School Districts Take Pre-Emptive Strikes in an Attempt to Steer Students From Drugs and Alcohol The misconception is easy to have, and often it leads to the wrong conclusion: Only teenagers in big cities can lay their hands on drugs. "You can get drugs anywhere," said Billy Burns, the athletic director at Logan High, a school in a remote area of eastern New Mexico with about 85 students in grades 8-12. "If you believe the hearsay, a small town is just like a big town. We have the same problems." [continues 3256 words]
When someone dies, it's common for loved ones to shake a fist at whatever deity they believe in and ask "why?" In the U.S. of A., it's almost as common to look for someone to blame. And then file a lawsuit. Any death of a vibrant young person is a tragedy. When it's absolutely avoidable, such as a drug overdose, even more so. But barring gross negligence, it adds insult to injury to expect others to take responsibility for a death an autopsy report attributes to an overdose of illegal hallucinogenics - especially those who tried to save her life. [continues 311 words]
Re "Cocktail of drugs in system" (Sam Pazzano and Maryam Shah, July 29): You said he was on meth, ecstasy and marijuana. Really, you want to go there? Linking pot to those other two is an unfair comparison. It certainly doesn't help the movement towards legalization. Did you mention that he may have had aspirin or caffeine in his system as well? What about prescription drugs? Of course not, because it's unimportant. Marijuana does not make you a raging lunatic. It actually calms you. So, enough of the reefer madness and report the real news. Cue silly comment. [continues 62 words]
State Among 10 Defendants Named in Wrongful Death Complaint SANTA FE - Just shy of the second anniversary of the death of Hannah Bruch, a 14-year-old Santa Fe girl who died after ingesting a hallucinogenic drug while attending a rave concert at Expo New Mexico, a lawsuit alleging negligence was filed against 10 defendants in Santa Fe District Court on Monday. In the wrongful death complaint filed by a representative of Hannah Bruch's estate, the defendants are listed as the state of New Mexico, three companies that co-promoted the event, two security companies, an ambulance company, a hospital, and two paramedics who provided emergency medical care at the show. [continues 751 words]
SOME find "getting high" a great rush and an escape from their stressful and frustrating lives, while others have paranoid hallucinations or worse. Recently, the New South Wales Government announced the first medical marijuana trial. It comes as ongoing media stories focus on drugs in Australian society. As someone who has lived in five states in this country, reporting in each of those on drugs, and having been a teenager who tried marijuana, I have to say I agree with some aspects of the legalisation argument. [continues 706 words]
Alcohol Intoxication Cases Can Get Bad, Especially in the Younger Kids Who Drink Too Much Too Fast. There is no set way or concrete guidelines for how front-line workers deal with the volatile issues that stem from drug and alcohol-related injuries at Montreal music festivals. Over the next three weeks, Montreal will be home to some of the largest music festivals in the country including Osheaga, Heavy MTL and IleSoniq. Hundreds of musical acts bring thousands of people from all over to Ile-Sainte-Helene for three consecutive weekends in August. [continues 1593 words]
In high school, Shelley Goldsmith was a student council president and tennis team captain. She'd won an academic scholarship to the University of Virginia, had raised money for the American Heart Association and baked cupcakes for cancer patients when her dad was going through chemotherapy. The Abington, Va., teen also loved music. In August 2013, Goldsmith, then 19, attended a rave concert at a club in Washington where she took some Molly, a popular recreational drug. After a few hours of hard dancing, she collapsed. She died several hours later at a hospital. [continues 1109 words]
UC Irvine Graduate's Death Is the Latest in a Long Series Tied to Drug Use at Raves A 24-year-old San Francisco man who died while attending the Electric Daisy Carnival rave in Las Vegas had ingested a fatal dose of the drug Ecstasy, authorities said. The cause of death for Nicholas Austin Tom, a UC Irvine graduate, was MDMA intoxication, the shortened version of Ecstasy's scientific name, according to the Clark County coroner's office. Tom was declared dead June 21 at 3:25 a.m. at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the rave was being held. [continues 750 words]
At last, a sign that the UK is moving - albeit at a snail's pace - towards a realistic policy on drugs, one that is appropriate for the 21st century. New figures show that more than a million people aged between 16 and 24 used cannabis in the past year. Now, those in the North-east who keep pot plants - the hallucinogenic kind rather than a Busy Lizzie - no longer fear a knock on their door and a trip to the police station. [continues 699 words]
A federal judge rejected the medical marijuana defense of a member of the so-called "Kettle Falls Five" growing family and sentenced Jason Lee Zucker on Friday to 16 months in prison. "There is no such thing as medical marijuana," U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice said. "There is no such thing in federal law." Zucker is the first to be sentenced in the case. He pleaded guilty the day before trial began in March and testified for the federal government against Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, Rolland Gregg and Michelle Gregg, saying he twice brought more than 70 plants from his home in Seattle to the Harvey property in rural Stevens County in 2011 and 2012. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Baunsgard said Friday Zucker's testimony was "integral" to obtaining convictions against his co-defendants and urged the lighter sentence. He could have been sent to federal prison for five years. [continues 610 words]
