Fraser Health has recently opened 50 new substance-use recovery beds - - including a dozen for pregnant women - and will launch a pair of new posters today in a bid to reach specific users at risk in B.C.'s ongoing overdose crisis. The new treatment and prevention measures were designed after looking closely at overdose data and finding support gaps, said Victoria Lee, chief medical health officer and vice-president for population health at Fraser Health. Lee said that while data shows men aged 30-49 tend to overdose at greater numbers than other groups, teens, seniors and women can be counted among the hundreds dead so far this year. [continues 399 words]
Re: "Drug scourge devastating our city and nothing is being done," Chris Nelson, Opinion, Aug. 25. Thanks for Chris Nelson's excellent column, which raises important issues. Firstly, it is outrageous that it has taken 17 months for ASIRT to release its findings in the shooting death of Anthony Heffernan. I do understand why prosecutors declined a criminal prosecution of the policeman involved, as success would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. On the other hand, no such requirement is necessary for city police to immediately fire the officer. If CPS wants to "protect and serve," this should happen immediately. [continues 121 words]
Fraser Health has recently opened 50 new substance use recovery beds - - including a dozen for pregnant women - and will today launch a pair of new posters in a bid to reach specific users at risk in B.C.'s ongoing overdose crisis. The new treatment and prevention measures were designed after looking closely at overdose data and finding support gaps, said Victoria Lee, the chief medical health officer and vice-president for population health at Fraser Health. Lee said that while the data shows men aged 30-49 tend to overdose at greater numbers than do other groups, teens, seniors and women can be counted among the hundreds dead so far this year. [continues 289 words]
THE narcotics trade provides the financial basis for almost every other form of organised criminality in this country and abroad. The scale is staggering: the global drugs market is worth UKP375 billion every year, and an estimated UKP7 billion a year in Britain alone. Britain spends a further UKP7 billion policing the drugs problem - and that's without the associated costs of imprisonment and public health and everything else. It might not seem visible to the majority of ordinary, law abiding citizens, yet drugs and the gangsters who deal in them blight our towns and cities and dominate our criminal system. More than half the inmates in British prisons are there for drug-related offences. [continues 1605 words]
Hallucinogenics May Ease Addictions, Mental Disorders Gordon McGlothlin, who took his first puff at age 12 behind his family's garage, tried to quit smoking for years, but no cessation technique worked until he used a psychedelic drug. Researchers with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine gave the 69year-old a derivative of psychedelic mushrooms similar to LSD, or acid, and watched him "trip" in a therapy room during six-hour sessions. McGlothlin experienced wild hallucinations, including watching his body slowly unraveling until it disappeared into a puff of smoke. After researchers took his blood pressure, he imagined a red blood-like fluid covering him from head to toe. [continues 1353 words]
A Plea for Descheduling Cannabis NOT LONG AGO, I wrote about the slight, slim chance that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II [Cannabuzz, July 6]. You remember what Schedule I is-it's the list of drugs defined as having "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Along with cannabis, some of the other drugs listed as Schedule I are heroin, LSD, ecstasy, peyote, and Quaaludes. Not exactly respectable company. [continues 689 words]
The DEA announces it will keep marijuana on the list of most dangerous drugs. In the eyes of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, marijuana is still considered dangerous enough to remain among the likes of heroin, LSD, and ecstasy as a Schedule I drug. Ever since The Controlled Substances Act became law in 1970, marijuana has been deemed to have no medicinal benefits and a high likelihood of abuse. And despite over half the states in the U.S. legalizing medical or recreational marijuana in some form, the DEA announced this month that marijuana wouldn't be declassified. [continues 693 words]
State among several to allow treatment not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Pennsylvania and the federal government disagree about the usefulness of marijuana as medicine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved marijuana as safe and effective for treating any illness, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as recently as Aug. 11 kept marijuana in the same drug category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. But Pennsylvania enacted a law in April that lists 17 conditions for which doctors can prescribe marijuana, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, posttraumatic stress disorder, autism, epilepsy and Parkinson's, Crohn's and Huntington's diseases. [continues 1090 words]
Health-care specialists in Pennsylvania prescribe the drug despite the federal government's reluctance to approve it as safe and effective for treating illness. Pennsylvania and the federal government disagree about the usefulness of marijuana as medicine. ELLEN F. O'CONNELL/Staff Photographer The van Hoekelen Greenhouses Inc. facility is located on Lofty Road in Kline Township. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved marijuana as safe and effective for treating any illness, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as recently as Aug. 11 kept marijuana in the same drug category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. [continues 1378 words]
Like many school-aged children, Sarah Wilkinson's 10-year-old daughter, Mia, will head off to school in September. Though today Mia is laughing, happy and enjoying life, many didn't expect her to still be here. With two boys already at home, Wilkinson and her husband James were "over the moon" to hear another baby was on the way - a girl. But 29 minutes after being born, Mia had her first seizure. The diagnosis - a rare form of epilepsy called Ohtahara syndrome - meant Mia's life would be marked by many more seizures to come. [continues 695 words]
