OTTAWA -- The pain strikes without warning in the middle of the night, an explosive shot of pain on one side of Doug Wright's head that feels "like a red hot poker suddenly stuck through my eye." He bolts from bed. He can't lie down, he can't sit still; he paces and moves, and if he can't abort the headache instantly by inhaling high-dose, high-flow oxygen from the tank he keeps in his house, he drops to his knees, screaming in agony. Twice he has blacked out from the pain. [continues 538 words]
Headache Sufferer Hopes Study Of Hallucinogens Will Help Him, Others OTTAWA - The pain strikes without warning in the middle of the night, an explosive shot of pain on one side of Doug Wright's head that feels "like a red-hot poker suddenly stuck through my eye." He bolts from bed. He can't lie down, he can't sit still; he paces and moves, and if he can't abort the headache instantly by inhaling high-dose, high-flow oxygen from the tank he keeps in his house, he drops to his knees, screaming in agony. Twice he has blacked out from the pain. [continues 826 words]
Doctors Look At Magic Mushrooms And LSD As Possible Cures For A 'Terrible Affliction,' Writes Sharon Kirkey. The pain strikes without warning in the middle of the night, an explosive shot of pain on one side of Doug Wright's head that feels "like a red hot poker suddenly stuck through my eye." He bolts from bed. He can't lie down, he can't sit still; he paces and moves, and if he can't abort the headache instantly by inhaling high-dose, high-flow oxygen from the tank he keeps in his house, he drops to his knees, screaming in agony. Twice he has blacked out from the pain. [continues 617 words]
OTTAWA -- Medical experts suspect magic mushrooms and LSD may finally offer relief to people who get headaches so severe that they sometimes pass out in agony. Doctors at Harvard University are preparing to test LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) against what the medical community calls "cluster" headaches. They are among researchers who are looking at hallucinogens -- including magic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA (the drug used to make ecstasy) and ibogaine (a psychoactive derived from the root bark of an African plant) -- as potential treatments. [continues 851 words]
OTTAWA -- The pain strikes without warning in the middle of the night, an explosive shot of pain on one side of Doug Wright's head that feels "like a red hot poker suddenly stuck through my eye." He bolts from bed. He can't lie down, he can't sit still; he paces and moves, and if he can't abort the headache instantly by inhaling high-dose, high-flow oxygen from the tank he keeps in his house, he drops to his knees, screaming in agony. Twice he has blacked out from the pain. [continues 609 words]
And Pot Use Nearly Doubled In Decade Nearly one in four Canadians who drink is exceeding guidelines for "low-risk" drinking, and 17 per cent are engaging in such hazardous drinking they risk developing an alcohol problem. While Canada is mainly a nation of moderate drinkers, nearly one in four current or former drinkers confess their drinking has caused harm to themselves and others sometime in their lives, according to Canada's most extensive addiction survey ever. The Canadian Addiction Survey also reveals the proportion of Canadians who used pot in the past year has nearly doubled in the past decade, to 14 per cent in 2004 from 7.4 per cent in 1994. [continues 334 words]
More than 11 times more likely to die. Researchers found 3-year Montreal study unsettling because the youths 'are dying of things we could do something about' SHARON KIRKEY, GARY FRANCOEUR of The Gazette contributed to this report CanWest News Service Canada's street youth often romanticize themselves as "adventurers" and people "living life on their own terms," but in reality they face a higher death rate than others in their age bracket, researchers have found. Of 1,013 Montreal street youth who were followed for an average of nearly three years, 26 died - a death rate more than 11 times that of youth in the general population. [continues 850 words]
Canada's street youth often romanticize themselves as adventurers and people living life on their own terms, but in reality these youngsters face a higher death rate than anyone expected, Canadian researchers have found. Of 1,013 Montreal street youth who were followed for nearly three years on average, 26 died -- more than 11 times the death rate of youth in the general population. Thirteen died by suicide (hanging, jumping from a bridge, or jumping out of or in front of a moving vehicle), eight by drug overdose and two from an unintentional injury. There was one death each from hepatitis A and heart disease. In one case the cause of death was unknown. [continues 663 words]
Canada's street youth often romanticize themselves as "adventurers" and people "living life on their own terms" but, in reality, these youngsters face a higher death rate than anyone expected, researchers have found. Of 1,013 Montreal street youth who were followed for nearly three years on average, 26 died -- a death rate more than 11 times that of youth in the general population. Thirteen died by suicide, eight by drug overdose and two from an unintentional injury, such as an accident. There was one death each from hepatitis A and heart disease. In one case, the cause of death is unknown. [continues 555 words]
