The hare-brained idea from Toronto that the country should consider decriminalizing or legalizing illicit drugs because current policy has failed is not just "crazy," it is insane. It would be laughable if the issue weren't so deadly serious. It is a crazy thought without any merit - and it has no place in the discussion of the serious problem of opioid addiction that is destroying many young lives in the city and around the country. First proposed by a Toronto overdose panel in the wake of the deadly fentanyl crisis, it was taken up by that city's medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen De Villa, who said decriminalization of all illegal drugs could be the answer to the failure of the current approach to drugs. The key argument of the Toronto overdose action plan is that current policy has reduced neither the drugs, nor the supply. [continues 469 words]
B.C. is heading for another record year for fentanyl overdose deaths. Despite making Naloxone antidote kits widely available, the death rate is up 88 per cent over last year, which was also a record year. Last year, according to figures available online, B.C. had 935 deaths from drug overdoses. This year, the province had 780 deaths by the end of June. If the rate continues, the province will hit 1,400 deaths by the end of the year. But in the welter of data, I find two facts interesting. [continues 685 words]
B.C. is heading for another record year for fentanyl overdose deaths. Despite making Naloxone antidote kits widely available, the death rate is up 88 per cent over last year, which was also a record year. Last year, according to figures available online, B.C. had 935 deaths from drug overdoses. This year, the province had 780 deaths by the end of June. If the rate continues, the province will hit 1,400 deaths by the end of the year. But in the welter of data, I find two facts interesting. [continues 465 words]
Prosecutors say the false compartments in Harinder Dhaliwal's tractor trailers was the innovation that allowed more than 3 tons of cocaine to move through Buffalo. By Dhaliwal's own admission, the 6,600 pounds of cocaine he and others smuggled into Canada had a street value of $120 million. A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the 47-year old Brampton, Ont., man to 20 years in prison. "There is no other case like this," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch. "We've never seen this amount of drugs before." [continues 327 words]
The deadly painkiller fentanyl, thrust under a spotlight by a rare warning by three health agenices and city police, isn't the only dangerous street drug raising eyebrows in London. Heroin is also showing up, in levels-those who work with addicts say they haven't seen before. One agency blames the spike on the province tightening the prescription drugs it covers under a program for people on social assistance and seniors, which has driven some users to heroin instead. "I've never known it (heroin) here. Now it is," said Karen Burton, needle and syringe program coordinator at Regional HIV/AIDS Connection in London, whose work includes a drug needle exchange program. "Heroin is here and I don't see it disappearing anytime soon." [continues 630 words]
The number of Niagara residents dying from fentanyl related overdoses is on track to hit a record high this year, according to data provided by Niagara Regional Police. Police say officers have responded to 15 fatal opioid overdoses since Jan. 1, with 10 of them involving fentanyl. Police responded to 12 fentanyl related fatal overdoses in all 2016. This data only reflects overdose incidents that involved the police. It does not capture overdoses, fatal or otherwise, that did not involve a police response such as a person arriving at an emergency room on their own. [continues 663 words]
Opioid crisis 'like genocide' Recovery advocate Annie McCullough is calling for Canada to declare a national state of emergency in the opioid crisis as the death toll continues to climb, including three fatalities in Durham Region Friday. McCullough, a co-founder of Faces and Voices of Recovery Canada, said that what Toronto and the GTA is experiencing now - a surge in fentanyl-related overdoses in Toronto - has been an epidemic in Vancouver over the past two years. "What's going on with fentanyl almost feels like a conspiracy because people know now that it's killing people and they're not stopping distributing it, whoever these people are that are doing it," McCullough said. "It's almost like they have a death wish for people; it feels like genocide." [continues 442 words]
As deadly fentanyl fuels a public health crisis, Free Press reporter Jennifer Bieman reveals what you should know about common London street drugs Forget the old adage that what you don't know, can't hurt you. When it comes to street drugs, what you don't know can kill you. That was the thrust of a rare public health warning - three health agencies and London police joined in its release - last week in London, when authorities stressed that the latest villain in Canada's opioid drug crisis, deadly fentanyl, is turning up in other illegal street drugs. [continues 1350 words]
Sarnia cops warn of opioid-laced street drugs after three overdoses - one of them fatal - in five hours Three overdoses in mere hours, one of them deadly - the sinister new face of Southwestern Ontario's opioid drug crisis has killed again, this time not a week after a rare public health warning about the often-hidden killer. A few grains of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, mixed with cocaine, likely caused a fatal overdose Wednesday night in Sarnia, prompting a new warning from police in that city about drugs laced with fentanyl. [continues 936 words]
Part two of two Marijuana is like Pink Floyd. The English group remains hugely popular. A cover band played Prince George earlier this year, sold out the Playhouse and earned a standing ovation at the end. Former Floyd man Roger Waters is currently touring the biggest arena venues in North America, mixing in a few new songs with the Floyd classics. Not bad for a band that except for two songs - Another Brick In The Wall and Money - had little commercial radio presence in their heyday. Unlike Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and the Eagles, who poured out radio-friendly four-minute classics at will during the 1970s, the Floyd released dense concept albums with songs more than 10 minutes long, odd time signatures and lengthy instrumental passages. [continues 845 words]
