Letter writer Cristina Adam asserted that abstinence-based drug education is the best, adding that "in no uncertain terms there is NO way to take drugs safely." ("Letter: Say no to drugs the best message," May 3) Alas, the "drug abuse resistance education" and "Just say 'no'" messaging Adam recalls from her youth was found to be ineffective, if not counter-productive. DARE graduates and those exposed to such simplistic messaging were actually more likely to experiment with drugs. While nothing in life is absolutely safe, some drugs, some means of ingestion and some situations are more hazardous than others. For example, cannabis is safer than alcohol, vaping is safer than smoking and having a beer at home after work or school is safer than drinking and driving. [continues 128 words]
It's been fascinating to watch the debate over cannabis law reform in New Zealand from Canada, especially the arguments based on how well or how poorly legal regulation has been playing out in my country. It's also interesting - and amusing - to read the sometimes apocalyptic or pollyannaish predictions about what will happen in New Zealand if voters endorse the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill (CLCB), with no regard for evidence from overseas. It might have appeared out of the blue when Canada legalised cannabis almost two years ago, but we were finally following the unanimous recommendations of a non-partisan senate committee from 2002. [continues 533 words]
Dear Editor: Contrary to Joe Fries' editorial "Abstinence works best" (Courier, Aug. 16), Rhode Island treats addicted prison inmates with methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. Like methadone, buprenorphine is an opioid agonist, or replacement opioid. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist that blocks opioid receptors. The benefits of opioid substitution therapy are well-established, in and out of prison. It reduces crime, prevents overdoses and the spread of infectious diseases, denies profits to criminal gangs, allows addicted individuals to function normally within their families, jobs, and communities, and gets them off the hamster wheel of raising money by hook or by crook to pay criminal gangs for illicit opioids of unknown potency and purity. [continues 176 words]
Re: "Legalizing pot is proving to be a public-health disaster," column, Aug. 11. Lawrie McFarlane's verdict is premature. Legal regulation in Canada isn't analogous to legalization in Colorado, for among other reasons, Colorado allows advertising and initially allowed edibles and extracts with inadequate labelling, packaging and dose limitations. Yes, emergency-room visits from adverse reactions spiked in Colorado following legalization, but this was due in part to inexperienced tourists from prohibitionist states, and consumers feeling more inclined to seek help once they no longer feared arrest. Panicked patients are typically discharged (the wiser) on the same day, with no lasting ill effects. Such visits remain far less common and severe than visits related to alcohol, pharmaceuticals and tobacco. [continues 101 words]
The costs and benefits of cannabis and cannabis policies are difficult to calculate, but cannabis legalization will remove many impediments to research. A recent study finding an association between chronic cannabis use by young people and diminished life outcomes acknowledged "while we controlled for multiple potential confounds, it is possible that there are other explanatory mechanisms that have not been accounted for ... in the current study." Oddly, one of the confounds the study neglected to control for is the self-medication of emotional and psychological problems such as ADHD and PTSD, which typically stem from childhood trauma: abuse, neglect, abandonment or, in some cases perhaps, an emotionally unavailable father. [continues 86 words]
Some remain skeptical the proposed Cannabis Act (Bill C-45) will achieve one of its primary objectives: protecting youth from cannabis-related harms. Some feel the minimum age should be higher than the minimum age for alcohol, worried that those under 25 seem more vulnerable to dependence and health problems linked to long-term, heavy use. Critics of the proposed minimum age may be overlooking another primary objective: displacing the black-market. Young adults aged 18 to 24 represent one third of the market. The act attempts to strike a balance between keeping marijuana away from minors and cash away from criminals. [continues 629 words]
Re: "Opioid deaths rising, yet drug use tolerated," letter, Oct. 17. The letter-writer hypothesized that the opioid-overdose epidemic is a consequence of increased use, stemming from our tolerance of drug use, as demonstrated by supervised-injection sites and homeless shelters. In reality, the most significant driver of increased opioid use has been opioid prescriptions. The spike in overdose deaths has been caused by the introduction of fentanyl and other potent synthetic opioids into the illicit-drug supply. There has never been a fatal overdose at a supervised-injection site, although many have been averted. There is no evidence that supervised-injection sites encourage, perpetuate or "enable" drug use. On the contrary, injection sites shepherd drug users into detox and treatment. Vancouver's Insite, for example, shares a building with a detox clinic called Onsite. Perhaps we should leave life-and-death theorizing to public-health professionals who are familiar with the literature on the subject. Matthew M. Elrod Victoria [end]
The following is in response to the letter Marijuana worse than tobacco, which appeared Aug. 15. To the editor, Letter writer Don Edwards asserts that cannabis smoking causes more lung damage than tobacco because "marijuana [contains] several more carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) than tobacco." With the exception of the active ingredients, cannabinoids and nicotine respectively, cannabis and tobacco smoke are almost identical. However, long-term studies of cannabis smokers have found that they are no more likely to suffer from lung cancer or COPD than non-smokers. In fact, some studies have found that cannabis smokers are less likely to experience lung damage than abstainers. [continues 150 words]
Dr. Michael O'Malley asserted that "incidence of psychosis has already been documented by some of the states in the U.S., who rushed to legalization of marijuana." ("Pot stance off-base," Letters, Aug. 16). There is no evidence that cannabis usage rates have gone up in the U.S. states that have legalized cannabis, much less that rates of psychosis have increased. There is some evidence that cannabis strains that are high in THC but low in the anti-psychotic cannabinoid CBD, as well as some important terpenes, may trigger psychosis in minors so predisposed. Unfortunately, black market cultivators and dealers prefer such strains and they do not require proof of age. [continues 124 words]