Yeah, it's a cure-all. My buddy Jonah broke his elbow one time. He just smoked some weed. It still clicks, but it's cool. -Ben Stone in the film Knocked Up. Maybe Ben Stone and his friend Jonah were onto something. A study by Israeli scientists recently published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found broken bones healed faster and stronger in lab rats injected with cannabidiol (CBD), one of the non-psychoactive compounds found in marijuana. In the study, Tel Aviv University researchers injected CBD into rats with mid-femoral fractures and found the CBD made the bones stronger during and after healing. The study found the treatment was far less effective, however, when the rats were injected with a combination of CBD and THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient. Sorry, Ben. [continues 447 words]
Drug Laws Have Been Liberalised From Portland to Portugal. Why Is New Zealand Missing the (Magic) Bus? Philip Matthews Talks With Decriminalisation Advocate Ross Bell. Drug law reform. Is there any better example of a heart versus head issue? Logic and rationality tells you that the system does not work, that drugs are a medical issue not a criminal one. But your gut says lock all the junkies and potheads up. It is Ross Bell's job to wrestle with these dilemmas. For 11 years he has been chief executive of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a charitable trust charged with preventing and reducing harms caused by drug use. [continues 2104 words]
The first clinical trial in Canada is under way to test whether the party drug could be part of a treatment for those with PTSD For the first time in four decades, an illegal psychedelic drug is being clinically tested in Canada. A team of psychiatrists and psychologists in Vancouver are giving 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA)-better known as the party drug ecstasy-to 12 people suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The drug will be administered in therapeutic sessions to help them deal with memories they have found difficult or impossible to confront, as part of a group of clinical trials, including in the U.S. and Israel. [continues 1943 words]
Tops List in Capital Along With Coke, Crack Drug users in other North American cities are warming up to new designer drugs like bath salts and flakka, but garden-variety marijuana is the drug of choice in Canada's capital. Cocaine and crack round out Ottawa's trio of popular illicit narcotics, said Sgt. Ian McDonell, who heads up the Ottawa Police drug unit. Marijuana, which has been the "traditional" drug of choice for years, still holds onto that dubious title, McDonell said. [continues 390 words]
PROACTIVE PLANS: Pemberton, other shows provide 'safe havens,' harm-reduction programs on site The drugs aren't what they used to be. Long ago, the acid, mushrooms and pot of the Woodstock era started making way for party drugs like MDMA, GHB and ketamine, which may have played a role in as many as five deaths at Canadian summer music festivals in 2014 - and organizers are scrambling to keep their attendees safe. Last year, 21-year-old Nick Phongsavath was found unresponsive in a tent at the Pemberton Music Festival and 24-year-old Lynn Tolocka died after collapsing at Boonstock Music Festival in Penticton. The B.C. Coroners Service is still investigating the cause of both deaths, spokeswoman Barb McClintock said Wednesday. [continues 843 words]
WATERLOO REGION - With a number of negative impacts on communities, Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin says a jump in drug charges last year "worries" him, especially when it comes to crystal meth and ecstasy cases. "Drug activity is like a football field - you never want to give up yardage. You want to keep gaining yards," he said. "When you start to lose yards and you start to slip back, it's hard to make it up." According to the department's 2014 crime statistics report, made publicly available following last week's police services board meeting, investigators laid a total of 2,167 Controlled Drug and Substances Act charges, up slightly from 2,121 during 2013. [continues 520 words]
Martha Fernback was just 15 when she took the fatal dose of ecstasy that was 91 per cent pure, and her mum Anne-Marie Cockburn believes, had regulations been in place, she might still be alive On a sunny day two years ago Anne-Marie Cockburn's phone rang. At the end of the line was a stranger who told her that her 15-year-old daughter was gravely ill and and they were trying to save her life. Martha had swallowed half a gram of white powder. [continues 935 words]
When federal authorities shut down a website that peddled designer drugs, one previous purchaser wondered just what to do and whether the cops could be coming for him. He reached out to the website operator, who told him not to worry and provided him with a new website to buy the illicit drugs. The buyer, who had already gotten one shipment of designer drugs, was federal Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Brad Brechler. And the exchange showed just how easy it is to buy the illegal substances, Brechler said at a news conference in Buffalo. [continues 589 words]
Organizers had hoped to offer safer use after past problems The Evolve Festival in Antigonish this weekend will go ahead, but concert-goers won't be able to have their drugs tested on site, as the organizers had wanted. "I signed a waiver that says we wouldn't do any of the sort at Evolve this year," said producer Jonas Colter Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, Colter's insurance company told him it couldn't insure him if he was going to provide drug testing for people at the festival. [continues 328 words]
Methadone is once again going to be offered at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre. Three years after inmates started being forced off the drug, justice officials say they are now equipped to start offering it again. In March 2012, the department cancelled the program, which started in 2008. That prompted a tongue-lashing from advocates and the president of the Yukon Medical Association, who called the decision "inhumane." At the time, the jail didn't have the means to continue the program safely, spokesperson Caitlin Kerwin said Thursday. [continues 851 words]
