A Summerland family has received an exemption from Health Canada, allowing them to access cannabis oil to calm their child's seizures. The exemption allows four-year-old Kyla Williams to access the medication, provided they have a letter from Health Canada. Before using the oil, Williams, who has intractable epilepsy, suffered more than 300 seizures a day. That number has dropped drastically since she started using the oil and she will now go days or weeks without having a seizure. [continues 217 words]
The other day I happened to cut through a wooded area in Surrey and came across a disoriented, confused young lady on drugs and in some distress. I couldn't help but think that she is someone's daughter, probably with parents out there worrying about her. I phoned the police who came immediately to check on her. When I checked back next day, the authorities told me they took the young woman to the hospital. If I hadn't come along, she may have fallen asleep and frozen to death or someone else may have come along and taken advantage of her. This brought tears to my eyes because I know what it is like as a parent to worry that I may lose my daughter or granddaughter to an overdose. [continues 144 words]
The reality of the fentanyl epidemic is brutal, says Victoria paramedic Tamara McNay, describing the scene of a drug overdose: The person is unresponsive, covered in vomit, with a needle sticking out of their arm. Sometimes, their breathing has stopped for so long they are in cardiac arrest. They are on the brink of death - and it is B.C. Ambulance paramedics' job to bring them back to life. But McNay, regional vice-president for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. union, said paramedics in Victoria do not have the resources to deal adequately with the spike in drug overdoses. [continues 1015 words]
Experts call for treatment overhaul as overdose deaths in first nine months of 2016 rise by 61 per cent An overhaul of British Columbia's "dysfunctional" addiction-treatment system must become top priority as drug users struggle to stay alive through an overdose crisis, recovery experts say. In the first nine months of 2016, 555 people died of drug overdoses in the province, up 61 per cent over the same period last year, according to a B.C. Coroners Service report last week. Overdoses killed 56 people in September, up from 49 in August. [continues 603 words]
Drake Smith knew he was going to overdose. He was in a bathroom downtown. His friends had told him to only do half a hit, but if you only do half, he said, you can't get the same rush. So he did the whole thing. The heroin was laced with fentanyl, an opioid up to 100 times stronger than heroin. It doesn't take much to overdose. A dose the weight of a grain of sand can bring on a heroin-like high. A dose the weight of two grains of sand can kill a healthy adult. [continues 1191 words]
Much of Heather Hobbs's job as a harm reduction co-ordinator involves showing people how to inject the opioid inhibitor naloxone to reverse the effects of drug overdoses. This year alone she has trained nearly 800 people - illicit-drug users and their parents, shelter staff and support workers - to administer naloxone and has given out 843 kits. At least 555 people have died from drug overdoses in B.C. so far this year. Many of the deaths involve the powerful, cheap opioid fentanyl. The situation led to a public health crisis being declared in April. While the death toll has gone down slightly thanks to wider distribution of naloxone, overdoses are still happening at alarming rates. [continues 1055 words]
Kelly Eberts misses the vacuum shop that used to occupy one of the storefronts beneath her condo on Hillside Drive in lower Aberdeen. It's less the vacuums themselves and more what is set to replace it - a branch of Cannaclinics, a medical-marijuana dispensary already operating in a number of locations in Vancouver and Toronto. Eberts is concerned the dispensary will bring trouble to the area, noting at least one of the businesses in the commercial strip has dealt with a burglary in the past two years. [continues 648 words]
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board is petitioning the province to have Narcan kits in B.C. high schools and middle schools. Trustee Susan Carr, who also leads the City of Maple Ridge's Strong Kids team, brought the issue to the board on Wednesday night, and it was supported by her colleagues. Narcan, and the drug Naloxone, is used to reverse the effects of opioids, and is being widely distributed by the province during the public health emergency created by the drug fentanyl. [continues 273 words]
Father hopes to make care for youth a ballot-box issue in next election This government has had 10 years to do something and they haven't done it. The father of a 15-year-old drug-addicted boy whose death has sparked calls for government-funded services says he will push for change in the run-up to a provincial election so other youth can get the help they desperately need. Peter Lang spoke out Thursday after British Columbia's representative for children and youth released a report on his son's June 2015 death. [continues 560 words]
Insite, the supervised injection site on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, operates under an exemption upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada that allows drug users to be in possession of illicit drugs. It is staffed by a team of registered nurses, qualified counsellors and professional mental health workers, and peer workers. Not only can nurses intervene in the event of an overdose, they tend to wounds and infections and provide immunizations. Insite is a gateway to other services, including addiction treatment, mental health support and housing. [continues 339 words]
