RE: Safe injection sites in Hamilton Drug addiction is a major problem. Just look at the statistics. Safe injection sites are all about health care and saving lives. Why not make it part of our health-care system and set them up in the hospitals? Bruce Scott, Burlington [end]
Red Ribbon Campaign gets started, with emphasis on drivers who use marijuana Action Sudbury has kicked off its 29th annual Red Ribbon Campaign with an emphasis on educating the public about the use of cannabis, as the federal government is set to legalize recreational marijuana. "The biggest thing for the youth is to ensure they're aware of how cannabis can possibly effect their ability to operate a motor vehicle," OPP Sergeant Dave Wallbank said. Wallbank showed a presentation of drug evaluation and classification to those in attendance, including students from Confederation Secondary School and Marymount Academy. [continues 411 words]
KITCHENER - At gatherings with family and friends, it's common for people to sit and chat as they enjoy a glass of wine. Drinking alcohol is legal and regulated by the government, but too much of it causes impairment and your long-term health could be at risk. The same could be said for marijuana. The now illicit drug will soon be legal, regulated and sold by the government. Smoking it daily could lead to a dependency, healthcare professionals say. But the stigma associated with dope smoking remains. [continues 749 words]
Officers can't nab owners because of resource woes, says Doug Kirkland A Citizen report Nov. 18 quotes Judge Norm Boxall on the Ottawa Police Service's failure to charge the owners and backers of illegal marijuana distribution shops. Sentencing a young budtender from a Rideau Street shop, he said: "I just don't understand how the police cannot shut down a dispensary." I understand the context of his statements, but the judge, despite his distinguished legal background, has the wrong target. [continues 344 words]
WATERLOO REGION - The public school board is considering stocking every school with an emergency kit to fight drug overdoses, at the cost of $119,000 per year. Kits contain the medication naloxone. By injection or nasal spray, it temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose of an opioid drug such as fentanyl or heroin. Currently, local schools are to call 911 if an overdose is suspected. "If that was my child I would want someone to do something," trustee Cindy Watson said, after pressing the Waterloo Region District School Board to buy overdose kits and train staff to use them. [continues 465 words]
Homicide victim attacked outside after looking for place to smoke pot, cops say Police believe a teen who was fatally stabbed in Vanier was just looking for a place to smoke weed purchased at an illegal dispensary when he wound up inside a crack den, the Citizen has learned. Zakaria Iqbal, just 18 years old and a Gloucester High School student, died Monday night after an attack on Montreal Road. Detectives believe that Iqbal and his friends purchased marijuana at Dr. Greenthumb dispensary, also on Montreal Road. Employees at the dispensary said police visited the pot shop Tuesday as part of their homicide investigation, asking questions about who was there and when. [continues 562 words]
Group wants billboard near kids' music school taken down Should a billboard claiming that marijuana legalization isn't harmful be hanging over a kids' music school in North York? That's the question being posed by Prevent, Don't Promote, an organization opposed to the legalization of marijuana in Canada. Prevent, Don't Promote is particularly sensitive to anything that looks like advertising or marketing to children. The billboard in question hangs over Little Jammerz, a music school that caters to children from Kindergarten to Grade 6, according to their website. [continues 338 words]
Re: Hazards of cannabis - Nov. 11 Thanks to Ron Wagner for his informative letter regarding marijuana. We taxpayers have spent billions of dollars through the government ads regarding the dangers of smoking. I have lost two members of my family to lung cancer, both heavy smokers of filter-tip cigarettes. The advertising has worked and very few cigarette butts litter our streets. However, when money is spent foolishly, a source of income must be found. The sale of marijuana will help. Lloyd Mundy Waterloo [end]
Mayor backs scheme, says time to get it out of alleyways and off railway lands A decision on whether to authorize a supervised injection site in Hamilton's core is expected to be made Dec. 4 by the Board of Health. The proposed site would be located somewhere between Main Street East and Barton Street East and bordered by Queen Street North and Wellington Street North. "It's high time we tried to get these injection issues out of the alleyways and the railway lines and make sure people who are doing drugs, do it safely," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger. "People are drug addicted and that's just the reality. Turning our mind away from that or sticking our head in the sand is delusional." [continues 785 words]
Organization wants billboard near music school taken down Should a billboard claiming that marijuana legalization isn't harmful be hanging over a kids' music school in North York? That's the question being posed by Prevent, Don't Promote, an organization opposed to the legalization of marijuana in Canada. Prevent, Don't Promote is particularly sensitive to anything that looks like advertising or marketing to children. The billboard in question hangs over Little Jammerz, a music school that caters to children from Kindergarten to grade six, according to their website. [continues 242 words]
So far it looks like Alberta will be the go-to province for marijuana entrepreneurs lining up to get in on the action when selling pot becomes legal next summer. Unlike Ontario and Quebec, Alberta has taken a free market approach. Recreational marijuana will be sold in privately owned retail stores and there could be a lot of them because at this point there is no limit on the number. No drab stores run by liquor control boards for Alberta. And there will surely be way more stores than the 15 Quebec has designated for the entire province (Ontario is planning 40) in the first year of legalization. [continues 631 words]
