New provincial funding to help police officers detect impaired drivers is a good start, but Brockville's chief of police says they are still being left with too many unanswered questions.

The province announced Friday it is "stepping up support for municipalities and law enforcement to help ensure communities and roads are safe in advance of the federal government's legalization of cannabis."

This will be done, they said, by providing $40 million of its revenue from the federal duty on recreational cannabis over two years to help all municipalities with implementation costs related to the legalization of cannabis.

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The provincial government will provide $40 million of its revenue from the federal excise duty on recreational cannabis over two years to help municipalities with the costs of implementing legislation.

But municipalities have not yet received any more information about what that will mean exactly.

The province has said that funding will be distributed to municipalities on a per household basis with a minimum of $10,000 per municipality.

"We know municipalities will play a key role as the federal government moves forward with the legalization of recreational cannabis. This is why we engaged with municipalities early I the process," said Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Mauro. "Our government respects the role of municipalities in the legalization of cannabis and we know we can rely on their valuable input as we continue to navigate this process together."

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The government of Ontario will give municipalities $40 million from its share of federal marijuana taxes to help cover law enforcement and safety costs associated with pot legalization, the province announced Friday.

The money - which will be provided to municipalities upfront, beginning before legalization takes effect later this year - will come from the first two years of federal excise duties on producers of recreational pot.

"This funding will ensure that Ontario's municipalities have dedicated resources for cannabis enforcement," said Marie-France Lalonde, minister of community safety and correctional services. "Ontario will continue working with law enforcement agencies to protect our communities from illegal cannabis activity, and to keep impaired drivers off the road."

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Health units and municipalities facing more costs, medical officer says

The Quinte region's board of health is asking Ontario for a share of the coming tax revenue from cannabis sales in order to fight expected health impacts.

"We want some of the tax money because there's going to be costs to public health and to municipalities," said Dr. Ian Gemmill, the acting medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.

Revenue from the taxation of legal cannabis sales, which are to begin in July, is to be split with provinces and territories, with the federal government retaining 25 per cent to a maximum federal revenue of $ 100 million.

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John Lavergne believes a safe injection site will help save lives

KITCHENER - John Lavergne lost eight friends last year. All of them died of an opioid overdose.

Six of them were in Waterloo Region. Three of them hadn't used in months and had a relapse. They couldn't tell their partners, friends or families they were using again.

They used alone and now they are dead, Lavergne said.

The Kitchener man says a supervised injection site would have helped them live.

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Deadly fentanyl is tightening its grip on London's jail, with reports of several female inmates overdosing early this week, one needing five doses of naloxone spray to be revived.

Twice in the last week, large amounts were found on women trying to smuggle the druginto the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), sources say.

The province confirmed Wednesday four female inmates were found in medical distress Monday night.

"Staff acted quickly in attending to the inmates and calling 911. Paramedics arrived and transported three inmates to the hospital, while the other inmate was attended to by staff at the facility," said Andrew Morrison, spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

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Two people using fentanyl at London's temporary overdose prevention site on the weekend were resuscitated by a nurse after they overdosed, Middlesex-London's medical officer of health says.

"These people were inexperienced, and fentanyl is a drug where it's easy to miscalculate how much you are taking. If this had happened in a back alley or stairwell somewhere, it could have easily resulted in death," Dr. Chris Mackie said Sunday.

The drug users were resuscitated Saturday using oxygen, he said.

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Medical cannabis take-up hampered by lack of research and red tape

I picked up a View magazine while I was waiting for the bus a few weeks back. There was an article on the 15 or so uses of cannabis, so after I caught up with CATCH (Citizens at City Hall), I turned to the article on cannabis looking for some useful information.

By this time, I was on the bus, seated on a side seat, next to an elderly woman. I could feel she was reading over my shoulder, so I turned to her slightly. She asked me the name of the paper and we started a conversation about cannabis.

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Cannabis Culture, a former pot shop on Bank Street, lost a court bid to have its eviction overturned.

Justice Michelle O'Bonsawin ruled the landlord was justified in terminating the lease because the dispensary was operating in contravention of both its rental lease and federal law.

The landlord posted an eviction notice on the door of the illegal dispensary in December and called a bailiff to change the locks. Cannabis Culture appealed to the Superior Court of Justice to reinstate the lease so it could continue to operate.

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The haze around pot revenue for cities is beginning to clear, but one Southwestern Ontario mayor doesn't like what he's seeing.

Municipalities are no longer in the dark about the dollars they'll get to deal with the rollout of legalized marijuana, after the province announced Friday that $40 million from the tax on legalized marijuana will flow to cities in the next two years.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the numbers don't add up, pointing to the 444 municipalities in Ontario that have to share that cash.

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More supervised injection sites planned as opioid-overdose numbers skyrocket

The construction trailer that houses the illegal, volunteer-run overdose prevention site in Toronto's Moss Park is about to open for another evening, as a dozen drug users, some clearly anxious for their fix, cluster around its muddy entrance in the cold.