So did the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency finally make a decision? B.A. "Ted" Breath Meh. They did, but it's pretty much the same old song, although they did make a small change. In case you missed it: Last week, the DEA decided not to change cannabis' Schedule I status, meaning that the DEA still considers cannabis to be of no medical use and to be highly addictive, like GHB or heroin. Go figure. I talked about some of the reasons why the DEA probably wouldn't change their position on pot in the column before this one (see "Overscheduled," August 11). I had thought they would have tried to stall for a while longer, but they didn't. Maybe they should have. [continues 366 words]
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration delivered recently good news and bad to the nation's growing marijuana industry. It will not remove weed, which is legal for both medicinal and recreational purposes in Oregon, from its Class I schedule. It will allow more experimentation to determine just how dangerous - or helpful - marijuana really is. Substances on the Class I list include, in addition to marijuana, such things as LSD, heroin, peyote and ecstasy. They have no widely recognized medicinal value and they are, according to the DEA, highly addictive. The worst of the worst, in other words. [continues 266 words]
Most scientists don't include personal stories in their research reports, but for John Lilly, personal experiences and science experiments were the same thing. His ears, eyes, mouth, and nose were calibrated probes. His mind was the unbiased observer, the ideal model for dispassionate inquiry. Knowledge and experience led him to new sets of questions, not firmly held beliefs. But as anyone who has traveled into the psychedelic spaces knows, soon after arrival, one quickly finds out that the scientist's tool kit-language-is much too small and inadequate for the job. The scientist's reaction to the psychedelic experience is a set of questions that sound more like a seeker's. This is the crux of the enigma of John Lilly. [continues 5334 words]
Braun says too early to say if safe injection site desired As communities around British Columbia continue to see startling numbers of opioid overdoses, Abbotsford council will discuss ongoing harm-reduction policies in the city this fall, Mayor Henry Braun said. But while the mayors of two Interior cities have come out in support of supervised injection sites in their communities, Braun said he doesn't want to weigh in on such facilities in Abbotsford before council analyzes the issue. The mayors of both Kelowna and Kamloops said this week that they would welcome a supervised sites in their respective cities as their regional health authority considers setting up such a facility. [continues 518 words]
Cannabis oil was young girl's last, best resort AIRDRIE - Three years ago, during the darkest time of her life, Airdrie mom Sarah Wilkinson told her two sons to say their goodbyes to their ailing sister Mia. Then seven years old, Mia had just been revived from the longest seizure of her young life, thanks to a dose of ketamine (a potent drug used as horse tranquillizer, and known as Special K on the street) beyond the maximum allowed for children. [continues 659 words]
From underprivileged communities, police are taking their intensified campaign against illegal drugs to upscale bars and nightclubs. But Philippine National Police ( PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa made it clear he is not about to wage war with owners and operators of leisure establishments frequented by the rich, saying he only intends to get their cooperation. "First of all, I would like to initiate dialogue with them for a peaceful approach," he said. The glitzy clubs and bars, he said, are mostly located in Makati and in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. [continues 974 words]
DEA Turns Down Pleas to Redefine Drug's Dangers The federal government's fresh assertion that marijuana has no demonstrated medicinal value, which came even as it granted scientists greater ability to study whether it might, is the latest zigzag in a national psychodrama over pot that remains unsettled even as states strike out on their own and legalize recreational use of the drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced Thursday that it had rejected pleas to take marijuana off its Schedule I drug list - which includes heroin and ecstasy - meaning the herb is still classified, as it has been for 46 years, as an addictive drug with no accepted medical value and a high potential for abuse. [continues 839 words]
Obama Pledged Science-Based Policy The Obama administration has looked the other way as more than a dozen states enacted medical marijuana laws and five jurisdictions legalized the drug for recreational use, but when faced with what was likely its final chance during President Obama's tenure to loosen federal restrictions on the medicinal use of the drug, the administration has chosen to puff, puff, pass. The Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday denied requests to change the legal classification of marijuana, shooting down advocates' latest push to get the drug federally approved for medical purposes. [continues 677 words]
It's just hyperbole, President Duterte said in explaining his promise to kill local government executives and other officials involved in drugs. He may be telling the truth. Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera town in Leyte, after all, is still alive after turning himself in last week and naming his son Kerwin, still at large, as a drug dealer. As of yesterday afternoon, Mayor Mamaulan Abinal Mulok of Maguing, Lanao del Sur and former mayor Mohammad Ali Abu Abinal also remained alive after presenting themselves to Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa at Camp Crame last Friday. [continues 973 words]
This is the time of year parents start worrying about back-to-school stuff. For those with college-age kids who will soon go off to live by themselves, there's an extra bit of preparation to think about. You may not realize it, but police departments across the country, especially those near colleges and universities, often "flip" students caught with even a tiny amount of marijuana and recruit them into the ranks of "confidential informant." [continues 712 words]
