Logical Objections Valid But The Need To Save Lives Should Take A Higher Priority; The Sites Should Be Opened Soon

The Tremblay administration has given conditional support this month to the city getting its first legal druginjection site - a clean, well-lighted place inside of which drug users could shoot up cocaine, heroin or anything else, with a nurse on hand to supervise. Indeed, city hall wants three - count 'em, three - such sites. Plus, for good measure, a large van could travel around the city offering the same service to a less mobile clientele.

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Re: 'More study needed on effects of marijuana' (Daily News, Dec. 14)

Madeline Bruce may be interested in one statistic regarding the God-given plant cannabis (marijuana).

In over 5,000 years of documented medical use there hasn't been one single death directly related to cannabis use. That's safety on a Biblical scale.

Truthfully,

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Despite Ottawa's Opposition, Strategy Reduces Ods, Infections, Doctors Agree

Are they legalized shooting galleries or harm-reduction centres?

A report released Friday by the Montreal public health department recommends that three supervised injection sites and a mobile one be established next year in city neighbourhoods where intravenous drug use is rampant.

Dr. Richard Lessard, director of public health, suggested that fixed sites be set up in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, downtown and an area near St. Urbain and Prince Arthur Sts. The mobile unit would move around St. Henri and the city's southwest sector.

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Downtown Residents Want Moratorium in Ville Marie

A coalition of downtown residents associations is calling for an immediate moratorium on any attempt to introduce supervised injection sites (SIS) in their neighbourhood, saying the borough of Ville Marie is already overburdened with the problems of homelessness and local crime.

"What we're saying is that we are not against (SIS)," said Gaetan Paquet, president of the Coalition des Associations de residents de Ville-Marie, which represents about 45,000 of the 80,000 residents of the downtown borough.

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Blasted for Not Allowing Prisoners in U.S. to Return Home

MONTREAL -- Public Safety Minister Vic Toews acted unreasonably when he refused to allow two Canadians imprisoned in the United States to serve out their sentences in Canada, a Federal Court judge has ruled.

In two decisions posted to the Federal Court website Thursday, Justice James O'Reilly overturned Toews' rejection of applications under the International Transfer of Offenders Act filed by Montreal native Franco Tangorra and Tomaso Villano, of Richmond Hill, Ont. Both men were arrested by American authorities for trying to traffic in or import large quantities of the drug ecstasy.

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In 2003, I started bringing pot home from school for my dad.

He had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1985. My family struggled alongside him as MS took its painful toll. His galaxy of pills did little but turn him into a zombie.

Eighteen years later, he discovered cannabis. I procured it for him from my high school, where it was - and remains - ubiquitous. What began as a clandestine therapy of last resort soon became his front-line treatment.

Today, a regimen of cannabis-infused foods helps him control pain, spasms and nausea. It lifts his spirits, perks up his appetite and helps him sleep. The side effects are negligible, especially compared to those of some of his legal medications, which twice nearly killed him.

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The first thing patients get in the vestibule of a hidden Montreal medical marijuana centre is a wail-tagging welcome from a rescue border collie called Maybe.

The inner sanctum - kitchen with stainless steel appliances and banner featuring a dove carrying a marijuana leaf - has a faint odour of pot.

The baking menu on this day includes pumpkin honey cannabis cake using marijuana-infused olive oil.

Welcome to a reincarnation of the Montreal compassion club, which has rejected "compassion" in favour of "dispensary" because patients have a right to medication, says Adam Greenblatt, head of the Montreal Medical Cannabis Access Society.

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A Survivor of Incest and Abuse, Francois Found Relief in Marijuana. His Doctor and Psychiatrist Agree He Needs It. but He's Caught in A Grey Area and Can't Get It Legally

It was a Thursday afternoon, June 3, 2010, and Francois was about to knock on the door of the Montreal marijuana compassion club when he saw a sign that made his heart race. Closed. By police.

So he ran straight to the mountain to his old scoring grounds in search of a pot dealer. As he got closer, he heard someone whistle - a warning.

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The new Canada-U.S. border agreement to be formally unveiled Wednesday will include, among other measures, enhanced tracking procedures for persons entering or leaving the country by air, land or sea.

It is bound to be denounced in some quarters here =96 and already has been as reports of the negotiations emerged =96 as a sellout of Canadian sovereignty and an un-Canadian infringement on privacy rights for the sake of easing access to U.S. markets, even though in that respect it offers some commendable provisions.

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Campaign Against Crime Bill Goes Viral

As Occupiers across North America were ripped from their tents, protesting students were maced on their own campuses, and police flexed their brass brutality, an equally insidious and serious news story was, until last week, flying under the media's radar.

The Conservative Government's omnibus crime Bill C-10, ironically named "The Safe Streets and Communities Act," is currently being rushed through Parliament. To be frank, this bill is a huge fucking deal, with serious fiscal and social implications for our penal law system.