Employees of a Vancouver cannabis dispensary were left shaken following a weekend armed robbery. Just before 9 p.m. Sunday, four suspects robbed the Stressed and Depressed Association dispensary at gunpoint, Vancouver police spokesman Const. Jason Doucette said in an emailed statement. Police attended the scene at 1353 E. 41st Ave. and collected evidence, Doucette said. Stressed and Depressed has provided surveillance recordings and an investigation continues. Stressed and Depressed owner David Malmo-Levine said one employee had a gun pointed at him and was punched in the head during the incident. Police confirmed the assault and said the victim did not require medical attention. [continues 354 words]
No street drug is safe, not even marijuana. That was the message driven home by a multi-agency panel who gave up their Thursday night to speak at a public forum about the dangers of street drugs laced with fentanyl. "There's always been this belief that marijuana is safe but that's just not true. Fentanyl is being found in everything," said Kelly Culbert, a representative for the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFSD). It was an intimate setting at city hall where the 30 or so members of the public got a close look at what Williams Lake's frontline workers are doing to raise awareness about the sharp increase in fentanyl-related overdoses and deaths, which prompted the province to declare a public health crisis in April. [continues 576 words]
I have noted the letters with respect to the so-called homelessness problem, and from my observations the problem is basically the lack of any willingness on the part of the majority of these "homeless" to make any real effort to work or give up their drug and/or alcohol addiction. Their only expectation is that the rest of us will continue to fund their wishes. This is clearly proven by the condition in which they have left the properties where they were camping. In past generations, there was what was called "relief," which meant that those seeking assistance did some work in exchange for assistance. The positive aspect is clear as they learned self-respect in addition to realizing the rest of society was not responsible for maintaining their lifestyle. [continues 215 words]
British Columbians are split on how recreational marijuana should be sold once it's legal, but standalone shops like the dispensaries that line Vancouver's streets are the most popular option, according to a new poll. The latest survey from Insights West suggests 38 per cent of people in this province would prefer to see pot-specific stores, beating out weed sales in pharmacies (23 per cent) or liquor stores (24 per cent). That's welcome news to Sunny Bhayana, co-director of The Herb Co. on Main Street, one of the few licensed shops in Vancouver. He believes that the dispensary system could have a potent effect on the country's economy. [continues 664 words]
As long as marijuana remains illegal in Canada, we are trapped in a grey area that takes away our power as consumers. All Canadians should have the right to know what is in the products they buy, yet because of Health Canada's insistence that it is illegal for dispensaries or consumers to test marijuana products it also deems illegal, we are unable to find out if what we are buying is safe. Without requirements for unlicensed marijuana producers to test their products, Health Canada is also not ensuring product safety at the source. [continues 296 words]
Experts agree testing needed on marijuana products sold in storefronts As Canada inches closer to legalized marijuana, safety standards for dispensary-sold medical cannabis are being brought under greater scrutiny. In an investigation done by The Globe and Mail in August, one third of medical marijuana samples collected from Toronto area dispensaries showed the presence of chemicals and mould that could cause a variety of illnesses in users, such as lung infections, particularly in patients with compromised immune systems. One of the Toronto dispensaries whose product failed that test was WeeMedical, a chain that also operates in Powell River on Marine Avenue. [continues 673 words]
Pop-up facility in Downtown Eastside may be illegal, but it has been welcomed by addicts who don't feel comfortable at nearby Insite Sarah Blyth was weary of rushing to counteract an overdose every time someone screamed "Narcan!" from a nearby alley in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, so she joined other activists to set up a supervised drug-consumption tent for addicts. Ms. Blyth acknowledges the so called pop-up site is illegal, but said she couldn't stand by and watch as people overdosed. [continues 380 words]
Welcome back to a new school year. A very important discussion that needs to take place in your home is the old drug talk. Parents play a key role in reducing teen substance abuse. More than half of all Canadian kids will try drugs at least once between Grades 1 and 12, but many will choose not to experiment. Please talk openly with your child about substance abuse and set a no-use rule for all drugs and alcohol. Remember, with the advent of newer drugs like fentanyl talking to our kids about illicit drugs is more important than ever. [continues 489 words]
Database breaks down marijuana investigations in each community B.C. police more frequently investigate people for possessing pot than officers in any other province, a trend fuelled by the RCMP in rural detachments, according to an exclusive Postmedia database of marijuana crime in Canada. The mountainside communities of Salmo, Clinton, McBride, Hope, Valemount, Merritt and Whistler had the highest number of police probes into pot possession per capita in 2015 in B.C., and are ranked third through ninth in Canada (trailing behind Lake Louise and Jasper, nationally). [continues 664 words]
Over the last decade, about half a million Canadians have been prosecuted for simple possession of marijuana, many of them young people. More than 100,000 others have been charged for growing pot, possessing it for the purposes of selling or actually selling it to other Canadians. Some of these have indeed been gangsters, but many others have not. In fact, Statistics Canada data shows that since 2006 - - excluding impaired driving - more Canadians have been busted annually for marijuana than for traffic offences. [continues 310 words]
Inside British Columbia
