Canna Clinic's Toronto stores shut down after Tory voiced concerns about pot shop rise In a series of mid-morning raids Thursday, police shut down marijuana dispensaries operated in Toronto by B.C.-based Canna Clinic. All seven of the company's storefront locations in Toronto were raided, as well as five residences, said Toronto police corporate communications director Mark Pugash. There were also three raids in Vancouver. A bar owner near the company's Kensington Ave. clinic said police came around 10 a.m. Customers were allowed to leave before police closed the store. [continues 623 words]
Approximately 200,000 Canadians have a medical marijuana prescription, but it isn't covered by most health insurance plans. (File) Since the implementation of Canada's national medical cannabis system in 2001, attitudes toward cannabis have changed significantly. What was once stigmatized as a street drug has come to be understood as a substance with broad therapeutic uses. Today about 200,000 Canadians have a prescription to use medical cannabis under a doctor's care for management of symptoms caused by chronic pain, bowel diseases, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, certain mental health disorders and a host of illnesses. Patients use cannabis because it works for them with manageable side effects. [continues 539 words]
The legalization of marijuana is just around the corner and many questions still have to be studied and answered to make sure it's going to be done responsibly, and more importantly safely, so the benefits can be highlighted for those still questioning the decision. The National Access Cannabis (http:/nationalaccesscanabis.com) is doing the largest-ever harm reduction study for opioids using cannabis(http:/opiatestudy.ca/) They are starting with 2,000 patients and plan to grow it quickly, based on the medical resources and the medical community's extensive interest in the study. [continues 255 words]
AT LAST official count, in 2015, over 33,000 people have died from opioid painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl - twice the number killed by guns - and the number of fatalities is rising. Health officials, police chiefs, employers, welfare workers, and politicians at all levels of government are desperately calling for more effective drug treatment, better prevention, smarter opioid prescribing, and improved pain management. Urgent attention is being devoted to every facet of the epidemic except one: how to think about drug addiction itself. As the opioid crisis deepens, it's time to examine whether current thinking about addiction limits our understanding of the epidemic and impedes our efforts to contain it. [continues 268 words]
Research suggests a safer alternative to powerful painkillers OTTAWA - Leading medical experts say legalizing cannabis may offer new hope to one day reduce the use of opioids -powerful drugs frequently prescribed for the treatment of pain. Dr. Mark Ware, a globally-recognized researcher and the vice-chair of the federal government's task force on legalizing marijuana, said a legal framework for cannabis will help to facilitate further research. He said published scientific research already suggests cannabinoid molecules interact with the brain in a way that has an important "synergy" with how opioids interact with receptors in the body. [continues 407 words]
Medical patients in severe pain seek comfort in a variety of ways. Some remedies, they find, work better than others. Some medications, they find, are less addictive than others. These are factors that must be weighed as New Jersey considers the pros and cons of whether to expand its list of "debilitating medical conditions" for those who wish to participate in the state's medical marijuana program. More than 12,500 residents have been registered under the program since it was legalized in 2010, yet many more patients and caregivers want to participate and say the state's existing rules are too restrictive. We agree. [continues 379 words]
Marijuana has long been lauded as a wonder drug for treating nausea and vomiting. Now, health experts say your pot may be making you sick. Emergency medicine physicians at UC Davis Medical Center said they've seen young, often college-age patients come in once or twice a day vomiting multiple times an hour and screaming uncontrollably. "They keep moaning, shouting and yelling after they vomit. It's very dramatic. It sounds like someone is dying," said Dr. John Richards, an emergency medicine physician and professor at UC Davis. [continues 885 words]
The B.C. Court of Appeal has struck down as cruel and unusual punishment the six-month mandatory jail sentence for growing between six and 200 marijuana plants for the purposes of trafficking. The high court decision, which echoed previous rulings that denounced as unconstitutional other former Tory tough-on-crime provisions, underscored the new federal Liberal administration's tardiness in fulfilling promises to review such laws. The decision pointed out that sea-changes in social attitudes, to which the Conservative government seemed oblivious, must be taken into account and "energize" Charter interpretations. [continues 741 words]
Getting weed at these clinics just a bike ride away Last week, I biked from one midtown medical "weed" clinic to another with one purpose only - to see how easy it was to sign up. Armed only with a story about needing weed for my "acute anxiety," I returned home four hours later a client of four illegal weed dispensaries. Each one told me, when questioned, that they were no longer needing prescriptions, only photo ID. I was asked to fill out a form which included listing my "medical issues" and agreeing to at least 10 different conditions that included recognizing what I was doing was "illegal" and that I was not to take the weed across the border. [continues 752 words]
The Yukon and British Columbia experienced the highest rates of apparent opioid-related deaths in Canada last year. According to a new national report from the federal government, the territory and province had a rate of over 15 deaths per 100,000 population compared to a national rate of 8.8 in 2016. "I don't think it's a surprise," Dr. Brendan Hanley, the Yukon's chief medical officer, told the Star of the findings this morning. He noted that the territory's high rates are driven by the five deaths officially linked to fentanyl since April 2016. [continues 624 words]
