A day after what would have been her son Ashley's 38th birthday, Betty Niemi told the story of her only child's losing battle with addiction to a rapt audience Thursday night.

Niemi, who has started a local chapter of Grief Recovery After Substance Passing (GRASP), took to the podium at the fourth Not My Kid: Adolescents and Addictions seminar before a crowd of about 300 at the Caboto Club.

"Losing a child is like having an arm or leg amputated, but no one can see it," Niemi told the crowd.

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Having enforced Canada's drug laws for a couple decades and seen the horrible destruction to families narcotic drug usage causes, I cannot think of a more dangerous move and harm to Canadian society than legalizing all drugs. It likely will take a decade to determine the many unintended consequences of Trudeau's legalizing pot, including more deaths on our highways, more workplace accidents, kids suffering mental issues from getting into their parents' pot supply, more addicts, problems to cities from pot tourism and the huge negative impact to our ailing healthcare system. The Liberals wanting to legalize even more addictive and health damaging drugs is scary.

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"It's so unbearably soul-crushing," says Jennifer Johnson, referring to Niagara's exponential increase in opioid overdoses. "When is this going to end?" A report presented at a Niagara Region public health committee meeting this week shows a 335 per cent increase in the number of opioid overdoses that Niagara Emergency Medical Service paramedics responded to last year.

In 2017 paramedics responded to 520 suspected overdoses, compared to 155 a year earlier.

"You look at the news from out in B.C. and they've been knee-deep in this for years. But the numbers keep exponentially growing," said Johnson, co-founder of NAMES (Niagara Area Moms Ending Stigma), who lost her 25-year-old son Jonathan to a fentanyl overdose in April 2016.

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Officer Flyer Man flew up a tree

Not where a uniformed police man should be.

This went down last weekend on Saturday night

In Toronto the Good and yes, it happened alright.

At Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Ave.

Cops didn't foresee what a night they would have.

Officer Flyer Man and other brave cops

Were busting Toronto's illegal drug shops.

They thought the evidence really looked good

So then they did something no officer should.

These two cops failed to act like professionals

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Committee to look at report next week

Sudbury could become home to a safe injection site.

The community services committee will hear next week about the prospect of undertaking a feasibility study for a site, which will cost $150,000 to $200,000. Council is being asked to endorse the report.

"Through community consultations, under the mental health and compassionate city community priorities, the suggested action includes the study of and possible

establishment of a supervised injection site," a staff report indicates. "In addition, the establishment of (a safe injection site) has been prioritized by the community drug strategy as part of the harm reduction pillar area of responsibility."

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WATERLOO REGION - Regional councillors thanked the public health department for its harm reduction efforts, but said more needs to be done to ensure used needles aren't ending up in public spaces.

"I do appreciate the efforts of public health," Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig said at a council meeting on Tuesday. "But we still have a problem."

The number of needles distributed through Waterloo Region's needle syringe program has been rising steadily in recent years, reaching a peak in 2017, according to a report presented this week.

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Expert panellist says many Windsor MDs not comfortable prescribing pot

Lauren Meadows was a young nursing student when her joint pain, fevers, lack of dexterity and inability to lift even light objects caught the attention of her instructors.

Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, but only after her severe joint damage was identified through X-rays, she struggled to manage her pain, insomnia, fatigue and swelling around her joints.

Meadows tried lots of medications - enduring many side effects - until a visit to the Arthritis Society website sent her on a path to medical marijuana and the relief she was seeking.

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Should such a proposal ever arise, I would suggest we don't name any parks or public spaces after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or erect any statues of him.

The legalization of marijuana is another federal Liberal mistake that will have the most negative outcome of all.

Whatever revenue the provincial Liberals hope to pocket from the LCBO sale of marijuana will be offset by additional costs in policing and medical services as a result of the increased number of individuals who will no doubt become addicted.

Gary Manley

London

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Re Cops accused of being high on job, Jan. 30 Yes, the two Toronto police officers should not have eaten the edible marijuana evidence. But in doing so, they demonstrated how potentially dangerous these products are. I do not know what is on the label but what would happen if a teenager or young child found his parents' stash and decided to try it? Are there standards? Or is it buyer beware? The police officers may have done us a favour.

Eileen Herbert, Barrie

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Unless you want to see people climbing up trees, the Ontario Safety League is urging Canada to stay away from legalizing the sale of marijuana edibles.

"Governments planning to tax legal marijuana sales should put a stop to edibles right now," said Brian Patterson, president of the Ontario Safety League. "It's way too risky to go down that road."

Patterson was responding to my column Tuesday in which two police officers have been suspended pending a Professional Standards investigation into an incident in which witnesses allege the officers were taken to hospital after consuming an edible product that had been seized as part of a drug raid on a pot dispensary.

