Rob Porter’s resignation as White House staff secretary amid domestic violence allegations from two ex-wives should provide us all moment to pause. Porter has been accused of physically and emotionally abusing his former spouses and a previous girlfriend. Of great concern is the reaction of his employer, The White House. White House support for Porter and questions around the integrity of the domestic violence claims has sent a chilling message to victims across our country. Despite words to the effect that “domestic violence should be taken seriously,” statements issuing from the President and his staff fall incredibly short of acknowledging the gravity of this problem.

Given the opioid addiction crisis, it would seem preposterous that an opioid is legal for use in the United States and can be purchased at tea stores, convenience stores, over the internet and, yes, even from vending machines. However, kratom is not your average opioid. The Drug Enforcement Agency found this out when it tried to ban the herb in 2016.

October was domestic violence awareness and prevention month across the country and here in Greenwich. Domestic violence occurs when one partner intimidates, manipulates or threatens the other in order to establish dominance. While most people think only of physical abuse when they consider domestic violence, financial abuse is largely overlooked in the dialogue about domestic violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, financial abuse is experienced by 94 to 99 percent of domestic violence survivors and occurs across all socio-economic, educational, racial and ethnic groups. Yet, according to the Allstate Foundation, 78 percent of Americans have not heard of financial abuse as a dimension of domestic violence.

I recently spent a week at the outer Cape and saw large schools of seals close to the beach. When I mention this, the invariable response is “sharks.” Where there are seals, there will be sharks. It’s the nature of predators and prey. Which brings me to our worsening opioid-overdose epidemic, why it’s getting worse, and why it will deteriorate further if we don’t change our approach. The sharks are here. They want your children.

There were over 2,000 drug overdoses in Connecticut in a four-year span: 2012-2015. In just 2016 alone, opioids claimed the lives of 917 people from Connecticut. These alarming numbers constitute a full-blown epidemic. In Connecticut, opioid drugs and addiction are now more deadly than gunshots and car accidents combined.

Proposing that the state will potentially raise $200 million in new tax dollars from sales of retail marijuana is misguided and irresponsible, yet this is exactly what is being suggested in the Democrat’s version of the budget that was just released. … Even though I am still a high school student, I have checked some of the published scientific research on marijuana and I know that marijuana is a harmful substance. The scientific research is very clear that exposure to cannabinoids during adolescent brain development can negatively impact areas of the brain related to learning, memory, motivation and emotion even after use has ended.