TALLAHASSEE -- Two years after lawmakers approved a needle-and-syringe exchange program in Miami-Dade County, the House and Senate are considering taking it statewide and expanding the types of providers who can offer the services. House and Senate health care-panels on Wednesday approved bills that would allow hospitals, clinics, medical schools and substance-abuse treatment programs to begin offering needle-and-syringe exchange programs to try to reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated cost nearly $380,000 to treat over a lifetime. [continues 273 words]
Temporary facility overdue 'because with every tick of the clock, someone else's life could end,' says ex-addict In a city where drug overdose deaths in the first three weeks of 2018 have nearly matched the entire 2017 death toll, there's finally an answer. Or at least a good start. Advocates say London's newly unveiled overdose prevention site at 186 King St. - the first of its kind in Ontario - is key to stemming the tide of overdose deaths in the city. [continues 555 words]
A four-pillared strategy to combat the region's opioid crisis was unveiled Friday by local officials. They zeroed in on improving treatment options, public awareness, physician and patient education, availability of the anti-overdose drug naloxone and harm reduction measures like needle disposal boxes and investigating a safe-injection site. "We can call it a crisis because it is affecting our community hard and our average rate of opioid-related death is way higher than the provincial average," acting medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said at a morning news conference to announce the strategy that's been a year in the making. [continues 762 words]
Three deaths, two hospitalizations, 48 hours. It doesn't get much scarier. As if the deadly opioid drug crisis sweeping London and the rest of Canada isn't alarming enough, London police amped up their warnings about the fallout Wednesday in the wake of three suspected drug overdose deaths and two hospital emergency cases spread over several days this week. The move came as city police and the Ontario Provincial Police held a rare joint public information meeting Wednesday night about the dangers of fentanyl, the most sinister opioid drug and one that's already been implicated in deaths in Southwestern Ontario. [continues 726 words]
Addiction is a serious issue, but it shouldn't be a criminal one, says Derek Chang. "I just learned that my cousin overdosed at a friend's party. His friends were afraid of calling 911 and left him alone. He was eventually brought to the hospital but remained in a coma and died the following day." Biting her lips, my patient told me this painful news in the clinic. I thought I wouldn't be hearing these kinds of tragedies again after the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act came into legislation last year. [continues 689 words]
Three weeks after Ontario said it would fast-track creation of temporary safer drug-injection sites, the province has finally cleared away the bureaucratic red tape - a move that will soon lead to a site or sites in London. The red tape - the Ontario government had promised a 14-day turnaround - - was the last barrier to health units across Ontario to creating safer places to lessen the death toll of opioids. The Middlesex-London Health Unit used the last three weeks to have its application ready to go. [continues 497 words]
Will the selling of marijuana in liquor stores result in poor health outcomes, higher health costs and more impaired driving? The answer, according to two credible and well-respected medical professionals, is a resounding "yes," and it's an answer they are trying to get the NDP government to sit up and take notice of. Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s long-serving chief provincial health officer, and Dr. Marcus Lem, the chairman of the Health Officers Council of B.C., are leading the charge against what is a widespread assumption that liquor stores will indeed be the primary outlet for the sales of cannabis once it becomes legal on July 1st. [continues 623 words]
Editor's Note: This story is part of a series on the birth of a new Nova Scotia industry: Legal pot cultivation. Nova Scotia pain researchers are looking to key into the body's own systems for relief through new products based on cannabinoids like those in cannabis. A research team has founded a company called Panag Pharma Inc. to develop non-addictive, effective topical pain relievers that will be available over the counter. Company president Dr. Mary Lynch is a professor at Dalhousie University and director of research in the pain management unit of the QEII Health Sciences Centre. [continues 747 words]
New 'sin tax' may create 'barriers' for patients Canada is riding high when it comes to cannabis. By next summer, the country could be the first G7 economy to have legalized recreational marijuana, creating an allnew industry expected to generate billions of dollars in cash for companies and government coffers. But while pot smokers and the companies that will serve them celebrate, the concerns of the medical marijuana industry seem to be getting short shrift. For one thing, the federal government in November proposed to subject medical cannabis to the same excise tax - or "sin tax," as some refer to it - as its recreational cousin. The mere prospect of a medicinal marijuana tax has been taken as a slight against the drug's therapeutic properties, since critics note that other medicines are not subject to such a charge. [continues 1489 words]
College's information outdated, says James Moir. The Alberta College of Family Physicians (ACFP) recently published a statement reflecting their stance on medical cannabis, basically stating there is insufficient evidence to recommend it, and that adverse effects outweigh any benefits. As a physician working in Edmonton's only legitimate "physician-and-nurse-run" cannabinoid medical clinic, I must object strongly to this stance. I have an MD from the University of Alberta, with five years' subspecialty training in anesthesiology and pain medicine, and have over 20 years clinical experience in this area. I have five years' experience in perioperative medicine and extra training in cannabinoid medicine, which allows me to prescribe medical cannabis and work in the clinic, where I have been for the better part of a year. [continues 572 words]
