Narcotics back in the day were more a nuisance than anything else. Local police would regularly arrest people for possession of marijuana. Sometimes something more exotic like psychedelic mushrooms would materialize. The situation became more of a concern when cocaine and its derivatives appeared on the scene. Then came methamphetamine and opioids such as Oxycontin and hydromorphone. Heroin was never an issue locally like it has been in urban areas. Instead, rural areas like Norfolk and Haldimand skipped straight to more problematic substances such as fentanyl and carfentanil. These powerful synthetic opioids have caused the number of drug overdose deaths in Canada to skyrocket in recent months. [continues 408 words]
The head of Edmonton's Police Service looks ahead to 2018 with skepticism around supervised consumption sites, Edmonton Police Service Chief Rod Knecht says police have had a good but "extremely busy" year. Metro asked him about some of the year's biggest stories and what to expect in 2018. The interview has been edited for space. Metro: Cannabis will be legal July 1. Has EPS backed off marijuana related arrests since legalization was announced? We're busy. Obviously there's lots of crimes, and we enforce crime on priority. [continues 694 words]
Shortages feared after legalization hits next July OTTAWA - Health Canada has nearly doubled the number of licensed cannabis producers in the country over the past six months and new numbers show hundreds more applicants are in the final stages of approval as the government rushes toward national marijuana legalization by next July. The dramatic surge in approved and aspiring producers comes in the wake of the agency's concerted efforts to loosen its bureaucratic approval process and head off what many experts fear will be a looming supply crunch for the burgeoning legal cannabis market. [continues 675 words]
Concerns still abound as cannabis legalization planned for this summer fast approaches A Squamish cannabis retailer thinks the province's recent announcement around the sale of marijuana is a step in the right direction but says there are still many unanswered questions. "I'm excited, but there is still not much that's changed since the announcement," says Bryan Raiser, owner of 99 North Dispensary. The federal government has said marijuana will be legalized by July 1 of next year but handed it over to the provinces to determine how to manage the details. [continues 602 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A marijuana activist whose advocacy dates to the 1960s counterculture has been arrested in California toting 22 pounds of illegal marijuana, prosecutors said Wednesday. Irvin Dana Beal, 70, of New York, was arrested Saturday in far Northern California after prosecutors said his rental car was spotted weaving across the road and driving 20 miles below the speed limit. James Statzer, 51, of Michigan, also was arrested. The arrest occurred along a well-traveled highway in California's famed Emerald Triangle area, known for its high-grade pot. A police dog smelled marijuana during the stop and 22 pounds of the drug was found. [continues 323 words]
Nearly 7,000 life-saving naloxone kits have been used by harm reduction staff in B.C. so far this year and thousands more kits will be distributed by pharmacies to battle the effects of a contaminated drug supply. "That means you can get a kit at no charge if you use opioids or you are likely to witness an overdose," said Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy. "Already, 1,900 kits have been distributed to over 200 pharmacies around the province." [continues 606 words]
Overdose Crisis: Thousands more kits to be distributed this year through pharmacies Nearly 7,000 life-saving naloxone kits have been used by harm reduction staff in B.C. so far this year and thousands more kits will be distributed by pharmacies to battle the effects of a contaminated drug supply. "That means you can get a kit at no charge if you use opioids or you are likely to witness an overdose," said Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy. "Already, 1,900 kits have been distributed to over 200 pharmacies around the province." [continues 609 words]
No one forced Junior Hernandez to swallow the fentanyl, his grieving partner says, but did he understand it could kill him? Part Four in a series of profiles about the escalating opioid crisis in Quebec. Before his partner Junior Hernandez died of a fentanyl-related overdose, Christophe Cote says he didn't know much about the drug. Just before dawn, Junior Hernandez and his sky-is-the-limit friends spilled out of a downtown bar. They were heading to a friend's place to continue the revelry - drinking, doing coke and ecstasy. Once the drugs ran out, they called a dealer, hopping a taxi to his place. There, they found a stash of tiny, unfamiliar pills called fentanyl. The party ended hours later with Hernandez, 35, lying on a cold slab in a Montreal morgue. Hernandez didn't see the end coming. Neither did his friends. [continues 1346 words]
In a dark room, Jahful Price slowly worked a row of pungent plants guided by his headlamp. He wore a white biohazard suit, methodically picking up cannabis plants by their stems and hanging them upside down on a rack with plastic clothes hangers. Price, a 31-year-old Oakland resident who is black, is getting hands-on experience in cannabis cultivating that he hopes will help him run his own business one day. Since July, he's had a paid internship at NUG, a cannabis business owned by Bloom Innovations, a horticulture consulting and management firm in Oakland. NUG chose Nine Mile Tribe, a business owned by Price's family, as one of its equity partners. [continues 1023 words]
A runaway teen to mother: 'I'll be fine mommy. I love you.' Hours later she and two others were dead NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. deaths from drug overdoses skyrocketed 21 percent last year, and for the second straight year dragged down how long Americans are expected to live. The government figures released Thursday put drug deaths at 63,600, up from about 52,000 in 2015. For the first time, the powerful painkiller fentanyl and its close opioid cousins played a bigger role in the deaths than any other legal or illegal drug, surpassing prescription pain pills and heroin. [continues 725 words]
