I think our communities could benefit from a fulsome dialogue about addiction and how we respond to those who suffer from it. We need a compassionate discussion that engages our hearts and our minds and that avoids blaming and shaming the ultimate victim, the person who is addicted. Using our community newspapers might be a way to have such a dialogue. We all have access to myriad drugs - prescribed, non-prescribed, licit, illicit, some socially acceptable and others not. We are bombarded by marketing and messaging that encourages us to use drugs of one form or another. So it should be no surprise that medicating ourselves has become the answer to our problems and our pain. [continues 551 words]
I think our communities could benefit from a fulsome dialogue about addiction and how we respond to those who suffer from addiction. That is, a compassionate discussion that engages our hearts and our minds, and avoids blaming and shaming the ultimate victim - the person who is addicted. Possibly, our community newspapers might be one way for us to have such a dialogue. We all have increased access to myriad drugs - prescribed, non-prescribed, lawful, illicit, some socially acceptable and others not. We are tirelessly bombarded by marketing and messaging that encourages us to use drugs of one form or another. So it should be no surprise that medicating ourselves has become the answer to our problems and our pain. [continues 613 words]
When it comes to health care, we need to be open to new means of helping people. Medical marijuana comes with built-in controversy because it's been an illegal substance for so many decades. It's time to get rid of that stigma and have a more honest review of the potential medicinal benefits. Practical uses of the drug have been slow to catch on in the medical community, purportedly due to a lack of information - but also, some suspect, because of lingering suspicions from the level of lawmakers. [continues 233 words]
'We recognize that this is a major concern and having this training will help us make the roads that much safer' TRURO - It's an additional tool that they can keep in their arsenal of things, and it was something the force has needed. Two constables - Justin Russell and Robert John Hunka - are the two newest drug recognition experts with the Truro Police Service, a service that the force has needed for some time now. "I've had an interest in impaired driving and this is just another avenue that we could be involved with in the detection of impaired driving," said Russell about why he wanted to spend three weeks in Phoenix taking the training course. "There are 70,000 police officers in Canada and only 600 with this training. It was a large undertaking to go away for the course but it gives us another thing we can do, to be able to conduct this test." [continues 381 words]
To the Editor: In the "Our Opinion" "An argument missing the point" the writer mentioned "... Its call for legalization ... Currently, other than medicinal marijuana, it's in the hands of criminals. ... The real debate we need to hear from politicians has to be based on available evidence." Since the 80s, many people have come to decide that drug prohibition has resulted in harshness in enforcing it, great expense, and has been ineffective. Consequently, they have advocated drug decriminalization and even outright drug legalization. In addition, they refer to the history of a drug - alcohol, from temperance (1800s) to prohibition (19201933) and then to alcohol control (legalization). They stated that the anti-alcohol movement was devoted to convincing people that drinking alcohol was dangerous and destructive; that the consumption of alcohol naturally would lead to compulsive use or addiction. Then point out the same argument is made for marijuana. Reaching back to the failures of alcohol prohibition, they try to see similarities with the general illegalization of marijuana. [continues 270 words]
This past summer, one of my columns was entitled, "Special training needed for drug dealers." The title came from a "tongue-in-cheek" comment made by Dr. Brian Ferguson. He was upset and angry because of the deaths of young people due to use of painkiller medications. A recent article in the Chronicle Herald has put names to two victims of a one-time use of prescription medication. Last April, Dale Jollota went into her daughter's room to wake her up for school. Olivia Jollota was sitting cross-legged on her bed with her computer on her lap - and she was dead. A toxicology report indicated Olivia had died from taking one hydromorphone pill. [continues 523 words]
To the editor, It seems ludicrous: a law that prevents me from healing myself. I have a rare disease (cramping fasciculation syndrome) which keeps me up night after night with plenty of pain and no sleep. The medicines prescribed for this disease have so many side effects that they should just be called poison, for me at least. I have been smoking marijuana oil for a full year now and I am pain free. The oil does not ease the pain, it stops the pain from coming. It's truly a miracle. I am on a pension and my miracle would cost me $200 weekly. My only option was to grow my own marijuana and make my own oil. I figure, what's the harm, I'm not selling it, I only want to be pain free and perhaps continue to do the things I enjoy such as skiing and skating (they recommend you do not exercise with this disease) but which I was able to do for 54 days last winter with the help of my medicine. [continues 185 words]
Cancer survivor had illegal 'wall-to-wall' grow-op COUNTY - A Chester man who believes marijuana saved his life is now in jail after police found an illegal "wall-to-wall" grow-op in his basement. George Gary Evans received the minimum mandatory sentence of nine months in custody September 16 on charges of producing marijuana and possessing it for the purpose of trafficking. "My reasons were not profit-oriented," the 59-year-old told Provincial Court Judge Paul Scovil. "My reasons were to grow my own medical marijuana and, yes, I had the hopes to be able to help some other people with cancer and similar issues ... five people in particular, I had in mind." [continues 548 words]
