Nearly three weeks in, London's temporary overdose-prevention site - the first of its kind in the province - has gone from four drug users a day to 44, and front-line workers are beaming.

The stripped-down supervised consumption facility opened Feb. 12, a quick, co-ordinated response to the growing number of opioid overdoses among London drug users. As of Tuesday, staff were seeing as many as 44 clients a day.

"Clients are having trouble believing it. It's too good to be true," said Sonja Burke, needle exchange director at the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.

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U.S. consul general and mayor issue warning to travellers

Canada's pending marijuana legalization may end up slowing more than just pot users' reaction times - it could slow the whole border, Mayor Drew Dilkens and U.S. Consul General Juan Alsace suggested Monday. Dilkens and Alsace chatted at the mayor's office Monday about border issues, including NAFTA negotiations, international trade, Great Lakes health and the Trudeau government's intention to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Both officials said problems at the U.S. border could be sparked if pot is legalized in Canada as proposed some time in the summer. "I think it's a real issue," Dilkens said after the private meeting with Alsace, who travelled to Windsor from Toronto for the informal chat. "And I think it's an issue that folks in this area need to be attuned to. "Obviously, being in the Windsor area, we rely on our ability to go across the border seamlessly and frequently. People buy groceries over there, people go shopping for the day over there."

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St. Catharines council is unanimously supporting the creation of a temporary supervised injection site in the city to help deal with the opioid crisis.

"It is pure harm reduction. It is stopping people from dying," said Sandi Tantardini of Niagara Area Moms Ending Stigma, speaking in support of the site at Monday night's council meeting.

Tantardini and Jennifer Johnston founded the group of moms, families and friends of people who have been lost to or are struggling with addiction.

"When we're talking about the effects of the opioid crisis, our group and its representatives and our families, we're the faces of it," said Johnston, whose son Jonathan, a chef who trained at Niagara College, died of a fentanyl overdose in Toronto.

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Brighton - People consume marijuana because it relaxes them but the prospect of its recreational use becoming legal is making police anxious.

"Anticipated issues" include "easier access for the youth population," impaired operation of vehicles, and the "facilitation of trafficking," OPP Detective-Sergeant Rick Dupuis said in a presentation to Brighton council on the implications of the federal law that is to take effect sometime after July 1.

"The provincial and federal governments indicate that this act was introduced to minimize or mitigate accessibility to our young population but in my professional opinion I believe that is ... counterintuitive," he told council Feb. 20. "It's going to make it much easier."

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Victims of bad science at Motherisk

Return their children.

That's what they want - the parents who saw their kids ripped away based on flawed alcohol and drug hair tests from the now shuttered Motherisk lab at the famous Sick Children's hospital. A report tabled this week examined 1,270 cases handled by the lab going back more than two decades and found 56 clear cases where Motherisk's flawed test results had a "substantial impact" on the decision to remove children - - though critics argue there are far more.

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Recommendations too late for many families 'broken apart' by flawed drug and alcohol tests

The Ontario Motherisk Commission's two-year effort to repair the damage to families ripped apart by flawed drug and alcohol testing has produced sweeping recommendations aimed at preventing a similar tragedy, but in only a handful of cases has it reunited parents with their lost children.

Alice, a Hamilton mother whose daughter was apprehended in 2011 after hair testing from Motherisk purported to show she was a heavy drinker, is among the lucky few.

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Pot courses sprouting at Ontario colleges

Puff, puff, pass will take on a new meaning when recreational cannabis becomes legal in Canada later this year.

And not just in the way you might think.

Some Canadian colleges and universities are preparing people for the thousands of potential new jobs expected to be created as the country's booming weed industry - valued at $23 billion by accounting firm Deloitte - transitions from the black market to a legal one with an estimated 5 million existing customers across the country.

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As a national opioid crisis wages on, Toronto police have decided to equip their downtown frontline officers with the opioid antidote naloxone.

"This is about life and death, and that's what we signed up to do," Chief Mark Saunders told the Toronto Police Services Board at their meeting Thursday.

Chief Saunders was tasked last year with submitting a report to the board on how the service might go about deploying the antidote, which can be used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

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Judge nixes jail for Stones guitarist, orders community service instead

More than 40 years have passed since the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had to "slap'' Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards awake at a Toronto hotel so they could arrest him for possession of heroin for the purposes of trafficking.

The charge, which carried a minimum of seven years upon conviction, was based on the 22 grams of heroin found on Feb. 27,1977, during a raid of Richards' room at the Harbour Castle Hilton (now Westin Harbour Castle), while he was sleeping.

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Fifty North Bay and area landlords have revived the Near North Landlords Association in response to the province's new standard lease form, which takes effect in April, and the legalization of marijuana later this year

Landlords are concerned that, as of April 1, they won't be able to refuse a tenant who has a dog, explains group member John Wilson of North Bay.

