From the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette:

Rampant opiate use in Fairfield County has local recovery officials wondering what they can do to help more addicted individuals.

Pressed with time and a growing number of patients, many doctors are forced to turn away people hooked on opiates such as heroin, OxyContin, Vicodin, morphine and other pain relievers.

Some even die on waiting lists for a widely used medication called Suboxone: A touted "miracle drug" that suppresses symptoms of withdrawal, reduces cravings, reduces drug use and helps patients stay in treatment.

"With all the deaths and what's happening because of opiates, I just feel like we need more programs in Ohio for that," said Dr. Robert C. Polite, medical director at the Recovery Center in Lancaster. "That's on my wish list to get an opilaoid-treatment license for the Recovery Center where we do specifically Suboxone."

Polite founded the Recovery Center's opiate-addiction recovery program that uses the drug Suboxone. His goal is to one day have a clinic devoted solely to helping those addicted to opiates.

The center chalks up much of its success to the drug, which is helping many Fairfield County residents kick their opiate dependency. The center boasts a success rate of more than 60 percent.

The medication blocks the ability for patients to get high off other drugs, but it still gives the patient a lower feeling of being high, said Recovery Center Clinical Director Sharon Shultz.

Patients typically stay on the medication 10 to 18 months, and more than half refrain from opiate use after treatment. That's a drastically higher success rate than any other type of addiction treatment, Shultz said.

The center has a 30- to 40-person waiting list for the Suboxone program, with more than 50 being treated right now. It's the fact others are waiting their turn - often in critical stages of dependency - that makes the Recovery Center strict on its Suboxone patients, Shultz said.

A lot of patients understand the severity of their situations and stick to the rules, she said.

The number of patients treated in the program has more than doubled in the past two years, since the Recovery Center started offering the treatment program.

But, Polite said the program still is fairly new and malleable.  He said one of the challenges with the program is getting more patients in the door for help.

The problem lies in the number of patients doctors are prohibited to see, Polite said. On top of that, only specially-licensed doctors may prescribe Suboxone.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

A judge yesterday convicted a 28-year-old man of four counts of first-degree murder for shooting numerous times into a narrow Southwest Philly bar two years ago and killing four people, including his own uncle.

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then sentenced Vonzell "Pooh" Roundtree to four mandatory terms of life in prison, to be served concurrently.

The prosecution had decided not to proceed with the death penalty after Roundtree agreed to a nonjury trial.

Evidence at the trial showed that Roundtree fired a 9 mm Beretta at least eight times in Abay Wheelers Bar, on 62nd Street near Wheeler, about 12:30 a.m. July 22, 2007, shortly after a televised boxing match ended.

Roundtree told police that he saw a couple of men punching his uncle in the bar, and that he pulled out his gun in an attempt to protect his uncle, Jamar Thompson.

"I fired until the gun was empty," he said.

But Roundtree ended up killing his uncle, 31, and shooting his uncle's friend, Gallmon, 36, who was not part of the fight that Thompson had with others. Gallmon died about a month later, on Aug. 24.

Roundtree also shot dead the two men whom he said he saw punching his uncle - Claude Snelling, 30, and Arthur Jennings, 20.

Defense attorney David Nenner contended in his closing argument yesterday that Roundtree was "substantially intoxicated" that night from having smoked PCP and marijuana and drinking alcohol, and was unable to form a specific intent to kill.

Nenner called to the stand two witnesses yesterday. Edward Barbieri, of NMS Labs, in Willow Grove, testified that hair samples collected from Roundtree 16 days after the shooting tested positive for PCP and Ecstasy.

He said that the drugs could have been taken about two weeks before the samples were collected.

Psychologist Steven Samuel testified that based on interviews he had with Roundtree, and on Roundtree's statement to police, he did not think that Roundtree formed a specific intent to kill because of the amount of drugs and alcohol that the defendant allegedly ingested before the shooting.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber yesterday agreed in her closing argument that Roundtree was under the influence of PCP, marijuana and alcohol that night. But she pointed out that the intoxication did not rise to the level where Roundtree could not form decisions, including a specific intent to kill.