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When I walk downtown in a year or two, will I have my choice of one or more cannabis lounges? The idea of creating cannabis, marijuana or pot places where consumers can smoke in pleasant and friendly surroundings is being floated in Ontario. The government reportedly welcomes feedback.

It's all very funny. governments at all levels have been making life very difficult for tobacco smokers. governments impose extremely harsh taxes on tobacco. Municipal governments impose so many limitations that smokers struggle to find a place where they can enjoy a cigarette.

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Tell people how to produce pot safely: Health unit

If the federal government will let people grow pot in their homes, Health Canada had better explain how to do it safely.

That's one of the pieces of advice from Ottawa Public Health, months before marijuana hits the legal retail market and the federal government relaxes cannabis laws across the country.

The feds will allow adults to grow up to four marijuana plants in their homes for personal use.

Vera Etches, the acting medical officer of health at OPH, wrote to Health Canada earlier this month as the federal agency collected feedback on the proposed cannabis regulations ahead of legalization this summer.

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Dissenting opinion found charter rights were violated during 'fishing expedition'

A senior Ontario judge has called out Toronto police officers who arrested a man on gun and drug charges for "casually intimidating and oppressive misconduct," and wondered if their actions would have been different in a whiter and wealthier neighbourhood.

The criticism came in a dissenting opinion from Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Peter Lauwers, who recently disagreed with his two colleagues on a panel hearing the appeal of Tom Le, convicted in 2014 of firearm and drug-related offences and sentenced to five years in prison.

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Two suspended after allegedly eating edible weed following raid

Toronto police confirms two of its officers have been suspended after police sources say the pair consumed edible marijuana while on duty over the weekend - shortly after a marijuanadispensary raid in the area.

Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said two officers are now being investigated by the Toronto police Professional Standards Unit, but wouldn't provide any additional information, including their names and what alleged conduct led to the suspension.

Police sources tell the Star, however, that the pair - both assigned to the city's central 13 division - are alleged to have consumed marijuana edibles while on duty this weekend.

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Responses from survey questioned

Ohsweken - If you ever thought the legal pot thing would go down nice and mellow anywhere, from Salt Spring Island to St. John's, or Six Nations in between, what were you smoking?

Case in point. Sunday's gathering at Yogi's Barn, 2318 Chiefswood Road, Ohsweken, to discuss the results of a recent survey about cannabis use and regulation in the Six Nations community.

The survey in question shows massive support (in the 80 to 90 per cent range, based on answers from 731 respondents) for the availability of marijuana in their territory and for the "sovereign right" of the Six Nations people to "determine their own path and choices regarding cannabis."

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I had to laugh when I saw the bit about Ottawa city planners trying to keep legal pot shops out of neighbourhoods "experiencing socio-economic stress," which I suppose is government bafflegab for "poor."

How did so much animus against pot arise in the first place? It was seen as a "poor folks' drug" by rich white folks. The great and futile war on drugs was essentially a class war: The judiciary and cops were mere soldiers in that war to keep poor folks down.

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After reading the column written by Tyler Dawson on why it's time to legalize all drugs, I couldn't help butt my head as to why he would even suggest such a dangerous and ill thought-out plan.

I myself am opposed to these so-called "safe" injection sites. Sure, it will save people from overdosing on heroin, but it also enables those to go out and do it all over again and again.

It's unsafe for you to be injecting this poison into your body in the first place.

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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 Friday 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 Monday in an interview.

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Marijuana is moving in. Big time. So here's something to ponder: Will a flood of prolific, easy-to-grow pot mean fewer exciting plants for we gardeners to grow?

Could be. Right now, we're accustomed to taking our pick from a wonderful selection of inexpensive offerings, mostly because they're raised in Ontario greenhouses and no longer imported from other countries.

Think of fabulous Phalaenopsis orchids (once rare and pricey, yet now so common and inexpensive, we're actually getting tired of them); perfect Christmas poinsettias; a cavalcade of mums in fall; potted spring bulbs all winter; pansies, petunias, plus many other colourful annuals; In spring, heavenly hellebores; exotic offerings such as anthuriums and alstroemerias.

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Medical cannabis patients who use the plant to treat conditions ranging from eczema to cancer are coming together this Friday from 10 a.m. to noon in front of Finance Minister

Bill Morneau's downtown Toronto constituency office at 430 Parliament St., to call out the government's proposed plan to increase the already unfair and burdensome tax on medical cannabis.

Unlike medical cannabis, most prescribed medications are not taxed, creating a situation where patients are choosing medications based on financial options rather than harm reduction and efficacy.

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