The following is in response to the letter Pot legalization questionable as drug deaths spike which appeared July 21. Dear Editor: I am writing in response to Simon Guilett's letter in which he proposes the gateway theory to drug addiction. His idea is that marijuana leads to cocaine and cocaine leads to opiates. This position has been disproven a number of times. Whereas, it is true that likely 98 per cent of opiate addicts began by using marijuana, it is also true that only two per cent or so of marijuana users go on to use opiates. [continues 126 words]
Bootleg fentanyl blamed for five overdoses, two of which didn't respond to double doses of antidote WOODSTOCK - Five Oxford County overdoses in the last half of June likely were caused by a bad batch of heroin, possibly laced with particularly potent bootleg fentanyl, a health official says. "Our clients are scared," said Oxford County public health nurse Lisa Gillespie. "From everything I have heard, bootleg fentanyl has arrived in Oxford or there is a very bad batch of heroin going around." [continues 467 words]
Alberta Health Services encourages those at risk of overdose to carry kits Attendees at the Chasing Summer music festival will not be allowed to carry naloxone kits on festival grounds, organizers of the event said Wednesday. "Given our on-site medical resources and commitment to the health and welfare of all our fans, we want to ensure that only trained medical professionals administer medications to third parties, so we do not permit guests to carry private naloxone kits within festival grounds," said Colin Mathie, director of health and safety for Chasing Summer, which takes place Saturday and Sunday at Max Bell Centre grounds. [continues 370 words]
Cambridge mayor says group will offer solutions, but will take 'whole community to solve this problem' CAMBRIDGE - Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig says he's creating a city task force to find solutions to the fentanyl crisis plaguing his city. The city initiative has been in the works for three months, said Craig, and is not a "knee-jerk" reaction to recent comments made by Cambridge coroner Dr. Hank Nykamp. Nykamp, a coroner since 1985, said Cambridge is becoming the drug capital of Ontario with "drug houses" and "crystal meth factories." [continues 630 words]
Drugs cost money. This is a universal truth: whether it's the legal kind like alcohol or tobacco, or the banned stuff like cocaine or heroin, or, for now, marijuana, a habit is going to take a chunk out of anyone's paycheque in addition to their life expectancy. As it is with us as frail individuals, so it is with the governments we elect, when we make the choice to turn on the tap - or light the pipe - of legalized intoxicants. [continues 344 words]
A Downtown Eastside activist and a local entrepreneur are hoping to spearhead the first nonprofit organization of its kind with support from Vancouver's cannabis community. The vocal support of Sarah Blyth, the founder of the Overdose Prevention Society for grassroots, peer-led harm reduction led to the establishment of several safe-consumption sites in Vancouver and beyond. Unfortunately, the ongoing overdose crisis hasn't slowed-numbers for 2017 are set to double last year's count of 935 overdose deaths provincewide-so when Blyth, who doesn't use cannabis, came across an American study that found that states with legalized marijuana saw a 33-percent reduction in overdose deaths, she decided to explore the concept further. [continues 817 words]
A "huge spike" in opiate and methamphetamine seizures this past year poses a deadly and multifaceted problem for local law enforcement, says a police inspector. "We are hugely concerned with meth," said Insp. Brent Secondiak, speaking about the 2016 annual police report released last week. In 2016, police seized 52.5 grams of heroin and 1,474 grams of meth, a 563 per cent and 300 per cent increase from 2015 respectively. While fentanyl has made headlines across Canada for its deadliness, Secondiak said it hasn't been a problem in Medicine Hat compared to other drugs. [continues 499 words]
An Ontario music festival has reversed a policy that would have banned attendees from bringing their own injectable naloxone kits, saying patrons will be able to trade syringes of the opioid-overdose antidote for a nasal spray that has the same effect. The WayHome Music and Arts Festival, taking place this weekend near Barrie, Ont., says it changed its policy after hearing concerns from those who planned to attend. Naloxone is an antidote to the powerful opioid fentanyl, a drug responsible for a growing number of overdose-related deaths. Fentanyl is sometimes found mixed with other drugs such as cocaine. [continues 271 words]
OTTAWA - The number of police-reported cannabis offences declined for the fifth straight year, Statistics Canada said Monday, a downward trend that began long before the Liberals brought forward their plan to legalize the drug for recreational use. The annual tally of police-reported crime from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics said there were about 55,000 offences related to marijuana reported to police in 2016, about 6,000 fewer than reported the year before - despite previous data showing consumption of the drug on the rise. [continues 749 words]
About 55,000 cases related to marijuana reported to police last year OTTAWA - The number of police-reported cannabis offences declined for the fifth straight year, Statistics Canada said Monday, a downward trend that began long before the Liberals brought forward their plan to legalize the drug for recreational use. The tally of police-reported crime from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics said there were about 55,000 offences related to marijuana reported to police in 2016, about 6,000 fewer than reported in '15 - despite previous data showing consumption of the drug on the rise. [continues 314 words]
