Naloxone kits are flying off the shelves at local pharmacies and the Street Health Centre, as fentanyl continues its disastrous wave across eastern Ontario. Dr. Meredith Mackenzie, a physician at the centre, said on Wednesday that its clients are listening to their advice and reading news reports and are making an effort to curb their use, but it's not working. "People are much more aware of the drug contamination problem," Mackenzie said. "That means people are using more safely, they're using less, but they are still overdosing, even though they have a big tolerance. We're seeing people with high-opioid tolerance overdosing on smaller amounts of drugs." [continues 826 words]
Mark Baratta works with drug users on the front lines of Ontario's opioid epidemic. But as deaths mount, Baratta's story illustrates how far society has to go to end the crisis . . . if it so chooses Like most people who might be called heroes, Mark Baratta shies away from the label. A lean and purposeful man, Baratta has saved 17 people, each on separate occasions. He chalks it up, with a shrug of his shoulders, to keeping his head in the presence of death. [continues 3104 words]
How drug units deal with fentanyl The death toll for fentanyl continues to rise in 2017, with nearly double the number of deaths being reported in the first six weeks of the year. According to Health Canada, from Jan. 1 to Feb, 11, 51 people died from overdosing on fentanyl. In 2016 during the same six weeks, 28 Albertans died as a result of a fentanyl overdose. The drug was first found in St. Albert in 2014 and since then the St. Albert RCMP's drug unit said that currently there is at least one pill found in around 80 per cent of their overall drug cases. [continues 938 words]
Today is April 20, or 4/20 for short, the day marijuana activists use for protest, public displays of defiance and a call to action to legalize pot. The times are certainly about to change as Ottawa and the provinces consider the implications of the Liberal government's plan to make marijuana legal. Concerns about decriminalizing pot, however, have many recreational smokers increasingly leery about receiving what they wished for. Those are the people who should benefit most from the bill, which is posed as a measure to avoid criminal records and fines for possession of the drug that is extremely common, if one is being honest. [continues 522 words]
With battering rams and flash-bang grenades, SWAT teams fuel the risk of violence as they forcibly enter suspects' homes. Five months and 85 miles apart, two cases took starkly divergent legal paths. SOMERVILLE, Tex. - Joshua Aaron Hall had been a resident of the Burleson County Jail for about a week when he requested a meeting with Gene Hermes, the sheriff's investigator who had locked him up for violating probation. The stocky lawman arrived in the featureless interview room on the morning of Dec. 13, 2013, placed his soda cup on the table and apologized for not getting there sooner. He asked in his gravelly drawl if they would be talking about Mr. Hall's own case. [continues 6445 words]
Painkiller mixed with cocaine by dealers can cause seizures, coma or death Police fear a growing amount of buffing agent being seized in drug busts means more high-level dealers are bringing wholesale quantities into Edmonton for redistribution, creating another avenue for profit. The Edmonton Drug and Gang Enforcement (EDGE) unit seized more buffing agent in 2016 - 82.05 kg - than all cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine combined. Buffing agents are used by drug dealers to dilute illicit drugs to increase profits. [continues 455 words]
WATERLOO REGION - A group of parents sit around a small table. Their eyes are red from crying. Nearby are framed photos of the children they have lost to drug overdoses. Among them are Iain Goddard, Brittany Cobbing and Austin Padaric. Janice Walsh-Goddard didn't even know what fentanyl was when she heard it killed her son. Iain Goddard died last May while Janice was in England on vacation. She got the call on the last day of her weeklong trip. [continues 1488 words]
When it comes to fighting the illegal drug trade, fentanyl knows no borders. Overdose deaths attributed to the illicit opioid are skyrocketing each year in cities, towns and on reserves in Alberta. The Blood Tribe Police have not been immune to the effects on the community it serves to protect. They welcome the Alberta Government's announcement last week that police officers are among those who will be trained to administer lifesaving Naloxone, which temporarily reverses the effect of fentanyl. [continues 589 words]
After a spike in roadside drug seizures, Athabasca RCMP are reminding people marijuana is still illegal. The past month has seen a spike in drug seizures through traffic stops, with approximately 10 grams of cocaine and methamphetamine and 300 grams of marijuana and marijuana products - such as hash and hash oil - in 15 separate incidents, said Cpl. Curtis Harsulla, spokesman for the Athabasca RCMP. "Some folks think it may be legal soon, but it's not quite there," Harsulla said. Typically, the traffic enforcement unit may seize 15 to 30 grams of various drugs every five days, he said. [continues 121 words]
Despite a completely clean campus always being the goal, top brass at Royal Military College are pleased with the results of a blind drug test conducted in mid-October that weren't exactly perfect. "Having now tangible, fact-based information is really great. It gives us a good assessment of the current situation," Brig.-Gen. Sean Friday, commandant of RMC, told the Whig-Standard on Wednesday. "The whole idea of a blind drug test is so that we can get actual information to see if our [Canadian Armed Forces] drug control program at large is succeeding or not." [continues 694 words]
