UCSF psychiatrist Brian Anderson is studying an experimental therapy to help long-term AIDS survivors - people who were infected with HIV in the 1980s and never expected to live this long - who are feeling sad and demoralized. In a clinic outfitted with a comfortable couch, soft lighting, throw pillows and blankets, the participants of his study are given psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. They lie down for a few hours, a mask over their eyes and soothing music playing in the background, and experience a psychedelic trip. [continues 1514 words]
It is a misnomer for the media to always mention "guns and gangs" when it comes to the violent exchange between gangs. Guns are not the problem; the problem is the control of drugs and contraband, which the gangs are fighting over. Gangs, no matter where, will use whatever means available to get their share of the lucrative and fast-growing drug market. In my opinion, a review of the escalation of drug availability and use would be more beneficial than creating ad hoc committees to study guns and gangs. [continues 58 words]
P.E.I. students moved by powerful anti-impaired driving presentation Jordan Gillis knew it was a bad idea to get into the car. The person offering to drive him home had been smoking pot - enough to impair his ability to drive safely. Jordan could simply have turned down the ride. He did not. That drive to his home in Fredericton took five or 10 minutes, the 15-year-old recalls. And how well did the impaired driver drive? "I didn't think too good, actually,'' says Jordan. [continues 491 words]
Marijuana is moving in. Big time. So here's something to ponder: Will a flood of prolific, easy-to-grow pot mean fewer exciting plants for we gardeners to grow? Could be. Right now, we're accustomed to taking our pick from a wonderful selection of inexpensive offerings, mostly because they're raised in Ontario greenhouses and no longer imported from other countries. Think of fabulous Phalaenopsis orchids (once rare and pricey, yet now so common and inexpensive, we're actually getting tired of them); perfect Christmas poinsettias; a cavalcade of mums in fall; potted spring bulbs all winter; pansies, petunias, plus many other colourful annuals; In spring, heavenly hellebores; exotic offerings such as anthuriums and alstroemerias. [continues 600 words]
Why are Ottawa politicians, and by extension the Ottawa Police Services, continue to condone the use of illegal hard drugs by allowing the pop-up safe-injection site to remain open? With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's push to legalize marijuana, am I assuming the Liberals' next step will be to legalize all illegal drugs? This may be the plan, to have a drug-induced and dumbed-down electorate. Don Day Ottawa (Even the Trudeau Liberals might not have the guts to go there) [end]
Concerning the increase of drug overdoses, it seems that governments, media, and the medical profession are more interested in blaming drugs than examining the reason(s) why Canadians are using drugs. Could it be that by pushing the acceptance of marijuana, Trudeau is encouraging the use of other drugs? Don Day Orleans (Surely it's not helping - but to his credit, Trudeau has been clear about the evils of hard drugs.) [end]
There has been a lot of sad news about the misuse of drugs with the recent deaths of two teenage girls in Ottawa. Our hearts go out to the families involved. The theme seems to be that they were teenage mistakes. This begs the question of why would teenagers even consider taking drugs? I know this is a sensitive issue, but with the push to set up safe-drug-injection sites, and our prime minister being anxious to fulfill his promise to young Canadians to legalize marijuana, am I wrong in suggesting that Canada is basically encouraging the use of drugs and ignoring the problems associated with drug use? Don Day Orleans (It does seem like caution and responsibility are being forgotten in some instances. All these deaths are tragedies.) [end]
Marijuana For Trauma wellness centre opens in Charlottetown Veteran Jim Grant of Brackley credits a medical marijuana support service with giving him a fresh, energetic new lease on life. The 78-year-old Grant failed to access medical marijuana until he turned to Marijuana For Trauma (MFT) in New Brunswick for assistance. The company helped guide him through the hoops and hurdles to get on the federal medical marijuana program. The positive impact was immediate and major when Grant started using the drug three months ago to help address the PTSD he links to "a number of tragic events'' during his lengthy career with the Canadian navy. [continues 349 words]
He brings pot information right to your door If Frank Medewar could have it his way, his Toyota Corolla would be known as the Weedmobile. "I just think there's a little bit too much stigma for me to pull up to a house in a little, white Beetle with the word 'cannabis' across the door," says the owner of InfoCannabis, a mobile medical marijuana service. To be clear, Medewar isn't passing off any pot to the people he meets with. [continues 485 words]
Mother always wonders what might have saved her son Petra Schulz is always wondering what might have saved her son. "Every day, every day,'' she says. "When a parent loses a child, there is a lot of blame attached because we are supposed to raise them, launch them.'' Much of the search into what could have been done differently, Schulz concedes, is futile. So there needs to be constructive focus. That is what "mumsDO", short for mums united and mandated to saving the lives of Drug Users, tries to do. The mothers, who have lost sons and daughters to overdose and other drugrelated harms, are determined to advance dialogue on harm reduction for substance users. [continues 397 words]
