Every day, hundreds of discarded needles are picked up from Whalley streets, many of them just steps from City Hall. Now, a downtown business group is offering up fresh solutions. On one side of the street, children glide up and down on their skateboards at Chuck Bailey skate park. Their laughter fills the air. On the other side of 107A Avenue, not far away, a homeless man named Robert sits on the ground behind a tree, shrieking while feverishly clapping his hands. His belongings, including a handful of needles, are strewn about on a damp, dirty piece of carpet. [continues 1390 words]
Tireless advocate for safe injection sites ODs days before they are expected to be approved Brooklyn McNeil spent much of the last year advocating for a service that could have saved her own life. Instead, there will be an empty chair tomorrow as Toronto's board of health debates whether to proceed with three safe injection sites in the city after a record 258 overdose deaths in 2014 - a 77-per-cent increase over a decade ago. McNeil, an Ontario scholar, singer, artist and harm-reduction advocate, died of an overdose in an east Toronto alley last month. She would have turned 23 on Tuesday. "She was so amazing at helping so many people," said her grieving mother, Thia Massaro, on the phone from Thunder Bay, where McNeil grew up. "But in the end she couldn't help herself." McNeil began injecting opiates when she was 18 and had survived six previous overdoses. [continues 1024 words]
Ontario pharmacies to distribute life-saving naloxone free to people at risk, their families or friends WATERLOO REGION - A life-saving drug that reverses the effects of an accidental overdose will be available for free at pharmacies across Ontario. People at risk of an overdose, their family or friends can pick up naloxone at a pharmacy and receive training on how to safely administer the drug in the case of an emergency opioid overdose. "It's fantastic news," said Chris Harold, acting manager of the harm reduction program at Region of Waterloo Public Health. [continues 359 words]
There's An Antidote for Heroin Overdose, and a Former Addict Is Among Those Working to Spread It Far and Wide Joshua Livernois woke up hazy, sick and splashed with Dr. Pepper in a hospital bed in Salinas, California. He couldn't piece together the events of the previous day or so, and he's still not even sure which year it was, probably 2005 or '06. He'd been using heroin off and on for about 10 years and almost daily for five. [continues 2388 words]
Councillor ready for site but wants more than one An Ottawa councillor says he welcomes a supervised injection site downtown - but only if there are similar services across the city. On Monday, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury and five other councillors on the board of health will debate a staff report that recommends opening a supervised injection site in the city. Given that the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre has already consulted on its plan to provide such a service, a supervised injection site will likely go in his ward. [continues 472 words]
Supervised drug-injection sites help keep police officers and other first responders safe, says a former deputy chief of the Ottawa police. No, says his former boss, they encourage abuse and addiction and ultimately support organized crime. Larry Hill and Vern White are formerly two of Ottawa's top cops. They know each other, worked together. Their positions on supervised injection sites, expressed in separate interviews, couldn't be more opposed. Hill was a career Ottawa cop. He worked patrol, the tactical squad, professional standards, staff jobs like research and planning. He was head of the senior officers' association before becoming deputy chief in 2000. In that job, he did a lot of the force's outreach to groups with which it had difficult relationships, such as Ottawa's gay and visible-minority communities. He retired in 2008. [continues 1167 words]
New stats on HIV and Hepatitis C among drug users backs calls for safe injection sites Those pushing to build safe injection sites in London seized upon stats Tuesday that show an epidemic of HIV and Hepatitis C among drug users in the city. "Do I hope this HIV outbreak will help to convince people (safe injection sites are needed)? Yes I do," Dr. Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for London and Middlesex County said Tuesday. "We will probably need one in our community if not more than one." [continues 428 words]
Ontario's new attorney general says Ottawa should heed the advice of its top doctor, who is publicly urging the city to support supervised injection sites. In his first interview since Monday's cabinet shuffle, Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi expressed support for the controversial sites as a means to reduce harm to drug addicts. "I believe in evidence-based solutions," Naqvi told Metro on Tuesday morning. "If the officer of health is telling us that the evidence results in better care and ensuring people get the treatment and that we reduce the harm to the individual and to others through reducing the risk of the transfer of HIV and hepatitis C, then we should pay close attention to that expert advice." [continues 191 words]
Marijuana plants could be growing legally in Ohio soil in a year, predicts state Sen. Dave Burke, an architect of Ohio's newly minted medical marijuana law. "As soon as 16 months, you would have products tested and available," the Marysville Republican said. House Bill 523, the medical marijuana law, completed a rocky journey through the legislature Wednesday. It is now headed to Gov. John Kasich. Kasich has not indicated whether he will sign the bill into law. He also could veto it or allow it to take effect without his signature. [continues 515 words]
Bureaucratic tangles, such as a lengthy drug-reclassification process, hold up making overdose remedy available without prescription A cheap, life-saving antidote to an affliction that kills more Ontarians than car crashes every year remains hard to obtain in the province despite mounting pressure from public health officials and moves by other provinces to broaden its availability. The drug naloxone is a safe and powerful remedy to opioid overdoses, a rising public-health crisis owing to a wave of bootleg fentanyl across the country that claims a life in Ontario every 14 hours, according to one estimate. The problem is even worse in Alberta and British Columbia, where provincial governments are countering the epidemic in part by shipping naloxone to community pharmacies for distribution free of charge to anyone, even those without a prescription. [continues 506 words]
