Punitive approach behind OD crisis, Susan Boyd says. Canada has been inching toward legal regulation of cannabis for many years. But the fears that paralyzed our country for more than a century are still very much in evidence, despite decades of proof that none of the punitive policies we cling to help reduce drug-related harm. Increasingly, drug prohibition is understood as an issue of social justice and human rights by those who have fought for a better way. The history of Canadian drug prohibition is marked by many pivotal moments and challenges to the status quo, brought forward with passion and insight by community activists, people who use drugs, organizations, constitutional lawyers, researchers, and health and service providers. [continues 633 words]
CAMBRIDGE - Coun. Frank Monteiro has a lot of questions he hopes he can get answers to. He, along with Coun. Mike Mann and two city employees, will visit supervised injectionsites in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver to learn more about how the sites work and what doesn't work. Monteiro says that before any decisions can be made locally, more information is needed on how the sites function and how the neighbourhoods around them have been affected. "We want to know what their experience has been since they were established and are people using it," he said. [continues 383 words]
Safe injection sites where addicts can shoot up in a supervised setting could be a hard concept for many to grasp as anything but an invitation for users to inject poison into themselves with the city's blessing. To believe that, though, would be a mistake. Philadelphia announced Tuesday it would support the idea of sites that would not only provide medical supervision to addicts but give them access to treatment and other services. Such a move won't solve the deadly opioid crisis, but is intended to be damage control ... literally. Such sites may control the fatal damage that drugs are inflicting, in a crisis that has laid waste to thousands of lives and families. [continues 443 words]
Vancouver VCH will offer many services in one location Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Vancouver Coastal Health has built a new supervised injection site. But until Health Canada approves the health authority's application, it will sit empty. The new room, built especially to offer injection-drug users a supervised place to shoot up, is part of the new Heatley Community Health Centre. It's designed to offer what its creators call "wrap-around" health care to patients from the Downtown Eastside. And its completion comes in the middle of the worst overdose crisis in B.C.'s history that saw over 1,200 British Columbians die from illicit drug overdoses in 2017. [continues 166 words]
Health emergencies don't wait for plans and procedures. As drug overdose deaths continue to plague London - with five lives claimed by suspected overdoses in the first three weeks of 2018 alone - - city staff and politicians hustled to keep up with zoning rules for supervised consumption facilities. Residents and experts agree that London needs the sites - the first of which, a temporary overdose-prevention site, was announced Friday - where drug users have a safe place to inject and easy access to an overdose antidote and community supports. [continues 369 words]
When I think about the people I've met in Kensington over the last eight months, the people who've opened up to me about their addiction, about their lives, talking to me from the cardboard mattresses and train bridges and alleyways and library lawns where they live, I think about the ones I haven't seen in a while. No, Philly did not just approve of 'Hamsterdam' Could City Council block Kenney's proposed safe injection sites? I think about how many of them by now are dead. [continues 752 words]
Temporary facility overdue 'because with every tick of the clock, someone else's life could end,' says ex-addict In a city where drug overdose deaths in the first three weeks of 2018 have nearly matched the entire 2017 death toll, there's finally an answer. Or at least a good start. Advocates say London's newly unveiled overdose prevention site at 186 King St. - the first of its kind in Ontario - is key to stemming the tide of overdose deaths in the city. [continues 555 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]
A University of Calgary researcher says the city's supervised consumption site is important not only for people who use opioids, but for those who consume other substances such as meth, which was cited as the most frequently used substance during a recent study of drug users in Calgary. The research was conducted as part of a harm reduction needs assessment for Calgary that launched in June 2017 and wrapped up in the fall. The study included 370 people in the city who use substances other than alcohol or marijuana. [continues 472 words]
Needle prick incidents may be a byproduct of permissive action aimed at saving lives Anyone who spends a significant amount of time in downtown Victoria is at least somewhat aware of the potential for spent hypodermic needles to be discovered. That said, finding one in a public or private area is always grim reminder of the reality that people in our midst struggle daily with addiction. And despite the efforts of local groups, those that work with the city's drug-addicted population, to clean up after the relatively small number of addicts who can't or won't dispose of needles safely, there are innocent, unsuspecting people getting pricked. [continues 245 words]
RE: Safe injection sites in Hamilton One needs only to stroll just north on John Street at King Street to see what the methadone clinic has done to our downtown core. Pretty much all the buildings on both sides of the clinic (east side of John) are closed and boarded up. As my time as a police officer walking the beat in the core, I broke up many a fight out front of the clinic, and arrested a number of drug dealers hanging around preying on the meth addicts. We don't want another repeat of this "communal disaster plan" in our core! Michael Csoke, Mount Hope [end]