The United States' overall rate of hepatitis C infection more than doubled from 2004 to 2014 -- and among people under 40, it increased by 300 to 400 percent. The reason for the jump? Transmission through injecting opioid drugs, said a report published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. Lead author Jon Zibbell, senior public health analyst in the Behavioral and Urban Health program of North Carolina-based RTI International, said public health officials have long presumed the link, but the research, performed in conjunction with a number of other agencies, provides data to back it up. [continues 580 words]
Life-saving drug now accessible after web tutorial People can now learn how to administer Naloxone, the antidote to opioid overdose, by watching a five-minute video online. St. Paul's emergency medical team led the project and launched the online tutorial this month to help more people access the life-saving drug. At the end of the tutorial, participants receive a certificate they can show at a nearby pharmacy, or any Naloxone dispensing site, to receive a free kit. Previously, people who wanted Naloxone would have to attend a training workshop before receiving a kit. [continues 189 words]
Since being equipped with naloxone nasal spray last December, Calgary firefighters have administered the opioid overdose antidote to 326 patients. That's nearly once a day, said fire Chief Steve Dongworth, who noted the department has also seen an increase in overdose calls. "We often go to overdose calls where we don't necessarily administer Narcan (the trade name of the drug), for one reason or another, and we've seen a significant increase in the volume of those, year over year - from under 400 calls in 2016 to nearly 1,100 in 2017 to date," said Dongworth. "So that's close to a 300 per cent increase." [continues 387 words]
Chief's comments come after confirmation that constable died from fentanyl overdose Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders says he's actively looking at drug testing for officers in the wake of a constable's fentanyl overdose death this year. "I don't want to lose any officers to anything, especially drugs of any kind and if there are things that we can do to reduce that, then I'm very interested in that," Saunders said Tuesday during a year-end interview. [continues 462 words]
As a former Toronto police chief, Liberal MP Bill Blair said he understands how the federal government's legislation legalizing marijuana consumption for recreational use affects municipalities. Blair, Ottawa's point person on the pot file, was in the Tri-Cities this week, meeting with mayors and councillors, he said, to ensure cities have the tools and information ahead of the regulation changes coming next summer. "I recognize the important roles that mayors, councillors and local police officers have to make this thing work," he said in an interview Monday with The Tri-City News at Port Coquitlam city hall. "They have a big job to do here and we want to make sure they have the support they need that is required at the local level in order to make sure that this works in this community." [continues 345 words]
WINKLER - The City of Winkler will not honour the province's Dec. 22 deadline to indicate whether or not they'd be willing to have marijuana sold in the community. Mayor Martin Harder was the first municipal leader in Manitoba to make that statement and he said they don't feel they have enough facts to make a decision either way. "We haven't got any information," he said. "It's a moving target, and every time we get some information it's different than what we knew before." [continues 478 words]
At the two malls in town you can buy key chains and Christmas ornaments shaped like marijuana leaves. Along a downtown shopping corridor, paintings of cannabis plants grace storefront windows. Even Kmart stocks its shelves with T-shirts and mugs decorated with the signature green leaf and "Colorado est. 2012" -- the year the state legalized recreational marijuana. But that is the one pot product you can't buy in Colorado Springs. When Coloradans voted overwhelmingly to make non-medical marijuana legal, they left it up to cities whether to allow sales. Colorado Springs, home to five military bases and known for its conservative politics and religious values, blocked recreational cannabis sales. Now some in town want to change that, saying the state's second largest city is missing out on sales taxes that are enriching cities across Colorado. [continues 1017 words]
Medical marijuana dispensaries and other portions of the medicinal cannabis supply chain could be legal in Fresno as the result of a unanimous vote Thursday by the City Council. The 7-0 vote begins the process of rewriting the city's complete ban on commercial marijuana operations that was adopted earlier this year. It will likely be several months, however, before drafts emerge for ordinances and rules that will govern where and how businesses that cultivate, process, manufacture, distribute or sell medical marijuana can operate within the city. [continues 990 words]
MANCHACA, Texas -- When California rings in the new year with the sale of recreational pot for the first time, Texas will be tiptoeing into its own marijuana milestone: a medical cannabis program so restrictive that doubts swirl over who will even use it. Texas is the last big state to allow some form of medical marijuana, albeit an oil extract so low in the psychoactive component, THC, that it couldn't get a person high. Though it might seem that Texas policymakers have softened their attitude toward the drug, bringing them more in line with the U.S. population as a whole, they have not. A joint could still land you in jail in Texas, and the state's embrace of medical marijuana comes with a heavy dose of caution. [continues 796 words]
Beantown Greentown is trying to build a 100-foot-long joint this weekend at a marijuana expo event in Worcester. This is a practice run. Keith Laham and his friends have been practicing for the past few months. They have gathered in his cellar, in other people's cellars - you name it, the 42-year-old West Roxbury native said. But this weekend will mark the true attempt, and Laham, cofounder of Beantown Greentown, a medical marijuana advocacy group, lifestyle brand, and cannabis club, has high ambitions for it. [continues 627 words]
