Coderre Says Move Is About 'Public Safety' Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre didn't hold back during a joint news conference with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Thursday, promising to ensure proposed drug-injection sites open in the city - even over federal objections. The mayor, who met Trudeau to discuss issues including safe injection sites, has previously said he would give the federal government until the end of the summer to approve four locations in Montreal. Coderre made it clear he will move ahead regardless. [continues 401 words]
They are beneficial not only to drug users, but also to the community as a whole, Jennifer Laura Lee says. Having visited a safe-injection site in Europe, I can say with great certainty that I would be grateful for, not fearful of, the establishment of such sites in Montreal. As part of McGill's Comparative Health Systems Program, I visited one of the longest standing and most effective safe-injection sites in the world, in Switzerland, the birthplace of the safe consumption room itself. "Quai 9" stands alone in a sea of luxury stores and four star hotels, only a few blocks away from scenic Lake Geneva (a thriving tourist hot spot). Yes, a safe-injection site exists in the heart of Geneva's ritzy commercial district, and the city has yet to implode. Surrounding streets are not rife with crime and violence. Dirty needles do not litter the sidewalks. Neighbouring stores, banks, and restaurants have carried on, business as usual, for years. [continues 458 words]
Rocket launcher, guns, drugs among items sent as parcels, a 2012 RCMP report says OTTAWA- Canada's police chiefs want legal authority to seize mail in transit to stem the flow of illicit drugs, fake medicine and weapons through the postal system. In a recently passed resolution, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police say contraband is being sent through the mail "with impunity" because the law forbids officers from swooping in until a parcel arrives at its destination. This poses a "significant challenge" for police, who must find "alternative ways to work within or around" the system to apprehend criminals, the chiefs say. The resolution calls on the government to amend the legislation governing Canada Post to provide police with the ability to obtain a judge's approval to "seize, detain or retain parcels or letters" in the mail stream. A November 2012 report the RCMP prepared for the chiefs' organized crime committee revealed that firearms, grenades, a rocket launcher, stun guns, dangerous chemicals and drugs including cocaine, heroin and marijuana were sent through the mail. [continues 83 words]
Drug use is a health issue, not a matter for the police and courts, Michael Ashby says. When will Canadians find the courage to legalize cocaine? What about all the other drugs, for that matter? Since marijuana has become an election issue, we should stop wasting time and just talk about all drugs at once. Anyone who's given sober thought to the social consequences of drug prohibition knows that drug use should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal one. But for over 100 years we've gone in the wrong direction, wasting mind numbing amounts of time and resources policing normal (if not ideal) human behaviour. [continues 495 words]
A Legal Cannabis Industry Could Be Subjected to Sensible Regulations, Nazlee Maghsoudi and Dan Werb Say. With cannabis policy reform gaining traction, predictably dire predictions about regulated markets have followed. You may have heard that cannabis regulation is the first step in an inevitable slide toward an unchecked, out-of-control "Big Marijuana" industry driven only by profit. Vox even referred to this concern as the "best argument against marijuana legalization." But claims that cannabis policy reform will lead to Big Marijuana underplay the level of government control that is made possible under regulation. [continues 529 words]
Mcgill and Concordia Students Join Lobby Group Seeking Reforms When students at McGill and Concordia return to classes for the fall semester there will be new chapters of a club that gives new meaning to higher education. The university campuses are set to become the only homes in Montreal for the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a nationwide group that lobbies for reforms at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. The group advocates treating drug usage as a health issue rather than a criminal justice one, with activities revolving around policy points such as supporting the legalization of marijuana, rallying against minimum sentences for drug-related offences and advocating for harm-reduction programs, including safe needle exchanges. [continues 538 words]
Canadian study explored local scene and its link to high-risk behaviour "There was so much crack in the neighbourhood that users and outreach workers nicknamed the area Rochelaga." When anthropologist Nelson Arruda explored an east-end Montreal neighbourhood, he expected to find shooting galleries - dark, clandestine places where people inject drugs - and sex slaves addicted to the next high. What he found in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve were crack houses - located every three blocks, and concentrated on a stretch spanning 20 streets - - governed according to strict rules that included a ban on injecting and prostitutes who on the surface operated independently. [continues 1294 words]
