People who have post-traumatic stress disorder but do not medicate with cannabis are far more likely to suffer from severe depression and have suicidal thoughts than those who use marijuana, new national research says. Based on cross-country data from Statistics Canada, the observational study by researchers at the British Columbia Centre for Substance Use shows that Canadians with PTSD who use medicinal cannabis are 60 per cent to 65 per cent less likely to have major depressive episodes or thoughts of suicide compared with those who do not treat their symptoms with medical marijuana. The study is the first national-scale indication of the effectiveness of cannabis at mitigating the hallmark symptoms of PTSD. It was presented on Thursday at the annual conference of the Canadian Public Health Association in Montreal. [continues 486 words]
Grassroots harm-reduction initiative launched as those on the front lines lament provincial government's boardroom approach Health officials in New Brunswick are taking too long to address the serious and growing opioid problem in the province's two largest cities, say local harm-reduction activists who have launched a grassroots initiative in the face of what they describe as government inaction. It has been more than six months since the province's top doctor formed an advisory group to come up with solutions to address the issue, but the government's response so far has been lean compared with that of other Atlantic provinces and the rest of the country. [continues 996 words]
Canadian researchers are developing enforcement guidelines in spite of the legal obstacles 'Open wide and stick out your tongue." This refrain may soon become just as commonly heard in the car as it is at the doctor's office. Canada's lawmakers have commissioned a study led by a top forensic scientist to explore oral fluids tests designed to detect drug impairment at the roadside. The study, now under way, is a strong sign of an impending crackdown on drugged drivers on Canada's roads. [continues 662 words]
The law is hazy when dealing with drug-impaired motorists and the resources to combat the problem are stretched thin It's not news that driving after having too many drinks is a bad idea. But what happens if you drive after smoking a joint? It's also a bad idea, but the answer is a bit, um, cloudier. If you hit the road high in Canada - where driving under the influence of drugs is illegal - chances are slim that police will catch you - and slimmer that you'll end up with a criminal code conviction, even if you deserve one. [continues 1359 words]
Task Force Formed After Star Stories Problems With Drug Distribution Found The Ontario government is launching a task force to fix serious problems in the province's methadone dispensing system. The task force, launched following an ongoing Toronto Star investigation, will include senior representatives from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, the provincial coroner's office, and the colleges that regulate doctors, pharmacists and nurses. It will report directly to Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman. The task force will be told to quickly come up with clear-cut policies on how the potentially dangerous narcotic should be safely administered to patients and how it should be regulated. It will also probe whether the methadone for addicts program is being used as a profit centre for some doctors, rather than for the benefit of vulnerable patients. [continues 948 words]
A husband-and-wife team of pharmacists has been ordered to shut down a controversial methadone pipeline servicing 2,000 drug addicts across Ontario. The Ontario College of Pharmacists, which issued the order yesterday, is scrambling to find local pharmacists in a dozen cities and towns to supply the patients before a March 13 deadline. On that day, Kitchener-based pharmacists Wing and Sue Wong must stop shipping boxfuls of medication to a chain of methadone clinics, called Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres (OATC), where the drug is given out by non-pharmacist clinic staffers. The clinics service 4,000 methadone patients; the Wongs supply half of them with the potentially lethal drug. [continues 717 words]
'Is This Going To Kill Me' Patient Asks Shortly Before Dying From Overdose Pharmacist Says His Methadone Program Is Both Legal And Necessary Thousands of addicts in a government-sanctioned treatment program are being put at risk by pharmacists who provide drugs in a scheme the Ontario College of Pharmacists describes as "disgraceful" and "unprofessional." Pharmacists Wing and Sue Wong have for years been shipping boxes of a highly controlled synthetic narcotic called methadone to a network of drug treatment clinics used by people who are weaning themselves off street heroin and opiate-based painkillers. The clinics, called Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres (OATC), service 4,000 patients and the Wongs' pharmacies supply roughly half of those clinics. [continues 2236 words]
'We're Not Criminals' A police raid of the largest medicinal drug network in Toronto has left some 1,200 people looking to illicit sources to buy the marijuana they use to control pain. They learned yesterday they will no longer be able to buy marijuana, used as a palliative for a number of terminal illnesses -- including cancer, AIDS/HIV, hepatitis, arthritis and spinal injuries -- at the Toronto Compassion Centre. The club, which started supplying patients in 1998, was ordered shut yesterday by a Toronto judge after police confiscated "large quantities" of marijuana and hashish from the group's Bathurst Street headquarters. [continues 198 words]
Group Claims It Only Supplies Marijuana To The Terminally Ill Three men and one woman arrested by a Toronto drug squad were released on bail yesterday on the condition they shut down a medical marijuana distribution network they have built up in order to sell drugs to 1,200 Ontarians. Warren Hitzig, 25, Zachary Naftolin, 24, Andrea Horning, 41, and Markos Koutoukis, 25, were taken into custody by members of the Toronto Drug Squad South late Tuesday at the culmination of an investigation by police into the Toronto Compassion Centre, a marijuana distribution network run by Hitzig that offers "medicinal" drugs to terminally ill club members. [continues 619 words]
