Not only is Obamacare a poor health care plan from a policy perspective, but now many doctors and health care professionals believe that it is contributing to one of the worst epidemics facing this nation, our state and Long Island: opioid addiction more

“They are the best liars and manipulators in the world,” Lori Dodge said of addicts at a drug-awareness seminar in East Rockaway on Dec. 2. “It doesn’t matter if you’re there right [with] them, or if you’re at work that day.” more

Speaking about Thanksgiving weekend travel, President Obama warned jittery Americans to “be careful.” Somehow I don’t think that settled anyone’s nerves. We can do more, and it starts here at home. more

The drug addicts’ brain scans that Dr. Stephen Dewey takes appear in psychedelic shades of red, yellow, green and blue, each indicating a level of brain activity — or inactivity. Red means excited. Blue is dormant. Dewey is the laboratory director for behavioral and molecular neuro-imaging at the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In that capacity, he’s put hundreds of addicts’ brains to the test — the positron emission tomography test, that is — seeking to understand precisely what happens to the mind when a pot smoker lights up or a heroin junkie shoots up. And, he has found, it isn’t pretty. more

State and local officials gathered at the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow on Aug. 25 to call for harsher criminalization laws for the sale and use of K2, a street name for a type of synthetic marijuana that has become a popular recreational drug among young adults in recent years. more

I cherish a dreamy memory of Mexico. It was 1990, and we were on vacation in Zihuatanejo, then a sleepy fishing village, on the Pacific coast. more

I’m seeing good news on all fronts this week, primarily because I choose to. This is a quest: I am seeking the comfort of upbeat stories. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center and the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District will host a Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mepham High School, 2401 Camp Ave., Bellmore. more

What’s the biggest concern on Long Island today? Sure, property taxes and quality education are always on everyone’s mind, but right now the heroin epidemic that is threatening members of our community . . . more

Last weekend, heroin took the life of someone in the Village of Lynbrook for the fourth time in 2015 when a 50-year-old man died of an overdose inside the Capri Motor Inn on Freer Street. … more