Defending the government's classification of marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration declares on its website that pot causes mental illness and lung cancer and leads youths to heroin and cocaine. But an advocacy group says the DEA, in a legal filing in August, said it found no evidence to support any of those conclusions. The group, Americans for Safe Access, has asked the agency to remove discredited claims from its Web page. [continues 522 words]
As drug-related deaths rise in B.C. and opioids continue to spread nationwide, government seeks amendments to Harper-era bill Ottawa will introduce a bill Monday that is expected to reduce barriers to opening and operating supervised drug consumption sites in Canada. The move comes days after B.C. announced it would open several "overdose prevention sites" without federal approval as an emergency measure to counter the province's highest death toll on record due to illicit drugs. As well, carfentanil - a powerful synthetic opioid many times more toxic than fentanyl - has now been detected in three provinces and is beginning to fuel another surge in overdoses, creating a new sense of urgency. [continues 589 words]
B.C.'s top court says officer lied about being under threat to help smuggler Invoking a rarely used investigative procedure, B.C.'s top court has caught and hammered an airport security officer-turned-drug trafficker who pulled the wool over the eyes of his trial judge. The Court of Appeal said the offender sold Provincial Court judge James Bahen a load of hokum about a mysterious, threatening "Mr. X" and the extent of his own regret. Having set about to "deceive the sentencing judge, his assertion of genuine remorse rings hollow," it found, concluding Gurvinder Singh Pahl hadn't received his just desserts. [continues 727 words]
CHARLESTON, S.C. - After three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, C. J. Hardin wound up hiding from the world in a backwoods cabin in North Carolina. Divorced, alcoholic and at times suicidal, he had tried almost all the accepted treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder: psychotherapy, group therapy and nearly a dozen different medications. "Nothing worked for me, so I put aside the idea that I could get better," said Mr. Hardin, 37. "I just pretty much became a hermit in my cabin and never went out." [continues 1276 words]
On a summer morning in 2013, Octavian Mihai entered a softly lit room furnished with a small statue of Buddha, a box of tissues and a single red rose. From an earthenware chalice, he swallowed a capsule of psilocybin, an ingredient found in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Then he put on an eye mask and headphones and lay down on a couch. Soon, images flew by like shooting stars: a spinning world that looked like a blue-green chessboard; himself on a stretcher in front of a hospital; his parents, gazing at him with aching sadness as he reached out to them, suffused with childlike love. [continues 1358 words]
On April 14, 2016 the B.C. Ministry of Health announced the number of drug-related overdoses in the province had become a public health emergency, citing 474 preventable overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2015. In the six months that followed, they collected more data about overdoses (both fatal and non-fatal) and tried to proactively warn people about risks. During that same period, hundreds more died of illicit drug overdoses - 622 in the first 10 months of 2016, with at least 60 per cent of those directly linked to fentanyl. [continues 528 words]
Therapists treat study patients on pure form of ecstasy Several Vancouver psychotherapists behind a head-turning Canadian drug study may not be raving ecstatically or blissed out. But after wrapping up Canada's first-ever trial treating trauma using the drug MDMA - the pure form of what's popularly called ecstasy - they are nonetheless optimistic, Metro has learned. According to psychiatrist Dr. Ingrid Pacey, the study's principal investigator, the MDMA assisted psychotherapy trial showed promising results for its six patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) so severe that no previous treatments had worked. [continues 610 words]
Whether it's LSD or magic mushrooms, psychedelic drugs have long been a point of contention. An upcoming event hopes to educate Saskatoon residents on their medical uses and their potentially research-rich future. Organized by Erika Dyck, a University of Saskatchewan history professor and the Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine, the event is called An Evening of Psychedelics and takes place at the Underground Cafe on Nov. 23. "Over the last few years there's been some real interest in what people are starting to call a psychedelic renaissance, where we're looking at psychedelics for their therapeutic potential today," she said. [continues 366 words]
At one time in Canada, marijuana possession and or trafficking was punishable by a jail sentence or even deportation. But soon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will live up to his promise to legalize marijuana consumption and possession. However, Daniel Leblanc organized a poll through theglobeandmail.com, that states nearly half of Canadians still don't support the legalization of the drug. Despite the support, weed will become legal, so the last thing to do is address the last percentage of unsure Canadians that this is the right choice. [continues 646 words]
Fentanyl crisis overtaking marijuana in Alberta You won't find many, if any, people working in law enforcement ready to admit that marijuana trafficking isn't still on their radar. In fact, they will go to great lengths to tell you otherwise. But when you are dealing with the emergence of the province's deadliest killer drug fentanyl - a synthetic opioid 100 times more toxic than morphine - limited policing resources have to be focused on saving lives. More than 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses since 2015 and there is an even more deadly version waiting in the wings. When you factor in the possible legalization of marijuana by the Trudeau government, the argument could be made that policing the production, possession and trafficking of marijuana has dropped down the priority list. [continues 726 words]
