Health unit under fire for perceived lack of urgency in pursuing provincial funds Matt Cascadden, who lost seven friends last year to the raging opioid epidemic, is convinced a safe injection site in Windsor would save many lives. "It should be pushed, I think we need it big time, now," the 36-year-old Windsor man and former drug user said Thursday. Now living in a downtown residence, Cascadden contemplated the impact such a centre - part of an overdose prevention site currently being offered by the Ontario government - would have on the growing number of addicts who shoot up in parks, alleys and backyards. [continues 1009 words]
A four-pillared strategy to combat the region's opioid crisis was unveiled Friday by local officials. They zeroed in on improving treatment options, public awareness, physician and patient education, availability of the anti-overdose drug naloxone and harm reduction measures like needle disposal boxes and investigating a safe-injection site. "We can call it a crisis because it is affecting our community hard and our average rate of opioid-related death is way higher than the provincial average," acting medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said at a morning news conference to announce the strategy that's been a year in the making. [continues 762 words]
Predicting a "mess" of traffic chaos and policing problems when the province opens a cannabis retail store in Windsor, Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac Monday called for the city to have some input on the location. Her motion, passed by council, involves expressing concerns about increased policing demands and making the province aware the city has a designated entertainment district downtown where there is already a beefed-up police presence. "I'm expressing concern that I want to make sure it's done right," she said. [continues 225 words]
With the Ontario government passing legislation Tuesday that paves the way for the government-run sale of recreational marijuana starting in July, the search is on for a ready-to-go store in Windsor. According to a City of Windsor staff report going to council Monday, the list of requirements for this store, run by an LCBO subsidiary, the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp., include a standalone operation, apart from the LCBO's alcohol operations; 2,500 square feet of space at a location that's already properly zoned for retail; a location that's near to a Transit Windsor bus route; an existing space instead of new construction; and a location that's not located close to schools, addiction treatment centres, mental-health facilities and emergency shelters. [continues 589 words]
Safety, distribution are among issues in online survey The province is seeking your opinion on how Ontario should deal with the legalization of marijuana, to ensure youth are protected, harm is avoided and roads are safe. Starting Tuesday, Ontario residents are encouraged to go online and fill out a survey asking their opinion on important issues related to legalization, the government said in a news release. Go to ontario.ca/cannabis before July 31. "The legalization of cannabis will mark a big change in our country," Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said in the release. "Here in Ontario, we have some important decisions to make - and with so much at stake, we need to get it right. [continues 107 words]
Author cites 'toxic' effect on developing brain The interim editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal is pleading for the defeat of a federal government plan to legalize marijuana, fearful youth will have easier access to a drug that damages their developing brains. "Simply put, cannabis should not be used by young people," Dr. Diane Kelsall writes in an editorial published Monday in the journal. "It is toxic to their cortical neuronal networks, with both functional and structural changes seen in the brains of youth who use cannabis regularly." [continues 545 words]
A "huge spike" in local opioid-related deaths - an overdose death rate that's double the Ontario average - is one of the disturbing findings of a health unit report that is spurring officials to quickly collaborate on a plan of action. "The gravity of the situation, it's prompting us to move faster," the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's associate medical officer of health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, said Thursday, expressing hope that a coalition of local police, paramedics, hospitals and health unit officials will devise "strong recommendations and actions to help our community," in the next few months. [continues 503 words]
WINDSOR - Joshua Jacquot says his employer won't allow him, during working hours, to take the medication he needs to cope with depression and anxiety because that medication is medical marijuana. It's doctor-prescribed and legal, and according to the 23-year-old assembly line worker, "it seems to be the only thing that works." But he said when he informed Ventra Assembly several months ago he wanted to take it at work, he was told, "no," to use regular prescribed drugs instead. Jacquot said he's already tried them and they don't help. He went off on sick leave in November, he said, and continues to fight, because he can't use the medication he needs at work. [continues 265 words]
