Each day, dozens of drug addicts file into New Leaf Treatment Center hoping for a respite from their cravings. Gantt Galloway hopes to buy time for their recovery. A pharmacist and noted researcher, Galloway founded a drug treatment center in Lafayette. Saving lives inside the walls of New Leaf Treatment Center is as much about the counseling and detox medications as it is about ensuring that drug users have access to clean needles. Clean needles buy time, he said. And that saves lives. [continues 749 words]
Thirty years ago, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz learned firsthand marijuana's effectiveness in alleviating the suffering of the terminally ill, when he illegally supplied it to a dying friend. Now, three decades later, after almost half the nation's other states have paved the way for medical marijuana and Floridians like John Morgan have managed to position medical marijuana for a statewide vote, Gaetz is eager to spread the healing. He asks, "How could I deny compassionate care to someone else's child?" [continues 52 words]
Residents and business owners in Nanaimo's north end have to fend for themselves when it comes to picking up discarded drug paraphernalia. The problem came to light recently when staff at Delicado's North, located at the corner of Aulds Road and Metral Drive, were getting ready to open for the day. Ashley Thorp, a restaurant employee, responded to an anxious knocking on the restaurant's front door by a woman warning her about five used syringes and a spoon left near the business's entrance. [continues 284 words]
Health. City Votes To Permit Harm Reduction With Bylaw Overhaul Needle exchanges, methadone clinics and supervised injection sites are now legal in Abbotsford after city council voted Monday night to amend a 2005 bylaw that prohibited harm reduction measures. The Fraser Health Authority (FHA) wrote to the city in 2010 and asked it to change the zoning bylaw to allow needle exchanges because of concerns about rising rates of hepatitis C. But don't expect to see a supervised injection site like Vancouver's Insite pop up anytime soon. [continues 333 words]
They Want Congress to Use Must-Pass Budget Bill As Vehicle to Change Law WASHINGTON - Needle exchange advocates are urging lawmakers to use a coming must-pass budget bill to lift the decades-old prohibition on spending federal funds for clean syringes for drug users, supporters of the effort said Thursday. The groups are pressing members of Congress, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, to ease a ban they say does little to curb drug abuse but stymies efforts to prevent HIV and hepatitis infections caused by dirty needles. [continues 630 words]
BELLEVILLE - A notorious downtown boarding house is being called a "biohazard" by a man who reports he pricked himself with an infected used needle while staying there. Marc Alarie is currently on a mix of medications after he inadvertently stabbed a finger on his left hand with a used needle he said was left lying in a common area at the Belle Pub, formerly the City Hotel. The 40-year-old, who recently moved to Belleville from Timmins, rented a room above the Front Street watering hole before leaving shortly before Christmas. [continues 477 words]
I would like to underscore Chris Beyrer's recent commentary calling for lifting the U.S. ban on use of federal funds for syringe services programs, or SSPs ("End the senseless syringe funding ban," Dec. 11). SSPs benefit our communities by preventing new HIV infections, reducing needle stick injuries to law enforcement and saving taxpayer dollars. The SSP in Baltimore alone has served over 14,000 injection drug users and referred about 2,300 SSP users to treatment programs in its first 12 years of operation. By safely disposing of used (and potentially contaminated) needles, SSPs promote public safety for not only the general public, but also law enforcement agents and first responders. Additionally, there is the potential for SSPs to save billions of taxpayer dollars nationwide by preventing HIV infections among injection drug users, many of whom would be reliant on public sector programs for HIV treatment and care. [continues 129 words]
One of the most visible signs of heroin's resurgence in Olympia is the increase in dirty, discarded needles being found downtown. In August, the city's Parks and Recreation Department began keeping statistics on discarded needles left in public parks. As of mid-October, the tally was 269. One way to deal with discarded needles - as well as potentially help their users - is exchanges that trade new syringes for old ones. In Thurston County, the Syringe Exchange Program distributes free needles to IV drug users in downtown Olympia. [continues 744 words]
Data on discarded syringes shows highest incidence in Scarborough When the discarded syringe pierced deep into her heel, Danielle Monk was grateful for one thing - that it wasn't her 2-year-old son, Nolan, who stepped on the soiled needle in a Toronto park. In that same split-second, Monk's dream of having found refuge from the drugs, shootings and crime downtown was shattered. "My husband and I realized we didn't want to raise our son in Parkdale," said Monk. "So when we visited Mimico three years ago, and saw the beauty and tranquility of the neighbourhood, we decided to move there." She calls Mimico her "Eden on the lake" - at least she used to. [continues 1064 words]
Additional context and clarifications are sorely needed in regards to the Times-Herald cover story, ("Potent plants: Officials: Little known locally about 'earwax' variety, its dangers." (Front and Center, July 28) Most troublingly, reporter Marie Estrada implies throughout the story that so-called "earwax" is a distinct strain of the marijuana plant. This is not the case. Rather, "earwax" (or "wax") is slang for concentrated extracts derived from the cannabis plant. These gooey concoctions do not resemble cannabis in either appearance or texture, are typically ingested in a different manner than one would consume marijuana, and are typically labeled by dispensary providers as possessing far higher concentrations of THC - the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana - than standard plant material. [continues 444 words]