Activist and harm-reduction worker Zoe Dodd, named one of Toronto Life magazine's most influential people last year, alongside Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and R&B star the Weeknd, unloads an extra box of anti-overdose naloxone kits from her beat-up sedan.

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City's fatality rate is now nearly double Ontario average, fuelling more concern

Opioid-related deaths in Hamilton have soared more than 80 per cent in one year.

From January to October, 75 Hamilton residents died from an opioid overdose in 2017 compared to 41 during the same period the year before.

"Opioids are continuing to have a devastating impact on individuals, families, and the community," Hamilton's medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson said in a statement Friday. "The sustained trend of rising opioid related deaths, which are preventable, in Hamilton is very concerning."

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I think that marijuana should not be made legal for recreational use because there is no good way to judge impairment caused by the drug. The Denver Post says on the matter: "The evolving science of testing for marijuana, and the lack of consensus over how to measure impairment creates challenges for lawmakers, police and prosecutors, not to mention users." It goes on to say how the number of fatal car crashes from marijuana is rising. Legalizing marijuana will make our communities more dangerous for everyone.

Elijah Bouma

St. George, Ont.

[end]

Pot still considered taboo during workdays

The late, great George Carlin apparently once joked that the 1960s-era crackdown on the business man's "three-martini lunch" shouldn't affect the working stiff's "two-joint coffee break."

But will the latter be frowned upon in the workplace if pot becomes legal - as expected - in Canada later this year?

There is stigma that still exists," says leading Canadian cannabis activist Jodie Emery.

"Now it depends though, of course, where you work. In a modern city like Toronto or Vancouver, you could probably have more progressive attitudes towards that in workplaces but definitely in smaller towns and more conservative jurisdictions, you would have push back."

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I think that marijuana should not be made legal for recreational use because there is no good way to judge impairment caused by the drug. The Denver Post says on the matter: "The evolving science of testing for marijuana, and the lack of consensus over how to measure impairment creates challenges for lawmakers, police and prosecutors, not to mention users." It goes on to say how the number of fatal car crashes from marijuana is rising. Legalizing marijuana will make our communities more dangerous for everyone.

Elijah Bouma

St. George

[end]

Two women arrested in April after police raided their medical marijuana dispensary in St. Catharines have been granted a conditional discharge.

"I only wish I was able to help more people on the legal route," Abbigail Millar, 32, told Judge Tory Colvin in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, Friday.

Millar, together with Angela Millar, 38, were arrested after Niagara police raided Kronic Inc., a dispensary on Wright Street.

Police seized just under 3,000 grams of marijuana as well as pre-rolled marijuanacigarettes, marijuana oil capsules and a variety of marijuana edibles. The also seized more than $4,000 in cash.

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A Kingston judge has disposed of the last of the charges against a group of six young "budtenders" arrested in a raid on an illegal Princess Street marijuana dispensary in March 2017.

Justice Larry O'Brien declined, however, to impose a sentence that would have encumbered the 23-year-old Ottawa woman with a criminal record when the principals profiting from the business went unidentified and were never charged.

Instead, he gave the woman a discharge, conditional upon her successful completion of one year of probation, after she pleaded guilty to a single charge of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The terms of her probation oblige her to complete assessments and counselling as directed by her probation officer and require that she not socialize with anyone she knows to have a criminal or drug record.

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Prescott - The town's fire department has joined the growing number of volunteer fire companies in Leeds and Grenville that refuse to carry naloxone to counter opioid overdoses.

Fire Chief Barry Moorhouse said his department based its decision partly on the fact naloxone-carrying paramedics are based in Johnstown, only eight minutes away as the ambulance flies. Usually, the EMS can get to a medical call in Prescott before his volunteer department, Moorhouse said.

As well, Moorhouse said he fears the slippery slope of having his trucks carrying drugs to medical calls. The department is far more likely to encounter diabetic patients or people felled by allergic reactions than people affected by opioid overdoses. Should firefighters be required to carry EPIPENS and insulin, too? he wondered.

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WATERLOO REGION - Waterloo Region plans to look further into pursuing three supervised injection sites, following a study that found a need and support in the community for the service to combat fatal opioid overdoses.

Sites are proposed for the central cores of Kitchener and Galt, and a third spot to be determined that could be a mobile unit.

"In Waterloo Region, we know that overdose is on the rise," said Grace Bermingham, regional manager of information, planning and harm reduction.

Bermingham presented findings from the first phase of a feasibility study on supervised injection sites to a regional committee on Tuesday. The second phase involves identifying potential locations and further consultations with people who live, work or go to school near a proposed site.

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An emergency situation demands an emergency response.

When people are trapped in a burning house or wrecked car, the priority should be getting them out alive first, and then worrying about damaged property or blocked roadways.

This is how people in Waterloo Region need to understand the horrific and rising number of opioid overdoses ravaging their community.

We are, collectively, facing an emergency. People are dying in staggeringly high numbers. Others are suffering terribly.

For all their sakes but also for the welfare of this region, we must offer help - even as we work out the details.

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