Safe injection sites only serve to delay the inevitable downward spiral of life for addicts.

In the meantime, larger and larger areas of downtown become even more unlivable as the number of addicts rises. This leads to more robberies, assaults, murders as addicts commit crimes to support their lifestyles and dealers fight for market share and territory. We only have a couple of options: One is to supply addicts with drugs and supplies under condition they don't commit any crimes. Since they're addicts, they'd be under our control. A total enablement and surrender if there ever was one.

Or, more realistically, as a society we need to make some fundamental changes toward drug treatment. Make detox more available and, once voluntarily entered, a person cannot leave until the program is complete.

P.M. Zupan, Edmonton

[end]

Did anyone expect the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees to decide the sale of legal marijuana is best put in the hands of private enterprise? Delegates to the union's convention in Edmonton on the weekend passed a resolution that - gasp - "all cannabis retail outlets be publicly owned and operated by the Government of Alberta or one of its regulated agencies."

Union members - or more precisely, their executive and the employees they hire - rely on dues to keep the lights on at the AUPE office. The addition of a few thousand card-carrying marijuana retail workers would add a shine to the AUPE's ledgers.

[continues 330 words]

Alberta health officials are handing out between 2,000 and 3,000 naloxone kits a month to combat a lethal fentanyl epidemic.

In two years of providing at least 30,972 of the free kits that include the anti-narcotic formula, Naloxone has reversed a reported 2,330 overdoses in the province, said Dr. Nick Etches, medical officer of health for the Calgary region.

"Certainly, there have been more reversals than reported, the majority of times people are not telling us," he said, also noting those numbers are as of Sept. 30, and don't include naloxone interventions delivered by medical professionals.

[continues 468 words]

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) has adopted a resolution supporting the public sale of marijuana when the drug becomes legal next year.

The federal government plans to legalize marijuana by July 1, 2018, but has left many of the details - including how the drug will be sold - - up to the provinces.

On the last day of its annual convention Saturday, members of the AUPE, Alberta's largest labour organization, endorsed a resolution that "all cannabis retail outlets be publicly owned and operated by the Government of Alberta or one of its regulated agencies."

[continues 358 words]

Supervised drug consumption site set to open Jan. 2

What's old will be renewed again in a bid to save lives from the rising number of drug overdoses in Lethbridge. Government officials and local media received a tour Friday of the city's future supervised consumption site, currently under construction.

The former Pulse nightclub is being transformed into what will become a "clean and safe space" area for drug users to snort, inhale, inject or swallow drugs while under the supervision of healthcare professionals and without fear of arrest.

[continues 1061 words]

My hope is that the supervised injection sites recently approved at four locations in Edmonton will become a jumping-off point for heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) in our province.

In my opinion, it is the only way to tackle the opioid scourge that is leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. Countries like Switzerland have experienced rates of homelessness and property crime associated with problematic drug use approaching zero per cent after approving the use of HAT by qualified doctors.

This approach is counter-intuitive to many, but the numbers speak for themselves. The health authority in the United Kingdom figures that for every dollar spent on harm reduction, it saves $3 in health services and enforcement.

Steven Zerebeski, Beaumont

[end]

Vancouver's experience isn't very encouraging, writes Warren Champion.

The news tells us the epicentre of opioid/fentanyl deaths appears to be situated in the urban core of Edmonton, specifically, in the communities of Central McDougall and McCauley.

The three levels of government created an organization named AMSISE - Access to Medically Supervised Injection Services. AMSISE applied to the federal government on May 1 for a waiver that would allow approved sites to provide supervised injection services.

The rationale given was "the spike in opioid-related overdose deaths has pushed the need for an effective set of responses into the forefront for community and government."

[continues 618 words]

Remand Centre hopes technology cuts in-custody overdoses, boosts staff safety

Edmonton Remand Centre inmates will go through an electronic body scanner to counter the smuggling of increasingly toxic drugs and other contraband into the lockup.

The scanner, similar to those used by airport security, takes a full body X-ray. The remand centre, which showed off the new equipment Wednesday, is the first correctional facility in Alberta to test the technology.

New inmates, transferred inmates and inmates suspected of having contraband will be put through the scanner, said Ken Johnston, security director of the remand centre, which houses about 1,500 people in custody awaiting trial.

[continues 314 words]

Supporters of Edmonton's Chinatown and urban community league members say they 're disappointed with the Ottawa's approval of four supervised drug consumption sites in the city's core.

"We feel that it's an extremely unfair decision, and not well-informed," Michael Lee, chairman of the Chinese Benevolent Association, said Wednesday.

"The basic rights of some communities (were) totally ignored."

Alberta Health announced Wednesday that its federal counterpart had approved three supervised injection sites in Edmonton's downtown core and supervised consumption services for inpatients at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

[continues 276 words]

Alberta's first supervised drug injection sites will open within months at four locations in Edmonton's inner city after receiving approval from Health Canada, the provincial government announced Wednesday.

