Calgary's police chief says the Alberta government has to take more aggressive action on fentanyl if it wants to help addicts and families who are being destroyed. "It is a crisis," said Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin. "Look at the numbers of deaths. Numbers of homicides and traffic fatalities don't come anywhere near the deaths associated with these drugs." Chaffin said there is a huge demand for highly addictive opiods such as fentanyl - a drug used as a painkiller for terminally ill cancer patients and 100 times more powerful than heroin - or its more powerful cousin carfentanyl. Reducing the supply increases the price and make its users more desperate, he said. [continues 349 words]
"I have been hearing and reading a lot about the drug "fentanyl" and about the many hundreds who have died using it! Well, I guess I want to kill myself, so would the government please advise me were I can get a couple pills? Oh, and by the way, would they send along the location of any of the "injection sites" were I can get the "antidote" just in case I change my mind. The question remains: Why is the government supporting this sort of crap by offering injection sites and free antidotes to people who know full well taking the drug may kill them, (but they do it anyway?). Maybe it's the government who needs the "antidote." It would be interesting to know the amount of money the government have spent on this so far. I don't think you will publish this, but it's worth a try? Laurie R. Dirks (Wow, we hope no one you care about is suffering with addictions. Merry Christmas, Laurie.) [end]
In response to Laurie R. Dirks letter regarding problems with government spending money on addictions. Never in my life have I read such an uninformed, ignorant, selfish and cold-hearted response to a problem that affects us all. As a Canadian, I'm embarrassed to know that uneducated buffoons such as yourself are breathing our collective air. These are people who are suffering a terrible disease, often as a result of being prescribed dangerous drugs by sometimes ill-meaning doctors. People who have no choice, no options, literally no hope. [continues 96 words]
The public is being asked what should be the legal age to buy marijuana? This is a joke right? Is this an unstoppable bus? Just wondering if Premier Rachel Notley has consulted any recovering addicts? They are all screaming at their TVs, "Don't legalize it!" My question is, "Who is going to pay for the aftermath? Is the government prepared to open and run more treatment centres? You must know that weed is not just weed anymore. It is being laced with the deadly drug fentanyl. [continues 110 words]
Alberta to conduct consultations before setting legal age to buy marijuana With cannabis legalization coming down the pipe in 2017, Premier Rachel Notley said input from Albertans will help set the minimum age to purchase marijuana. Notley weighed in on weed legalization following a report released by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation recommending a national minimum age of 18 to purchase marijuana. The report also said provinces and territories should be allowed to "harmonize" the minimum age for cannabis with their minimum age for purchasing alcohol and tobacco. [continues 457 words]
What the hell, hundreds drive drunk with full immunity daily here in Calgary due to a lack of law enforcement. So, let's legalize marijuana and put a bunch of stoners behind the wheel as well and really have some fun endangering all the innocent folks out there. Idiots! Jake Mcarthur (We hope you are wrong about hundreds of drunk drivers but stoned drivers are a concern.) [end]
While Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister are advocating delaying regulation of cannabis, usage by citizens who wish to use the plant will continue. Their message then must be acknowledged as informing consumers to continue purchasing cannabis from the black market while government takes additional time to create a regulated legal market to replace it. And that's tolerable since North Americans have grown accustom to the increased efficiency of the black market regulating cannabis for the last eight decades. Stan White (New rules are allegedly coming soon.) [end]
Alberta has never been in more urgent need of providing improved access to treatment for drug users, says addictions medicine specialist Dr. Hakique Virani. Virani said news from the provincial government this week that carfentanil overdoses have killed 15 people is tragic, as well as predictable. "This is what we expect to happen in this illicit market when we're not meeting the needs for opioid addiction treatment and still drug traffickers are going to meet the demand for opioids, and they're going to do that with the path of least resistance," said Virani, who is based in Edmonton. [continues 385 words]
Alberta's NDP government is warning Ottawa not to rush on marijuana legalization but isn't calling for pending federal legislation to be halted. Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said Tuesday there is much work that will need to be done after the Liberal government introduces its legalization bill, which is expected this spring. She suggested the legislation should be subject to considerable deliberations through the House of Commons committee process. "We need time to consider these things but we need to consider them once we've seen what the feds are doing," Ganley told reporters at the provincial legislature. [continues 186 words]
I have to laugh at all the hype about drugged driving on pot. Have you read your prescription drugs packaging? May cause drowsiness, do not operate machinery etc. So where are the tests for impairment for mind-altering prescription drugs? Oh, I know, pick and choose what laws to enforce and what laws not to enforce. Typical law enforcement attitude, get the easy mark and look good doing it, too. Make headlines. Oh, and I have over 45 years experience with smoking pot responsibly. How much THC does one need to have in their system to be classified impaired? How much codeine, or how about anti-hyper drugs for kids that are prescribed by doctors? Mike Griffith (Wow, 45 years, eh?) [end]
