Politics
Drug treatment tool to protect Missouri kids is underutilized

[ad_1]
Elisha Griffith directly experienced the positive impact of a tool that steers parents to drug rehabilitation.Griffith is a Franklin County resident and the mother of four children. Eight years ago, her daughters were placed in foster care for four years as she struggled with substance use.“They were super traumatized from it, and I’m traumatized from thinking back to that moment,” Griffith said. “My daughter broke out in blotches and was freaking out and didn’t know what was happening or where she was going with strangers.”Griffith eventually was able to regain custody but relapsed. Instead of having her kids suddenly taken from her again, she entered into what’s known as a Temporary Alternative Placement Agreement.She got to choose where her kids stayed while she went through a drug treatment program, and she received access to programs that helped her cope with the rigors of parenting. Her children were connected to therapy services.When asked to compare the two experiences, Griffith said there was no question that a TAPA was less traumatic than what happened to her before. The combination of being held accountable for standing by the agreement and being connected to resources to help her and her family was a lifeline, she said.Earlier this month, Griffith’s TAPA was lifted — and she is now with her children.“They make sure you’re set up and that you’re not going to just fail again,” she said.
Theo R. Welling
/
St. Louis Public RadioElisha Griffith embraces her son Julian Welch, 8, on Thursday at Veterans Memorial Park in Union.
Theo R. Welling
/
St. Louis Public RadioElisha Griffith, center, poses for a portrait alongside her children, from left, Ava, 17; Romeo, 6; Julian, 8, and Mia, 12, at Veterans Memorial Park in Union.
Sporadic use in St. Louis areaBut statistics obtained through an open records request to the Department of Social Services show TAPAs haven’t been used consistently throughout the state since they were rolled out in 2021.From August 2021 through late April of this year, the Children’s Division office that includes St. Louis and St. Louis County entered into 84 TAPAs. That’s by far the lowest number of the six regions, behind Kansas City’s with 110 TAPAs.By comparison, the Children’s Division’s southwest Missouri region, which includes places like Springfield and Joplin, entered into 790 TAPAs. The northeast Missouri region, which encompasses St. Charles and Lincoln counties, had 606 TAPAs.Children’s Division Director Darrell Missey cited staffing issues as to why the St. Louis and Kansas City regions used TAPAs sporadically. He said those offices lacked employees known as family-centered service workers who monitor whether the stipulations around TAPAs are being followed.“The way a Temporary Alternative Placement Agreement works is you can’t just say, ‘We’re giving this child to grandma or some other relative and there you go.’ We have to open a Family Centered Service case,” Missey said. “There weren’t enough people in either St. Louis or Kansas City to have family-centered service workers at all. So if you can’t open the case, you can’t have a TAPA.”Missey said staffing levels have stabilized in St. Louis and Kansas City in recent months, which should make TAPAs more available. The agency’s St. Louis office in particular, which has struggled to recruit and retain investigators, is nearly at full staff and close to finishing a massive backlog of cases. As of last week, Missey said there are only around 500 cases that have been open more than 45 days — down from a high of almost 7,000.“So now that we’re getting more staff, we should be able to reinstitute TAPAs,” he said.State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, though, said she was frustrated to hear Missey’s comments that staffing issues prevented TAPAs from being used more consistently across the state. Even after lawmakers allocated the Children’s Division more money to help implement programs like TAPAs, Coleman said, “We’re still seeing the same bad outcomes for kids.”“This is not a funding issue. This is not a statutory problem. It’s a leadership failure,” said Coleman, R-Arnold.
Eric Lee
/
St. Louis Public RadioState Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, speaks in session in January in Jefferson City.
Since the release of a report examining child fentanyl deaths from 2022, child welfare advocates and legislators are alarmed that TAPAs weren’t being used consistently throughout the state. That report also found Children’s Division investigators missed warning signs that parents were taking fentanyl before their children died of accidental overdoses — including instances in which a mother gave birth in a hospital and both she and her child tested positive for fentanyl.“I was shocked by the severity of these cases that led to the fatalities,” said Jessica Seitz of the Missouri Network Against Child Abuse and a member of the committee looking into the fentanyl deaths among children.Seitz and her colleagues on the committee are calling for better training for investigators when they encounter evidence of the drug — as well as swifter communication with juvenile officers who can remove children from homes. But Seitz and others add that the report showcases substantial gaps in how the state Children’s Division is handling some neglect cases, adding that it should be a wakeup call for the state’s executive branch, agencies and the legislature.“We can’t let a report sit on the shelf,” Seitz said. “And so, I hope to have it in hand when I’m working with lawmakers next year.”Missouri’s Children’s Division is responsible for looking into accusations of abuse and neglect that are called into a state hotline. If investigators find evidence of abuse or neglect, they can recommend removing children from a home to a juvenile officer — an official employed by Missouri’s court system who decides whether evidence is substantial enough to make such a move.Juvenile officers are required to be notified that a TAPA is happening, in case they need to act quickly to remove a child if the agreement falls apart.Lawmakers like Coleman came up with the idea of TAPAs as an alternative to having a judge remove a child from a dangerous home. Before TAPAs existed, the Children’s Division was entering into agreements with parents that were largely voluntary and not overseen by courts.“We didn’t know how many kids there were. And parents didn’t really know what they needed to do to be able to have control of their kids and to end state involvement,” Coleman said. “And the state wasn’t abundantly clear on what was being done to end that diversion. And so kids were falling through the cracks.”Jaidan Adams, director of behavioral health at PreventEd, an advocacy group that tries to prevent and treat alcohol or drug abuse, said her organization encountered a lot of people like Griffith who have found TAPAs useful.“It can definitely be an option that eliminates or reduces a lot of that trauma associated with what those children are going through,” Adams said. “We know that trauma is the No. 1 risk factor for future mental health disorders, behavioral health disorders and substance use disorders. So I feel like anything that can be in place that can reduce that trauma, that’s definitely a great tool to have.”