Dangerously discarded needles could be part of plan to discredit injection drug users and public health efforts to help them, says Island Health's chief medical health officer. Dr. Richard Stanwick told reporters that some people lack sympathy for drug users and oppose measures such as needle exchanges. They might even want to discredit both by leaving syringes outside for the public to find or get jabbed. "There are still people who see [drug addiction] as a moral failing and bad choice rather than a chronic, relapsing disease of the brain," Stanwick said. "What we are really concerned about is making sure this isn't some sort of effort to discredit efforts around harm reduction." [continues 428 words]
Re: NDP lobbying for safe injection site. What is it with all progressives pushing so called "safe injection sites" which is an oxymoron, as such places are anything but safe. Addicts may be getting clean needles, but they are still injecting street drugs of unknown quality. These drugs addicts commit serious crimes, placing the public at risk. Surely rather than facilitating drug addicts to feed their addiction, weaning them off their addiction, through rehabilitation, is a much better option. Addicts put huge strains on our ailing health-care services and most end up having a shortened life span caused by drug damage to their vital organs. Safe injection sites do not eradicate those problems! Larry Comeau (The theory is they might save a person's life be preventing overdose deaths and by mitigating other risks.) [end]
DP Leader Wab Kinew demanded Friday that provincial Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen create safe consumption sites for injection drug users in Winnipeg and other communities in Manitoba. "There are people in our city who are dying," Kinew told reporters. But Goertzen said in an emailed statement late Friday that he's not considering establishing sites. Kinew said deaths and overdoses from opioids and methamphetamine have reached crisis proportions in Winnipeg. "It's time for there to be a safe consumption site in Winnipeg," he said. "We know safe consumption sites save lives." [continues 384 words]
Re: "Needle warning issued after 2 pricks in 2 days," Jan. 11. I agree that it is distressing when a child or anyone else is pricked by a foreign needle. However, the furor over this and similar incidents overshadows the real problem that we have today with drug and other substance abuse. Until we address the poverty and homelessness problem that exists today across the country, we will always have addictions. If the basic level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not met, people suffer. That suffering hurts, and people find ways to numb the hurt. That way is through substance abuse. [continues 86 words]
NDP lobbying for safe injection sites Manitoba's official opposition is lobbying for safe injection sites, in Winnipeg and beyond. NDP leader Wab Kinew said the Progressive Conservative government should spend some of the $10.9 million federal dollars it's received to address mental health and addictions to develop such sites, which he believes are needed in Winnipeg and other Manitoba communities. Kinew said the effort is critical to combat a surge in crystal meth and fentanyl abuse. "We know that safe (injection) sites save lives and we know that (addiction) is reaching crisis proportions. So we need to see action," said Kinew. [continues 303 words]
Re: Here's why it's time to legalize all drugs, Jan. 10 It seems that both Ottawa Inner City Health and the Ottawa police are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to performing their responsibilities. As some recent media coverage regarding safe injection sites appears to have placed more emphasis on the general welfare of the addict rather than the challenges faced by law enforcement, it could be helpful for the general population to know more about what exactly is being done by health officials to get people off their drug addictions. There may be more support for safe access to injection sites if they were clearly identified as places with mandated programs to provide assistance in recovery as opposed to simply continuing with the status quo. F. Dale Boire, Ottawa [end]
Picture this: You're an injection drug user in Ottawa, and, you're worried the next time you use, you might die. So, you head for the Shepherds of Good Hope, where there's a special trailer. There, you can use your drugs - and someone will save you if you overdose. Upon arrival, though, there's a police cruiser outside. Apparently it's there a lot, according to Ottawa Inner City Health, which runs the site, and officers question staff and clients. [continues 581 words]
Three weeks after Ontario said it would fast-track creation of temporary safer drug-injection sites, the province has finally cleared away the bureaucratic red tape - a move that will soon lead to a site or sites in London. The red tape - the Ontario government had promised a 14-day turnaround - - was the last barrier to health units across Ontario to creating safer places to lessen the death toll of opioids. The Middlesex-London Health Unit used the last three weeks to have its application ready to go. [continues 497 words]
Picture this: You're an injection drug user, and, you're worried the next time you use, you might die. So, you head for the Shepherds of Good Hope, where there's a special trailer. There, you can use your drugs - and someone will save you if you overdose. Upon arrival, though, there's a police cruiser outside. Apparently it's there a lot, at least according to Ottawa Inner City Health, which runs the injection site, and officers are questioning staff and clients. [continues 667 words]
