According to Dr. Michael O'Malley and Dr. Kiri Simms (via CBC), marijuana-induced psychosis has increased in the last 10 years. I do not dispute their claims. THC in pot sold on the street contributes to the problem. In fact, as with any illegal street-sold drug, the more potent the active ingredient, the better for sales. Yet, it's highly unlikely that the seller is concerned about the amount of THC in the pot he sells on the street, except for repeat sales. [continues 312 words]
VANCOUVER - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has closed the door on decriminalizing illicit drugs to combat a national overdose crisis but British Columbia's addictions minister says unprecedented deaths are a "wake-up call" to reconsider that stance. Trudeau said decriminalization is not the approach Canada will take to deal with deadly overdoses often involving the opioid fentanyl. "We are making headway on this and indeed the crisis continues and indeed spreads across the country but we are not looking at legalizing any other drugs than marijuana for the time being," Trudeau told a news conference Thursday at the end of a caucus meeting in Kelowna. [continues 267 words]
Situation not yet an emergency, Coderre says After meeting with police and public health officials, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said Tuesday the city is actively preparing to handle a coming opioid crisis. "I was reassured about the status of the situation right now, but clearly it's an anticipated crisis that we have to address and face," Coderre said during a news conference at city hall. The mayor's remarks came days after Montreal's public health department confirmed 12 overdose deaths in the city during the month of August. Another 24 people were saved by the use of naloxone, a medication that can be used to prevent fatal opioid overdoses. [continues 353 words]
An opioid crisis is bringing together friends and family members of overdose victims who want to support others going through the same pain. Fort McMurray residents Mari-Lee Paluszak, 55, and Holly Meints, 51, both lost sons to accidental overdoses last year. Both attended Overdose Awareness Day at the Wood Buffalo Regional Library last Thursday to help put a face to the drug overdose problem, and to promote a support group for people suffering the same grief as their own. Their new group, On A Dragonfly's Wings, is meant to provide mutual support for grieving family members of overdose victims. [continues 726 words]
Chief medical examiner's office pores over deaths in opioid fight EDMONTON - In the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner each morning, medical examiners, investigators, and morgue staff divide the stack of files containing unexplained deaths that have come in from the night before. Five years ago, this department, headquartered in a low-slung grey building in Edmonton, investigated between 1,900 to 2,000 cases a year. But in the last couple of years the caseload has jumped to between 2,500 to 2,600 annually - the bulk of that increase, officials say, is due to fentanyl and other opioid deaths. [continues 1507 words]
An East Coast entrepreneur who is wanted by London police faces 10 drug and weapons charges in his home province after police raided five marijuana dispensaries there. London police issued an arrest warrant for Malachy McMeekin, of Cole Harbour, N.S., after raiding five pot shops in March. McMeekin, 35, is president of Tasty Budd's, a chain of marijuana dispensaries with franchises in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and London. He travelled to London last summer for the opening of a location on Wharncliffe Road. [continues 417 words]
There are a lot of very smart people in North Bay. It would be interesting to see if the bright lights here can find an opportunity hiding in the weeds to solve the opioid crisis. And I'm not referring to emergency funding injections or quick-fix policy. More than 700 health-care professionals urged the province this week to declare an emergency so more funding can flow to Ontario's front-line programs. Overdose prevention sites, they say, need a boost to stem the tide as deaths are mounting beyond even the HIV pandemic decades ago. [continues 651 words]
The point of Narcos was never Pablo Escobar. For its first two seasons the series rooted itself firmly in the rise and fall of Escobar, the most notorious of maniacal drug kingpins, and a performance by Wagner Moura as Escobar was as emphatic as it gets. But Narcos was always planned as a vast epic about the drug trade - what fuels it, who runs it and how every lame attempt to curb it goes awry. Two years ago when I spoke with Jose Padilha, the Brazilian director, producer and screenwriter who is an executive producer on Narcos, he said it's about, "What cocaine is - it's cheap to make, it's a natural product and it makes the human brain go haywire. The American approach to dealing with the cocaine problem is basically fighting cocaine by fighting supply. So yeah, you wage war on the Medellin Cartel. You kill Pablo Escobar. And then it goes to Cali. Then you wage war on Cali. And then it moves on and then it goes to Mexico. It's always there." [continues 753 words]
The legalization of cannabis and rapid scale up of supervised-injection sites - as well as community-led initiatives, such as the site set up by Overdose Prevention Ottawa in Lowertown this month - have thrust Canada back into the limelight of global drug policy. Against the backdrop of a national overdose crisis and a fracturing of global consensus on drug prohibition, these are welcome changes. Yet they only begin to chip away at the drug policy challenges facing Canada. Canada's policy community remains divided about how best to tackle the overdose crisis. As the death toll mounts, should we invest more in law and order approaches, treatment, harm reduction or some combination? [continues 582 words]
Advocate sees a role for public health nurses in fighting opioid crisis in rural communities The opioid crisis in St. John's is far from over, and a community advocate wants to see changes. "We see people every day who are at risk," said Tree Walsh, the harm reduction manager at the Safe Works Access Program (SWAP) for the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador. "We're trying to save lives, and we're trying to prevent deaths, but as soon as the pharmaceutical supply of opioids dries up, which is happening now things are going to get so much worse." [continues 559 words]
