on the ballot, the Detroit Free Press reported Nov. 21.

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care said it has submitted 496,000 signatures from registered voters to the state; only 304,000 are needed to get a medical-marijuana question before the state legislature. If lawmakers don’t act on the proposal — which would make medical use of the drug legal under state law — it would be placed on the 2008 ballot.

Popularity: unranked [?]

The fight to determine whether so-called “alcopops” should be classified as beer or liquor in California sometimes smacked of regulatory arcana, but the issue nonetheless spiked the passions of youth leaders in the state.

Alcohol-policy groups and leaders involved in the successful campaign to get the California Board of Equalization (BOE) to change the classification of products like Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade from beer to liquor — thus increasing both regulatory restrictions and taxation — said that youth leaders were critical to the success of the Alcopops and Youth Coalition in forcing regulatory changes. The coalition is comprised of youths, law-enforcement officers, public-health researchers, treatment providers, and others. Most of the youth leaders were high-school students ages 16 to 18.

Popularity: unranked [?]