Hello again. In regards to Kathleen Ganley's trip to Colarodo and her opinion that marijuana needs to be heavily regulated. Of course she feels that way, the more tightly we regulate, the bigger government has to be to manage the regulations. That's the way the Left operates. Always has been. It's my humble opinion that decriminalized marijuana would be more cost effective for taxpayers. The only policing needed would be to ensure dealers report their earnings. Not saying that's easy, just requires a lot less government. Consider for a moment, a brand new tax windfall, with no regulatory requirements and therefore no need to balloon the government watchdogs. Pot smokers - medical and casual - are about to be hosed in my opinion, all in the name of regulation. PS: Pot isn't a dangerous drug. It's a medicine, for a thousand plus years. Zero deaths have ever been attributed to marijuana use alone. Heather Marie Inouye (Sorry, marijuana legalization must be regulated.) [end]
Legal weed is coming, and the city wants to keep its voice in the federal government's ear rather than see its chance to be part of the conversation go up in smoke. As the feds inch closer toward a spring 2017 timeline to unveil legislation on the legalization of marijuana, city administration will offer up a proposed advocacy position to the intergovernmental affairs committee at their meeting Thursday. "Administration is seeking to further refine an advocacy position on a number of key themes relating to legalization, regulation and restriction of access to marijuana," the report reads, in part. [continues 383 words]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a mandate to legalize pot. He ran on it in last year's election. But as Postmedia's just completed, six-part series "O Cannabis" illustrates, it's one thing to promise legalization, another to deliver it. The biggest challenge facing the Liberals is how to regulate and tax the sale of marijuana -- an estimated $7 billion-a-year underground business in Canada, that could increase to $10 billion to $20 billion with legalization. The problem is that if the government makes legal pot too expensive, then the black market in it will continue to thrive. [continues 281 words]
It's high time for many parents to start thinking about how they're going to talk to their kids about marijuana. The Trudeau government has said it will make the drug legal next spring, fulfilling a campaign promise that, in part, helped them to a majority government. While the Liberals have wavered on some of the things they said they'd deliver if they took power, they appear to remain committed to ending pot prohibition. When that happens, the bud will go from verboten to mainstream, and expected to be regulated, sold and taxed like alcohol. [continues 560 words]
Krieger helped lead the way to legalization of medical marijuana To lose his legacy in a haze of legalized pot would be an injustice. Not that Grant Krieger isn't feeling lost enough these days, some seven years after he abandoned his crusade to use and supply medicinal marijuana, as a real and effective treatment for conditions like the multiple sclerosis he's battled for decades. "I could be better, and I could be worse, but I'm just so frustrated at the way things ended," says Krieger, from his home in Calgary. "I'm just a hermit now." Obviously he has the right to feel he didn't go far enough - but for those on the outside, including journalists who watched Krieger deliberately disobey the law in order to force Canada to reassess it's stance on marijuana, it's what the man started that should make him proud. [continues 581 words]
Provincial officials head to Colorado to study weed industry Alberta's Justice Minister and Solicitor General is Colorado-bound to see how the state has handled legal weed. Kathleen Ganley said with marijuana's legalization in Canada imminent, it's prudent to look at best practices and lessons learned from a place that's pioneered the way. "The federal government will set the tone, if you will, or set the broad strokes for how restrictive the model is going to be and a whole number of other things, but then provinces will have to step in because some of it will be in provincial jurisdiction ... and of course our policing partners, as well, will have a large role to play, and municipalities probably as well ," Ganley said. "We're looking to all move together. [continues 274 words]
Panic, Clayton Prince says - flat out panic is what caused him to flee from Calgary police officers one night last July. The 34-year-old Calgary man doesn't deny he ran, and he doesn't deny he had marijuana on him, but several months later he still doesn't understand how that led to his being laid up in a hospital with broken ribs, a collapsed lung and infected wounds. Now three officers are accused of assaulting him and two of the three are also accused of lying to see him charged with crimes he didn't commit. [continues 379 words]
Picturesque mountain resort town sits on major cross-country pot pipeline It's Canada's other Rocky Mountain high. The resort hamlet of Lake Louise has consistently ascended to the peak of per-capita cannabis possession incidents in the country as reported by RCMP. Since at least 2008, the mountain village of a mere 800 souls has been in the statistical clouds, with 7,938 possession incidents per 100,000 people in 2014 and 3,675 last year. That compares to 58 and 46 respectively in the waning war on pot in nearby Calgary. [continues 501 words]
Wants feds to share tax revenues from sale of legalized marijuana Hand over a share of the tax revenue and give up the addresses of medical marijuana grow ops. Those are among the requests City of Calgary officials have for Ottawa along with a zero-tolerance policy for drivers under the influence of cannabis as the feds hammer out legislation for legalized pot. In an Aug. 24 submission to the federal government's Task Force Marijuana Legalization and Regulation, City Manager Jeff Fielding calls for ongoing discussions "throughout the legalization process to ensure clear delineation of roles and expectations" between the three orders of government. [continues 339 words]
According to A Drug Free World, an organization that employs education in our schools to attempt to stop drug experimentation amongst our youth, it is estimated that 25% of children are involved with drug use. As we all know, in the last year, over 400 young people have died as a result of drug use. Our emergency departments are increasingly attending young people with side effects due to drugs, including marijuana. When the government legalizes this powerful psychoactive drug, it is going to get worse. Why they are legalizing this agent is a mystery. We must start teaching our young in our schools about the true facts about drugs, both legal and illegal. (Back in the day, drug awareness lessons in school were terrifying.) [end]
