Quebec should reconsider its opposition to drug-shooting centres Addiction-support advocates say they will open safe-injection sites for Montreal's addicts next summer even if the provincial government disapproves. The advocates' cause is jarring to many Montrealers. There's a sense that, if the advocates get their way, society would be coddling people it ought to be stigmatizing. The skeptics would further argue that drug users are already being pampered plenty. Junkies have had a provincially subsidized locale - -called Cactus -for obtaining free, clean needles for 21 years. (The current quarters are in a pleasant, upscale-looking building at the corner of Sanguinet and Ste. Catherine Sts. that from the exterior could pass for a recreation centre.) Now, the skeptics say, addicts want still more -comfortable shooting galleries where medical personnel can minister to them. In fact, Cactus and other advocacy groups say they want three such sites -at Cactus's present location as well as on the Plateau and in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. [continues 511 words]
It's just before 1 p.m. on a cool, sunny Monday afternoon in late November. On a quiet residential street in Montreal, half a dozen heroin addicts are waiting by office phones and cellphones in a drop-in centre and residence for opiate users and recovering addicts. Their fingers are poised to hit the speed dial button. At precisely 1 p.m. each Monday, the phone lines open at the city's main opiate-addiction treatment centre, the Centre de recherche et d'aide pour narcomanes. [continues 2792 words]
Minister wants to wait for Supreme Court ruling Addiction support groups are preparing to open safe-injection sites for drug addicts in Montreal and Quebec City next June, even if the province doesn't approve them. The legality of Canada's only safe-injection site in Vancouver will be tested by the Supreme Court of Canada next spring and Quebec's health minister has said he will wait for the decision before taking a position on the issue. But a coalition of support groups working with drug addicts contends the sites are a matter of utmost urgency because the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C is reaching epidemic proportions in the province. [continues 181 words]
A coalition of addiction support centres is calling for the creation of a supervised injection site for drug users in Montreal. Representatives of CACTUS Montreal and the Quebec City-based Point de Reperes told reporters yesterday that the war on illegal drugs has only fuelled the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. The legality of such sites is being weighed by the Supreme Court of Canada. [end]
A view of Canada's medical marijuana system How the program works, how it could be better, and one man's treatment As a young law student, Francois Arcand had his future set up. What Arcand could not have planned for was the massive arteriovenous malformation that burst inside his brain in 1989, when he was only 20 years old. The ruptured vessel, which was caused by an abnormal and usually congenital connection between veins and arteries, left Arcand paralysed on the right side of his body. [continues 2168 words]
At an establishment called Coffeeshop, Johnny, a clerk, chatted us up, lamenting on the demise of the cannabis cafe in the Netherlands. I told the clerk to not be discouraged. I preached of a budding pot culture out West in which the blossoming may take place in Oaksterdam, California. In that American state on Nov. 2, over seven million voters weighed in on Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, which would have allowed local governments to legalize the sale of marijuana and control it like alcohol. [continues 214 words]
Re: "Proposition 19: Just say now to marijuana," Commentary, October 28 It's interesting Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor of California, said, "We've got to compete with China. And if everybody's stoned, how the hell are we going to make it?" Chinese farmers grow hemp but free American farmers are prohibited from doing so. That makes it unfair for American farmers who must compete in the free world market. Does Jerry Brown support allowing U.S. farmers to grow hemp the same way the Canadians and Chinese do? [continues 101 words]
On November 2, Californians will vote on the legality of marijuana. A majority of "yes" votes to Proposition 19 will legalize the use of marijuana by those over the age of 21 at home and in licensed businesses, the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, and the taxation of the sale of marijuana by local governments within the state who deem the sale to be acceptable. At the same time, the status of laws regarding the use of marijuana in situations such as the operation of a motor vehicle would not change. [continues 470 words]
There are a number of inaccuracies in this article, but it is understandable considering how much of a fiasco the situation really is. Medical Marijuana Alliance and Resources members can melt their pot into food, like into baked goods, coconut oil, olive oil, etc. At least that is what I was told on the phone by a Health Canada official. We cannot, however, make tinctures, as that is considered a concentrated form of cannabis. The absurdity continues: We cannot sift the tricromes off to make "hash" - which is safer to smoke - because it is considered a concentrated form of cannabis. We can, however, use a vaporizer, which eliminates the dangers associated with smoking. [continues 289 words]
