Ontario's first legal drugoverdose prevention site opens Monday in London.

The site, temporary while the search continues for a permanent site, will be located at 186 King St.

The site is part of the health unit's response to the opioid crisis sweeping Canada, whose toll ran to nearly 1,500 people in the first half of last year alone.

The London site, embebbed within the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection program location, has been granted an exemption from Canada's criminal drug laws.

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The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit has expanded its harm-reduction strategy related to intravenous drug users.

With opioid addiction an increasing problem in the local area and elsewhere, the health unit has set up three 24-hour disposal sites where users can dispose of old needles.

Needle disposal is a concern for health officials because intravenous drug abuse is highly correlated with blood-borne illnesses, such as HIV and hepatitis.

Used needles that aren't properly disposed pose a hazard to young people who may pick them up or people passing by who are inadvertently stabbed.

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Dundas mom says 17-year-old is on 'lockdown' in home after knife-wielding outburst

When his father roused his son from a drug-induced slumber, he flew into a rage.

The 17-year-old ended up pulling a knife and locking his dad out in the freezing cold.

Now, his parents take turns watching him - constantly.

"We just kind of keep him down on what we call 'lockdown,'" says his mom, a school teacher who lives in Dundas.

Her son is addicted to drugs and alcohol. He has tried to kill himself, been in and out of hospital, in homeless shelters and jail.

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The fire department in ElizabethtownKitley wants to opt out of carrying naloxone kits in its fire trucks.

In a report to council set to be discussed on Monday, the township's fire department says it unanimously decided it does not want to participate in the Ontario Naloxone Program at this time.

The provincial fire marshal and chief of emergency management informed the township in December they will be expanding the naloxone program to include funding for two naloxone kits for each fire truck used in their role as first responders.

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After three years of addressing substance abuse issues while patrolling local high schools, city police community services officer Const. Andy Hatton said he has learned more about how important the lines of communication are between parents and their children.

Drug Awareness Week continues until Friday and city police and health care and public health partners point out it's a ideal time to have serious conversations about the topic.

"Don't be afraid to ask those difficult questions. Don't be afraid to have those sometimes difficult conversations. It's important to know what's going on," the officer said during a Tuesday morning launch for the week at Westmount Pharmacy.

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What is surprising about opioid overdoses and deaths due to overdoses?

These are expected. Expect more as the floodgate to hell has been further opened with the legalizing of recreational use of cannabis.

The weed industry has bloomed immensely. Thousands of acres are being cultivated, using the latest technology to grow weed. The marijuana industry is now Canada's fastest growing and ranks among the most profitable industries.

Investors are stampeding to buy shares in hundreds of weed growers, some of whom already have brought fortune to some investors, sharing millions of dollars in dividends on their investments.

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Re: "Action urged on illicit cigarettes," Feb. 5.

Governments at all levels have spent tens of billions trying to dissuade young people from smoking cigarettes and treating people's serious illnesses, especially cancers, from this addictive habit. These ads are actually starting to decrease the number of new smokers. Over this time, organized crime has been heavily involved, distributing illicit smokes, with zero checks on quality or the nature of ingredients.

Enter Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wrong-headed move to legalize marijuana, just as addictive, and with the same or greater impact on health, because he feels "this is the best way to keep it away from those at serious risk, young Canadians by curbing black market sales."

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Provincial patchwork isn't a bad thing for Canadians, writes Ed Whitcomb.

Many Canadian politicians are tying themselves in knots over pot, begging the federal government to extend the July 1 target date for legalizing cannabis use.

But many of the so-called problems they cite are molehills, needlessly being turned into mountains.

Let's look at some:

It will become legal for about 25 million Canadians to smoke pot as of July 1 - but it will remain illegal for those under 18 or 19.

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Public health is urging anyone who uses drugs to get a free naloxone kit.

The call comes after Owen Sound police announced Jan. 26 that the highly potent opioid carfentanil was confirmed in a pair of investigations in the city.

"All drugs are dangerous and we don't know oftentimes what is in other drugs. So you could be getting what you think is one drug when, in fact, there could be something else in it," public health nurse Lindsay Cook said in an interview.

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Re: Advocates pushing for safe injection site, by Brian Cross, Jan. 26.

In this excellent article it mentions several people who advocate for a safe injection site and express the urgent need for an overdose prevention site.

The article makes the following points: the need for the presence of medical professionals to supervise injections by drug users; the need to provide new needles in order to prevent infections; the importance of administering naloxone in case of an overdose; and the need to provide counselling so that more drug users will become former addicts, as is the case of Matt Cascadden.

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Overdose-prevention plan would equip 112 high schools and train some staff

Toronto District School Board high schools will soon be provided with a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.

On Wednesday evening, the board voted to move forward with equipping every secondary school with a naloxone kit, as part of TDSB's overdose-prevention plan implemented in November 2017.

TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said one kit will be provided to each of the board's 112 high schools and alternative schools.

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Ontario's proposal to allow people to consume marijuana in hotel rooms opens the door to a boom in cannabis tourism, says lawyer Matt Mauer.

Mauer heads the cannabis law group at Minden Gross in Toronto and says he knows businesspeople who are interested in opening cannabis-friendly hotels and resorts.

Mauer says he was surprised by the province's proposal to loosen up the ban on consuming cannabis anywhere other than private homes.

The government has also asked for public comments on whether to allow cannabis lounges.

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"Entrepreneurial" is one of the terms used to describe a bunch of Canadian bootleggers who found varying success in the illicit running of alcohol to the U.S. about a century ago.

They are portrayed as swashbuckling adventurers who dared to defy laws that banned alcohol, laws that in retrospect were not only archaic but perhaps misplaced and costly. They are fondly posited as cheeky and rebellious, the forerunners of a liberal era of alcohol-infused pleasures.

It was legal in Canada to produce alcohol - prohibition was lifted by the 1920s - while Americans still faced a ban. That illicit trade was the building blocks on which Canadian distilleries, the suppliers of that booze, made a fortune. The histories of the Bronfman family (who owned Seagram) and the Corbys, among others, are just a Google search away.

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453 people were revived 'from the brink of death' in 2017, Hamilton city officials hear

More than one-quarter of naloxone kits distributed through Hamilton Public Health last year were used to revive someone from an overdose.

Of the 1,700 opioid antidote kits handed out in 2017, 453 were reportedly used to revive a person.

"Four-hundred and fifty-three people revived from the brink of death. It's hard to imagine that's anything but a success," said Michael Parkinson, who works with the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council and the Municipal Drug Strategy Coordinators Network of Ontario.

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There is absolutely no question that the gun violence being experienced in Ottawa is fuelled by the drug trade. The futile war on drugs simply cannot be won. Why we continue to defy and ignore more than 100 years of failed prohibition is mind-boggling, counterproductive and irresponsible.

Law enforcement, in and of itself, has never reduced or dried up the supply of illegal drugs. Illicit drugs will be with us long into the future. The so-called war on drugs, at an outrageous economic, social and human cost, will simply not stop the demand for illegal drugs.

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Millions of criminals are Canadians buying pot from Canadians, writes Jeremy Kemeny

Everyone smoking recreational marijuana right now is a criminal.

That is according to Canadian law and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who - planning to legalize this summer - has encouraged authorities to enforce these rules.

There are a lot of criminals. In 2016, an estimated 4.9 million Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 years old spent money on pot, which translates into $5.7 billion according to a new Statistics Canada report. And 94 per cent of that, the agency said, was consumed illegally. Your child, sibling or parent might be guilty. You probably have a cousin that's guilty. Some of your friends are likely guilty. That's millions Canadians guilty of possession of cannabis.

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Lawyers contemplate class action to push government into cannabis amnesty

OTTAWA - At Anthony Morgan's law office, the calls keep coming: Parents of young black men hoping their son's marijuana possession charge will be wiped clean when the country legalizes the drug this year.

The Liberal government has talked about granting amnesty for past marijuana crimes, but isn't likely to move until after the new cannabis regime comes into effect this summer.

For black communities across the country, that's not soon enough - and frustrated lawyers in Toronto are now considering lighting a fire under the feds with a class-action lawsuit.

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Lambton Kent District school board is following measures taken by some other Ontario school boards to provide help if a student has an opioid overdose.

Superintendent Gary Girardi said trustees were advised at Tuesday's board meeting in Sarnia that naloxone kits will be placed in all high schools across the region by month's end.

He said the board has been working with the Chatham-Kent and Lambton public health units, which are providing staff to train high school office staff on how to administer the nasal spray.

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Physicians are afraid of doing the right thing, says Jordan Westfall.

Public health officials in Windsor-Essex are sounding alarms about overdose deaths increasing in the past year.

They have stated their interest in "exploring " if the cities of Windsor and Leamington need supervised consumption sites through a "feasibility study."

Supervised consumption sites are places for people to use drugs in a safer manner, with properly trained staff ensuring nobody dies of overdose.

Feasibility studies are costly to taxpayers, and even more expensive for people at risk of overdose, who will pay for this consultation with their lives.

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Legalization of marijuana would make it hard to evict a smoking tenant who is bothering their neighbours

Smoking pot smells. Whether you like the odour or hate it, few think it's not a strong smell. As legalization rapidly approaches in Canada, landlords and tenants are grappling with whether an apartment building can be declared marijuana-smoke-free, whether a disobedient smoker could be evicted and whether a blanket provincial ban on cannabis smoke at home might be the only way to stop it.

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