Thousands of Studies Have Proven That Marijuana Should Remain a Narcotic California Medical Association Is Dead Wrong in Giving Its Blessing to Weed Legalization Be Prepared for More Psychosis, Depression, Violence and Suicides There is money in drugs; the cartels proved that. But drug dealers aren't encumbered with the societal costs, which are nine to 10 times greater than any public revenues they generate. That's been our experience with alcohol and tobacco, and that doesn't count human misery. [continues 630 words]
It seems like only yesterday Ontarians were faced with the news that, after many years, the sex education curriculum in public schools was getting a much needed revamp. Imagine if you will, in an alternate reality, that this new curriculum contained a directive to teach students that masturbation led to blindness. In 2016, we would collectively consider this absurd. We would identify this as blatant attempt to frighten students from seeking out any sexual encounters in the vain hope that they will put any ideas of sex from their minds indefinitely. [continues 439 words]
It was a full-house at the Timmins Public Library on Saturday afternoon as 40 youngsters celebrated Daren the DARE Lion's 20th birthday. The lion is the mascot for the Timmins Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, which also marked 20 years of serving the community at the event on Jan. 30. "Twenty years in anything is quite the achievement, so we're proud of that," said Const. Rick Lemieux, the Timmins Police DARE officer. "We had 40 spaces available, and 40 kids showed up, so it's a huge success; they're having a blast." [continues 758 words]
An updated program of drug, mental health and social media awareness is being presented to children and youth in Brantford schools. Part of a changeover that began in 2014 as a pilot project across city schools in both the public and separate boards resulted in an agency name change to TICK (Teaching Intelligent Choices to Kids) from the former DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). "The DARE program met the needs of our community for a long time," said TICK Inc. president Susan Reid. [continues 344 words]
It is time to re-examine the war on drugs because it has failed The idea of legalizing drugs as a method to combat drug abuse and drug-related crimes seems, at first blush, counterintuitive. How could legalizing something as destructive as drugs serve to improve a persistent and growing problem? After decades of instilling in children the message that drug use is dangerous, how can we now change course with legalization? Last week, attorney Brian Leininger, a former Wyandotte County prosecutor and former attorney for the Kansas Highway Patrol, explained the position of his group -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- to the Hutchinson Drug Impact Task Force. [continues 559 words]
An Examination of Traffic Stops and Arrests in Greensboro, N.C., Uncovered Wide Racial Differences in Measure After Measure of Police Conduct. GREENSBORO, N.C. - Rufus Scales, 26 and black, was driving his younger brother Devin to his hair-cutting class in this genteel, leafy city when they heard the siren's whoop and saw the blue light in the rearview mirror of their black pickup. Two police officers pulled them over for minor infractions that included expired plates and failing to hang a flag from a load of scrap metal in the pickup's bed. But what happened next was nothing like a routine traffic stop. [continues 5063 words]
Although school districts have a primary mission of educating students, district leaders also need to monitor social trends and issues that can affect the atmosphere and learning environment in schools. That's why we found it interesting to read the first story in a three-part series by The News-Herald looking at how area school districts go about drawing up policies that regulate personal and social behavior. Part one of the series dealt with prevention, intervention and testing for drugs and alcohol in schools. [continues 518 words]
America is in the midst of a heroin crisis, and the growing epidemic may soon surpass the crack and cocaine overdose deaths of the 1980s and 1990s. Shockingly, we seem powerless to do what we did back then - - attack the supply. Fecklessness regarding heroin has fatal consequences. The death rate from heroin overdoses doubled from 2010 to 2013; according to the Centers for Disease Control, 8,200 died in 2013. In the Northeast, the problem has been acute. Heroin and other drugs in New Hampshire now kill more people than traffic accidents. [continues 491 words]
CHEYENNE - A Wyoming law enforcement group is planning a campaign to fight back at efforts to legalize medical marijuana in the state. The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police is gauging interest in starting a statewide outreach effort to inform residents on the "harmful personal and societal effects of marijuana." But Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the group, said he expects there will be support for the project and that it will be launched this month. "We are looking for statements of support for this education campaign," he said. "We anticipate that there will be support, and armed with that grassroots support, we will undertake an educational campaign." [continues 601 words]
Why Marijuana Decriminalization Is Inevitable IT seems appropriate that an organization called DARE would do something bold. Grow and behold: Marijuana plants in Arlington, Wash., where recreational pot is legal. That's what seemed to happen last week, when Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the wellknown anti-drug group - which has schoolchildren sign pledges to abstain from drugs and report on their parents if they see them engaging in drug use - seemingly did the unthinkable. It posted an op-ed calling for the legalization of marijuana. [continues 633 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]
