NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh's recent promise that, as prime minister, he would move quickly to drop criminal penalties for possession or purchase of small amounts of all drugs will no doubt seem radical to many. Broad-based decriminalization would be a stark reversal after decades of increasingly punitive policies. And this would certainly add a layer of complication to the already-complicated task of legalizing marijuana, which Ottawa and the provinces are struggling to do by next summer. The Trudeau government's current position on decriminalization is understandable: Ottawa already has its hands full with pot. [continues 862 words]
Province turns to citizens for consultation on how marijuana should be sold in Saskatchewan Love it or hate it, legislation that legalizes pot in Canada is coming. The provincial government launched a survey last week, seeking the public's response to questions ranging from where and how marijuana should be sold, to a minimum age for users, and priorities when it comes to enforcement and education. These are some of the top concerns for users, sellers, legislators, and law enforcement alike. [continues 691 words]
Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin says police are gearing up for the July 1 deadline when pot will be legal in Canada but he says there is "trepidation and worry" about the upcoming law. Larkin, who is president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said any new legislation and public policy brings "a lot of trepidation" and "a lot of worry." Police are preparing for the July 1 deadline. However, Larkin agrees with other police services and associations who say the date is arbitrary. [continues 321 words]
Content Warning: drug use and overdose Last week, public health officials in Montreal warned of an imminent fentanyl crisis that poses a serious risk to the city's drug users. Fentanyl is an opioid prescribed to relieve chronic pain, but its intensity is 40 times that of heroin, and its toxicity 100 times that of morphine. Fentanyl can be found in opiates, as well as party drugs such as cocaine, PCP, and MDMA. Because it's often present without the consumer's knowledge, it can easily cause a fatal overdose. In British Columbia, 706 overdose deaths from January to July 2017 involved fentanyl. In Montreal, there have been 24 confirmed drug overdose cases since the beginning of August 2017. Faced with this growing public health crisis, the McGill community must waste no time in supplying the tools and information necessary to keep students safe. [continues 426 words]
Every day, two Canadians die from opioids and this number is steadily increasing. Naloxone is a medication that temporarily suspends opioid overdoses. Free naloxone kits are now available to Ontarians at risk of, or likely to witness, opioid overdoses. This includes youth experimenting with drugs, first-responders, addicts and those managing pain. People living in poverty are especially affected, being more likely to suffer from addiction and less likely to afford the life-saving kits. This is just one small part of Ontario's Strategy to Prevent Opioid Addiction and Overdose, alongside other such measures as delisting high-strength opioids from the Ontario Drug Benefit and expanding the Fentanyl Patch for Patch Program. [continues 330 words]
Society needs to understand why people abuse substances There'll come a day, long after we're gone, when people will react with disbelief at how we now treat mental health. Those future Canadians will shake their collective heads in amazement in the manner we do today when looking back to a time when surgeons would routinely perform operations without first washing their hands. How could they have been so ignorant, will be the future common comment. But there's a chink of light emerging with next summer's planned legislation of cannabis use across Canada. Not that smoking dope is going to cure anyone's mental issues, probably the opposite, but it is recognition that locking people up as criminals because of an urge to consume mind-altering substances is being jettisoned as a long lost proposition. [continues 559 words]
OTTAWA - The Trudeau government has earmarked just over $274 million to support policing and border efforts associated with the plan to legalize recreational marijuana use. The government said Friday it is committing $161 million of the money to train front-line officers in how to recognize the signs and symptoms of drug-impaired driving, provide access to drug screening devices and educate the public. Some of these funds will help develop policy, bolster research and raise awareness about the dangers of drug-impaired driving. [continues 464 words]
A teenage law student from Britain died while on holiday in Ibiza after five bags of ecstasy exploded in her stomach, an inquest heard. Rebecca Brock, 18, was discovered with a pool of blood next to her head in a hotel room after traveling to the party island for a friend's birthday. Nottingham Coroners' Court heard staff found the "academically gifted" student unresponsive in her room at the Hotel Marco Polo on Sept. 28, 2015. Spanish police began an investigation after the amount of the class-A drug in her system was "double the level" of a normal fatal dose. [continues 691 words]
According to Dr. Michael O'Malley and Dr. Kiri Simms (via CBC), marijuana-induced psychosis has increased in the last 10 years. I do not dispute their claims. THC in pot sold on the street contributes to the problem. In fact, as with any illegal street-sold drug, the more potent the active ingredient, the better for sales. Yet, it's highly unlikely that the seller is concerned about the amount of THC in the pot he sells on the street, except for repeat sales. [continues 312 words]
VANCOUVER - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has closed the door on decriminalizing illicit drugs to combat a national overdose crisis but British Columbia's addictions minister says unprecedented deaths are a "wake-up call" to reconsider that stance. Trudeau said decriminalization is not the approach Canada will take to deal with deadly overdoses often involving the opioid fentanyl. "We are making headway on this and indeed the crisis continues and indeed spreads across the country but we are not looking at legalizing any other drugs than marijuana for the time being," Trudeau told a news conference Thursday at the end of a caucus meeting in Kelowna. [continues 267 words]
