Many Users Are Skipping Over Gateway Drugs An Edmonton addictions specialist says an increasing number of teens are skipping booze and pot and jumping straight to hard drugs such as fentanyl. "We've never been this busy," said Metro City Medical Clinic's medical director, Dr. Hakique Virani. "One of the differences we're seeing today (versus) four to six years ago is the number of young people who come in looking for treatment because they're addicted to opioids - including fentanyl - never having used marijuana, never having drank alcohol." [continues 211 words]
Legalizing marijuana may result in more impaired workers on the job, says a local concrete contractor. "We have enough dealing with present drugs and alcohol. We don't need marijuana too," said Dean Brown, project manager, Mudrack Concrete Ltd. The workplace policy at Mudrack is "show up fit for work", said Brown. Those on prescription drugs must tell their foreman and if necessary are put on other duties for the duration of the prescription. Employees have a standard rule of thumb about how many hours after drinking alcohol they are fit for work, said Brown. Alcohol is metabolized fairly quickly, 12 to 24 hours, compared to marijuana that stays in your system three to 90 days. [continues 340 words]
The history of our Crowsnest Pass communities is replete with stories of Prohibition adventures and misadventures. One event even inspired an opera! Today, those stories offer more than entertainment, or a hit of nostalgia. They're also somewhat instructive, as Canadians look to the end of another form of prohibition. Last fall, Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals declared if they were elected, they would end the nation's longstanding prohibition on "simple possession" of marijuana by Canadian adults. We know how Canadians responded to that and the many other Liberal campaign pledges. [continues 574 words]
Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will legalize the use of marijuana, the dangers of the drug have seemingly disappeared. It is worth being reminded of some of them. Marijuana contains a mind-altering chemical that can have long-term effects including hampering the development of the brain and its function, according to the website of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Young people are particularly vulnerable in terms of impaired memory and ability to learn. The damage can be permanent. There are also the potential risks of mental illness including hallucinations, paranoia, depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide. There is, of course, the risk of addiction too. [continues 331 words]
The annual pot-themed gathering at the legislature had a festive vibe Wednesday, after signals on the same day from the federal government that pot could be legal as soon as next spring. Keith Fagin, head of 420 Alberta, described the government's announcement timing as "tongue in cheek," as it coincided with 420, the annual day of celebration for lovers of cannabis culture. "We're quite excited about it, we've been cautiously optimistic," Fagin said, noting that several normally politically-neutral marijuana advocacy groups threw their weight behind the Liberal campaign last year, after Trudeau made legalization a campaign promise. [continues 132 words]
Feds Say Legalization Could Start In Spring 2017 As protests go, it was pretty laid back. About 50 people were gathered outside Calgary City Hall Wednesday for the annual 420 rally in support of legalizing marijuana. Participants said with word today of the federal government's plan to begin legalization in the spring of 2017, the rally was more of a celebration than a protest. "We want to let the city know that the plant that we fought to legalize is on its way and that it's medicine and that it's pretty much more harmless than anything you could think of," said participant Travis Donald. [continues 157 words]
Appeal Board called position 'extreme' in April decision Canadians spend $166 a month on gifts. Business A Calgary man suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) who has a legal marijuana grow operation at his home says he isn't quite sure what Alberta Health Services has against him. Keith Gall, whose MS confines him to a wheelchair, grows his own medicinal marijuana out of his Calgary home, and last September he received notice of a routine inspection to be done by a city of Calgary Safety Codes Officer. On the day of the inspection, six individuals, including two police officers and an uninvited, unannounced AHS executive officer showed up for the inspection - which goes against regulations in the Public Health Act (PHA). [continues 452 words]
Using marijuana remains illegal for most people, despite the Liberal federal government's push to legalize it. Even if marijuana use is legalized, employers still have the right to prohibit it in their workplaces and to create policies that allow them to fire employees who come to work intoxicated, subject to the same rules that apply to alcohol use. However, that is not the case with prescribed medical marijuana. Since the passing of legislation in 2014, the number of employees alleging that their use of marijuana is related to chronic pain, cancer, sleeping disorders, and so on, has grown. [continues 535 words]
When it comes to Canada's criminal justice system, the popular political play in recent years has been to follow in the footsteps of our American neighbours and mimic their embrace of "tough on crime" laws with hard and fast rules for mandatory minimum punishments. The election of Justin Trudeau's Liberal party served as one signal that Canadians may be ready to rethink the wide array of ironclad minimum sentences. That's a good thing in light of a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling. [continues 352 words]
Medical marijuana counselling businesses could soon face similar land-use bylaws as liquor stores to prevent them from clustering in communities and from opening too close to schools, according to a report to the city's planning body. On Thursday, administration will present a land-use bylaw amendment to the Calgary Planning Commission that recommends medical marijuana counselling businesses be listed as a discretionary use in most commercial and industrial districts. It would require the businesses to be separated by at least 300 metres from each other and 150 metres from schools to prevent clustering and proliferation similar to existing rules used for liquor stores. [continues 496 words]
