When the police came to Lois Fridfinnson's door and told her that her son, Michael Johnson, died from a methadone overdose, she fell to the floor. She thought that would be the worst day of her life. Her 23-year-old son struggled with opioid addiction. Michael had been waiting nearly three months to get into treatment. He had been given a two-day supply of methadone and was supposed to enter treatment on May 3, 2010. He died on May 1. [continues 1090 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]
WATERLOO REGION - The public school board is considering stocking every school with an emergency kit to fight drug overdoses, at the cost of $119,000 per year. Kits contain the medication naloxone. By injection or nasal spray, it temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose of an opioid drug such as fentanyl or heroin. Currently, local schools are to call 911 if an overdose is suspected. "If that was my child I would want someone to do something," trustee Cindy Watson said, after pressing the Waterloo Region District School Board to buy overdose kits and train staff to use them. [continues 465 words]
It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: "Friends coming for dinner. Please pick up wine." You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle of your favourite wine and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you have confidence knowing you're buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located in every community across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record over many decades, selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 517 words]
A proven system is already in place, Stephanie Smith and Damian Kettlewell write. It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: "Please pick up wine." You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you know you are buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 535 words]
Mayor backs scheme, says time to get it out of alleyways and off railway lands A decision on whether to authorize a supervised injection site in Hamilton's core is expected to be made Dec. 4 by the Board of Health. The proposed site would be located somewhere between Main Street East and Barton Street East and bordered by Queen Street North and Wellington Street North. "It's high time we tried to get these injection issues out of the alleyways and the railway lines and make sure people who are doing drugs, do it safely," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger. "People are drug addicted and that's just the reality. Turning our mind away from that or sticking our head in the sand is delusional." [continues 785 words]
Most pharmacies won't ask what needles are used for Used needles or other sharps never have to be discarded in bottles, garbage or public spaces because of the Safe Sharps Bring-Back Program. The Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia (PANS) administers the program for residential sharps users. Although it is not intended for people who use intravenous drugs, most pharmacies won't ask what the needles are being used for. "The whole idea is about harm reduction," said Hugh Toner, pharmacist owner of both Medicine Shoppe stores in Sydney. [continues 573 words]
To effectively combat substance abuse, marijuana tax funds should primarily be invested in prevention and education On November 10, the Canadian federal government announced an excise tax plan that will be implemented when marijuana is legalized next summer. The plan proposed an excise tax of $1 per gram, or 10 per cent of the producer's sale price, with the higher amount of the two being charged. The plan is still in its consultation stage, and there are sure to be many changes over the next few months. Hopefully the fact that education and prevention tactics provide better long-term solutions to addressing substance abuse than punitive mechanisms will guide future discussions about the tax plan. Moving forward, marijuana legalization should be approached mainly as an issue of public health - the revenue from legalization can play a major role in ensuring appropriate solutions to substance abuse are implemented. [continues 876 words]
The chief of Attawapiskat First Nation has solutions for the illegal drug trade in his community - but he's coming up against "frustrating " roadblocks. Ignace Gull said Thursday that Attawapiskat is dealing with Canada Post, the Northwest Company and the Ministry of Transport (which owns the airport) to stop the flow of drugs. "We're trying to do our own way of making sure that those drugs don't flow through our community," said Gull. "One of the things that costs us is with these prescriptions drugs, they're destroying young people, destroying families." [continues 726 words]
Best-selling author Johann Hari weighs in on B.C. housing and opioid crises Graeme Wood / Richmond News Adequate, affordable housing - not a misguided, unscientific and subjective approach to drug criminalization - is the cornerstone of preventing and overcoming drug addiction. That's the message British author and drug war critic Johann Hari brought to Richmond Monday at a conference hosted by Housing Central (BC Non-profit Housing Association, Co-op Housing Federation of BC, Aboriginal Housing Management Association and the Pacific Housing Research Network.) [continues 529 words]
It's late afternoon and you receive a text message: 'Friends coming for dinner. Please pick up wine.' You pull into the neighbourhood liquor store, pick up a bottle of your favourite wine and head home. A familiar scene taking place across the province every day. When you go into your local liquor store, you have confidence knowing that you're buying a quality product in a secure environment, with stores conveniently located in every community across the province. B.C.'s public and private liquor stores have a proven track record over many decades, selling controlled alcohol products to adults in a responsible manner, with more than a 90 per cent compliance rate in restricting sales to minors. [continues 533 words]