Re Rethink before decriminalizing drugs, DiManno, Aug. 7 Rosie DiManno should think twice about decriminalizing drugs. Canada gave the concept serious consideration in 1972 with the Le Dain Commission and thought about it some more with the House of Commons Special Committee on Non-medical Use of Drugs in 2002. DiManno's apprehension seems to boil down to decriminalization sending "the wrong message." If refraining from criminalizing those who engage in unhealthy activities sends the wrong message, are we remiss in not criminalizing drinkers, smokers and the sports she endorses? [continues 143 words]
Re: "Cannabis front and centre in on Parliament Hill" Kudos to NDP MP Alistair MacGregor for pressuring the federal government to desist from criminalizing cannabis consumers while we wait for their new regulatory regime. MacGregor cautioned, "We do not yet know how much cannabis needs to be in the body for a person to be too impaired to drive, and we are unsure if the devices that test cannabis levels can work in cold temperatures." We will never know how much cannabis needs to be in the body for a person to be too impaired to drive because the amount varies depending on experience and tolerance. [continues 171 words]
Re: Langford mayor urges Trudeau to take action on pot (Goldstreamgazette.com) Langford Mayor Stew Young seems unaware that drug and natural health product regulation is a provincial, not a federal matter. When the federal government legalizes cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, it will be up to the provinces to decide who can cultivate and sell cannabis to whom. We have been suffering under cannabis prohibition for almost a century, so it is not as though the issue has become more urgent since the Liberals announced their intention to legalize. [continues 138 words]
Re: Thoughts on pot (Letters, Jan. 5) Letter-writer James Teller misinterpreted statistics from Washington state on cannabis and driving. The cited report states "results of this study do not indicate that drivers with detectable THC in their blood at the time of the crash were necessarily impaired by THC or that they were at fault for the crash; the data available cannot be used to assess whether a given driver was actually impaired, and examination of fault in individual crashes was beyond the scope of this study." [continues 213 words]
Re: "Little research on marijuana's dangers," column, Dec. 30. Lawrie McFarlane is mistaken when he asserts that the health risks of smoking cannabis have not been sufficiently studied. McFarlane should review the research of Dr. Donald P. Tashkin of the University of California-Los Angeles: "In summary, the accumulated weight of evidence implies far lower risks for pulmonary complications of even regular heavy use of marijuana compared with the grave pulmonary consequences of tobacco." There are several reasons why cannabis smokers do not develop lung cancer and COPD as do tobacco smokers, chiefly the volume of smoke inhaled. Less than 10 per cent of cannabis smokers consume daily, and those who do typically smoke less than one gram per day. Nonetheless, we should encourage smokers to switch to edibles and vaporizers. [continues 125 words]
Statistics from Washington State on fatally injured drivers testing positive for cannabis (THC) are misleading. (re: "Keep roads free from 'pot' holes," Nov. 15 Herald editorial). According to the cited report from Washington State,"results of this study do not indicate that drivers with detectable THC in their blood at the time of the crash were necessarily impaired by THC or that they were at-fault for the crash. It was not clear whether this increasing trend was attributable to Initiative 502 or to other factors that were beyond the scope of the study." [continues 100 words]
Re: Letter to the Editor titled "Illegal drug use simply isn't safe, stop it" published on Sept. 13. The letter-writer suggested abstinence, adding, "The logic here, to me, is so simple." Alas, drug policy is not simple. We as a society can make drug use more or less harmful to consumers and non-consumers alike. For the last century or so, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in attempting to make (some) drug use more harmful, under the assumption that doing so discourages drug use and thereby causes a net reduction in harm. [continues 176 words]
Re: "More marijuana research needed," editorial, Sept. 13. It should come as no surprise that the Medical Cannabis Research Roundtable is calling for more funding for cannabis research. The usual bottom line on most cannabis studies - and there have been thousands of them - is that more research and research grants are warranted. More knowledge and research never hurt, but in reality, we know far more about cannabis than we do about many of the foods we consume, not to mention food additives and pharmaceuticals emerging from the lab. [continues 148 words]
Re: Toronto police raid marijuana dispensaries, May 27 The police may be right to enforce rules on cannabis dispensaries, but they are also expected to prioritize. Cannabis laws have always been selectively enforced, as evidenced by enforcement disparities among jurisdictions, ages, genders, races and classes. Dispensaries in B.C. have been granted absolute discharges, based in part on the government's refusal to comply with court rulings of over a decade ago mandating a constitutional and functional medicinal cannabis regime. Most recently, the Supreme Court struck down the regulations for prohibiting edibles, extracts and topicals. [continues 121 words]
Re: Pot Dispensaries 'Reckless,' Blair Says (May 25): I have been cautiously optimistic that Bill Blair understands cannabis policy in Canada, but his characterization of dispensaries as "reckless" and uncaring is disheartening. Non-profit compassion clubs risked arrest and forfeiture to provide cannabis to the sick and dying long before we had medical cannabis regulations. Indeed, had such clubs not challenged the law, medical cannabis would still be prohibited in Canada. Our medical cannabis regulations have been struck down repeatedly, most recently the senseless prohibition of home growing, edibles and extracts. Dispensaries are motivated to keep their customers happy, to prevent sales to minors and to avoid complaints to maintain their fragile truce with municipal governments and law enforcement. [continues 58 words]
Matt Skof, the president of the Ottawa Police Association, erred in concluding that Vancouver's supervised injection site, Insite has failed to reduce HIV infections based on a comparison of infection rates in B.C. with other provinces. Insite serves one neighbourhood of one city. Drug users in other cities do not have access to supervised injection sites, so it would be unrealistic to expect Insite to reduce infection rates throughout the province. As to where supervised injection sites should be located, public health officials recommend establishing them where large numbers of drug users are already injecting drugs. [continues 74 words]
