OTTAWA - Youth health experts are warning the federal government that its push to legalize recreational cannabis should be accompanied by extensive public-education and prevention campaigns that spell out the serious risks of pot consumption on adolescent brains.

Parliamentarians heard this message numerous times Wednesday during a House of Commons committee hearing to study the Trudeau government's legislation to legalize marijuana.

Ottawa plans to legalize cannabis for adults 18 and older within 10 months, but some provinces and police services have warned the federal timeline is far too tight for them to properly prepare for such a major change.

[continues 140 words]

Bill C-45 proposes youths 12-18 can have up to five grams before facing charges

As Canadians prepare for a new era of legalized recreational marijuana use next summer, concern is growing about a little-known provision wrapped into the bill that would allow kids as young as 12 to legally possess pot.

The professed goal of the federal Liberals' Bill C-45 is to keep marijuana out of the hands of criminals and youth, and to stop criminal records for possession of small amounts of marijuana from following people through their lives.

[continues 921 words]

As marijuana legalization looms, let's remind lawmakers that the focus must be on public health, not criminal justice

Twenty-year-old me can't believe 40-year-old me has come to this, sending out a warning call about the dangers of marijuana. There is more than a fragrant whiff of do as I say, not as I did about this column.

But 40-year-old me has seen things 20-year-old me hadn't, such as people around me coping with addiction and mental illness. So I'm here to be a wet blanket: As legalization approaches, let's focus on (spoiler alert, old-lady phrase) our young people.

[continues 680 words]

Londoners may have found way to reverse THC's psychiatric toll

Western University researchers may have found a way to reverse the harmful effects that marijuana use can have on teenagers' brains.

The researchers, in a breakthrough discovery, say they've found a way to use pharmaceutical drugs to counter the long-term negative psychiatric effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis that gives users the feeling of a euphoric high.

Previous research has linked chronic pot use by teens with a range of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia later in life, with the risk rising the earlier that young people begin using marijuana.

[continues 504 words]

A teenage law student from Britain died while on holiday in Ibiza after five bags of ecstasy exploded in her stomach, an inquest heard.

Rebecca Brock, 18, was discovered with a pool of blood next to her head in a hotel room after traveling to the party island for a friend's birthday.

Nottingham Coroners' Court heard staff found the "academically gifted" student unresponsive in her room at the Hotel Marco Polo on Sept. 28, 2015.

Spanish police began an investigation after the amount of the class-A drug in her system was "double the level" of a normal fatal dose.

[continues 691 words]

In 2016, rates of marijuana use among the nation's 12- to 17-year-oldsA dropped to their lowest level inA more than two decades, according to federal survey data released this week.

Last year, 6.5 percent of adolescents used marijuana on a monthly basis, according to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That represents a statistically significant drop from 2014,A when the nation's first recreational marijuana shops opened in Washington state and Colorado.

The last time monthly teen marijuana use was this low was 1994, according to the survey.

[continues 289 words]

Student leaders running the University of Ottawa's orientation week events won't be allowed to administer the opioid antidote naloxone in the event of an overdose because of liability concerns if the injection were to go wrong.

Hadi Wess, president of the undergraduate student union that runs the events, said the group initially planned to have about 100 student leaders carry naloxone kits to combat any overdoses that could occur during the parties and events that get under way over the long weekend. The measure was to prepare for the possibility that substances such as the deadly opioid fentanyl could be mixed with other drugs that might be consumed.

[continues 474 words]

It may shock many Canadians to learn that 28 per cent of Canadian youths use marijuana - the highest rate among developed countries surveyed in a 2013 UNICEF report.

This means that if you know four youths between the ages of 11 and 15, one of them is using marijuana.

All Canadians should be concerned about this trend, because the younger someone is when they start using marijuana and the more often they use it, the greater the overall risks to their health.

[continues 501 words]

Online survey results to be discussed at Kelowna forum

An Okanagan drug treatment agency is heading up a conversation about drug abuse among Central Okanagan youth.

The Bridge Youth &Family Services in Kelowna, with support from the children and youth mental health and substance use local action team, want to initiate a dialogue about how to best serve young people who're experimenting with or are addicted to drugs.

Jamie McGregor, program coordinator for youth detox and adult supported recovery, said problematic substance abuse has been an ongoing concern in the Central Okanagan now for decades, noting that last year 319 people under the age of 29 died of an opioid overdose in B.C.

[continues 322 words]

Recovering addict Leila Attar says she was scared sober after a fentanyl overdose nearly killed her in 2016.

The 19-year-old Ottawa teen unwittingly took pills thinking they were percocets last November.

"I had taken too much in the past, but I'd never been so far gone. I had the feeling I was so close to death," Attar said.

Five weeks ago, Attar - with her Canada 150 Youth Pass on Via Rail - started a cross-country tour to learn more about the opioid crisis by visiting treatment centres and inner-city drug sites.