In the wake of a deadly opioid drug crisis that's killed hundreds in Ontario, London health officials are fast-tracking a pop-up, - -overdose-prevention site they want to have up and running by January. The stripped-down version of a supervised consumption site will give drug users a safer environment to inject. The location of the site, or the total number if there is more than one, hasn't been pinned down. But the plan is to have at least one as early as possible in 2018. [continues 747 words]
The United States' overall rate of hepatitis C infection more than doubled from 2004 to 2014 -- and among people under 40, it increased by 300 to 400 percent. The reason for the jump? Transmission through injecting opioid drugs, said a report published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. Lead author Jon Zibbell, senior public health analyst in the Behavioral and Urban Health program of North Carolina-based RTI International, said public health officials have long presumed the link, but the research, performed in conjunction with a number of other agencies, provides data to back it up. [continues 580 words]
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Charles Grugan's drug addiction took a toll on his family. They tried to help him, but on Oct. 12, 2011, Grugan 33, overdosed on heroin. He never recovered. While on life support in a regional hospital, doctors approached his family and showed them his driver's license. Grugan had made the decision to be an organ donor when he was 18 years old. His heart, liver and kidneys were successfully transplanted into three people. "It was a silver lining for us," Grugan's' mother, Eileen Grugan, said. "Donating Charles' organs to others was the thing that kept our family together and pulled us through this grief. [continues 893 words]
Have they opened Pandora's box? Some Deerfield Beach city leaders worry that's what they might've done by allowing marijuana dispensaries in the city. They're now trying to stop medical dispensaries from clustering citywide by keeping them out of commercial areas that also have homes, as well as setting rules to stop them from opening next to one another. Mayor Bill Ganz said he doesn't want the city to become known as the place to buy pot, even if it's just the medical kind that doesn't get you high. [continues 705 words]
Two community agencies on hand to lend support for initiative which is expected to be paid for by province The city has endorsed a supervised injection site for downtown Hamilton but it's up to a community agency to step up to run such a facility. The city's board of health endorsed the findings of a long-awaited study Monday that recommend adding at least one permanent site in the core for people to safely inject illegal drugs under the watchful eye of health professionals. [continues 575 words]
Facing the reality that Hamilton needs at least one supervised injection site is not pleasant. In an ideal world, such a thing might not be needed. People with drug addictions would get counselling and support to break their addiction. Until then, they could ingest drugs in a safe and clean environment. But this isn't an ideal world. We're in a historic and growing street-drug crisis. And those qualities - access to support and a safe environment - are exactly what you get with a supervised injection site (SIS). [continues 410 words]
The B.C. government stepped up its fight against the growing number of drug overdose deaths Friday with the launch of a new emergency response centre that will link to regional and community action teams on Vancouver Island and elsewhere. The emergency centre will have about 10 full- and part-time staff based at Vancouver General Hospital and backed by a team of experts. The centre will analyze data, spot trends and work with new regional teams at Island Health and the other four health authorities to improve front-line services. [continues 632 words]
Lessons are still being digested after a lethal batch of opioids in October put emergency workers to the test The first warning came mid-afternoon on a Thursday in late October, from a client at a downtown Victoria HIV/AIDS and harm-reduction facility. It was the day after "cheque day," when social-assistance payments are issued in B.C. - a period linked to an increase in overdoses and other related harms. But even with that factored in, front-line workers were getting the sense that things were worse than usual. [continues 1201 words]
Motacan Compassion Society is exempt from business licence requirement, operator argues A medical marijuana dispensary is suing the City of Abbotsford in an effort to remain open and avoid paying thousands of dollars in tickets. Motacan Compassion Society, which operates a storefront location in an alley off Montrose Avenue in downtown Abbotsford, says it is exempt from bylaws requiring a business licence due to its not-for-profit society status. In a petition filed last week in B.C. Supreme Court, "principal operator" David Smith claims Motacan is a registered society that provides "reasonable access to medical cannabis to members of the society on a highly subsidized basis." [continues 266 words]
Canada is currently in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis. The two most western provinces and territories - British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon and the Northwest Territories - have been hit especially hard, likely due to their relative proximity to China, where much of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is produced. According to Government of Canada statistics from 2016, B.C. and Yukon each had more than 15 opioid overdoses per 100,000 people, while Alberta and N.W.T. each had between 10 and 14.9 overdoses per 100,000 people. [continues 514 words]