'These people aren't going out there to die,' enforcement unit officer insists The victims of fentanyl, which saw its deadly toll reach new highs in 2016, rarely fit the stereotypes people sometimes imagine, advocates say. "We're not concerned because we don't believe it can impact us in any way - but these are soccer moms and accountants and lawyers," said Rosalind Davis, whose partner Nathan Huggins-Rosenthal held an MBA and was a stockbroker when he became addicted to the opioid that ultimately killed him. [continues 609 words]
A startling dissection of drug use in London - with the personal illnesses and public ills exposed - has laid on the table a compelling case for a supervised injection site in the city. But the sticky questions of exactly where the site or sites should go, whether the city can take the other steps necessary to make a site worthwhile, and how crystal meth and fentanyl will play a role remain unanswered. The lead researcher of a study on providing supervised injection in London did have one answer for residents still questioning the sanity of giving people a place to inject their illicit drugs. [continues 725 words]
Harm-reduction focus oversimplifies problem, writes Michael McCarthy. Breaking news! There is actually a place called hell. No, it's not where you think it is. On a recent trip to Norway I learned that "Hell" is a sleepy rural village. Actually the word means luck, from the overhanging cliff caves in the area known as hellir in old Norse. Gosh, all this time I thought hell was located in the Downtown Eastside. In reality, it is. Hell is found in those DTES alleyways where any hour of the day you can find some poor soul doing the funky chicken, "tweaking" from an overdose on crack cocaine. These days the drug of choice is the opioid fentanyl, which leads to a lot less dancing and lot more dying. The body count is edging towards a thousand a year. [continues 637 words]
Finally some good news related to fentanyl. That is, there's now less of the deadly filth on the streets, since the Surrey RCMP recently busted three suspects and seized thousands of doses of illegal drugs. An investigation was launched in November that focused on drug traffickers supplying addicts on 135A Street. Police raids in January removed 4,140 doses of suspected heroin/fentanyl, 521 doses of methamphetamine and 410 doses of crack cocaine. It's no secret what a horrible toll deadly opioids like fentanyl have taken on our local streets, particularly that forsaken strip of road in Whalley. [continues 116 words]
A man in his 20s sat handcuffed in the back of a police car Monday night after about $500,000 worth of narcotics was found in a southeast Fresno home, Fresno police Major Narcotics Unit Supervisor Timothy Tietjen said. Several undercover investigators waited outside a home on the 700 block of south 4th Street, south of Ventura Avenue. Tietjen said around 6 p.m. officials made their move while family members, including children between 4 and 7 years of age, were home. [continues 132 words]
Canada's organized-crime groups and gangs are much less likely to produce and traffic marijuana than they are other illicit drugs such as cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, according to a new federal study that tracked drug violations from police forces in four cities across three provinces. The new report from Statistics Canada analyzed all drug-related violations over a two-year period in Victoria, Vancouver, Regina and Waterloo, Ont., and found that police linked organized crime to 39 per cent of all cannabis-trafficking charges and 6 per cent of cases involving the production of marijuana. [continues 796 words]
Police forces in Canada testing out devices over February Next time you come across a police checkpoint in Halifax, you might be asked to help test a roadside drug-screening device. Halifax Regional Police (HRP) began a new Public Safety Canada pilot project a week and half ago, and have until the end of February to collect 100 saliva samples from anyone who'd like to anonymously volunteer for the testing in a regular traffic stop. "This is for us. It's not about any of the public, it's about how user-friendly are these devices for the police at roadside," Const. Kristine Fraser of the HRP traffic unit said Thursday. "If you say 'um, no,' (it's) 'okay, thank you for your time,' and you drive away.'" [continues 283 words]
Tobacco-related illnesses account for a surprisingly large number of deaths among individuals diagnosed with alcohol- and drug-use disorders, according to a University of Northern British Columbia study. A team led by Russ Callaghan, an associate professor in UNBC's Northern Medical Program, looked at statewide linked hospital and death records in California over a 16-year period - from 1990 to 2005 - and found 40-to-50 per cent of deaths in the alcohol and drug groups were smoking-related. [continues 172 words]
WATERLOO REGION - Waterloo Regional Police officers will be carrying nasal naloxone beginning in February. Front-line officers are currently going through training on naloxone - a drug used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, said Insp. Mike Haffner. The training is being provided at police headquarters on Maple Grove Road by local paramedics, he said. "We want the ability to save an individual's life," Haffner added. Local paramedics have lifesaving naloxone kits and can provide someone overdosing with a naloxone injection. But often police are the first responders to arrive at drug overdose calls. [continues 365 words]
[photo] In this Nov. 26, 2016 photo, President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers his keynote address during the San Beda College of Law Alumni Homecoming at the Shangri-La Hotel in Taguig City. (PPD/King Rodriguez) MANILA, Philippines - President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday dug up old controversies including the so-called Pajero scandal and clergy sexual abuse in his latest tirade against the Catholic Church, which has been raising concerns over the spate of killings linked to his war on drugs. [continues 716 words]