President Trump's declaration of a national opioid crisis creates an opportunity to bring greater focus and more resources to a scourge that is killing an average of almost 150 people a day. (Getty Images) President Trump's recent declaration recognizing the opioid crisis acknowledges something people have been saying for years. It remains to be seen whether this new development opens up more resources. The opioid epidemic is ravaging a generation of mostly young people, although older people are not immune. There are an estimated 2.6 million opioid addicts in the United States. [continues 486 words]
Quality checks of illicit drugs is one way, writes Kenneth Tupper. In recent years across B.C., a public-health tragedy has resulted in thousands of preventable deaths from street drugs containing powerful opioids such as fentanyl or its analogs. Toxicity from adulteration has occurred not just in the heroin supply, but also in stimulants, club drugs and counterfeit pills. Border agents and police have tried to reduce or disrupt the supply, but they have had little success in stemming the tide of illicit drug importation and consequent deaths. [continues 751 words]
Energy drinks could be a gateway to cocaine use, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that young adults who said they'd consumed energy drinks yearly between ages 21 and 24 were at greater risk for subsequently doing cocaine, using prescription stimulants for non-medical uses and problem drinking. The 1,099 study participants were recruited as 18-year-old college students. Those who didn't consume energy drinks as they got older were less likely to develop substance-abuse problems. [continues 338 words]
I grew up in the 1980s, back when the "Just Say No" campaign was in full swing. I remember being prepared to fend off relentless peer pressure to do drugs, evil strangers offering what was not actually candy, and so forth. Then I grew up, and almost none of the scenarios I'd been taught in D.A.R.E. ever really came to pass. I still avoided drugs, mostly because of a combination of a good home life and an over-analytical brain. It wasn't as if drugs weren't around, though. I watched too many of my friends experiment with everything from speed to acid. No one ever pressured me to try it. It was simply there if you wanted to dive in. [continues 601 words]
Proactive public health warning, or scare tactic? A heated debate has erupted after the London region's top public health official warned that illegal drugs, including marijuana, could be contaminated with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller already blamed for hundreds of overdose deaths in Canada this year. There's no shortage of skepticism about part of that warning, involving pot, especially since there's never been a confirmed case of fentanyl-laced marijuana in Canada. Though multiple warnings that fentanyl-contaminated cannabis have circulated in communities - even former B.C. premier Christy Clark made the claim last year - both the RCMP and Canada's health minister have said the rumours haven't been proven. [continues 665 words]
White Rock officers cracking down on drug trafficking White Rock RCMP have a stern message for those who peddle drugs in the city. "If you deal drugs in White Rock you are not welcome here. Prepare to be arrested. We will not tolerate the misery and pain you are bringing into the community," White Rock RCMP Staff Sgt. Daryl Creighton said in an emailed statement Friday afternoon. The news release comes on the heels of "significant" street level drug seizures and arrests in White Rock. [continues 171 words]
NEW YORK -- A safe haven where drug users inject themselves with heroin and other drugs has been quietly operating in the United States for the past three years, a report reveals. None were known to exist in the US until the disclosure in a medical journal, although several states and cities are pushing to establish these so-called supervised injection sites, where users can shoot up under the care of trained staff who can treat an overdose if necessary. In the report released Tuesday, two researchers said they've been evaluating an underground safe place that opened in 2014. As a condition of their research, they didn't disclose the location of the facility -- which is unsanctioned and potentially illegal -- or the social service agency running it. [continues 547 words]
Mihevc misses the irony in his drug stance When the truth came out about then-mayor Rob Ford's crack cocaine use in late October of 2013, 26-year NDP councillor Joe Mihevc quickly joined the queue of councillors and media pundits who savaged him. In fact, in one interview on Oct. 31 of that year, Mihevc claimed that Torontonians were "shocked and disappointed" because Ford "clearly has an addiction issue of one form or another" and associates with the "wrong people" (meaning, drug dealers). [continues 579 words]
On top of city, region and provincial efforts, Matt Brown makes new bid to tackle local crisis, issues Another drug crisis, another drug strategy. In the midst of an ongoing London drug strategy, a regional drug strategy and a provincial drug strategy - none of them completed yet - the city's mayor wants his own drug strategy. But the new effort will be nimble with a concrete focus, battling opioid overdoses and other problems in large part through the establishment of a supervised injection site, city health leaders promise. [continues 571 words]
The news coming out about the fentanyl crisis in Cambridge is overwhelmingly bad as well as heartbreaking. People are overdosing on the dangerous drug, which is 100 times more powerful than morphine. People are dying from it, too, often taking heroin or cocaine without realizing fentanyl has been added. In just a few months, the problem - long associated with Canada's West Coast - has escalated to the point that many residents in downtown Galt no longer venture out at night out of fear of encountering comatose drug users and used syringes. At least one resident is threatening to move out. [continues 412 words]