"If there is a fourth-floor apartment available for rent and the person who wants the place has a German shepherd and the building isn't pet-friendly we can no longer refuse him," he says.

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Liberal MP says he wasn't thrilled about it at first, but changed his views

Cannabis was on the menu at the Belleville & District Chamber of Commerce's monthly breakfast Wednesday at the Travelodge Hotel, and Bay of Quinte MP Neil Ellis was pushing it - from a business point of view.

With Bill C- 45, the Cannabis Act, expected to be law by July 1, Ellis said the business of marijuana will provide many opportunities, not just from production of both recreational and medical cannabis, but from the many sideline businesses it will create.

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TORONTO - Ontario's provincially run cannabis retailer is open to sourcing product from growers of all sizes across the country, according to a spokesperson for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

The approach appears to be in contrast to the one taking hold in provinces such as Quebec, where the government-run Societe des alcools du Quebec recently opted to sign sizable recreational cannabis supply agreements with a select few large licensed producers.

In Ontario, "the process for procuring cannabis supply for the (Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp.) will be open to all Canadian licensed producers," said LCBO spokesperson Nicole Laoutaris in an email, adding that "the OCRC has not yet entered into any supplier agreements."

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City officials are looking for input as they deal with the ramifications of legalized recreational marijuana.

"There are a lot of questions, a lot of unknowns and I think it's important that we try to come up with a 'made in Brantford' solution to some of these issues," Mayor Chris Friel said Tuesday.

"I think we need to hear from more people, let them know what the issues are and see what we can come up with.

"We need to hear from the chamber of commerce, the health unit, police, real estate people as well as our own staff in social services and bylaw enforcement."

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York Regional Police tweeted on Tuesday that marijuana doesn't increase the growth of breasts in men, after one of its officers told high school students at a panel last week that "doobies make boobies."

"We're no health experts, but we're pretty sure getting high does not cause enhanced mammary growth in men," York police tweeted. "We are aware of the misinformation about cannabis that was unfortunately provided to the community by our officers. We're working to address it."

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This is a follow-up of my two letters in The Daily Press dated March 29, 2017 titled "PM's head going to pot" and Dec. 20, 2017 titled "Medical marijuana has no medicinal value."

I managed to get an updated publication dated April 13, 2017 titled "Health Effects of cannabis" from Health Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and readers can find this Health Canada publication with an online search.

The publication clearly summarizes the short-term health effects, long-term health effects, risks of illegal cannabis, mental health effects, health effects on youth, health effects on pregnancy and children, and addiction.

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(Re: New guideline recommends doctors avoid prescribing medical marijuana for most conditions, Feb. 15)

The British have just issued the same guideline raising the question why there was not public education on the serious dangers to health before the Trudeau government fast-tracked legalizing marijuana. Besides causing serious damage to young developing brains, using pot can also lead to very aggressive behaviour is some people. The bottom line is very little is known about the long-term health effects of the 80 cannabinoids contained in marijuana. One thing we do know from the experiences in Colorado and Washington states, after legalization, is there will likely be more impaired drivers on our highways leading to more road deaths and young people will gain access to the drug with dire consequences.

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The mayor is wrong on allowing legal pot cafes, and here's why

Mayor Jim Watson won't support the idea of legal lounges where people can smoke pot.

That's not even remotely surprising: Watson's a cautious, conservative mayor when it comes to social policy. He doesn't want to make it easier for anyone to smoke anything in lounges.

If his view wins the day, there won't really be anywhere in Ottawa to smoke pot, because politicians at Queen's Park have banned smoking marijuana in public places.

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Dealing with the impact of marijuana legalization is expected to be one of the year's biggest challenges for the Cornwall Community Police Service, according to Chief-designate Danny Aikman.

"Obviously there is a lot of attention being paid the legalization of marijuana and the impact that will have on municipalities as well as police forces," he said.

The Cornwall police are concerned their costs could increase because of the change in the law, and Aikman said just because possession will be legal, doesn't mean enforcement efforts can be stopped.

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Can we please stop with the "more" research on marijuana? The only research that is needed is to determine how much good it can do medically.

Everyone knows why it was banned decades ago - so they could sell more pills. There is not one recorded death due to overdose, no one has ever gotten stoned and gone on a killing spree, no one has ever smoked pot and driven 150 km/h on the highway. Just recently we are finding out about CBD's helping people with Parkinsons, arthritis, and seizures.

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Rally in response to the opioid crisis hears tales of loss and 'burnt out' workers

Kim Pare said his family did everything they could to help their bright and beautiful daughter, but in the end she couldn't fight the illness of addiction.

It's been almost four years since Kaitlyn died, at 24, from a prescription opioid overdose and from her father's perspective nothing has really changed.

"We are losing a generation of people who could be valuable members of our society. We have to help them,' Pare said, speaking to about 30 people at a rally at King and York Sts. Tuesday's event was part of a National Day of Action in response to the opioid and contaminated drug crisis.

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