By Joel Owerbach, Pharm.D., vice president and Chief Pharmacy Officer for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
The buying decisions you make with over-the-counter and prescription drugs can have a dramatic impact on your household budget.
For over-the-counter drugs, choosing store brands instead of name brands can represent a substantial savings to you without sacrificing quality. Ask the pharmacist for [...]

Upstate New Yorkers who take Flomax®, the popular brand-name drug for the treatment of prostate enlargement, will have a significant opportunity for savings by switching to the drug’s generic equivalent when the Flomax patent expires in early 2010, according to a new report released by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.
Nearly 40,000 men in upstate New York use [...]

Two east side residents are facing felony drug charges. During the search, investigators seized approximately 13.5 grams of cocaine, an undisclosed amount of cash, and an apparent stun gun disguised as a cell phone.

Tonja D. Brown, age 39, Liverpool, New York was arrested by the City of Fulton Police Department on October 30, 2009 after a search warrant was conducted in the City of Fulton.

The Oswego County Sheriff’s Department charged William J. Murray, 51, of 285 Route 48, Fulton with petit larceny and making a false written statement. He was ticketed and released on Saturday afternoon.

Fulton police stopped a vehicle whose driver was unlicensed.  Not long after, police made a significant drug selling arrest.

Two men from Oswego — Steven Baitsell and Baubak Gholipour-Abbasi — and Vincent Ryder of Central Square were among 24 people being sought by police today as officials announced they’d cracked several drug distribution rings that were centered on the village of Solvay in Onondaga County.

The Oswego County Sheriff’s Office, along with members of the US Border Patrol, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Fulton Police Department, and the Oswego Police Department, seized over 300 marijuana plants in Hannibal, Oswego town and Scriba  in a joint eradication effort. (Updated with information about locations and dates of the seizures.)

The Oswego County Legislature recently proclaimed September 2009 as Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month with a presentation to the Oswego County Division of Mental Hygiene. All county residents are encouraged to embrace this year’s theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Together We Learn, Together We Heal.”

The SUNY Oswego Metro Center will offer a pair of two-hour training workshops on Sept. 23 to help human resource managers and supervisors have the specific and correct understanding of the federal laws, to avoid any legal and financial implications. Sessions at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. will outline and explain the regulations and expectations within the law.

Parents: Get your social life back on track! Go out “guilt-free” and have fun knowing that your children are not just waiting for you by the TV — but are having fun too!

The story of the play concerns four affluent couples who gather for a dinner party celebrating their host’s tenth wedding anniversary. So, The Players plan to allow the audience to participate in the anniversary celebration by inviting patrons to attend a wine, and cheese, party before the curtain and sampling a anniversary cake at intermission.

Happy New Year to all of our readers in the tri-county region!
While our Richland facility is closed until April, the society is still active with Friday afternoon hours at the Barclay Court House in Pulaski (2nd floor over DMV, 2pm until 5) or by appointment. We got off to a rocky start following our [...]