Melting snow brings out the natural beauty of a community, unfortunately it also brings into sight garbage which was previously hidden underneath the snow. Among the garbage can be discarded needles, which Kenora residents have been reporting, mainly through social media, that they have found at various places, including Anicinable Park. The Northwestern Health Unit's needle exchange program, which is part of its Harm Reduction Program services, has been blamed as the source of these needles. Gillian Lunny, manager of the health unit's harm reduction program, said she cannot confirm whether the number of needles being found around Kenora in the spring of 2016 is higher or lower than in previous years. [continues 696 words]
A new Mainstreet/Postmedia poll says 44 per cent of Edmontonians surveyed support the establishment of a safe injection site for IV drug users in this city. Another 30 per cent opposed the idea, while 26 per cent were undecided. That's not overwhelming public support. But it suggests an intriguing degree of public receptiveness. And this is the right time for us to be having that discussion. Historically, heroin hasn't been a problem drug in Edmonton. But that's changing. In 2013, there were 19 visits to emergency rooms in the Edmonton health zone because of heroin overdoses. Last year, there were 118. In the first two months of 2016, there were about as many heroin overdoses as there were in all of 2013. [continues 625 words]
Bid will go ahead even without local officials' blessing, health centre says Officials at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre intend to pursue their plan to open a safe-injection service in downtown Ottawa even if the proposal is ultimately rejected by city council. "We are very open to continuing the dialogue locally with city council or the board of health, but if local officials can't or won't provide letters of support for us, we just have to accept that and move on," health centre executive Rob Boyd told reporters Monday. [continues 362 words]
The idea of a supervised-injection site in Edmonton appears to have lukewarm support among city residents, a new poll has found. One of the researchers assembling a proposal for medically supervised injection services in the city said Sunday she hopes support will grow once people find out more about how the service would work. "We're helping people stay alive, and also helping them find an off-ramp from using injection drugs," said Elaine Hyshka, a University of Alberta public health researcher and core member of Access to Medically Supervised Injection Services Edmonton. [continues 414 words]
Safety Push Local officials are showing interest in making Seattle the first U.S. city to offer a medically supervised site for drug use, which advocates say could reduce overdose deaths, disease transmission and discarded needles on the ground. Seattle could become the first city in the U.S. with a public site where users can inject and smoke hard drugs under medical supervision. One local group plans to open a bare-bones safe-consumption site on a shoestring budget as soon as possible, while another group has launched an awareness campaign to build support among politicians and communities. [continues 1238 words]
The year 2008 was momentous. Lehman Brothers collapsed, Radovan Karad i was arrested, Russian troops massed on the Georgian border, and Barack Obama beat John McCain to the White House. But 2008 was also significant for something that didn't happen. It was the year that the world didn't eliminate the illicit drugs problem. This quixotic goal had been set a decade earlier at a United Nations general assembly special session when, under the vainglorious slogan "We can do it", the supranational body pledged that, by 2008, the world would be "drug free". [continues 2177 words]
Dave Pineau Is an Addict and Advocate for Harm Reduction, Andrew Duffy Writes. As Dave Pineau's injection drug use snowballed in the early 1980s, harm reduction amounted to a matchbox and a bottle of Aqua Velva. Pineau regularly shared needles with four members of a close-knit group of friends, all of them homeless on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The men were partial to cocaine and speed, a powerful amphetamine that jacks up the central nervous system. They'd mix the drugs with water, draw the solution into a needle, and slam it into their veins. [continues 2387 words]
Experts Urge Reversal of Policies That Have Driven Violence and Deaths An international commission of medical experts is calling for global drug decriminalisation, arguing that current policies lead to violence, deaths and the spread of disease, harming health and human rights. The commission, set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University in the US, finds that tough drugs laws have caused misery, failed to curb drug use, fuelled violent crime and spread the epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C through unsafe injecting. Publishing its report on the eve of a special session of the United Nations devoted to illegal narcotics, it urges a reversal of the repressive policies imposed by most governments. [continues 709 words]
To the Editor: Re "Town's Anti-Drug Plan: Safe Site to Use Heroin" (front page, March 23), about a proposal by the mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., to establish the first site in the United States where people could legally inject heroin: Supervised injection facilities, or SIFs, are a longstanding public health tool in several countries and are rapidly gaining support elsewhere, including in the United States. Advocates like me understand why people have questions about something that at first pass looks as if it enables destructive behavior. [continues 117 words]
