Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for October 26, 2017

Colonists in Georgia signed a letter allowing the beginning of the slave trade in Georgia on October 26, 1749.

Georgia Sons of Liberty protested against the British Stamp Act on October 26, 1765.

A state Constitutional Convention at Milledgeville, Georgia repealed the state’s Ordinance of Secession on October 26, 1865.

President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act on October 26, 2001.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Best Halloween Costume of the Year.

Governor Nathan Deal yesterday transferred $4 million from the Governor’s Emergency Fund to pay for restoration of storm damage at Jekyll Island.

“Due to Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, there is an immediate need for the rehabilitation of the rock revetment and restoration of armament on the north portion of Jekyll Island,” said Gov. Deal. “I’ve allocated $4 million to cover these immediate needs and will seek supplemental funding in the amended budget to assist other beachfront areas impacted by hurricane-related erosion.”

The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling and held that the Board of Regents is not required to offer in-state tuition rates to people under the federal DACA program.

Issued Tuesday, the state court’s 21-page decision says the DACA recipients who sued for in-state tuition in Georgia have “have failed to carry their burden of showing that the DACA policy had the force and effect of a federal law.”

The court also said the plaintiffs had failed to show “that, even if the DACA policy had the force of law, it created a clear legal duty that required the” Board of Regents to grant them in-state tuition. Further, the board’s tuition rules, the court said, give it “broad discretion.”

Cumming voters are turning out in early voting for municipal elections.

Barbara Luth, head of the Forsyth County Voter Registrations and Elections Department, said 296 residents had cast ballots with 19 absentee ballots mailed out as of Friday. That’s out of a bit more than 3,000 registered voters. The mayor’s seat and two council positions drew challengers this time. Luth says that by contrast in 2015, when two council races were contested, 441 votes were cast in total.

Luth said that turnout in the Georgia House District 26 special election has been much lighter as 116 early votes have been cast with 10 absentee ballots mailed out. She said more than 40 thousand voters live in that district.

Sandra Sidhom was removed from the ballot for Mayor of Roswell because she hadn’t lived in the city long enough to be eligible.

According to the Fulton County District Attorney, Sandra Sidhom has not lived in Roswell for at least one year prior to the Nov. 4 election.

Voters will now choose a new mayor from the remaining field of Lori Henry, Donald J. Horton, Lee Jenkins and Michael Litten.

Gary Ingram was removed from the ballot for Buford City Commissioner, having been found ineligible.

Buford leaders adopted a resolution Wednesday cancelling the city’s election a day after a candidate in the city’s only contested race was disqualified based on a trio of charges.

The resolution declares City Commissioner L. Chris Burge, who abstained from voting on the resolution, the winner in his re-election bid. He had been challenged by Gary Ingram, but City Clerk and Election Superintendent Kim Wolfe ruled Tuesday that Ingram was ineligible to run.

The decision to disqualify Ingram was based on residency issues, questions about a previous guilty plea to a felony and a charge that he illegally held public funds related to child support payments.

Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has created a “safe space” for purchases from Craigslist and other online services.

“Too often, our citizens are victimized when they meet to make the exchanges in poorly lit or unprotected parking lots,” Capt. Allan Rollins said in a news release.

These newly designated safe spaces are at the parking lots of the old Law Enforcement Center at 401 Walton Way, The Charles B. Webster detention center at 1941 Phinizy Road, along with the Marshal’s Office space at the Municipal Building located at 535 Telfair St. The spaces will not be directly supervised but will be under surveillance by the sheriff’s office and marshal’s office and are at locations where police are constantly present.

“It is important to remember that each citizen is responsible for the transactions they conduct and they should make every effort to insure they conduct their business in a safe and productive manner,” Rollins said. “We anticipate these spaces will provide a safe environment for these transactions and a deterrent to anyone trying to conduct fraud.”

Opioid Crisis

Rick Jackson, founder of Jackson Healthcare, writes in Georgia Health News, urging physicians and insurance carriers to work to limit opioid prescription abuse.

Last year, a record 64,070 Americans died from opioid overdoses, with 75 percent of those cases originating from prescription pain medication or street drugs to dull the pain.

That’s a loss of life exceeding two Sept. 11 attacks on our nation each month.

In Georgia the numbers are just as frightening. More than 1,000 Georgians died in 2015 from overdoses from drugs such as hydrocodone, codeine, fentanyl, Vicodin, morphine and street drugs such as heroin – a 200 percent increase since 2000, according to the Georgia Prevention Project.

Many addictive behaviors start with a physician’s prescription, then escalate to an addict buying street drugs – often unknowingly purchasing deadly counterfeits.

To prevent patients from ever getting hooked, Georgia’s medical community needs to take the lead on solving this problem. Medical professionals need to revise policies to discourage patients from seeking deadly narcotics as a solution to physical or emotional pain.

The Richmond County Sheriff is also holding two “Drug Take Back” events where you can dispose safely of unused prescription drugs.

During the event deputies collect drugs from residents. Once the drugs are collected the sheriff’s office turns them over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation where they are “safely destroyed,” McDaniel said.

“We don’t want children to get their hands on some kind of hard narcotic that they might have stumbled across inside of their house be it in a medicine cabinet, or behind a night stand, or even on the street somewhere,” he said. “So if (residents) have anything they can just go to one of the locations where we will be sitting and drop it off. The objective is to get it off the street so we can destroy it accordingly.”

A Chattahoochee Hills Police Officer saved a man from an overdose by administering Narcan (Naloxone) on two separate occasions.

On the afternoon of Oct. 14, Officer Michael Lynch was on patrol when he heard a 911 dispatch an overdose call. Only two weeks prior, Lynch had responded to the same address, also for an overdose.

As soon as he arrived at the residence, Lynch saw the familiar man lying on the kitchen floor and sprang into action.

Lynch then immediately administers 4 mg of naloxone in the man’s nostril. Seeing no response, he administers another. Two minutes later, a third dose was given and the patient begins showing signs of life.

In only a few minutes, the man went from being blue and unresponsive to fully communicating with police and rescue personnel and indicating he was experiencing severe back pain. Despite his requests against further medical attention, he was ultimately taken to WellStar Douglas Hospital.

In September 2016, the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition purchased 588 boxes, totalling 1,176 doses of naloxone. The Chattahoochee Hills Police Department received 25 boxes. Each patrol officer carries a box, which contains approximately two doses.

Walgreens announced it will stock the overdose-reversing Naloxone in all of its pharmacies.

Walgreens is now stocking Narcan — an FDA-approved nasal form of naloxone, used to reverse the effects of opioid drugs such as heroin and some prescription painkillers — in all of its more than 8,000 pharmacies nationwide.

Walgreens sells a single dose of Narcan for $136, according to a pharmacist there who also declined to give his name.

Rick Gates, group vice president of pharmacy for the corporation, said in a statement Tuesday that Walgreens is “committed to making Narcan more accessible in the communities we serve.”

Narcan, which can be administered as a nasal spray, is available without a prescription in 45 states, including Pennsylvania [and Georgia].

CVS also announced it will make Naloxone available in most or all of its pharmacies.

Available without a written prescription in 41 states, naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a safe and effective antidote to opioid overdoses. CVS Pharmacy locations in most communities have naloxone on hand and can dispense it the same day or ordered for the next business day.

Pharmacists at CVS Pharmacies in these states can provide you naloxone without a prescription.  If you would like to purchase naloxone, simply ask a pharmacy team member.