Worker ponders taking case to human rights commission Joshua Jacquot says his employer won't allow him during working hours to take the medication he needs to cope with depression and anxiety because that medication is medical marijuana. It's doctor-prescribed and legal, and according to the 23-year-old assembly line worker, "it seems to be the only thing that works." But he said when he informed Ventra Assembly several months ago that he wanted to take it at work, he was told, "no," to use regular prescribed drugs instead. He said he's already tried them and they don't help. He went off on sick leave in November, he said, and continues to fight, because he can't use the medication he needs at work. [continues 576 words]
Dr. Christopher Blue sees it "all the time," the senior with a serious condition like prostate cancer who has bought medical marijuana from some seemingly legitimate source, and is seeking a prescription for it. "What they're in possession of is illegal," says the Windsor family doctor. One of the few local physicians writing prescriptions for medical marijuana, he is concerned about the public confusion over how the system works. Patients are sometimes shocked to learn they're breaking the law, he says. [continues 1076 words]
Cites Report That Links Early Use of Substance With Development Issues If Canada's going to legalize marijuana, the local board of health is urging strong regulations to keep it away from youth and reduce other harmful effects. In a recently passed motion, the board that governs the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit offers no opinion on whether the federal Liberals should move ahead with their plan to legalize cannabis - marijuana, hashish and hash oil. But if it happens, it wants the government to bring in policies "to make sure everybody is safe and protected from these cannabis-related harms," says health unit director Kristy McBeth. [continues 351 words]
Statistics 'huge eye-opener' Every young person severely hurt in car accidents two years ago and almost every young person severely hurt last year were high on pot, the manager of the region's trauma program reported Friday. "It's outrageous," Diane Bradford said of this "very alarming spike" in marijuana use for people aged 16 to 24 who suffered major multi-system critical injuries (and usually end up in intensive care) from motor vehicle collisions. The results are based on drug tox screens for 11 different drugs conducted on all the trauma patients at Windsor Regional Hospital's Level II trauma centre. [continues 769 words]
WINDSOR, Ont. -- The number of people seeking treatment in Windsor for addiction to prescription drugs is more than five times the provincial average and the number for women is even higher, experts in the field say. Seven hundred and twentysix of the 1,650 people entering the local detox centre as they went through withdrawal in 2009 listed prescription opioids as one of their primary substances, compared to 527 of the 1,599 entering detox two years earlier. Alcohol is "not the big one anymore," said CAW Local 444 employee assistance program rep Bruce Malcolm, who sends Chrysler workers for treatment. "Most of them are Oxy-Contin or Percoset." [continues 1118 words]
WINDSOR, Ont. -- Courtney Kalyn fell to her death trying to climb down from her sixth-floor balcony as Windsor police pounded at her door. They were trying to arrest her for robbing a convenience store across the street. "She was robbing places for money for dope," says her still-grieving mom Kim, recalling that morning in 2008 when, at the age of 21, Courtney's enslavement to drugs - crack, crystal meth and whatever else she could find - ended tragically. By then, Courtney was known to police for robberies that were so poorly planned she'd be caught on video and recognized from previous attempts. [continues 1721 words]
Big beneficiaries of the largest growhouse raid in Windsor history may well be the people who snapped up the houses -- seized and sold according to proceeds of crime legislation -- for bargain prices. On average, they bought their houses for about $30,000 less than the assessed values. Following the June 2004 raid on 11 homes -- including seven suspected growhouses -- five growhouses were ultimately "restrained," and then sold. Upon conviction of the people owning or operating the growhouses, the proceeds after mortgages, hydro bills and other debts are paid, resulted in $113,000 -- an average of $22,600 per house -- going to the government. [continues 484 words]
A 53-year-old Toronto man who claimed he was in Windsor only to be a caregiver to his grandkids was painted by the prosecution Thursday as a caretaker of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana plants. That two children, ages two and four, were staying in [Name redacted] one-bedroom apartment on Tecumseh Road West -- where police found no toys but boxloads of growhouse equipment including transformers and bags of 1,000-watt bulbs -- instead of in their parents' spacious three-bedroom home, "doesn't make sense," federal prosecutor Richard Pollock said in closing arguments for [Name redacted] trial. [continues 290 words]