Suburban drug users still at risk, however, critics contend The city is considering creating three supervised injection sites in downtown Toronto, but community health-care providers in Scarborough say drug users in the suburbs remain at risk. "We do serve a vulnerable population, some of them who could have serious drug abuse problems," said Kim Cook, the vice president of community health at the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities. "Having a safe injection site - at least one - would really help." The city's board of health approved a proposal to integrate injection services into healthcare clinics at three locations - Queen Street West, Central Toronto and South Riverdale. [continues 136 words]
Group says war on drugs has failed and suggests decriminalisation the first step to solving problems A group of 22 medical experts convened by Johns Hopkins University and The Lancet have called this week for the decriminalisation of all non- violent drug use and possession. Citing a growing scientific consensus on the failures of the global war on drugs, the experts further encourage countries and US states to "move gradually toward regulated drug markets and apply the scientific method to their assessment". [continues 777 words]
Global Report Urges UN to Back Decriminalisation Commission Backs Move to Legal, Regulated Markets Medical experts are calling for global drug decriminalisation, arguing that current policies are leading to violence, death and the spread of disease, harming both health and human rights. The experts, working as an international commission, set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University in the US, find that tough drug laws have caused misery, failed to curb drug use, fuelled violent crime, and helped spread HIV and hepatitis C epidemics perpetuated by unsafe injecting. [continues 626 words]
ITHACA, N.Y. - Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of this city, thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, though it was put forth by a committee he had appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin - something that does not exist anywhere in the United States. "Heroin is bad, and injecting heroin is bad, so how could supervised heroin injection be a good thing?" Mr. Myrick, a Democrat, said. But he also knew he had to do something drastic to confront the scourge of heroin in his city in central New York. So he was willing to take a chance and embrace the radical notion, knowing well that it would provoke a backlash. [continues 1204 words]
"You wanna get high, man?" Shawn Gale made the offer during an interview near a downtown Edmonton flophouse. "Naw. I don't put needles in my arm," I said. "I can do it for you," kidded the 30-year-old, heavily bearded Gale. Sharing needles, just one of the potentially deadly practices sparking work by an Edmonton group planning to dose the city with its first supervised injection sites; passing around a needle is often also passing around diseases like HIV and hepatitis, a serious and potentially fatal liver infection. [continues 671 words]
Do Alberta cities need supervised injection sites similar to InSite in Vancouver - places where drug users can inject in clean, safer environments? Calgary Liberal MLA David Swann doesn't hesitate for a second when asked. "Absolutely," says Swann, who worked as a physician before being elected, and recently co-chaired a committee reviewing Alberta's addiction and mental health system. "It's not treatment, it's not healing. It's not all that we want, but it's going to reduce the harm done to individuals and their contacts." [continues 353 words]
An Edmonton group that's closely studied local drug use is working to establish the city's first supervised injection sites. Elaine Hyshka, a University of Alberta public health researcher and core member of Access to Medically Supervised Injection Services Edmonton, said group members envision a network of supervised injection services offered through organizations already working with homeless and disadvantaged people in Edmonton's core. "This is something that's long overdue in Edmonton and other cities," said Hyshka. " is service will literally save lives." [continues 931 words]
Not only are the legislative hurdles to safe injection sites unnecessary and unjustifiable, but also in some places, they will be nearly impossible to overcome Supervised injection sites have the potential "to save countless lives." This is what Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott told the CBC last week, echoing what she said this year when she visited Insite, a supervised injection site in Vancouver. This clear support is a welcome change at the federal level, and was reflected in Canada's unprecedented statement last week at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. [continues 534 words]
Drug overdoses are a serious public health issue in Toronto. There were 206 deaths in 2013, a 41 per cent increase over the past 10 years. Many of these deaths were preventable and we need to do more to save the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. As a city, we need a comprehensive response to the drug problem that includes supervised injection services. I recently released a report to the Toronto Board of Health that highlights the health benefits of supervised injection services and outlines the next steps that need to be taken to implement these services in Toronto. [continues 490 words]
More than 50 community leaders say supervised injection services are needed in Toronto to save lives and are urging communities to focus on facts over fear. "I call on all Torontonians to learn more about this issue. If you learn about it, I believe you'll support it," said former mayor Barbara Hall, who was joined at a city hall news conference by predecessors John Sewell and David Crombie along with a dozen other leading health officials, community and religious leaders. [continues 545 words]
Dead people don't recover. That's the working principle behind harm reduction: Avoiding the ultimate harm that could befall drug addicts by facilitating lesser harms, primarily via aiding and abetting in the consumption of those drugs in a safer environment. The idea is somewhat counterintuitive. It also puts the addict at the centre of a radical social policy that doesn't always give sufficient consideration to the broader community that will be affected. Good intentions can lead to bad consequences. [continues 787 words]