Sophie Proe
/
St. Louis Public RadioJaidan Adams, director of behavioral health at PreventEd, on Friday at the nonprofit’s office in Olivette
Agencies don’t always work togetherOne of the other issues that members of the fentanyl report review committee found was an uneven relationship between juvenile officers and Children’s Division staff.“We see some places where the juvenile office and children’s division work great together,” said Emily Van Schenkhof of the Missouri Children’s Trust Fund. “But we see lots of places where that relationship does not work the way that it needs to and kids get hurt.”Department of Social Services Director Robert Knodell conceded that there could be improvement in how Children’s Division employees and juvenile officers interact.“There are areas or judicial circuits in the state where those relationships, candidly, are stronger than others,” Knodell said. “We have a lot of new circuit managers, a lot of new leadership in these communities for the Children’s Division around the state — as well as you see a lot of new faces in the juvenile officer community.”One example of this frayed relationship is encapsulated in an email chain that St. Louis Public Radio obtained through an open records request. It features a lengthy message from Missey about an April meeting that took place between Children’s Division staff and juvenile officers.He said that meeting featured “blanket allegations of a purported lack of concern on our part for child safety without any evidence to back that up.”“It was stated yet again that we are somehow violating the TAPA statute. That cannot occur,” Missey wrote. “Again, I would like to know specific circuits where that is occurring so we can work to put a stop to it.”Marcia Hazelhorst, executive director of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, whose membership is primarily comprised of juvenile officers, said there have been instances in which officers only find out a TAPA was agreed to after there’s been a request from Children’s Division to remove a child from a home.“In some incidents, they’re receiving a referral for something fairly serious,” said Hazelhorst, referring to a request to remove a child from a home. “The [Children’s Division] is asking for removal. And in that referral, they find information that a TAPA was done previously — but the juvenile officer was never notified and never received the TAPA. And now they’re requesting removal.”Missey said he has heard “rumors of allegations from outside our agency that there have been cases where juvenile officers were not informed of TAPAs, and I am investigating those rumors to see if they are true. ““To date, no one has directed me to a specific case where this has occurred, and I have no evidence of particular circumstances where a TAPA has been entered without the juvenile office being informed,” Missey said.
Brian Munoz
/
St. Louis Public RadioDarrell Missey, the director of Missouri’s Children’s Division, in August 2023 at St. Louis Public Radio’s headquarters in Grand Center
Handling evidence of fentanylOne change that Missey and Hazelhorst said could be useful is a requirement to immediately contact a juvenile officer whenever there’s evidence of fentanyl use.“We’ve got to make sure that when we have evidence of fentanyl, that we are acting promptly and thoroughly so that those kids are not in the same space as fentanyl,” Missey said.While emphasizing that she would need to see specific language, Hazelhorst added, “With a significant number of child fatalities from this last report, we should do everything imaginable to prevent anything like that from ever happening.”Missey said investigators plan to treat evidence of fentanyl the same way they react when they uncover child abuse.“I’ve messaged this already and I’m messaging it now: If we see a child who has been exposed to fentanyl, we need to act just like they’re being physically abused and protect them with whatever tools we have,” Missey said.Frank Tenant, director of the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team, which helps in criminal investigations involving children, said everyone involved in ensuring the welfare of vulnerable children needs to be on guard for the drug.“One of the other dynamics with older kids [who died of fentanyl overdoses] is they all had some history of drug use, or at least parents and friends thought there was, but none of these kids had any history of fentanyl use,” said Tenant, adding that those children likely unknowingly took the drug.“I was a narcotics agent working undercover for a number of years in the ’80s and early ’90s,” he added. “I have never seen an illicit drug have this kind of impact.”
[ad_2]
Source link
Politics
Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

[ad_1]
A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.
Brian Munoz
/
St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.
One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”
[ad_2]
Source link
Politics
Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

[ad_1]
Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.
[ad_2]
Source link
Politics
As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

[ad_1]
Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.
Dilpreet Raju
/
Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.
No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
[ad_2]
Source link
-
Politics11 months ago
Prenzler ‘reconsidered’ campaign donors, accepts vendor funds
-
Business2 years ago
Fields Foods to open new grocery in Pagedale in March
-
Board Bills2 years ago
2022-2023 Board Bill 168 — City’s Capital Fund
-
Board Bills6 months ago
2024-2025 Board Bill 80 — Prohibiting Street Takeovers
-
Business2 years ago
We Live Here Auténtico! | The Hispanic Chamber | Community and Connection Central
-
Entertainment2 years ago
St.Louis Man Sounds Just Like Whitley Hewsten, Plans on Performing At The Shayfitz Arena.
-
Board Bills2 years ago
2022-2023 Board Bill 189 — Public Works and Improvement Program at the Airport
-
Local News2 years ago
VIDEO: St. Louis Visitor Has Meltdown on TikTok Over Gunshots