Re: Sobriety only answer to opioid crisis, Column, Dec. 14 It was refreshing to read the article by Wayne Moriarty this morning. Choose sobriety! Every time I turn on the TV, the radio or open a paper, all I hear is: drugs, safe injection sites, harm reduction, marijuana or fentanyl. Christy Clark says everyone has to do their part. Vancouver council increased their budget to pay for more first responders. Cities have a limited ability to raise revenue, so they again taxed homeowners. Clark should fund this crisis at the provincial level. The premier has abdicated her responsibility, like she did in the transit referendum and the inflated housing market - she waited until she saw which way the wind blew. Maybe she can fund the response to the addiction crisis. Maybe that can include treatment beds. Mark Murray, Vancouver [end]
Federal panel's suggestions on legalizing recreational marijuana greeted cautiously in B.C. Recommendations released Tuesday by the federal panel on legalizing recreational marijuana were greeted positively, if cautiously, by B.C. businesses with a stake in the issue. The committee is recommending Canadians 18 years and older be allowed to buy marijuana in stores or online, or grow their own with a limits of four plants a person. The committee, headed by former federal Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, says recreational marijuana should not be sold in the same location as alcohol or tobacco, and there should be diversity of production beyond the small number of existing, licensed medical marijuana producers. [continues 438 words]
Dear editor: Council is at it again. At what you might ask? Council seems to be setting precedents everywhere. The Prime Minister is in trouble as City of Penticton is on the loose. This is shown by council's decision to issue temporary business licenses to marijuana purveyors. Before I go any further and for those who are ardent marijuana advocates, I will clarify my stance on the subject. This is my personal opinion and only my personal opinion on the issue. I am not totally against marijuana use for anyone else (except youngsters and small children). [continues 383 words]
Fifteen years ago, Abbotsford's Tracey McClelland was a first-time mother, yearning to hold her tiny premature son. Instead, most of the time she could only watch as her little 4.5-pound bundle lay in his isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Abbotsford's hospital. Today, with her three children all healthy and grown, she has returned to the NICU at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre. This time, she's here to cuddle and comfort other babies with issues far more serious than her son ever faced, as one of 15 volunteer cuddlers dedicated to soothing substance-exposed newborns. [continues 580 words]
I went downtown to see what was going on for Christmas and wandered over to Centennial Square and saw a Ferris wheel loading up with children. Just a few feet away a gang of people was sitting smoking crack and one was injecting something that I assume was not insulin. Consenting adults may do whatever they want in private, as far as I am concerned. It's none of my business. But whoever is in charge down there and allows this to happen in public, in that location, is making some pretty stupid decisions. [continues 77 words]
It was a long meeting Tuesday as Penticton city council once again wrestled with the slippery grey issue of medical marijuana dispensaries. The horns of the dilemma are that on one hand, storefront sales of marijuana, even for medicinal use, are unlawful. On the other hand, dispensaries are setting up in communities across Canada in advance of promised legalization, and RCMP are doing little, if anything to enforce the law. Instead of adopting a wait and see approach or turning a blind eye to the problem as other communities have, council chose to decided to adopt regulations to controlling how the dispensaries operate, but not what they were selling. [continues 195 words]
Despite not getting a permit from the City of Penticton, Jukka Laurio said he is not going to stop selling medicinal marijuana. In fact, he is planning to take the city to court for not including him with the two other operators they chose to issue temporary use permits to. Laurio wasn't present at the Dec. 6 meeting where city council decided which of the seven applicants would get a permit to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in Penticton. Read more: Penticton gives nod to marijuana dispensaries [continues 905 words]
After months of discussion, both in the community and at the council table, the issue of marijuana dispensaries was still a problem for council to come to a decision on, but ended up approving two operations. The City of Penticton received seven applications from groups wanting to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. Council decided to review all seven applications at their Dec. 6 meeting, but after hearing the first one, Okanagan Cannabinoid Therapy (351 Westminster Ave. West) councillors remained divided the best way to proceed. [continues 561 words]
I disagree with licensing businesses that are illegal. What happens when these businesses are not part of federal/provincial legalization scheme? What happens when you legitimize a business and they set up shop, sign a lease and in next year they are closed by RCMP Who is liable for their loss? Why not wait until there is more structure and clarity? I'm in favour of legalization. I also believe that retail sales of a controlled substance such as alcohol and tobacco brings no more social issues than marijuana, yet you license a liquor store for mere hundreds. It's terrible policy. Just because you know something may be getting legalized isn't a reason to go against the law. Would you go to an after hours bar? Not unless they were legally operating in the first place. [continues 174 words]
Re: "New investigation team aims to curb overdose deaths," Dec. 4. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. With drug users dying in record numbers, despite the proliferation of naloxone, the B.C. Coroners Service proposes to undertake a living-conditions study costing $450,000 and lasting until June 2017. Why isn't this being pursued by B.C. Mental Health and Substance Use Services as a mental-health issue? Why is it being undertaken at all? The fentanyl death situation has been declared a B.C. health emergency, and yet the best use of these funds is a study of living conditions so that "health authorities can target populations more at risk"? Overdose victims span a range of living conditions; all are at risk. [continues 144 words]