Users fed their poisons - but safely - in public park It's the perfect setup for hard-core addicts. There's a special tent for crack smokers. There's another tent to provide safe injections of illegal drugs like heroin, fentanyl and opiates and handouts of Naloxone (an antidote for opioid overdoses) - the tent now winterized with the generous assistance of the health ministry. Overseeing the "military-grade equipment" that provides heating and lighting are two staff with the ministry's emergency medical assistance team (EMAT). Cost is unknown at this point because the "deployment is ongoing," says Laura Gallant, spokesman for Health Minister Eric Hoskins. [continues 623 words]
The county issued a request for proposals last week for local drug strategy to address opioid and other substance misuse issues Oxford County is zeroing in on the development of a local drug strategy that would include an overdose response plan for the opioid crisis. Last week, the county issued a request for proposals for the development of a drug strategy to enhance local opioid response while working towards building a sustainable community outreach and response capacity. "We are reaching out to individuals and organizations who may be interested in developing a drug strategy for Oxford County to address opiate issues and other substance misuse," said Peter Heywood, manager of health protection for Oxford County public health. "We look forward to reviewing those proposals in a couple weeks." [continues 218 words]
A GENERATION of Canadians who grew up with the "Just Say No" anti-drug messaging of the 1980s will find themselves in uncharted waters next summer. As of July 1, 2018, marijuana will be legal, which will radically change a lot of things - including, significantly, how we talk to our kids about it. Realistically, it's a conversation we should already be having. According to a 2013 UNICEF Office of Research report, Canadian youth are among the top users of marijuana in the developed world. [continues 503 words]
BIA expresses concern about T.O.'s first harm-reduction site In a mere matter of months it seems the city's first harmreduction site has turned one of Toronto's top tourist areas into a needle disposal site. Mark Garner, CEO and executive director of the Downtown Yonge BIA, says they're seeing an "increased number of needles" within blocks of The Works location on Victoria St. - in YongeDundas Square, in the washrooms of Tim Hortons coffee shops and in laneways. [continues 887 words]
To say that Canada is in the midst of opioid crisis is, tragically, a gross understatement. This is an emergency. Some 3,000 people, or about eight a day, are expected to die of opioid overdoses this year in Canada. Another 16 others are hospitalized each day. To put that in perspective, 44 people died in the SARS epidemic of 2003. So Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor's announcement last week listing new measures to fight the opioid crisis could not have come soon enough. But, distressingly, as bold as the new measures are, they don't go far enough to ward off the epidemic of deaths caused by these highly addictive drugs. [continues 587 words]
Regularly imposed bail condition is an untenable method of punishment and sets up marginalized people for failure Imagine you have a serious medical condition requiring regular care. You are charged with a minor offence, for which you are innocent until proved guilty, and your first step into the justice system is to stand before a judge who will determine whether you will be released on bail. The judge says you are free to go, but as a condition of release you are not to be within the 10 square-block area that constitutes the downtown - even though your doctor, your pharmacy and your social supports such as friends and family are all within that area. You have been "red zoned" from your community. [continues 835 words]
A quarter-century ago, Abbotsford had its moment of clarity with respect to drugs and gangs. After repeated denials by the city's municipal police department that gangs were active in the Fraser Valley city, the truth was laid bare when 18-year-old Kirby Martin was shot and killed in a parking lot of a mall along the city's main strip, South Fraser Way. His death was followed by acknowledgment from police that gangs were indeed part of life in the city and many community forums followed. [continues 598 words]
A significant majority of Yukoners are behind the federal government's plan to legalize marijuana for recreational use A significant majority of Yukoners are behind the federal government's plan to legalize marijuana for recreational use and believe it's acceptable to occasionally use the drug for exactly that reason. Those findings are in the results from the Yukon government's most successful survey ever in terms of participation numbers. Nearly 3,200 responses to the introductory section of a YG public engagement survey on cannabis legalization were filed. [continues 686 words]
The event will feature stories from the front lines Nelson's Fentanyl Task Force is set to host Growing Hope: A Community Conversation on the Current Fentanyl Crisis at Nelson's Hume Hotel on Nov. 22. The discussion will feature health care professionals, emergency responders, educators and community leaders across the West Kootenay. "What will have the biggest effect on death is reducing stigma for people who are using drugs," says Chloe Sage, an educator at Nelson's ANKORS who will be part of a seven-person panel of speakers at the event. "One of the goals of these panels is to be able to talk about all the issues that involve people who use drugs and people who are at risk of dying from fentanyl overdose. When we start lowering the stigma and people can talk about what they are going through, then we will have less deaths because people will be able to seek the help they need." [continues 1291 words]
