ALBANY - When the State of New York approved the use of medical marijuana in 2014, the applicants to dispense the drug were vetted and reviewed by a panel of experts said to have deep backgrounds in several fields. The identities of the panel's members had been a mystery since. By July 2015, the panel had chosen five companies that would receive exclusive statewide medical marijuana licenses, a potentially lucrative award in a state with nearly 20 million residents and hundreds of thousands of potential patients. [continues 927 words]
Dr. Caroline MacCallum wants doctors to know that cannabis "isn't the taboo medicine" they might think it is. Not only has she used it successfully to treat more than 50 conditions, she has also seen how it has helped her patients stop using prescription opioids. MacCallum, a specialist in complex pain and cannabinoid medicine, is the medical director at Green Leaf Clinic in Langley, where she assesses patients for their eligibility for Canada's Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations program. [continues 922 words]
Adults in their 70s, 80s and 90s are trying medical marijuana for the first time, hoping it will ease chronic pain, insomnia and depression after pharmaceutical drugs have failed. Businesses are noticing - and they are all in, Adriana Barton reports. Around this time of year, Hope Bobowski can't wait to garden in the flower beds outside her home near Keremeos, in the hills of southern Interior British Columbia. The petite 79-year-old loves card games and cooking for her great-grandchildren, but the only thing that keeps her on her feet is her daily dose of cannabidiol (CBD), a potent extract of cannabis or hemp. [continues 1448 words]
Flying a Canadian flag in celebration, Barrett Blackwood reflected on a time when the prospect of hundreds of pot smokers gathering in Centennial Square to collectively partake would have been out of the question. "This is unprecedented to me, to be here and see no police," said Blackwood, 43. "When I first came here [from Nanaimo] in 1980, you couldn't come to this square and have a cigarette, let alone a joint. The police station was right there [on Fisgard street] and they'd come through the parkade and shoo you away." [continues 432 words]
Ex-soldiers tell trade show how natural drug has helped them battle war's after-effects Trev Bungay says the horror began in 1998 when he was among Canadian soldiers scouring the beaches of Nova Scotia in cleanup operations after the crash of a Swissair jet just off the Atlantic coast. "That was really my look at trauma for the very first time," Bungay told a panel discussion on Sunday at the inaugural O'Cannabiz Conference and Expo. Then came international missions in Africa, Bosnia, Haiti and four combat tours in Afghanistan. [continues 660 words]
After the federal government's announcement concerning legalizing recreational use of cannabis, more than a couple of old hippies have been buzzing. Everyone has an opinion on it, from ethics professors to economic prognosticators. It would appear the broad green leaf that has been demonized for almost a century has coming back into favour. Not to say the medical use of the product hasn't been grabbing attention in the past five years, outside the realm of popular culture. More and more people in the medical profession are agreeing cannabis is a safer substitute to opioids for the treatment of a number of maladies and pain management. [continues 829 words]
The Record speaks to a wide range of people who shun normal painkillers KITCHENER - William Campbell and his wife were on their way to a friend's 25th wedding anniversary one night in 2008 when a drunk driver pulled out in front of them. They didn't have time to stop. Campbell, 53, was hospitalized after the head-on collision, and everything in his life would change. Earlier that day, he'd aced an exam to become a lab technician, after getting laid off from a furniture factory where he'd worked for 22 years. [continues 2148 words]
Last week the federal government announced it will move forward with its highly-anticipated and contentious pledge to legalize recreational marijuana. What might possibly be the most memorable piece of legislation undertaken by the Justin Trudeau Liberals will most certainly result in polarizing political and personal stances. Social media and online reactions range from cheers to fears - including criticisms that the whole movement is nothing short of a government tax grab that has parent and landlord advocates up in arms. "I've witnessed Justin Trudeau try to manage the economy, electoral reform I'm not sure I have faith in his ability to protect kids from pot," said Banff-Airdrie Conservative MP Blake Richards. [continues 624 words]
Medical marijuana may assist in keeping addicts off dangerous opioids. The patients at Dr. Mark Ujjainwalla's methadone clinic are trying to beat their addiction to heroin, narcotic painkillers and other opioid drugs, but most of them still smoke pot. He estimates that 90 per cent of his patients at the Recovery Ottawa clinic on Montreal Road already use marijuana, and he's begun writing prescriptions so they can buy it legally. Medical marijuana, used appropriately, can reduce insomnia, anxiety and cravings for opioids, says Ujjainwalla. Marijuana cannot replace methadone or suboxone, the drugs he uses to treat addicts, he says. [continues 1146 words]
As Justin Trudeau's Liberal government tables its long-awaited marijuana legislation, Canada's doctors have a message about pot: Just because it will eventually be legal doesn't mean it's safe. The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society and other organizations representing front-line health-care providers have been busy broadcasting their concerns about the ill effects of cannabis, especially for chronic smokers under the age of 25. "We're saying: 'Please keep the public-health focus front of mind as this legislation is unrolled,' " said Gail Beck, the clinical director of youth psychiatry at the Royal, a psychiatric hospital in Ottawa. "Lots of people think this is harmless." [continues 672 words]