Re: You Can't Get Clean If You're Dead, Chris Selley, July 23 Drug users are not the only beneficiaries of harm reduction interventions like Vancouver's Downtown Eastside safe injection program. Look no further than Canada's southern neighbour for tragic examples of drug policies that are best avoided. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that 57% of AIDS cases among women and 36% of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This preventable public health crisis is a direct result of misguided zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. Can Canada afford to emulate the harm maximization approach of the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated? Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
Re: Supervised injection sites editorial, July 12. Safe injection sites have been shown to reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. They also serve as a bridge to drug treatment for an especially hard to reach population. Drug users are not the only beneficiaries. Look no further than the United States for examples of anti-drug strategies best avoided. U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers estimate that 57% of AIDS cases among women and 36% of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This preventable public health crisis is a direct result of zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. We don't think it makes a safer, healthier city [end]
To those who have expressed such strong opinions about not needing a supervised injection site in Ottawa I ask why? Why is it that you feel so strongly that the nation's capital does "not need one"? The principal reason people don't want these injection sites in the city is because they don't approve of the idea of the use of drugs or how it will look to the public if this project is approved. The truth of the matter is that a project like this is designed to help people with drug addictions to help prevent the spread of disease and used needles floating around and to introduce new preventive strategies and intervention programs into the community. [continues 95 words]
Sandy Hill health centre pushing for safe-injection site The push for Ottawa to get a controversial supervised injection site is gaining speed. The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre on Wednesday said it's working to submit an application for an exemption from federal drug laws in order to open a "safer consumption site." "We think we could do more for people in the community and drug users themselves," said Rob Boyd, director of the Oasis program at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre. [continues 343 words]
Harm reduction program still discretely providing services Somebody walked into the W.G. Davies building on Wednesday morning, rang the buzzer on the door in the back left corner of the lobby and exchanged their used needles for new, clean ones. As many needles as they wanted. That was one of 55 monthly visits to the needle exchange program. "That could be repeat visits or it could be people getting for other people," said Joann Blazieko, communicable disease coordinator for Five Hills Health Region (FHHR) Public Health. [continues 453 words]
Thirteen years ago, Cpl. Ed Toatley was working undercover for the Maryland State Police when he was murdered during a botched drug deal in Washington, D.C. Ed was a close friend of mine, and his tragic death Oct. 30, 2000, began my quest to end America's longest war, the failed war on drugs. That quest led me to the newly formed Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an international nonprofit organization for law enforcement professionals embarking on journeys similar to mine, where I have served as executive director for the past three years. [continues 636 words]
Medicine Hat provides more needles to drug users per capita than anywhere else in Alberta, according to a recent CBC News report. "Between 15,000 to 18,000 needles are given out per month to about 200 regular clients," said Barbra Madonka, program manager at Medicine Hat Cares Centre, a downtown drop-in centre that opened in 2010 and offers a needle exchange, counselling and referrals. "Last year we gave out 175,000 needles." She says her colleagues in Calgary are surprised by the numbers for the size of this community but adds this does not necessarily mean there is a higher use of drugs in the Gas City. Madonka says there are some transients using the services, including some from as far away at Ontario, who stay a while. [continues 359 words]
Editor, the Times: Despite the fact that the current mayor and council in Abbotsford favour caving in to the demands of Fraser Health and pressure from drug addicts, our city is now being sued by Pivot Legal Society. Peter Bernstein, their lawyer agrees that "Access to health care for drug users should not be up for a public vote." We are talking here about illegal drug use. Abbotsford is being pressured to provide clean needles and assorted paraphernalia to enable people trapped in the horror of addictions to stay in that trap. [continues 204 words]
Town joins growing list of communities battling intravenous drug use The town of Torbay is attempting to lock illicit drug use out of its community one area at a time. As a result of discarded needles being found in the watershed area at North Pond, the town has erected a sign informing the public that in a few weeks the area will be gated and secured. Deputy Mayor Geoff Gallant says he's not gullible enough to believe it doesn't happen in Torbay, but until it was brought to council's attention in May he wasn't aware needles were being disposed of in public areas. [continues 941 words]
Three injection drug users filed a lawsuit on Tuesday over an Abbotsford bylaw that has banned harm-reduction services such as clean needle exchanges for the past eight years, arguing the prohibition violates their Charter rights and needlessly puts them at risk. The lawsuit comes as councillors in the Fraser Valley community study the future of the bylaw, which health officials say is preventing them from providing harm-reduction services in an area with some of the province's highest rates of overdoses and infections of HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 488 words]