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Supervised Injection Sites in Canada

The controversy behind supervised injection sites is nothing new. As previously stated in The Daily's news article, "Supreme Court rules in favour of supervised injection site" published on October 24, the Supreme Court ruled on September 30 in favour of allowing Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site, to continue running. According to Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, the city of Montreal plans to follow suit in the coming year.

Supervised injection sites are a place where those addicted to drugs go to inject them under the supervision of health care specialists. They get their drugs from their usual source and take them into a building full of nurses, counselors and other health authorities to inject. The purpose of this arrangement is to keep them off the streets, provide clean needles, and allow authorities to intervene in the case of emergency.

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Is it just me, or is the current marijuana debate a whole lot like the alcohol debate the U.S. was having in the 1930s? I don't smoke pot and don't see myself ever wanting to do so, but if someone wants to smoke at home, what's the big deal? It can't be any worse than having a glass of scotch or a few beers. Don't drive while under the influence and everything will be fine.

Michel Trahan Verdun

[end]

It is one thing for the federal government to unilaterally pass new tough-on-crime laws. It is quite another, however, to burden cash-strapped provinces with costs stemming from the measures without adequate consultation.

The Harper government's Safe Streets and Communities omnibus bill has been widely criticized as an ideologically driven, right wing initiative. Critics maintain that it takes an excessive approach to fighting crime at a time when crime rates are in decline and prisons are already overcrowded.

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One of the witnesses heard during Ontario Superior Court hearings on rules governing the use of medical marijuana, a 55-yearold sufferer of multiple sclerosis, testified that when she asked her doctor to approve her application to use marijuana to relieve her chronic pain, the doctor put her hands over her ears and went, "La, la, la, la. I can't hear you."

This pretty well encapsulates the federal government's response to chronic-pain sufferers and medical professionals who are clamouring for a clearer policy on medical marijuana.

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In a landmark ruling late last week, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a sharp rebuke to the federal government's attempt to shut down Vancouver's safe-injection site for intravenous drug users, and in the process opened the way for other such facilities across the country, including in Montreal.

The ruling declared that the Insite facility, in operation for the past eight years, should be allowed to remain open because the "harmreduction" service it provides outweighs the flouting of Canada's drug law entailed in its operation. It is noteworthy that the ruling came backed by a unanimous vote of the top court's nine judges.

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QUEBEC - Quebec will decide shortly if it will open supervised-injection clinics following the Supreme Court ruling, the province's health minister said Tuesday.

Yves Bolduc said his government is weighing the implications of last week's decision from the country's highest court, which ruled Vancouver's controversial supervised-injection site should stay open indefinitely.

"I read the judgment twice and I can tell you we're going to take a decision accordingly," Bolduc told reporters in Quebec City.

The minister noted he has asked his department's legal advisers to assess the implications of the Supreme Court decision. "I'm going to wait for that because I want to take a good decision, it's an important decision." He said his position will be made public "in the next few days."

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Legal Hurdle Out of the Way; Local Officials Have Developed Proposals, Now Need to Find Operating Funds

Montreal's first supervised injection site for addicts who shoot up drugs intravenously could be established in the downtown core "sometime in 2012," Louis Letellier de StJust said after the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its landmark ruling on the subject Friday.

With that last legal hurdle crossed, another obstacle remains - locking in the provincial health-care cash that would be required to run it, the chair of the board of directors of Cactus Montreal added.

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Dear Annie: I'm a 67-year-old woman who has been deeply hurt. My husband died seven years ago, and I suffered depression. My psychiatrist told me to meet new people, so I did. I went to dinner with a girlfriend in an upscale nightclub. A good-looking fellow asked me to dance, and we clicked immediately. Over the next two years, we travelled extensively, cooked together, went to the beach and had a lot in common. My family embraced him and was so happy for me. He told me he'd been addicted to alcohol and tobacco, but stopped using both 30 years ago.

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The Harper Government'S New Crime Bill, Especially Its Draconian Pot Provisions, Is Baffling and Alarming More Than Just Marijuana Fans

Sometimes, you can evaluate the worth of a certain piece of legislation by those who oppose it. Take the Safe Streets and Communities Act, the new federal Conservative omnibus crime bill, unveiled Tuesday, Sept. 20. Bill C-10, considered a priority for the government, combines nine previous crime bills into one, with tough new measures on sentencing for sex offenders, young offenders and marijuana growers. Under the new law, anyone convicted of possessing between six and 200 marijuana plants is looking at a six-month mandatory minimum sentence. At 201 plants, the sentence is a year.

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"This Is Not the End; This Is Just the Beginning of Our Efforts In This Regard," Said Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson In Introducing the Conservative Government'S New Tough-On-Crime Legislation.

Given the inherent flaws of this bill, one shudders to think what the end will be.

There are certainly commendable measures proposed in the legislation, pointedly the first bill introduced by the government in this fall sitting of Parliament. Titled the Safe Streets and Communities Act, it is actually a compilation of nine bills previously introduced by the government that failed to pass when the Conservatives formed only a minority administration.

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