Need more troops but city is safe, Ottawa's top cop says Ottawa's top cop said he needs more officers and resources, but insists Ottawa is a safe city - even the area that has seen two teens fatally stabbed in the past five months. In a wide-ranging interview with the Ottawa Sun, Charles Bordeleau opened up about his past 31/2 years as head of the force, and discussed the challenges of policing the capital. "We recognize that there are limits and we have to operate in that restraint," he said. [continues 652 words]
MY son Haiden is 6 years old. For him, access to medical cannabis is a matter of life-and-death. Haiden has Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. Haiden used to suffer from frequent seizures of all varieties - sometimes more than 100 a day, despite taking five prescription medications, all at the maximum dose our neurologist would allow. Today, Haiden receives two daily doses of medical cannabis with 100 milligrams of cannabidiol, also called CBD. His medicine has almost no THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. It has dramatically transformed my son, and by extension our entire family. [continues 529 words]
Re "The right drug war, and the wrong one" (Monitor editorial, Sept. 4): The cause of your problems is not the solution to your problems. Prohibition is the cause of prohibitively high drug prices and profits. Prohibition is the means of giving billions of dollars in cash and unquantifiable sums of power to the drug cartels. Prohibition is the means of applying criminal sanctions to people with psychological addictions the least effective means of helping them but the most effective at turning them into unemployable repeat felons. [continues 175 words]
Re: Legalizing pot, endorsing stupidity, Aug. 7 Ms DiManno has hit the nail on its potty head as she waxes wise about Justin Trudeau's latest harebrained pronouncement on legalizing pot. As another Canadian sick of the Conservative "corporate platform" and "autocratic" style of governing, I am looking for a leader with an " intelligent, focused mind" capable of clearly identifying the issues of true concern to the electorate and collaboratively setting strategies that reflect sense and wisdom. Stop talking, start listening and thinking, give us something more than "escapism" as a plan of action - a lot more. Marie Halladay, Belleville [end]
Law will cause death, suffering These are the inevitable consequences of New Hampshire's medical marijuana law: People will suffer, and some will die, either because dispensaries aren't yet open or will have to close due to the many restrictions put upon them; or when the medicine is too expensive for the same reason. Others will suffer because the type of medical marijuana that actually works for them isn't available due to low demand again due to the many restrictions. Other people will suffer serious side effects, up to and including death, from the mandated use of dangerous pharmacuticals before using the safest drug yet discovered. Other patients and caregivers will face fines, jail and even hard time in prison for medical marijuana used outside the rules dictated by the paranoid state government. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, but I daresay it is objective fact that causing people to suffer and die while teasing them with a doomed medical marijuana program, and threatening them with serious criminal charges, is surely not "for the greater good." Paul O'Day Spofford [end]
TO mark this year's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has warned secondary school students across the country against indulging in illicit drug consumption. The agency warned Nigerian children and youths to desist from all appearances of drugs. In Lagos, the government in conjunction with NDLEA organized a seminar for the students tagged: "Make health your 'new high' in life not drugs" at the Immaculate Heart Secondary School, Maryland. The event was attended by many secondary schools in Lagos. [continues 722 words]
Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon says accusations that his deputies are arresting too many blacks on pot charges are part of the American Civil Liberty Union's agenda to get marijuana legalized in South Carolina. What's next? NAACP leaders are holding a town-hall meeting to talk about racial disparities in marijuana arrests at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Morris Brown AME Church, 13 Morris St. in downtown Charleston. "I think they make it pretty clear that South Carolina ought to decriminalize marijuana," Cannon said at a press conference outside his office Tuesday. "This is their method of promoting that agenda." [continues 386 words]
Kelly "Kush" Kirby sees it as a holiday. April 20, also known as 4/20 among pro-marijuana enthusiasts, isn't just a day to toke up, she said. "We have to get the word out about marijuana," she said. "It's not just about getting high. It's medication for a lot of people." Saturday marked the 10th annual anti-prohibition rally in Niagara Falls. Despite cold temperatures, about 50 people marched from Victoria Ave., near the overpass for Niagara Memorial Veterans' Highway (formerly Highway 420) and down Clifton Hill before holding a rally at Queen Victoria Park. They showed their support for pot by waving flags, smoking joints and chanting, "Free the weed!" [continues 355 words]