'Is it justice in the community?' - Judge criticizes Waterloo Regional Police decision to launch a raid KITCHENER - A provincial court judge criticized the Waterloo Regional Police's decision to raid an illegal marijuana dispensary in uptown Waterloo last summer, suggesting a warning might have been sufficient to close it down. Instead, a young Kitchener couple were in court Wednesday, facing criminal convictions for operating a dispensary they say only sold cannabis to adults with medical marijuana licences. Justice Colin Westman wondered aloud why their Waterloo Dispensary, which sold marijuana out of a second-floor business on King Street, was busted by police in August when other local dispensaries were given written warnings a few months later. [continues 984 words]
Montrealers have a well-earned reputation as a society of bon vivants with our abundant terrasses, fun festivals and depanneurs stocked with beer. But with the countdown on to the legalization of marijuana in Canada, which is scheduled to happen just over a year from now, on July 1, 2018, Quebecers are raining on the parade. It started with the Quebec government, expressing skepticism about the social costs versus the anticipated windfalls. Quebec's public health institute has raised red flags about potential harm from stoned driving or the effects of cannabis on developing brains. And now the concern apparently extends to ordinary citizens, who have expressed serious reservations about the implications of permitting recreational pot use compared to other Canadians. [continues 699 words]
One of Canada's largest medical cannabis producers says it will fund a Nova Scotia man's ongoing legal fight to have his marijuana prescription paid for by his employee-insurance plan - the latest move in a nationwide push by industry, patients and their advocates for more widespread cannabis coverage. Aurora Cannabis Inc., a publicly traded grower based in Alberta, announced this week that it will bankroll elevator mechanic Gordon Skinner's coming defence this fall in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. [continues 565 words]
DEAR DR. ROACH: What advice do you have for both doctors and patients for approaching medical marijuana use? What is your ideal vision of its future? ANSWER: I look at marijuana as a potentially useful medicinal plant that has several potential downsides. One of the downsides is an unrealistic expectation of its usefulness by believers. I increasingly see claims that marijuana (or one of its extracts) can treat or cure almost every known disease. It also is hampered by its status as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, so high-quality research is difficult to do. Finally, it has been used for many years as a recreational drug (which is partially responsible for the first two downsides). This has led to resistance to the idea among nonbelievers that it might have legitimate use. The psychological effects for which it is used recreationally can cause it to be intolerable for some. Further, a small percentage of people (estimates range between 2 percent and 6 percent) have difficulty quitting the drug, even when they want to. [continues 427 words]
DEAR DR. ROACH: What advice do you have for both doctors and patients for approaching medical marijuana use? What is your ideal vision of its future? ANSWER: I look at marijuana as a potentially useful medicinal plant that has several potential downsides. One of the downsides is an unrealistic expectation of its usefulness by believers. I increasingly see claims that marijuana (or one of its extracts) can treat or cure almost every known disease. It also is hampered by its status as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, so high-quality research is difficult to do. [continues 557 words]
Provinces chief medical officer calls for heightened efforts amid deepening crisis Alberta's top doctor is calling for expanded efforts to combat a high number of opioid deaths as health officials released a new report on fentanyl overdoses Friday. "We need to continue our efforts to decrease the number of overdoses that we're seeing due to fentanyl and other opioids," said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the province's chief medical officer of health, following the release of Alberta Health's Opioids and Substances of Misuse report on Friday. [continues 682 words]
Lambton County trains managers as local governments brace for expected challenges SARNIA - With Canada ready to legalize marijuana by next July, Ontario municipalities are ablaze with activity prepping for the impacts of that move - including in the workplace. Lambton County recently held a training session for its 75 managers about marijuana and workplace safety. Among the chief municipal concerns are the potential for workers to believe it's legal for them to smoke marijuana on municipal property, as well as the potential for impaired driving if a high worker operates a municipal vehicle. [continues 350 words]
With Canada ready to legalize marijuana by next July, Ontario municipalities are ablaze with activity prepping for the impacts of that move - including in the workplace. The County of Lambton recently held a training session for its 75 managers about marijuana and workplace safety. Among the chief municipal concerns around legalization include the potential for workers to believe it's legal for them to smoke marijuana on municipal property, as well as the potential for impaired driving if a high worker operates a municipal vehicle. [continues 560 words]
In 2015, more Canadians were killed by opioid-related overdoses than lost their lives at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 1995, at the peak of that earlier public-health disaster, 1,764 Canadians were killed by the blood-borne virus. The latest estimates are that opioids claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Canadians in 2015. And all indications are that the death toll is rising, not falling. Part of the problem may have to do with this: Doctors are not just prescribing opioids, but prescribing them widely and liberally. For example, the number of prescriptions for opioids and their derivatives increased 5 per cent in Ontario over the three years ending 2015-16. Last year, Ontario doctors wrote 9.1 million orders for opioid painkillers. [continues 644 words]
Torbay man's job is in limbo as workplaces wrestle with marijuana policies Scott Tizzard has been wrestling with a two-pronged dilemma for the past seven months. And like the north poles of two magnets trying to meet, they repel each other in his mind. The first is his fight for his legal right to medical marijuana - the only thing that works to ease the chronic pain from his diagnosed osteoarthritis after trying a long list of medications his doctors have prescribed over the years. [continues 714 words]