COLUMBUS - In the biggest shift in state drug policy in decades, the Ohio House voted 71-26 on Tuesday to legalize marijuana for medical use only. The bill heads to the Senate, where hearings will begin today. Republican House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger voiced confidence that a bill could reach Gov. John Kasich's desk before the General Assembly recesses for the summer before Memorial Day. Kasich spokesman Joe Andrews said the governor has not committed to signing this bill, but would sign one if it "is written properly and there is a need for it." [continues 722 words]
UKIAH - Mendocino County's needle exchange is reached off Highway 101 after winding through verdant hills and past multimillion-dollar wineries. It's a simple two-story bungalow with white lace curtains on a Ukiah street where, on a recent sunny afternoon, several drug addicts waited to exchange used syringes. Operated as part of the Mendocino County AIDS/Viral Hepatitis Network, it collected and redistributed about 127,000 needles last year over the course of 6,259 visits, said Libby Guthrie, the network's executive director. [continues 876 words]
Researchers looking into a safe drug-injection site in London have finished interviewing 200 needle users. Now, they face another set of interview subjects - such as police, and politicians - who may not be as welcoming of a site. "It's to gain feedback, their perceptions and knowledge about the issues they might face," Geoff Bardwell, who is co-ordinating the research, said Wednesday. "There is going to be a variety of perspectives. What we are hoping to do is ensure we capture all the perspectives." [continues 404 words]
Ohioans could not legally smoke medical marijuana under a revamped proposal being rolled out today by state legislators. Those with a prescription for medical marijuana would be allowed to use vaporization or other inhalant devices. But the new restriction in the legislation, targeted for a House vote Tuesday, probably sets up a public battle with supporters of proposed November ballot issues that would allow smoking. Rep. Kirk Schuring of Canton, who was set to brief his fellow GOP House members Tuesday night on the revised measure, said he hopes the special committee he chairs approves the new plan Thursday after seeing it for the first time today. After House passage, Schuring said, he is optimistic the Senate and Kasich administration will quickly approve Ohio becoming the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. [continues 263 words]
In response to "Safe injection center or harm reduction folly" (April 8), the belief that the lives of heroin users are worth saving is no folly. Contrary to Debra J. Saunders' assertions, heroin addicts do not use because it is easy. They use because they struggle with addiction, a mental disorder that is defined by continued use despite risk of self-harm. The harm reduction model recognizes that people struggling with heroin addiction will use whether or not they have access to clean needles. From the nursing perspective, San Francisco needs safe injection centers. These centers will limit the number of overdoses, the transmission of hepatitis C or HIV, and the public's exposure to dirty needles. While the city needs more rehabilitation programs, especially long-term treatment centers that accept clients without private insurance, recovery is not a realistic option for all. Safe injection centers can act as a gateway to treatment and protect intravenous drug users who continue to struggle with addiction. Lorna Pyle, San Francisco [end]
With a safe injection site potentially slated to open up at The Works near Yonge and Dundas, some members of the public are angry over a lack of public consultation prior to the location being selected. At a public meeting on Wednesday, April 20, Toronto Centre-Rosedale (Ward 27) Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, City of Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown and The Works manager Shaun Hopkins offered up some facts and details about safe injection sites in general. [continues 708 words]
You have found a used needle, in one of the last places you ever expected - or wanted - to see one. On the playground. Inside the schoolyard. On the beach. Now what? Shiloh Sukkau was shocked at first. Then resigned. Now she's upset. Same with Joel Reid and Jessica Leung, and now they're speaking out. Three people, unknown to each other, living and working in different parts of the city. Finding dirty needles in public places. Kids' spaces. In this permissive city, where open drug use is sadly common, people have finally reached a boiling point. They're fed up with finding dangerous materials left behind by intravenous drug users, whose numbers in Vancouver exceed 12,000, according to local health authorities. [continues 715 words]
Treating addicts as if they are criminals doesn't help them, nor does it stem public appetite for illicit substances, health experts say Top health officials in British Columbia are calling for a significant change in drug policy that would ensure people who use illicit drugs do not face criminal charges for it. Dr. Perry Kendall, B. C.' s provincial health officer, said he supports decriminalization because treating users as criminals has been costly and ineffective. "Focusing on people who have become dependent on drugs as criminals means we spend a lot of money on law enforcement, which doesn't actually appear to have stemmed the appetite for drugs," he said. "It hasn't helped move people who are dependent on drugs into health-care facilities; in fact, they have become very marginalized over time. Because they are marginalized, their use of drugs has often gone up, and has been accompanied by HIV and hepatitis C infections." [continues 696 words]
FOR THE first time in 20 years, the UN has convened a special session on "the world drug problem" amid fierce international debate about whether drug users should primarily be punished or rehabilitated. The UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs, which started yesterday and is scheduled to run until tomorrow, was called after Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala appealed to the body to revise the global approach to illegal drugs. After two decades - and a trillion or so dollars later - the "war-on-drugs" approach of criminalising drug users has dismally failed to prevent the distribution and use of illegal drugs. [continues 824 words]
Consumers Number About 246 Million, With the U.S. Leading the Way and Cannabis the Top Narcotic. As leaders from around the world gather in New York for what many are calling the most important summit on illegal drugs in two decades, one thing is clear: The world has a serious drug problem. Worldwide, about 246 million people use illicit drugs, and 1 in 10 of these users suffer from disorders related to drug use. Of the estimated 12 million people who inject drugs, at least 1.6 million are also living with HIV, while slightly more than half suffer from hepatitis C. Each year, 200,000 people suffer drug-related deaths, such as overdoses. [continues 785 words]