More than being just a 'social lubricant,' cannabis helps you relax and can reduce the negative side-effects of HIV drugs, in addition to offering a whole host of other medicinal benefits As a teenager, Dom Cramer's anti-drug attitudes would have made any parent proud. He bought into the "Just Say No" government campaigns and the warnings from the police who visited his high school that marijuana was a surefire gateway to more hard-core drugs. Today, Mr. Cramer owns the Toronto Hemp Company, a Yonge Street store that sells everything from hemp soaps and lip balms to rolling machines and "defunk smell remover spray." [continues 1611 words]
Heart Attacks, Cancer, Infertility Linked To Reefer As a teenager, Dom Cramer's anti-drug attitudes would have made any parent proud. He bought into the "Just Say No" government campaigns and the warnings from the police who visited his high school that marijuana was a surefire gateway to more hardcore drugs. Today, Cramer owns the Toronto Hemp Company, a Yonge Street store that sells everything from hemp soaps and lip balms to rolling machines and "defunk smell remover spray." Cramer, now 30, began smoking pot in university, after he stopped believing "all the lies I was taught in high school." He smokes marijuana frequently, although says he can go for weeks or months without it. [continues 1420 words]
The Good and Bad: Glaucoma Reliever, Social Lubricant, Cancer And Depression Promoter. and a Lot More As a teenager, Dom Cramer's anti-drug attitudes would have made any parent proud. He bought into the "Just Say No" government campaigns and the warnings from the police who visited his high school that marijuana was a surefire gateway to more hard-core drugs. Today, Cramer owns the Toronto Hemp Company, a Yonge Street store that sells everything from hemp soaps and lip balms to rolling machines and "defunk smell remover spray." Cramer, now 30, began smoking pot in university, after he stopped believing "all the lies I was taught in high school." He smokes marijuana frequently, although says he can go for weeks or months without it. [continues 1834 words]
Small Margin Between Good, Bad Effects As a teenager, Dom Cramer's anti-drug attitudes would have made any parent proud. He bought into the "Just Say No" government campaigns and the warnings from the police who visited his high school that marijuana was a surefire gateway to more hardcore drugs. Today, Cramer owns the Toronto Hemp Company, a Yonge Street store that sells everything from hemp soaps and lip balms to rolling machines and "defunk smell remover spray." Cramer, now 30, began smoking pot in university, after he stopped believing "all the lies I was taught in high school." He smokes marijuana frequently, although says he can go for weeks or months without it. [continues 1054 words]
Little Knowledge Of Risks Medical marijuana may be legal, but that doesn't mean it's accessible. Canadian doctors have been warned they could expose themselves to liability or professional misconduct complaints if they prescribe marijuana without "detailed knowledge" of the drug's risks and benefits as well as the appropriate dosage. The Canadian Medical Protective Association says information about prescribing marijuana "simply is not available," making it nearly impossible for the vast majority of doctors to comply with new federal regulations for medicinal marijuana. [continues 331 words]
1.5 Million Smoke Up: 'Legal And Social Fallout' Worse Than Health Risks: Editorial Possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use should merit the equivalent of a traffic ticket, not a criminal record, says Canada's leading medical journal. Calling for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use, the Canadian Medical Association Journal argues in an editorial published today that the current law that makes possession of small amounts of marijuana illegal can make an aspiring medical career "go up in a puff of smoke." [continues 563 words]
Calls to CHEO poison centre more than quadruple since 1993. The number of children and teens accidentally ingesting or intentionally overdosing on Ritalin has increased significantly -- a trend doctors say reflects the dramatic growth in the use of the drug to treat attention-deficit disorders. The Poison Information Centre at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario handled 84 calls in 1997 concerning children and adolescents who had accidentally taken, or intentionally overdosed, on Ritalin, up from 18 in 1993. Thirty-nine of the calls involved children under 13, down slightly from 46 children in the same age group the previous year, but up from five in 1993. [continues 1002 words]
Paraplegic Says He Isn’t Afraid To Go Two Tokes Over The Line With just two tokes from a single joint, Peter Shields is boldly challenging the law that makes illegal his drug of choice for pain control. The 51yearold Ottawa man briefly lit up a marijuana cigarette yesterday in his bed at the Ottawa General Hospital, where he is to spend the next three weeks recovering from surgery. And he warned hospital staff he will do it again. Mr. Shields, left paralysed from the chest down in a motorcycle accident in 1973, says marijuana helps him deal with a chronic burning pain in his lower body. [continues 646 words]