Proponents hailed the news as a "long overdue" step that will save lives and direct more addicts into treatment.

The goal is to get three community sites open by late December or early January, while a fourth facility at the Royal Alexandra Hospital is anticipated to open sometime in the spring of 2018.

[continues 1235 words]

Health Canada approved the first few supervised consumption facilities in Alberta on Wednesday, including a site in downtown Lethbridge.

ARCHES and Edmonton-based coalition AMSISE received an exemption from federal drug legislation, allowing them to operate supervised consumption sites.

Four sites are slated to open, three in Edmonton and one in Lethbridge, which will operate out of the former night club Pulse.

The application process for Lethbridge moved quicker than most and Jill Manning, the managing director of ARCHES, feels that may be a result of the unique issues Lethbridge is facing around substance use.

[continues 571 words]

By next summer, a brave new world will dawn on Edmonton streets. Smokers will openly, and quite legally under certain restrictions, puff on joints purchased from a cannabis store selling a line of products sanctioned by and maybe even distributed by a provincial agency. If the Notley government decides to adopt a public retailing system instead of a private model, the province itself may adopt the role of pot dealer - a scenario that a few scant years ago would have rightly elicited a "what-have-you-been-smoking?" response in a region traditionally known for small-c conservative values.

[continues 344 words]

It is great to see Edmonton embracing supervised injection sites. The number of people dying from fentanyl (thousands per year) would be alarming but for the general indifference our governments have for drug users.

The war on drugs directly causes fentanyl deaths; people trying to use cocaine inadvertently use fentanyl, then overdose.

The war on drugs directly supports organized crime.

If all drugs were legal and regulated, cartels would not exist: they are the only group that benefits from this policy.

[continues 74 words]

I was disturbed by the language of Shelly Williams when talking about safe injection sites. "This is for people who are injecting substances in unsafe environments, and providing them the opportunity to inject in a safe place where we can deepen relationships." She leaves out that the substances are illegal, and it has a $2.3 M annual cost. Food bank demand is surging, kids are going to school hungry and our government is coddling drug addicts?

Jason Morton



(The goal is to defray costs to the healthcare system and prevent deaths.)

[end]

It doesn't make sense to invest (public) money to set up infrastructure here.

Premier Rachel Notley won't say which way her NDP government is leaning when it comes to sales of legal cannabis, but she insists the province is carefully weighing the merits of both the public and private sector options.

Under its policy framework unveiled last week, the NDP will allow recreational marijuanato be sold only in stand-alone stores once it is legalized next year, but the government is still weighing whether to set up a system of government owned and operated stores, or leave retail to the private sector.

[continues 478 words]

Premier Rachel Notley won't say which way her NDP government is leaning when it comes to sales of legal cannabis, but she insists the province is carefully weighing the merits of public- and private-sector options.

Under its policy framework unveiled last week, the NDP will allow recreational marijuana to be sold only in standalone stores once cannabis is legalized next year, but the government is still weighing whether to set up a system of government owned and operated stores, or leave retail to the private sector.

[continues 274 words]

The health implications of legalized cannabis and ways to combat Canada's rising opioid problem are on the agenda when health ministers meet this week in the Alberta capital.

Provincial and territorial ministers will hold discussions today and will get an update on the marijuana file from federal counterpart Ginette Petipas Taylor on Friday.

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen says he wants to know more about the impacts on health and on the health system.

"Many studies show that people are affected by the consumption of marijuana up until the age of 25 because there can be long-term effects if the brain is still developing up until that age," said Goertzen.

[continues 308 words]

In more than 35 years as an emergency room physician, Dan Morhaim has learned a lot about opioids.

The doctor, Maryland state legislator and faculty member at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said he has had the opportunity to talk to thousands of drug users while treating patients.

"It's given me tremendous insight into what goes on and that's informed a lot of the policies that I've promoted," he said.

The physician was in Calgary on Wednesday to speak about that approach as part of a University of Calgary School of Public Policy and O'Brien Institute of Public Health event.

[continues 396 words]

CALGARY - Premier Rachel Notley won't say which way her NDP government is leaning when it comes to sales of legal cannabis, but she insists the province is carefully weighing the merits of both the public and private-sector options.

Under its policy framework unveiled last week, the NDP will allow recreational marijuanato be sold only in stand-alone stores once it is legalized next year, but the government is still weighing whether to set up a system of government owned and operated stores, or leave retail to the private sector.

[continues 361 words]

An overwhelming number of municipal candidates from across Alberta surveyed by anti-smoking advocate group Action on Smoking and Health support municipal restrictions on the use of cannabis in public places.

In total, 159 candidates from 20 major Alberta municipalities were asked nine questions in the survey on cannabis and tobacco between Oct. 2 and Oct. 11.

Of those candidates, 133 respondents, or 84 per cent, said they support restrictions.

Almost as many, 121 respondents or 76 per cent, said they support municipal licensing of cannabis retail sales, and 129 candidates also supported the use of municipal zoning to control location of cannabis retail stores.

[continues 107 words]