Situation not yet an emergency, Coderre says After meeting with police and public health officials, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said Tuesday the city is actively preparing to handle a coming opioid crisis. "I was reassured about the status of the situation right now, but clearly it's an anticipated crisis that we have to address and face," Coderre said during a news conference at city hall. The mayor's remarks came days after Montreal's public health department confirmed 12 overdose deaths in the city during the month of August. Another 24 people were saved by the use of naloxone, a medication that can be used to prevent fatal opioid overdoses. [continues 353 words]
An opioid crisis is bringing together friends and family members of overdose victims who want to support others going through the same pain. Fort McMurray residents Mari-Lee Paluszak, 55, and Holly Meints, 51, both lost sons to accidental overdoses last year. Both attended Overdose Awareness Day at the Wood Buffalo Regional Library last Thursday to help put a face to the drug overdose problem, and to promote a support group for people suffering the same grief as their own. Their new group, On A Dragonfly's Wings, is meant to provide mutual support for grieving family members of overdose victims. [continues 726 words]
Chief medical examiner's office pores over deaths in opioid fight EDMONTON - In the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner each morning, medical examiners, investigators, and morgue staff divide the stack of files containing unexplained deaths that have come in from the night before. Five years ago, this department, headquartered in a low-slung grey building in Edmonton, investigated between 1,900 to 2,000 cases a year. But in the last couple of years the caseload has jumped to between 2,500 to 2,600 annually - the bulk of that increase, officials say, is due to fentanyl and other opioid deaths. [continues 1507 words]
An East Coast entrepreneur who is wanted by London police faces 10 drug and weapons charges in his home province after police raided five marijuana dispensaries there. London police issued an arrest warrant for Malachy McMeekin, of Cole Harbour, N.S., after raiding five pot shops in March. McMeekin, 35, is president of Tasty Budd's, a chain of marijuana dispensaries with franchises in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and London. He travelled to London last summer for the opening of a location on Wharncliffe Road. [continues 417 words]
There are a lot of very smart people in North Bay. It would be interesting to see if the bright lights here can find an opportunity hiding in the weeds to solve the opioid crisis. And I'm not referring to emergency funding injections or quick-fix policy. More than 700 health-care professionals urged the province this week to declare an emergency so more funding can flow to Ontario's front-line programs. Overdose prevention sites, they say, need a boost to stem the tide as deaths are mounting beyond even the HIV pandemic decades ago. [continues 651 words]
The point of Narcos was never Pablo Escobar. For its first two seasons the series rooted itself firmly in the rise and fall of Escobar, the most notorious of maniacal drug kingpins, and a performance by Wagner Moura as Escobar was as emphatic as it gets. But Narcos was always planned as a vast epic about the drug trade - what fuels it, who runs it and how every lame attempt to curb it goes awry. Two years ago when I spoke with Jose Padilha, the Brazilian director, producer and screenwriter who is an executive producer on Narcos, he said it's about, "What cocaine is - it's cheap to make, it's a natural product and it makes the human brain go haywire. The American approach to dealing with the cocaine problem is basically fighting cocaine by fighting supply. So yeah, you wage war on the Medellin Cartel. You kill Pablo Escobar. And then it goes to Cali. Then you wage war on Cali. And then it moves on and then it goes to Mexico. It's always there." [continues 753 words]
The legalization of cannabis and rapid scale up of supervised-injection sites - as well as community-led initiatives, such as the site set up by Overdose Prevention Ottawa in Lowertown this month - have thrust Canada back into the limelight of global drug policy. Against the backdrop of a national overdose crisis and a fracturing of global consensus on drug prohibition, these are welcome changes. Yet they only begin to chip away at the drug policy challenges facing Canada. Canada's policy community remains divided about how best to tackle the overdose crisis. As the death toll mounts, should we invest more in law and order approaches, treatment, harm reduction or some combination? [continues 582 words]
Advocate sees a role for public health nurses in fighting opioid crisis in rural communities The opioid crisis in St. John's is far from over, and a community advocate wants to see changes. "We see people every day who are at risk," said Tree Walsh, the harm reduction manager at the Safe Works Access Program (SWAP) for the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador. "We're trying to save lives, and we're trying to prevent deaths, but as soon as the pharmaceutical supply of opioids dries up, which is happening now things are going to get so much worse." [continues 559 words]
Four arrested by officers in Cole Harbour dispensary One day after Tasty Budds reopened its five Nova Scotia locations following police raids last week, one of them has again been searched by police. RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Clarke confirmed to Metro Tuesday afternoon that police searched the Tasty Budds location in Cole Harbour. "We arrested four people, one of whom will be in court tomorrow morning in Dartmouth," Clarke said. Charges are expected against that one person, and Clarke said police will be naming them on Wednesday. [continues 136 words]
Urged to declare an emergency, province promises "significant resources and supports" The opioid drug crisis flaring up in Southwestern Ontario is becoming so bad across the province, hundreds of doctors, nurses and others are pushing Queen's Park to declare an emergency. In an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne Monday, the health workers say limited resources and poor data are preventing them from responding properly to a disturbing, sustained increase in overdoses. "The consequences have been clear: lives lost, families destroyed and harm reduction and health care worker burnout," they write. [continues 794 words]