Alcohol Intoxication Cases Can Get Bad, Especially in the Younger Kids Who Drink Too Much Too Fast. There is no set way or concrete guidelines for how front-line workers deal with the volatile issues that stem from drug and alcohol-related injuries at Montreal music festivals. Over the next three weeks, Montreal will be home to some of the largest music festivals in the country including Osheaga, Heavy MTL and IleSoniq. Hundreds of musical acts bring thousands of people from all over to Ile-Sainte-Helene for three consecutive weekends in August. [continues 1593 words]
Coderre Vows to Push Ahead Without Ottawa's Approval It will save lives, and that's been proven at 90 different (drug injection) sites around the world. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre would like to see supervised injection sites introduced in the city by this fall, whether the federal government grants the required exemption to the groups involved in the project or not. "What are we waiting for? People are dying," Coderre said Thursday at a news conference. Montreal gave the safe-injection project the green light two years ago in 2013 - approval for three sites and a mobile unit where serious drug addicts can legally and safely inject themselves. The goal is to reduce death from overdose and HIV and other infections from dirty needles, Coderre said. [continues 644 words]
Mayor Denis Coderre is right to stand up to the federal government on the issue of supervised drug-injection sites in Montreal. After years of study and consultation - followed by the approval of $2.6 million in annual provincial funding - city officials announced on Thursday that they have asked Health Canada to grant an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that would allow the creation of three supervised injection sites and one mobile injection unit. There were predictable objections from Justice Minister Peter MacKay. His Conservative government is not friendly to such sites, arguing that they facilitate the use of illegal drugs and can pose a danger to the communities where they are located. However Coderre has jurisprudence and an overwhelming body of scientific evidence on his side. [continues 309 words]
School officials in Quebec will no longer be permitted to strip search students as the provincial government moved to act on a report recommending that only police officers conduct such examinations. The report, made public Wednesday, was ordered following the highly publicized strip search of a 15-year-old girl at a Quebec City school in February. The incident sparked outrage right across the country after the girl told a local paper she felt violated by the search after school officials suspected her of selling drugs. [continues 226 words]
Cannabis Registry Is Established to Gather Data From 3,000 Users to Allow Researchers to Gauge the Drug's Safety and Effectiveness Researchers in Quebec have launched a registry of medicinal cannabis users to determine the safety of the drug and its effectiveness in treating a variety of diseases and conditions. The Quebec Cannabis Registry will be used to compile and store clinical data collected directly from about 3,000 medical marijuana users in the province, who will be enrolled through their primary-care doctors over a 10-year period. [continues 518 words]
Policy Change Follows Outrage Over Search of 15-Year-Old Girl QUEBEC- School officials in Quebec will no longer be permitted to strip search students as the provincial government moved to act on a report recommending that only police officers conduct such examinations. The report, made public Wednesday, was ordered following the highly publicized strip-search of a 15-year-old girl at a Quebec City school in February. The incident sparked outrage right across the country after the girl told a local paper she felt violated by the search after school officials suspected her of selling drugs. [continues 157 words]
Pot seems to ease pain, but for which conditions and at what dose? A study led by Mark Ware aims to fill that gap Curled on the floor retching, Tzvetanka Chiderova yelled for her mother to get the water pipe. Within minutes, the Montreal web-designer stopped gagging. The waves of nausea disappeared, she said. "It was instantaneous," said Chiderova, who turned to marijuana for medicinal purposes as a last resort while being treated for stomach cancer. Without it, she says, she could not have continued with life-saving chemotherapy. [continues 813 words]
But Ottawa Has Final Say on Exemption The Quebec government has given the green light to a project introducing facilities in the Montreal area where drug users can legally and safely inject themselves, but it's still far from becoming a reality. Final approval for so-called safe-injection sites rests with the federal government, which has strongly criticized offering drug users legal spaces to consume illegal substances. In order to operate a safe injection site, the federal government must grant an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 345 words]
Inside Quebec
