After reading the column written by Tyler Dawson on why it's time to legalize all drugs, I couldn't help butt my head as to why he would even suggest such a dangerous and ill thought-out plan. I myself am opposed to these so-called "safe" injection sites. Sure, it will save people from overdosing on heroin, but it also enables those to go out and do it all over again and again. It's unsafe for you to be injecting this poison into your body in the first place. [continues 146 words]
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]
It was an idea born in the middle of a devastating epidemic with an ever-rising death rate. It drew the ire of state officials, threats to arrest those who operated it, and fears that it would encourage drug use and addiction. No, Philly did not just approve of 'Hamsterdam' It was a needle exchange to prevent reusing hypodermic needles, and the year was 1991. Twenty-seven years later, those involved in the struggle to open Prevention Point - still Philadelphia's only needle exchange - say the parallels are clear between that fight and the city's decision to encourage the opening of safe injection sites, where people in addiction can inject drugs under medical supervision and access treatment. [continues 853 words]
Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall will call it a career next week, confident that the tools are finally in place to tackle the opioid overdose crisis that has ravaged this province for more than three years. Kendall has been among the chief architects of B.C.'s response to the deadly wave of powerful synthetic opioids that have largely replaced heroin in the illicit drug supply. Deputy provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry will replace Kendall when he officially retires on Jan. 31. Henry will become the first woman to serve as B.C.'s provincial health officer. [continues 801 words]
The opioid crisis affecting Canada and the world has surfaced in a significant dangerous way here in Lethbridge. This rampant drug abuse involving fentanyl, labelled as the "new alcohol," is being driven by factors that can and should be controlled by our own community activities or lack thereof. Much is being done to deal with the crisis, i.e. safe Injection site and other initiatives. Nevertheless, little is being done to deal with the underlying causes driving this crisis. Currently, our own Lethbridge Shelter is accommodating homeless citizens, many of whom are affected by addictions, homelessness, job loss, poverty. Many are selling drugs to put food in their bellies. On average, 65 per cent of the clientele are aboriginal. The shelter has become a refuge for drug dealers and users banished from the Blood Reserve - many as a direct result of the new "trespass" policy on the reserve. The Blood Tribe does not want them, and neither does Lethbridge. [continues 204 words]
British Columbia's first provincial health officer is resigning after nearly 20 years on a job he calls "incredibly rewarding." Perry Kendall, who declared a public health emergency in 2016 over the province's overdose crisis, will be leaving his post at the end of the month, when the deputy health officer will fill the position. Dr. Kendall has described the opioid epidemic as B.C.'s most devastating health issue because of the high number of deaths from fentanyl, which is cut into street drugs. [continues 337 words]
Watson voices concern about promoting smoking and putting workers at risk Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says he won't support creation of cannabis lounges in the city, an idea being floated by the provincial government as the country heads toward legalizing recreational pot. "As the former Minister of Health Promotion, Mayor Watson does not want to make it easier for people to smoke any substance, including cannabis, in lounges," said a statement from Watson's office. "This would also put the health of workers at risk by inhaling second-hand smoke." [continues 616 words]
On Tuesday, Philadelphia officials took a bold step in addressing the opioid crisis that has increasingly plagued the region, by supporting the creation of medically supervised facilities where heroin users can safely inject drugs. While other cities, including Seattle and Baltimore, are also moving toward the safe site model, no city in the United States yet has an operating, sanctioned injection facility. The policy is controversial and polarizing, raising questions by public officials and citizens about legality, morality, and how to address a public health crisis - not to mention the logistical details of where and how such sites would operate. [continues 207 words]
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]