Re: Judge blasts Ottawa police for failing to shut down illegal marijuana shops, Nov. 18; Police as frustrated over pot shops as this judge is, Nov. 25. When the CannaGreen Marijuana Dispensary opened on St. Joseph Boulevard in Orleans, I was concerned. I knew what was being sold in such dispensaries in Colorado and Washington. Some of the best-sellers are products such as soft drinks, cookies and bars infused with cannabis. I have 10 grandchildren in this Orleans neighbourhood and I don't want them exposed to these dangerous and illegal products. [continues 349 words]
An audit released Monday by the Windsor Police Services Board shows the recent handling of evidence in cases involving street drugs has been in compliance and largely free of errors. But the audit performed over two months this summer by Ontario's Ministry of Community, Safety and Correctional Services made 11 recommendations for improvements, and all but one have already been implemented, said Chief Al Frederick. The audit was triggered at the request of Frederick and the police board following questions that were raised over the 2013 disappearance of $25,000 in cocaine from a drug vault under officers' control. [continues 244 words]
Legalize and tax marijuana and the budget will balance itself. Marijuana advocates from stoners to recreational users to the prime minister have tried to convince us of this. But they're all wrong. It makes some sense that a product so commonly used should be regulated rather than criminalized, sending its newly enabled taxation revenues to the public coffers. Unfortunately, recent federal announcements and the examples of two American states tell us that a fiscal boon from legal pot is nothing more than reefer madness. [continues 489 words]
The North Bay Police Service's drug-abuse prevention program is no longer being delivered in local classrooms. Chief Shawn Devine said the long-running DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program has been cancelled and that efforts are underway to look for other ways of working with schools to provide education regarding drugs, bullying and similar issues. He said the decision to cancel the program was sparked by a loss of funding from local school boards that was used to help offset some of the costs of delivery. [continues 165 words]
To effectively combat substance abuse, marijuana tax funds should primarily be invested in prevention and education On November 10, the Canadian federal government announced an excise tax plan that will be implemented when marijuana is legalized next summer. The plan proposed an excise tax of $1 per gram, or 10 per cent of the producer's sale price, with the higher amount of the two being charged. The plan is still in its consultation stage, and there are sure to be many changes over the next few months. Hopefully the fact that education and prevention tactics provide better long-term solutions to addressing substance abuse than punitive mechanisms will guide future discussions about the tax plan. Moving forward, marijuana legalization should be approached mainly as an issue of public health - the revenue from legalization can play a major role in ensuring appropriate solutions to substance abuse are implemented. [continues 876 words]
Known for his mishandling of Veterans A airs, corruption scandals within his constabulary and, shall we say, colourful comments on race and marijuana, former Toronto and Ontario police chief Julian Fantino is launching a pot business with a former RCMP senior leader. It has rightly been met with outcry. It exposes not only his personal hypocrisies but also those of the pot legalization process. A focus on criminalizing personal use rather than public health concerns (i.e., accessibility to children, mental health issues) has contributed to the circumstances that make young Black and Indigenous people known to police. Along with carding, illegality of marijuana has introduced more young racialized, especially Black, people to the criminal justice system than is patently fair. [continues 348 words]
The chief of Attawapiskat First Nation has solutions for the illegal drug trade in his community - but he's coming up against "frustrating " roadblocks. Ignace Gull said Thursday that Attawapiskat is dealing with Canada Post, the Northwest Company and the Ministry of Transport (which owns the airport) to stop the flow of drugs. "We're trying to do our own way of making sure that those drugs don't flow through our community," said Gull. "One of the things that costs us is with these prescriptions drugs, they're destroying young people, destroying families." [continues 726 words]
Judge blasts Ottawa cops for arresting 'budtenders' while pot shops flourish An Ottawa judge has blasted the police force for failing to shut down the city's illegal marijuana dispensaries. Justice Norman Boxall said Friday he cannot understand why it's so difficult to close shops that operate openly on major streets. "I just don't understand how the police cannot shut down a dispensary where the person has a big sign up, as I drive down Rideau St', that says 'marijuana dispensary.' They brag about it on the Internet that they are selling it. [continues 557 words]
With legalization looming, doctors say province not ready to handle risks Ontario is slow to launch a public education campaign warning parents about the dangers of marijuana to children, which include the risk associated with second-hand pot smoke, the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario warned Friday. "A lot more children are going to be exposed . . . They are the most at risk of harm. Their brains are still developing," Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro said. "Ontario is not ready to deal with the risks." [continues 238 words]
Inside Ontario