No different than liquor stores. If not quite reefer madness, it's a mentality straight out of the archaic past, when marijuana was considered a dangerous narcotic only capable of corrupting our youth and incinerating societal mores, rather than a regulated medicine legally available across Canada. City council, for some reason, remains entrenched in the dope-fiend mythology and fear mongering prevalent a century ago, and this week's Calgary Planning Commission agenda points directly to that paranoia, in grouping medical marijuana counselling with liquor stores under the land use bylaw. [continues 581 words]
Striking Down Canada's Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentence Was Not Necessary The Supreme Court got it wrong. Not spectacularly wrong. After all, this is no longer the court of former Chief Justice Antonio Lamer. During Lamer's tenure (1990 to 2000), the court frequently made up new laws and new rights out of thin air. In one especially appalling decision - the 1999 Marshall case from Nova Scotia - the Lamer court so badly misinterpreted the history of the early Maritime treaties with First Peoples that it was forced to issue a formal correction of its ruling. [continues 535 words]
The Supreme Court got it wrong. Not spectacularly wrong. After all, this is no longer the court of former Chief Justice Antonio Lamer. During Lamer's tenure (1990 to 2000), the court frequently made up new laws and new rights out of thin air. In one especially appalling decision - the 1999 Marshall case from Nova Scotia - the Lamer court so badly misinterpreted the history of the early Maritime treaties with First Peoples that it was forced to issue a formal correction of its ruling. [continues 536 words]
On the eve of the 34th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Supreme Court of Canada has made two significant decisions regarding the constitutionality of legislation passed by the federal Conservatives. On Friday, the country's top court ruled that mandatory minimum sentencing for repeat offenders in drug offences and the denial of enhanced pretrial custodial credit for accused denied bail were unconstitutional. It's fair to say these and other so-called tough on crime legislative measures didn't meet the requirements outlined in one of this nation's foundational documents which establishes the rights of Canadians. [continues 451 words]
A two-day fatality inquiry has been set into the jailhouse death of a former city resident convicted of the April 1992 murder of Darlene Korolak. Derek Brian Upton was 15 years old at the time of the murder but was tried and convicted as an adult for first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison and, under the provisions of the Young Offender Act in force at the time, was eligible for parole after 15 years incarceration. On Christmas Eve 2011, Upton and fellow inmate Nicholas Whynott were found dead in their cells at Drumheller Institute from a suspected drug overdose. [continues 106 words]
Lethbridge police said Monday they are "well aware" of two feuding gangs previously linked to a drug turf war in the region, but they do not believe the public is at risk. The assurance comes after an investigator with Blood Tribe police warned that violence between these two gangs will likely get worse. Const. Drew Kanyo said the Bloods and the Crips, rival groups not associated with notorious Los Angeles gangs, have become increasingly involved in the illicit drug trade on the Blood reserve and in nearby Lethbridge. [continues 649 words]
She'll take the message to the UN ... An Edmonton mother is part of a Canadian contingent attending a global drug policy summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week to urge governments to forego the "war on drugs" and embrace harm reduction. The harm reduction approach promotes policies and programs that support and reduce the risks and dangers drug users face, rather than prohibiting the drug itself and punishing users. Lorna Thomas's 24-year-old son, Alex Thomas-Haug, died by suicide in 2012. Thomas-Haug was a welder and snowboarder who suffered from depression. His mother later found out he'd also been using cocaine. [continues 467 words]
More violence expected as gangs fight for control of illicit market Two southern Alberta communities can expect an increase in violence waged by two rival gangs - prone to use machetes and hatchets - that are clashing for control of turf in the drug trade, a police investigator warns. The Bloods and the Crips, who are not affiliated with the Los Angeles street gangs, began their long-standing feud on the Blood Tribe, a sprawling First Nation southwest of Lethbridge. Over the past year and a half, members of these gangs have become increasingly involved in the illicit drug trade on the reserve and in nearby Lethbridge, said Const. Drew Kanyo of the Blood Tribe Police Service. [continues 630 words]
An Edmonton mother is part of a Canadian contingent attending a global drug policy summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week to urge governments to forego the "war on drugs" and embrace harm reduction. The harm reduction approach promotes policies and programs that support and reduce the risks and dangers drug users face, rather than prohibiting the drug itself and punishing users. Lorna Thomas's 24-year-old son, Alex Thomas-Haug, died by suicide in 2012. Thomas-Haug was a welder and snowboarder who suffered from depression. His mother later found out he'd also been using cocaine. [continues 412 words]
Pot grow-op busts are way down in Alberta, with most of those smoked out now legal gardens, say cops. They also seized 13,067 pot plants province-wide last year - a whopping 234% decrease from the 43,606 confiscated in 2012, said the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT). The vast majority of the cannabis plants seized last year - about 86% - - were in the zone south of Red Deer. While those numbers are dramatic enough, the majority of public tips to police now lead to medicinal marijuana gardens, reflecting the increasingly murky, fluid nature of the war on cannabis, said Staff Sgt. Keith Hurley. [continues 435 words]
Inside Alberta