More Data Needed to Determine Effectiveness, Pain-Treatment Specialist Says At least a dozen physicians raised their hands at a pain conference in Halifax on Friday when asked if they have prescribed medical marijuana for their patients. More physicians in Canada are becoming familiar with medical marijuana but more education and research is needed, said Mark Ware, a renowned pain specialist at McGill University in Montreal. "We need more data, yes, but we also need better mechanisms to get that data, that we do have, out to the hands of people that need to know it." [continues 517 words]
Halifax police were nowhere to be seen as 50 people passed around joints on their front steps Friday afternoon. The "smoke-in" was in protest of the recent raid of Farm Assists, a medical marijuana shop on Gottingen Street. "When all of the nasty, addictive, victim-causing drugs proliferate across this province, why did you target people that were using cannabis as medicine?" shop owner Chris Enns shouted into a megaphone in front of Halifax Regional Police headquarters. Enns, 29, and the shop's other owner, his girlfriend Sherri Reeve, both face charges from the raid, including trafficking marijuana, possession for the purpose of trafficking and production. [continues 495 words]
Two arrests at Farm Assists. Deputy chief says police forces must respond to complaints The deputy chief of Halifax Regional Police says Canadian sentiment around medicinal marijuana may be in flux, but police forces are still required to enforce existing laws. Social-media users erupted after police raided the Farm Assists medical-marijuana lounge on Gottingen Street and two related properties in Head of Chezzetcook on Friday, arresting owner Chris Enns and his fiancee, Sherri Reeve. "This is completely wrong and a GIANT waste of taxpayers money and hrp's time," wrote Anthony Fares on the Metro Halifax Facebook page Saturday. [continues 518 words]
You can't blame doctors in Canada for feeling uncomfortable as Ottawa puts the responsibility squarely in their laps for authorizing the use of medical marijuana - a drug with relatively thin supporting evidence, scientifically. Courts in Canada have ruled criminal laws governing marijuana must have reasonable medical exemptions. A new federal regulatory regimen on the use of medical marijuana that took full effect in April has changed the dynamics of how Canadians must obtain approval for the legal use of marijuana medicinally. [continues 374 words]
Most will agree - both politicians and those without ulterior motives - - that youths should not smoke marijuana. Yet political parties insist on settling into their default mode of pointing fingers and mudslinging rather than informing Canadians honestly about their position on what's shaping up as a monumental issue. Many will recall the position Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made public in the past year, that marijuana should be made legal, with sales controlled as with alcohol. The federal Conservatives are proposing a marijuana awareness campaign, with a key point to underline the health risks of marijuana to youth. Health Minister Rona Ambrose has denied it is an attack on the Liberal leader's stance. [continues 219 words]
TRURO - Giving drug addicts cash to participate in an information study is like letting children play with fire, says a Truro woman, regarding a situation her grandson was recently involved in. "My beef is, $200 cash is enough to buy enough oxycontin or cocaine to OD on," said the woman, who asked that her name not to published to protect the identity of her grandson. "I'm outraged. I'm truly outraged. I'm too emotionally attached to this one, otherwise I'd be firing off letters to my MP saying, 'what kind of grant program is this that contributes to drug use?'" the woman said. [continues 863 words]
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit in on an interview at the Hants Journal that focused on the topic of underage drug and prescription drug usage. This topic itself is rather interesting to me because, being in high school, I am able to see what adults do not even suspect of their children. It is interesting as it gives an insight into my generation. After all, I am so used to what they do but when I take a step back, as I am doing right now, I am a bit stunned at what I find. [continues 787 words]
BRIDGEWATER - Lifting up a pant-leg to reveal a heavily scarred left leg, a Pine Grove man fined for possessing marijuana emphasized to a provincial court judge that smoking bud helps prevent a "lock up" affect on his lower limbs. "I'm in pain every day. I don't know what else to do," Larry Labelle, 46, explained during provincial court, August 6, in Bridgewater. "I'm going to keep smoking marijuana. I have no choice." Mr. Labelle experiences "extreme difficulties with pain," since a time several years ago when a vehicle operated by an impaired driver ran him over, his lawyer, Bob Chipman, indicated to court. Smoking marijuana relaxes Mr. Labelle, allows him to sleep and alleviates pain, Mr. Chipman explained to Judge Paul Scovil. [continues 318 words]
Dr. Brian Ferguson has come up with a really novel idea. He would like to see to it that drug dealers receive training related to their trade. It might be a degree in pharmacology, or at the very least a bachelor's degree in chemistry. The problem - as Dr. Ferguson has noted - is that those who are selling drugs have no idea what the impact will be on their customers. They don't have enough knowledge, good common sense, and concern to warn the person who might be tempted to "experience" the effects of oxycodone and/or hydromorphone ... or one of the so-called designer drugs being sold on the street. [continues 451 words]
The grand opening of his new marijuana-themed business - The Farm Assists Cannabis Resource Centre on Gottingen Street - is Saturday, and co-owner Chris Enns said he intends to be completely open about the operation. He and partner Sherri Reeve opened the doors to the small shop in early June but wanted to delay their official opening until now. The store offers bongs, T-shirts, hemp backpacks, grinders and, in the back, about 12 strains of weed for licensed medicinal marijuana users. [continues 434 words]
Inside Nova Scotia