You won't find many, if any, people working in law enforcement ready to admit that marijuana trafficking isn't still on their radar. In fact, they will go to great lengths to tell you otherwise. But when you are dealing with the emergence of the province's deadliest killer drug fentanyl - a synthetic opioid 100 times more toxic than morphine - limited policing resources have to be focused on saving lives. More than 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses since 2015 and there is an even more deadly version waiting in the wings. When you factor in the possible legalization of marijuana by the Trudeau government, the argument could be made that policing the production, possession and trafficking of marijuana has dropped down the priority list. [continues 721 words]
Re: UBC's naloxone stash unclaimed, Sept. 25 Brian Spencer, UBC's inter-fraternity council president, says it is unrealistic to assume that students are not going to take the odd line of cocaine or a tab of ecstasy when they party. Seriously? That's what's wrong with this society - the tacit acceptance of drug-taking, the excuses being made, the look-the-other-way mentality. People's lives do matter, but drug-taking is not cool, no matter what kind of spin they put on it. Jean Foote Humphreys, Kamloops [end]
Drug-use stigma cited, as not one student has picked up free opioid antidote Free kits of naloxone are going unclaimed at the University of B.C. because students don't want to identify as illicit drug users, experts believe. The complimentary kits of the potentially life-saving opioid antidote have been offered to students since the spring as part of a harm reduction program amid an ongoing fentanyl health crisis across the province - but as of Friday, none had been handed out. [continues 691 words]
Worried about their teenage daughter's drug use and signs of depression, a Vancouver area couple began to secretly monitor her life on social media. What they found propelled them into a desperate quest to find medical treatment: Their daughter, unwilling to talk with them, was openly discussing suicide, self-harm and an escalating dependence on hard drugs with her friends. "I'm alive because I'm too scared to kill myself," she text messaged one day. Other texts revealed that she was stealing to pay back debts to dealers and her casual embrace of dangerous party drugs. She wrote that on one day, she did a "ton of e [ecstasy] and the next a bit of mdma." The drugs may have numbed her depression in the short term, but only made things worse. "Why is it so impossible to be happy?" she posted to her network of peers. [continues 910 words]
Federal prison officers now have access to the life-saving opioid blocker naloxone, following a complaint that several front-line officers in B.C. were exposed to fentanyl. Jason Godin, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says members logged a complaint with the Correctional Service of Canada a few weeks ago after some guards at Mountain Institution in Agassiz fell ill. He said paramedics had to administer naloxone to some of the affected officers, indicating they had been exposed to fentanyl, an opioid that has led to a surge in overdose deaths in B.C. this year. [continues 347 words]
Opioid blocker made available to address guards' safety concerns Federal prison officers now have access to the life-saving opioid blocker naloxone, following a complaint that several front-line officers in B.C. were exposed to fentanyl. Jason Godin, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says members logged a complaint with the Correctional Service of Canada a few weeks ago after some guards at Mountain Institution in Agassiz fell ill. He said paramedics had to administer naloxone to some of the affected officers, indicating that they had been exposed to fentanyl, an opioid that has led to a surge in overdose deaths in B.C. this year. [continues 384 words]
Researchers seeking participants who suffer from disorder for study This is something we really need answers to, because patients have been ahead of researchers and clinicians on this one. B.C. researchers are launching the country's first large-scale clinical trial on marijuana as a treatment for a mental health condition, testing whether pot can ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Zach Walsh, a clinical psychologist at the University of B.C.'s Okanagan campus, is leading the study, which will put the anecdotal experiences of combat veterans to the test. [continues 536 words]
Officers' 'privacy interests' cited in failure to produce key documents After an Edmonton judge blamed federal Crown prosecutors and the Edmonton Police Service for an "extreme delay" that led to charges against an alleged drug dealer being set aside, Edmonton police argued Wednesday they need to balance their officers' privacy against their duty to disclose. "There's a balancing act that has to take place between the disclosure of police disciplinary records and the privacy interests of police officers in those employment records," Edmonton police spokesperson Patrycia Thenu said in a brief written statement, adding she couldn't comment on specific cases. [continues 217 words]
BALTIMORE - Gordon McGlothlin, who took his first puff at age 12 behind his family's garage, tried to quit smoking for years, but no cessation technique worked until he used a psychedelic drug. Researchers with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine gave the 69-year-old a derivative of psychedelic mushrooms similar to LSD and watched him "trip" in a therapy room during six-hour sessions. McGlothlin experienced wild hallucinations, including watching his body slowly unraveling until it disappeared into a puff of smoke. After researchers took his blood pressure, he imagined a red, bloodlike fluid covering him from head to toe. [continues 1364 words]
Aside from nightclubs and bars, authorities are setting their sights on condominium dwellers and call center agents in Metro Manila in the next phase of the war on drugs. National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde said they are investigating reports that drug pushers are using condominium dwellers and call center agents in their illegal transactions. Albayalde noted that the two groups could evade police detection because many call center agents work at night while condominiums are usually well secured against unwanted visitors. "I've ordered the five district directors to step up the implementation of Oplan Tokhang and Project Double Barrel in condominium units, business process outsourcing ( BPO) offices in Metro Manila," Albayalde said. [continues 279 words]