Alternative Methods of Consumption Must Be Allowed In Canada, the possession of marijuana has been illegal since 1923. Today there are over 5,000 Canadians with permission from the federal government to smoke medical marijuana to relieve the pain brought on to them by their illness. The law does not allow people to consume marijuana in other forms, not considering and recognizing those who cannot smoke due to other illnesses like lung cancer. Samuel Mellace, a 55-year-old pot grower from British Columbia lit a joint in the House of Commons on Oct. 4 to demonstrate an inconsistency he sees with the Medical Marijuana Access Regulation. Mellace and his wife are both authorized medical marijuana users, and their issue is with the regula-tion that forces them to 'light up' to relieve their pain. As he told CTV, his wife "can't smoke her medication, because she has lung cancer." [continues 369 words]
The use of marijuana for a few carefully selected medical conditions has generated heated discussion, pitting those who favour legalization against those who warn about the undesired consequences of wider availability. Absent from much of the debate so far, however, is scientific evidence to establish whether marijuana really works to relieve chronic pain; and if it does, whether it does so in a manner that is distinct from simply providing the well-known high that has made it a popular recreational but illicit drug. This edition of Health-Watch takes a closer look at the burden of chronic pain and a recent study that has received a great deal of attention. [continues 845 words]
Carlone directs a winner at Mainline Theatre Editor's note: This story has been corrected. See note below. Reefer Madness, the Musical, now playing at Mainline Theatre, is fast-paced, wacky, outrageous and thoroughly enjoyable. The songs are delightful, the talent is there, and so is the commitment. The company that calls itself Processed Theatre, led by this show's director, Nichole Carlone, clearly believes in rehearsal - -a creed that sometimes evaporates within improvisation-based groups. As Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane, the Romeo/Juliet teenagers led astray, Christopher Hayes and Emily Skahan are perfectly cast, strong in voice and acting skills. [continues 507 words]
The Gazette The drug division of the RCMP seized a shipping container holding nearly seven tonnes of hash Sunday at an outdoor storage centre in LaSalle. Owners of the centre noticed the container parked on a semi-trailer in their yard for a few days and called police. The RCMP obtained a warrant to investigate, and found the hash hidden in cardboard boxes holding jeans. Inspectors could not give a street value estimate because prices vary widely from province to province and depending on quality. But if the drugs were sold at the average street price of $10 a gram, the seven tonnes would be worth $70 million. [continues 58 words]
Compassion Clubs Facing Charges After June Raids About 25 people, including 10 arrested in police raids in June at four Montreal compassion clubs that bill themselves as medical marijuana distribution centres, milled about the Montreal courthouse corridors yesterday discussing the risks in providing pot to manage pain. Those arrested, including another group in Quebec City, face charges of possession with intent to traffic, trafficking, and conspiracy. They learned that court hearings are to resume Oct. 4 for those connected to the outlet on Papineau St. and another in Plateau Mont Royal. The Crown is expected to disclose its evidence to defence lawyers then. [continues 303 words]
Briefly inhaling cannabis three times a day eases a kind of chronic pain that affects tens of thousands of Canadians -- without making them high -- Montreal researchers are reporting. The new study, the first clinical trial in the world to allow patients to take marijuana home with them and "self-dose," found that for people with neuropathic pain -- a common and dreaded condition that causes electric, stabbing pain -- smoking cannabis reduced pain, improved mood and helped them sleep. Three different potencies (2.5 per cent, six per cent and 9.4 per cent) of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, were tested against a placebo, or "dummy" pot in 21 patients with neuropathic pain, none of whom had responded to standard treatments. [continues 816 words]
Smoking pot can make some of the pain go away, without the patient getting high. The finding comes from what researchers in Montreal believe to be the first outpatient clinical trial of smoked cannabis, involving 21 people with chronic neuropathic pain. The results, which included improvements in mood and sleep, were published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. Mark Ware and colleagues at McGill University and McGill University Health Centre got the ball rolling for the study almost a decade ago, but found it was a long road to get all the necessary approvals and import a convincing marijuana placebo from the United States. [continues 908 words]
Cannabis found to relieve neuropathic pain in patients who had failed conventional treatments Briefly inhaling cannabis three times a day eases a kind of chronic pain that affects tens of thousands of Canadians -- without making them high -- Montreal researchers are reporting. The new study, the first clinical trial in the world to allow patients to take marijuana home with them and "self-dose," found that for people with neuropathic pain -- a common and dreaded condition that causes electric, stabbing pain -- smoking cannabis reduced pain, improved mood and helped them sleep. [continues 334 words]
Briefly inhaling cannabis three times a day eases a kind of chronic pain that affects tens of thousands of Canadians -- without making them high -- Montreal researchers are reporting. The new study, the first clinical trial in the world to allow patients to take marijuana home with them and "self-dose," found that for people with neuropathic pain -- a common and dreaded condition that causes electric, stabbing pain -- smoking cannabis reduced pain, improved mood and helped them sleep. Three potencies (2.5 per cent, six per cent and 9.4 per cent) of THC, marijuana's active ingredient, were tested against a placebo in 21 patients with neuropathic pain, none of whom had responded to standard treatments. [continues 125 words]
Inside Quebec