[continues 265 words]

It will be a workout with a message.

On Aug. 16, children and teens will start their Kids Against Drugs run through the Blood Reserve.

The two-day event aims "to keep the momentum going for awareness, and to send a message that fentanyl and all drugs are not welcomed in the children's lives," says spokesperson Pamela Little Bear.

"Too many children, on and off reserves and in the general community are affected in a negative way with these drugs," she says.

[continues 136 words]

The blond toddler pounced from the floor without warning and reached for a toy deep within Savannah Woods' entertainment center.

She remained on the plush, beige carpet, her eyes following the toddler through the room. In attempt to rein in the child's energy, Woods called him back to her side and asked him to name a smiling woman in the picture she held.

"Momma," the two-year-old said. The photograph captured Woods and her wife, Carly.

[continues 2110 words]

Leila Attar to discuss dangers of the drug with youth, parents

Leila Attar was unconscious on the floor of her Ottawa home when a loud knock at her door shook her from a drug-induced blackout at 2 a.m.

"It was non-stop … I thought it was the cops because of how loud it was," she recalled.

It turned out to be a close friend coming to check on her because Attar, now 19, had stopped responding to texts. Later, she would be told by doctors that she was overdosing on fentanyl after taking pills she thought were Percocet.

[continues 781 words]

Two Milwaukee men were charged Tuesday in connection with a shooting on the city's northwest side that killed a teenager late last month.

[name redacted], 21, and [name redacted], 34, were charged with first-degree reckless homicide, as party to a crime and use of a dangerous weapon in a shooting that killed Ramsey Wheeler, 19, on June 28.

A 21-year-old man who was injured during the shooting was identified as Wheeler's brother in a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

[continues 341 words]

This lethal drug makes a discussion urgent, writes Dr. Richard Thatcher.

The dangers of fentanyl as a frequently used mood-modifying, recreational drug, on its own or laced into other opiates are gradually becoming well known.

The substance has recently gained a reputation as the Grim Reaper of illicit drugs. The number of deaths and near deaths originating with fentanyl use is simply shocking. Surely parents must initiate a serious discussion with their children and teens about this and other drug use. In this case, talk is, arguably, the primary preventive measure.

[continues 595 words]

Fears legalization may 'normalize' use of marijuana

Teenagers who go from occasional pot smoking to weekly or daily use are two-and-a-half times more likely to have recurrent psychotic-like experiences, a new Montreal study says.

And with legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada less than a year away, the study's senior author says governments are ill-prepared for the fact that adolescents will interpret the policy change as proof it's OK to smoke pot.

"Our data show that transitioning to daily or weekly use of cannabis very significantly increases adolescents' risk of having more exaggerated and more frequent psychotic-like experiences," Patricia Conrod, a professor at the Universite de Montreal's psychiatry department, said in an interview.

[continues 411 words]

Distributors say they don't want the headaches that come with marketing to young Canadians

Cam Battley is a father to a Grade 9 son and 10-year-old daughter. He's a scout leader of nine years and a soccer coach to both of his kids. He's also the executive vice-president of one of Canada's largest marijuana distributors.

As Canada prepares for the legalization of marijuana, he and others in the industry have something they want you to know: they aren't interested in selling to your children.

[continues 858 words]

A 13-year-old girl found dead over the weekend in Texas was abducted as ransom for stolen marijuana, according to authorities.

Police said Shavon Randle was kidnapped Wednesday from a Lancaster home after the boyfriend of one of her relatives stole about 22 pounds of pot, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Soon after she was abducted, suspects allegedly called a relative from a private number and told them, "Give us our sh-t back or we are going to kill her."

[continues 167 words]

Re Canadian pot ads? Think beer ads. Then think again, Delacourt, June 24

With studies showing that young people smoking marijuana run a greatly enhanced risk of seriously damaging their developing brains, I sure hope columnist Susan Delacourt is correct and the Trudeau Liberals won't flood Canadians with ads to increase pot sales.

What I find mind-boggling is that after governments spent billions on negative tobacco ads, and many young people are now not taking up that addictive and health-damaging habit, the Trudeau government is adding a potentially even more damaging drug to the mix.

[continues 93 words]

Dianne McIntosh is continually alarmed by the teens who come into her Vancouver office telling the psychiatrist that they use cannabis to treat their mental-health issues because it's a natural - and harmless - - substance.

"It's a natural product? So is tobacco, so is alcohol, these are all natural products," Dr. McIntosh said. With the federal Liberal government saying that cutting down on teen cannabis use is a core reason it is pushing to legalize the drug next year, Dr. McIntosh and a panel of three other experts are gathering in Richmond, B.C., on Sunday to clear the air about the dangers young people face when using the substance.

[continues 560 words]