Canada's response to the opioid crisis has been fragmented and marginally effective at best. We deserve a better approach, and the answers are out there. Other countries are effectively dealing with the issue and Canada should be more open to learning from them. There are several key steps we can take to ensure Canadians with addiction can lead healthier, happier and more productive lives. First, we need to recognize this is actually a crisis. Do you remember SARS and how it impacted every Canadian with a focused response from our public health teams? Forty-four Canadians died from SARS. How about AIDS at its peak in 1995? We all were aware of the crisis and as Canadians we worked together diligently to help. That year about 1,400 people died from AIDS. Compare this to over 2,400 Canadians dying from opioid overdoses in 2016 and the number likely to double in 2017. [continues 625 words]
The federal government is moving on a number of fronts as it pushes toward the legalization of cannabis by next summer, including launching public consultations on the proposed excise tax of $1 a gram. In addition, federal officials are putting the finishing touches on complex regulations that will set the rules for the production and distribution of cannabis "from seed to sale." Once they are made public in coming weeks, the regulations will be the subject of separate consultations, with the government seeking input of everyone from producers to consumers to health experts. [continues 617 words]
Province widens availability of device for detecting the presence of fentanyl; medical health officer says lives will be saved British Columbia has expanded a program allowing people to check their street drugs for fentanyl before using, becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to facilitate the experimental testing on a wide scale. Health officials have also purchased a device that detects both the presence and quantities of deadly adulterants and can provide a more detailed analysis of not just fentanyl, but other chemically similar drugs being cut into the local supply. [continues 684 words]
Re Ottawa Adds $36-Million In Funding For Cannabis-Education Campaigns (Nov. 1): If the federal government truly wanted to limit harm from marijuana, it would only legalize it for sale and consumption in forms that aren't smoked and have standardized amounts of THC per unit. It would also delay legalization until there's a roadside test that's as accurate as breathalyzers. The Liberal government is willing to postpone its deficit reduction timeline, and not to proceed with a referendum on voting reform, but implementing recreational drug use is a campaign promise the Liberals just can't delay. Why are they so eager to legalize marijuana? Is dealing with the Trump administration really that bad? Beth Bailey, Ajax, Ont. [end]
Conditions can push people to commit crimes: Study Releasing people on bail on the condition they do not go to the Downtown Eastside sets them up for failure, according to research from three Canadian universities. Judges often order people on bail to avoid certain "no-go zones" or "red zones" in an effort to prevent them from committing crimes. But it, in fact, does the exact opposite, says SFU geography professor Nicholas Blomley. "These are people who have yet to be found guilty of an offence," he said. [continues 391 words]
Structure is meant to be temporary solution as temperatures drop, while Toronto officials race to get indoor location approved Toronto's illegal, activist-run overdose-prevention site in the city's Moss Park now has the use of an insulated, heated, military-style medical tent, complete with a generator - all courtesy of the provincial government. The khaki tent, which measures about three by eight metres, was erected Thursday by Ontario's Emergency Medical Assistance Team, a unit usually deployed for community evacuations or "mass-casualty events." [continues 860 words]
Does Trudeau back harm reduction or not, ask Sandra Ka Hon Chu and Richard Elliott Implementing needle and syringe programs in federal prisons could prevent numerous new HIV and Hepatitis C virus infections each year, saving tens of millions of dollars. Five years ago, we started a constitutional court case, because it was clear that, despite the evidence, the previous government would never agree to implement these health services in federal prisons. But the Trudeau government has repeatedly declared its commitment to harm reduction and evidence-based policy, to Charter rights, and to the health and welfare of vulnerable Canadians. Prison-based needle and syringe programs reflect all of these. [continues 585 words]
When Lisa was released on bail, following an arrest for possession for the purpose of trafficking, British Columbia's Provincial Court ordered the Downtown Eastside resident to stay away from the busy hub of Hastings Street. But she says that condition, that she stay away from the street where she was arrested, made little sense. "My bank was there, my home was there, my probation was there, my doctor was there, like come on guys! All of Hastings Street? Hello! My whole life is there! They're going to arrest you every time you want to go home?" [continues 535 words]
Government will work with harm-reduction workers operating pop-up site Ontario is dispatching its Emergency Medical Assistance Team to set up a tent in Moss Park to provide a heated and insulated space for safe injections. "This is an overdose crisis. People are dying and, today, Minister Eric Hoskins and the Ontario government have stepped up," Councillor Joe Cressy said Wednesday night. The tent will be set up Thursday and replace a temporary site run by the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society (TOPS). The ministry will work with TOPS staff, Cressy said. [continues 517 words]
Talks to move Toronto's illegal popup supervised drug-use site inside a nearby homeless centre have failed, but the harm-reduction activists who have been setting up their tents in an east-end park every evening say they plan to stay put. The crowdfunded, volunteer-driven Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA) has operated its controversial pop-up site in Moss Park near Sherbourne and Queen Streets since August, with tacit approval from police and city officials amid a growing number of opioid overdose deaths. [continues 706 words]