As Ottawa readies legislation, researchers say there are gaps in understanding its effect on brain After punching a string of numbers into a bolted-down, fireproof, alarm-protected safe - the location of which can't be divulged for security reasons - Steven Laviolette pulls out a tiny vial. Inside that vial is an even tinier dab of dark tar. The tar is purified THC, the mind-altering compound in marijuana. The street price for a gram of weed is about $10. A gram of this stuff costs about $2,000, not counting the cost of the researcher's time acquiring it. Laviolette, a professor in the departments of anatomy and cell biology and psychiatry at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, studies the effects of marijuana on the brain. His lab is investigating the troubling brain changes associated with THC, and also - a rapidly growing avenue of research - the very different and perhaps protective brain changes associated with cannabidiol, or CBD, another compound found in the plant. [continues 2308 words]
Worker claims companies refusing him jobs because of medical marijuana prescription Scott Tizzard of Torbay says he is being discriminated against by companies he should have been working for over the past several months. The Reason? Taking his doctor-prescribed medical marijuana. Tizzard has worked construction in the province for 30 years, going from big project to big project wherever the work has taken him, and wherever dispatched by his union. Described by co-workers as a hard worker, for many of those years he'd worked long-hour days battling the pain and discomfort of Crohn's disease and osteoarthritis. [continues 1499 words]
Medical marijuana shops in the Sea to Sky are gearing up for a future of legalized weed. When you walk into Grass Roots Medicinal in Squamish you only get access to the waiting room. There, a small counter offers bongs and other glassware for sale. All the good stuff - the grass the store gets its name from - is locked up behind a second door, out of reach. To get there, you have to sign up to become a member, which means providing some proof of an ailment that cannabis might help you with. [continues 3513 words]
KITCHENER - A local medical cannabis advocate says he hopes Waterloo Region's marijuana dispensaries closed in a recent crackdown by police can reopen under impending legalization planned by Ottawa. Peter Thurley is a former federal NDP candidate and one of 700 medical marijuana users shut out of the Organix Compassion club when it closed its doors this month after pressure from police. That's why the news the Liberal government is planning legislation that will legalize recreational marijuana use by Canada Day 2018 presents an odd contradiction for people like him. [continues 494 words]
Justin Polci says he's running out of options. The 37-year-old Londoner was prescribed medical marijuana seven years ago after injuring his back. Health Canada requires Polci to order his product through the mail from one of the more than three dozen government-approved producers. But the father of two, like thousands of other prescription marijuana patients across Canada, has turned to illegal pot dispensaries to get some of his medicine. Critics say licensed marijuana producers who supply those in medical need often run out of stock, take too long to deliver product and are plagued by recent contamination scandals. [continues 1696 words]
Anyone hoping for major hints about the government's plans to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis in Wednesday's federal budget likely came away disappointed. Cannabis is mentioned just twice in Budget 2017 - the first time to direct existing Health Canada funding of $9.6 million over five years, with $1 million per year ongoing, to support "marijuana public education programming and surveillance activities" ahead of legalizing the drug for recreational use. The second time, in a section that deals with raising duty rates on alcohol, the budget says as the government moves forward with a new taxation regime on cannabis, "it will take steps to ensure that taxation levels remain effective over time." [continues 786 words]
KITCHENER - Medical marijuana users in Waterloo Region are wondering where to turn now that the city's oldest compassion club has closed its doors following a recent police crackdown on local pot dispensaries. Organix Compassion shut down voluntarily Tuesday following a raid on another Kitchener dispensary, Green Tree Medical Dispensary. The pressure from police has struck fear into the region's pot dispensaries, who say they've stopped selling marijuana following warnings from the authorities. But for the 700 or so members of Kitchener's Organix Compassion club, it means they're scrambling to find new ways to get cannabis to treat a range of medical conditions from nausea caused by cancer to arthritis to chronic pain. [continues 704 words]
Issue: BCMJ, Vol. 59, No. 2, March 2017, page(s) 89 BC Centre for Disease Control Mark W. Tyndall, MD, ScD, FRCPC British Columbia is in the midst of a public health crisis, with 914 documented overdose deaths in 2016. While there has been a steady increase in overdose deaths over the past 2 years, December 2016 had the highest monthly total of deaths ever recorded (128 deaths).[1] This is particularly alarming as it is happening despite a public health emergency announcement in April 2016 and a massive scale-up of the take-home naloxone program that has been used in over 3000 overdose reversals. [continues 574 words]
Complex problems call for multi-faceted solutions, Hazel Magnussen writes. Canada faces a major public health crisis as people continue to die from opioid overdoses. Measures to save lives present new challenges and divert attention from preventive measures to tackle the problem's root causes. According to Dr. David Jurlink, head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, increased prescriptions for narcotic pain killers contributed to the crisis. Once prescribed only for acute pain, narcotic pain killers were being used for chronic pain until "the culture of prescribing opioids began to shift." Patients who become addicted to prescription medications may resort to illicit street drugs. (CBC News, Dec. 24, 2016). [continues 565 words]
Ontario Crime Stoppers organizations offering $1,000 for information In an effort to get the deadly opioid fentanyl off the streets, certain Crime Stoppers organizations in Ontario are offering a $1,000 bounty for information that leads to seizure of illicit forms of the drug. Const. Dana Edwards says Durham Regional Crime Stoppers began the program on Wednesday and is offering the reward to anyone whose tips directly result in the seizure of illegal fentanyl, or its derivatives, that is being trafficked. [continues 480 words]