Man injected drugs in city hall washroom Injection drug use moved from the shadows into the halls of government this week after a man was caught shooting up in a public washroom at Victoria City Hall. "It wasn't an overdose," said Coun. Chris Coleman, who happened to pass by just after security was called to deal with the situation. Coleman said the incident underscores the need for supervised consumption services in the city. The challenge, he said, is getting the facilities in place - and then getting people to use them, "so [that] all other citizens feel and are safe." [continues 324 words]
Using marijuana could help some alcoholics and people addicted to opioids kick their habits, a UBC study has found. "Research suggests that people may be using cannabis as an exit drug to reduce the use of substances that are potentially more harmful, such as opioid pain medication," says the study's lead investigator Zach Walsh, an associate professor of psychology at UBC's Okanagan campus. This comprehensive systematic review of research on the medical cannabis use and mental health also found some evidence that cannabis may help with symptoms of depression, PTSD and social anxiety. However, the review concluded that cannabis use might not be recommended for conditions such as bipolar disorder and psychosis. [continues 230 words]
"We need to bring the death toll down. We need to bring down the number of people with brain damage." That was the stark assessment of British Columbia's ongoing drug overdose crisis from Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial health officer. The addition of the synthetic opioid fentanyl to drugs like heroin has already contributed to a spike in overdose deaths: between January and October 2016, 622 people died from overdoses in B.C. That number will certainly rise when the B.C. coroner reports November numbers, said Kendall. [continues 514 words]
Temporary supervised-consumption services for injection-drug users are opening in Victoria as an emergency measure to curb the unprecedented number of overdose deaths in B.C. this year. Two will open next week and a third later in the month. The services will walk "a fine line" because Victoria's proposed supervised-consumption sites don't have official approval from Health Canada. "Our main concern is to save people's lives - everything else is secondary," Health Minister Terry Lake said Thursday. "We are seeing an alarming increase in illicit-drug overdose deaths and action is required at all levels." [continues 636 words]
British Columbia has opened several government-sanctioned drug-injection sites, without waiting for legislative changes or approval from Ottawa, to combat the province's worst overdose crisis on record. The move puts pressure on the federal government to amend Harper-era legislation posing barriers to opening new supervised drug-consumption sites and provides a possible blueprint for other provinces that have long asked for federal permission to open such sites with no response. Three sites opened in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Thursday at existing social service sites. Victoria and Surrey will each open two next week, and more are planned for Vancouver and Victoria. [continues 795 words]
It's well meaning, but city has no plan or resources to help users The proposal to increase Vancouver property tax by 0.5 per cent to deal in some unspecified way with the fentanyl crisis is either stupid or a clever, but cynical, political sleight of hand. Let's start with stupid. Health and drug policy are the responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments, both of which have much greater access to the resources and levers needed to deal with this crisis that began in Vancouver and is spreading quickly across the country. [continues 746 words]
More spaces offering Naloxone in works in response to opioid crisis The two new overdose prevention sites announced Thursday for Vancouver aren't meant as permanent supervised injection sites, but are an emergency response to the current opioid overdose crisis, health officials say. On Thursday, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake announced in a statement that two new sites had been set up in Vancouver and were up-and-running as of Thursday, with another two each in Victoria and Surrey that will follow later this month. Additional sites throughout Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and another in Victoria's Rock Bay area, will also come at a later date, though specific addresses for those sites haven't yet been announced. All will be located in areas identified as having high numbers of overdoses. [continues 373 words]
The two new overdose prevention sites announced Thursday for Vancouver aren't meant as permanent supervised injection sites, but are an emergency response to the current opioid overdose crisis, health officials say. On Thursday, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake announced in a statement that two new sites had been set up in Vancouver and were up-and-running as of Thursday, with another two each in Victoria and Surrey that will follow later this month. Additional sites throughout Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and another in Victoria's Rock Bay area, will also come at a later date, though specific addresses for those sites haven't yet been announced. All will be located in areas identified as having high numbers of overdoses. [continues 369 words]
2 overdose prevention sites aimed at saving lives Overdose prevention sites, where people can use drugs in what's said to be a safe environment, will open Friday in downtown Kelowna and Rutland. The provincial government says it is opening the sites to try to reduce the number of people dying of overdoses, particularly during the current cold snap. "It's difficult to know how many people will use the sites, but I think the uptake will be pretty strong," Clare MacDonald of the Living Positive Resource Centre, which will help operate the sites, said Tuesday. [continues 359 words]
Harm reduction plays a role, but treating and overcoming addiction is absolutely crucial As a man who has, at times, lumbered through life with a posse of demons in his head, I've met a number of alcoholics and drug addicts along the way. The worst alcoholic I ever met managed to avoid a life of destitution on the Downtown Eastside mostly on the largesse of friends and family ripe for the scamming. How this person did not fall out a window or die some other tragic way often felt, well, miraculous. All hope was in the hands of divine providence, it seemed. [continues 568 words]
Inside British Columbia