Calgary's police chief said his officers haven't changed their approach when it comes to marijuana, despite a slight dip in pot-related crimes being reported in 2016. Numbers released yesterday by Statistics Canada show Calgary's police-reported crime declined significantly last year, unlike other major Canadian cities which mostly saw an increase. Alberta also saw a drop in the homicide rate, with 17 fewer homicides in 2016 than 2015. Calgary's crime rate was down 1 per cent from 2015 numbers, which Chief Roger Chaffin called 'encouraging.' [continues 137 words]
OTTAWA* The number of cannabis-related offences reported to police declined for the fifth straight year, Statistics Canada said Monday, despite the percentage of Canadians consuming the drug on the rise. The StatsCan annual report on police-reported crime was released the same day that the president of the New Brunswick Medical Society issued a stark warning that the coming legalization of marijuana in Canada doesn't mean that it is safe and the public needs to know the risks of consuming pot. [continues 373 words]
NEW YORK (AP) - AlphaBay, the now-shuttered online marketplace that authorities say traded in illegal drugs, firearms and counterfeit goods, wasn't all that different from any other e-commerce site, court documents show. Not only did it work hard to match buyers and sellers and to stamp out fraud, it offered dispute-resolution services when things went awry and kept a public-relations manager to promote the site to new users. This screen grab provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a hidden website that has been seized as part of a law enforcement operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and European law enforcement agencies acting through Europol. On Thursday, July 20, 2017, authorities announced that two of the world's most notorious "darknet" marketplaces, AlphaBay and Hansa, have been knocked out in a one-two punch that officials say yielded a trove of new intelligence about drugs and weapons merchants that operate from hidden corners of the internet. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP) [continues 504 words]
Overdose-prevention sites are making a difference in Vancouver's opioid crisis, say health officials, even in the face of grim figures that suggest the city is on pace to hit 400 deaths in 2017. More than 200 people have died of a suspected drug overdose in Vancouver this year to July 2 - that's almost as many as the 228 deaths recorded in 2016. But officials say the death toll could have been higher. "Based on the analysis of experts, the deaths would have been much worse if those sites hadn't been opened," said Dr. Patricia Daly, Vancouver Coastal Health's chief medical officer. [continues 430 words]
Festival patrons can trade the syringes in naloxone kits with nasal-spray alternative An Ontario music festival has reversed a policy that would have banned attendees from bringing their own injectable naloxone kits, saying patrons will be able to trade syringes of the opioid overdose antidote for a nasal spray with the same effect. The WayHome Music and Arts Festival, taking place near Barrie, Ont., this weekend, says it changed its policy after hearing concerns from those who planned to attend. [continues 414 words]
Hell, why not allow the shops to supply heroin, cocaine etc. And here we go down the "slippery slope", now that pot is "legal", with none other than the Cowichan Valley Citizen leading the charge. (Reefer madness?) Those bad old "ignorant" school district people trying to protect our youth, not wanting pot shops to be located near schools. How dare they! Hell, why not allow the shops to supply heroin, cocaine etc. Oh yes, and why not prostitution in the slippery slope mix? Please stop the planet from spinning. I want off. John Walker Cobble Hill [end]
U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is pressing Congress to allow federal law enforcement to target medical marijuana operations in states where they are legal. (July 21, 2017) U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is pressing Congress to allow federal law enforcement to target medical marijuana operations in states where they are legal. (July 21, 2017) The Trump administration's attack on legal marijuana, already stymied by large states determined not to roll back the clock, is increasingly confronting an even more politically potent adversary: military veterans. [continues 1222 words]
So-called bath salts, other street drugs are not a safe way to seek pleasure When someone offers a tiny packet of "bath salts" for sale with a price tag somewhere between $30 and $50, you know that it is not meant to be sprinkled into a bathtub. These "bath salts," commonly available in head shops, online and even in some convenience stores, may sport a label declaring "not for human consumption," but they are clearly designed to cater to the insides of the body rather than the outside. [continues 908 words]
An eight-year prison sentence doled out at the Ottawa courthouse earlier this week was a refreshing indication that the judiciary can get it right - at least on drug crimes. Routinely, judges seem to give out-of-touch, soft-on-crime rulings that shock common-sense Canadians. But in a recent case, Ontario Court Justice Ann Alder was uncompromising, throwing the book at a local fentanyl dealer. Simply put, those who deal in fentanyl are dealing in death. It's lethal, even in small doses, and can be mistaken for heroin or other drugs. [continues 297 words]
People need skills for coping, not more cannabis boutiques I see the provincial premiers are demanding "clarity" - possibly a delay - in the federal plan to legalize marijuana by next July. A communique from their Edmonton conference said they still have concerns about, among other things, traffic safety and public education campaigns. I'm with them. I still don't have "clarity" about legal pot or in fact the use and abuse of recreational drugs in general. Here is what we all bring to any debate about recreational drugs: our own history, our generational lens, our hypocrisy too. [continues 832 words]