Sharjah - Schools and even parents are covering up drug related crimes among students in Sharjah, according to an official who was commenting on a report compiled by the police's Anti-Narcotic Department. Drug abuse in schools is a real social issue the country has been facing for quite some time. In Sharjah alone, 925 school students have been involved in drug cases in the past three years, according to the report, a copy of which was shown to Khaleej Times by Major Mohammed Ahmed Al Khumairi of the department. He said: "Schools in the emirate were found to be covering up drug cases among students." [continues 1242 words]
Older adults are abusing drugs, getting arrested for drug offenses and dying from drug overdoses at increasingly higher rates UPLAND, Calif. - From the time he was a young man coming of age in the 1970s, Mike Massey could have served as a poster child for his generation, the baby boomers. He grew his hair long to the dismay of his father, surfed, played in rock bands and says he regularly got high on marijuana and cocaine. The wild times receded as he grew older. In his 30s, he stopped using drugs altogether, rose into executive positions with the plumbers and pipe fitters union, bought a house in this Los Angeles suburb and started a family. But at age 50, Mr. Massey injured his knee running. He took Vicodin for the pain but soon started using pills heavily, mixing the opioids with alcohol, he said. [continues 2343 words]
Cannabis use is a fact, the theory goes - dropping prohibition for regulation might lower consumption Uruguay is a small country trying a big experiment. The country of 3.3 million people, tucked between Brazil and Argentina, has legalized marijuana, a variation of the policy rather loosely articulated by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Canada. Uruguay's decision to legalize pot doesn't do justice to what's actually happening. Cannabis is being legalized all right, but the product is being regulated by the state as never before. [continues 663 words]
After voters in Washington and Colorado voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, Alison Holcomb would tell pot activists it was too early to say that the rest of America was ready to accept the drug. Holcomb, an American Civil Liberties Union official who managed Washington's legalization campaign, recalled that nearly a dozen states - including Oregon - decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug in the 1970s. "And then the '80s came and the pendulum swung back hard," she said, as President Ronald Reagan called marijuana "probably the most dangerous drug in America" and stepped up federal enforcement against all illegal drugs. [continues 1235 words]
Medpot Mountie Cpl. Ron Francis's Battle to Smoke Out RCMP's PTSD Denial Ends in Suicide Just a few weeks ago I was teaching RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis how to vaporize his medical marijuana. He promised to check back in, but we never had another virtual session. He was found dead in his Kingsclear First Nation, New Brunswick, home on Monday, October 6, apparently a suicide. Tossed aside by RCMP brass because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and publicly bullied by Conservative parliamentarians for marijuana medicating, Francis emailed long after the media had lost interest in a "pot-smoking Mountie." [continues 798 words]
The nation's doctors are under no obligation to prescribe marijuana to patients seeking it for pain relief or other medical purposes, Canada's federal health minister says. Marijuana isn't an approved drug, Health Canada has not endorsed its use and it has not been proven safe or effective, Rona Ambrose said Monday at the opening day of the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association. "The majority of the physician community do not want to prescribe it, they don't want to be put in a situation where they're pressured to prescribe it and I encourage them to not prescribe it if they're not comfortable with it," Ambrose told reporters. [continues 593 words]
When Garett Fortune's brother was found to have cancer in early 2013, it was so advanced that all he could do was to try to live out the remainder of his life in as little pain and discomfort as possible. That meant taking about 30 pills a day, Mr. Fortune said - until his brother tried marijuana. "I saw him go from 30 pills a day to almost zero," he said. "It helped his appetite and the nausea. He had a way better quality of life at the end than he would have without the cannabis. It made me a proponent of the industry." [continues 1217 words]
California Learns From Rocky Mountain State's Progress As It Prepares for Legalization Try Long a leader in making marijuana mainstream, California is watching Colorado blaze a trail for legalized recreational pot with avid eyes. The mood in Colorado, while not uniformly a Rocky Mountain high, is good. Six months in, few of the predicted problems have materialized, tax revenue and tourism are booming, and public support for legal pot appears to be growing. Voters approved legalization in 2012 by a margin of 10 percent, but a March poll found Colorado voters now favor it by a 22-point margin. And 61 percent believe it has made the state better or not changed it. Another poll in April found that most people believe it's been good for the state, hasn't made driving less safe and will save taxpayers money and increase personal freedom. [continues 1239 words]
California Advocates See Colorado As Proof It Can Work Long a leader in making marijuana mainstream, California is watching Colorado blaze a trail for legalized recreational pot with avid eyes. The mood in Colorado is good. Six months in, few of the predicted problems have materialized, tax revenue and tourism are booming, and public support for legal pot appears to be growing. Voters approved legalization in 2012 by a margin of 10 percent, but a March poll found Colorado voters now favor it by a 22-point margin. And 61 percent believe it has made the state better or not changed it. Another poll in April found that most people believe it's been good for the state, hasn't made driving less safe and will save taxpayers money and increase personal freedom. [continues 812 words]