Four arrested by officers in Cole Harbour dispensary One day after Tasty Budds reopened its five Nova Scotia locations following police raids last week, one of them has again been searched by police. RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Clarke confirmed to Metro Tuesday afternoon that police searched the Tasty Budds location in Cole Harbour. "We arrested four people, one of whom will be in court tomorrow morning in Dartmouth," Clarke said. Charges are expected against that one person, and Clarke said police will be naming them on Wednesday. [continues 136 words]
Urged to declare an emergency, province promises "significant resources and supports" The opioid drug crisis flaring up in Southwestern Ontario is becoming so bad across the province, hundreds of doctors, nurses and others are pushing Queen's Park to declare an emergency. In an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne Monday, the health workers say limited resources and poor data are preventing them from responding properly to a disturbing, sustained increase in overdoses. "The consequences have been clear: lives lost, families destroyed and harm reduction and health care worker burnout," they write. [continues 794 words]
Largest drug seizure in OPP history has three men facing charges ORILLIA - The OPP showed off the largest ever drug seizure of its nearly 110- year history Monday morning. Three men have been arrested, accused of importing 1,062 kilograms of pure cocaine. The drugs were displayed by police during a press conference in four specially constructed glass containers, each with a dimension of about four feet tall by eight feet wide. "This is a massive seizure, bigger than I've ever seen in my 33 years of policing," OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes said during the press conference at OPP Headquarters in Orillia. [continues 825 words]
On Feb. 4, 2014, my only child died - alone - of an accidental overdose. Jordan's death was a shock. It still is. Looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, I can connect the dots that led our happy, outgoing child to become addicted to opioids. Each of those dots represents an opportunity missed, a lesson to be learned. It's time those lessons be applied. Today, Jordan's experience - and ours as parents - is, sadly and unnecessarily, a common one. At the time, however, we were lost in the uncertainty of how to help our son. [continues 625 words]
Cheryl Guardiero should have spent Thursday celebrating her son's 30th birthday. Instead, she attended an International Overdose Awareness Day vigil in Nanaimo, her boy now among the dead for whom they grieved. Brett Colton Mercer was born in Nanaimo on Aug. 31, 1987, to loving parents who eventually had five children. He died Aug. 19, 2017 of an accidental drug overdose, alone in a motel room in Hope, where he had recently landed a job with an oil and gas firm. [continues 812 words]
Metric tonne found after force tipped off The cocaine was hidden inside hollowed-out quartzite stones packed onto shipping containers coming from Argentina - the drugs were concealed so well that even police dogs couldn't detect them. It was a tip from the public that ultimately led to the largest drug seizure in the Ontario Provincial Police's history as the force carried out an investigation into an international cocaine-smuggling ring with ties to Mexican cartels. Altogether the force seized 1,062 kilograms of cocaine during a months-long investigation that culminated in July, according to OPP deputy commissioner Rick Barnum. [continues 394 words]
Re: Winnipeg in grips of meth problem, say police (Aug. 27) Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jay Murray is wrong when he says "the majority of property crime in the city is related to the methamphetamine subculture." Drug prohibition is responsible, just as it was when cocaine was the drug de jour in the past. The drug problem boils down to some people want to use those drugs and other people don't want them to. The short of it is that it is none of your business what drugs the next door neighbours are using since none of that use harms you. Repeal drug prohibition and the majority of property crime would end since these drugs that people want could be obtained for cheap and of a known purity at the local pharmacy. Chris Buors Selkirk [end]
'Alleged illegal activity' only at one location All five Tasty Budds medical marijuana dispensaries in Nova Scotia have reopened following raids last week, and allegations of illegal activity that the chain's owner says were confined to just one location. Police searched four homes and five Tasty Budds dispensaries last week after an eight-month investigation, and laid charges against nine people, including Tasty Budds president Mal McMeekin. Police said those searches turned up a loaded handgun, a shotgun, cocaine, marijuana, shatter, hash, oil, edibles, and large amounts of cash. One man, 31-year-old Jarrett Randall Shrum of Bedford, was charged with trafficking cocaine, plus seven firearms charges including possession of a firearm obtained by crime and tampering with a firearm's serial number. [continues 295 words]
Tasty Budds president Mal McMeekin is "very sorry" about alleged illegal activities that police say were occuring at his company's storefronts. "We want to be very clear that the alleged illegal activity was occuring at one Tasty Budds location (Sackville Location)," reads a written statement sent to The Chronicle Herald and attributed to Mal McMeekin. "This only came to our attention through the recent police activity and investigation. This is a gross violation of our code of conduct, our ethics, and everything that Tasty Budds stands for." [continues 343 words]
There is no silver bullet for North America's fentanyl crisis, according to the architect of Portugal's drug-policy framework, widely considered the most progressive in the world. "It is a difficult problem," Dr. Joao Goulao told the Straight by phone. "I have no magical insight for it." Illicit drugs are on track to kill more than 1,500 people in B.C. this year, up from an annual average of 204 deaths recorded between 2001 and 2010. So far in 2017, the B.C. Coroners Service has detected fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, in 78 percent of drug fatalities. [continues 727 words]
