Canada has been at the forefront of cannabis research, education and regulation for the past 2 decades, yet uncertainty remains about how the drug should be used in medicine. Physicians lack evidence-based information and formalized training about cannabis, which stems, in part, from the drug's previously illegal status that hindered research. Among the public, however, many perceive cannabis as a natural and safe medical treatment. Patients increasingly seek advice about cannabis from physicians, request prescriptions or experiment with cannabis for medical problems on their own. However, physicians must adhere to good medical practice regardless of public pressure and provide counselling to patients based on up-to-date knowledge and evidence. Now that cannabis is legal in Canada more research should be forthcoming, but the evidence base remains weak. [continues 887 words]
Iam increasingly concerned with the inadequacy of our approach to the opioid crisis, both as a society and in the field of public health. There is no question that when people are dying in large numbers, we have to respond, and that has been happening. Safe injection sites, the distribution of naloxone kits and similar efforts are important. But this response is sadly inadequate. It repeats the "upstream" story that I told in the first column I wrote, in December 2014, one that is fundamental to the public health approach. In essence, villagers living on the banks of a river are so busy rescuing drowning people that nobody has time to go upstream to learn how they are ending up in the river and stop them being pushed in. [continues 602 words]
Prescribed opiates rarely hit streets, writes Barry Ulmer. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta is happy lately, at least according to the medical regulator's new registrar. Dr. Scott McLeod wrote in these pages last week that doctors contributed to Alberta's "opioid crisis" by over-prescribing, and now they're going to help fix it. "We need to prescribe opioids more appropriately," he wrote, "and that means less. Already, prescriptions for Albertans in pain are way down, and that's terrific." [continues 660 words]
CALGARY - It looks like Canadian Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Ross Rebagliati may have been right all along. Rebagliati, the first Olympic gold medalist for Men's Snowboarding at the 1998 Winter Olympics, was initially disqualified after THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, was found in his system in a drug test. The decision was eventually overturned since cannabis wasn't a banned substance but Rebagliati maintained the positive drug test was the result of second-hand smoke. Now a study from the Cummings School of Medicine at the University of Calgary seems to support his claim. [continues 358 words]
Liberals ignoring concerns about decriminalizing pot On April 13, the Liberal government introduced legislation that would allow for the recreational use of marijuana for Canadians over the age of 18, and eliminate penalties for possession of marijuana (up to five grams) for those between the ages of 12 and 18. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have repeated time and time again that the aim of this legislation is to protect our children and increase public safety. However, neither of these goals is accomplished with this legislation. This is not just my view. In a recent Angus Reid poll, approximately two in three Canadians (66 per cent) said they believe that this legislation fails to prevent young people from using marijuana more than they already do. [continues 456 words]
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent for CNN is reported to have said, "Every 19 minutes somebody dies of a prescription drug overdose. It doesn't happen with marijuana." In the past Gupta was against legalising medical marijuana in the U.S. but now he is in favour of it. He sees some benefit for certain types of illnesses. The use of medical marijuana (medical cannabis) as a medicine has not been rigorously tested due to several restrictions. But there is some evidence to suggest cannabis can reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasm. [continues 417 words]
Dalhousie duo say recreational, medical need to be separate Dalhousie researchers are lending their voices to the debate on keeping the medical and recreational streams of marijuana separate. The Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation published recommendations in a framework for legalization of cannabis in Canada in 2016. It stated recreational marijuana be accessed separately from medical marijuana. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) came out against that recommendation in favour of a single stream instead. The task force noted patients felt a separate system was necessary to avoid losing their current access rights to cannabis. [continues 374 words]
On May 29, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial written by its editor-in-chief, Dr. Diane Kelsall, titled "Cannabis legislation fails to protect Canada's youth." Dr. Kelsall takes issue with three aspects of Bill C-45, the federal government's Cannabis Act. She argues that the minimum age for buying and consuming cannabis should be 21 instead of 18, with limits on the potency of cannabis for people under 25; that home cultivation should be prohibited; and that the federal government should set national regulations for distribution and retail. These well-intentioned suggestions are misguided and potentially harmful. [continues 501 words]
Re: Medical journal blasts Liberals over pot age limit, May 30 While I understand the Canadian Medical Association Journal's concern for the potential harmful effects of marijuana consumption on the "young" brain, I also find the criticism of the government's plan somewhat hypocritical. If marijuana consumption is harmful, why single it out when the same young person can legally obtain and consume alcohol at around the same age as the proposed legislation? Surely the potential harmful effects of alcohol on the human body and brain are just as well-known. [continues 106 words]
If people can legally buy alcohol and tobacco at the age of 18 or 19 (not to mention enlist in the military), then how can we justify setting a higher age for cannabis? On May 29, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial written by its editor-in-chief, Dr. Diane Kelsall, titled "Cannabis legislation fails to protect Canada's youth." Dr. Kelsall takes issue with three aspects of Bill C-45, the federal government's Cannabis Act. She argues that the minimum age for buying and consuming cannabis should be 21 instead of 18, with limits on the potency of cannabis for people under 25; that home cultivation should be prohibited; and that the federal government should set national regulations for distribution and retail. These well-intentioned suggestions are misguided and potentially harmful. [continues 492 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]
One in three high school students reports riding with a driver who has been drinking and one in five got in a car with a driver that consumed marijuana, according to a new University of Waterloo study. Half of all students in Grades 11 and 12 admitted to at least one risky behaviour, either driving after drinking or using marijuana or being a passenger in the car of an impaired driver. "For half of kids to be putting themselves in that kind of risk seems really high," said Leia Minaker, lead author on the paper and an assistant professor at Waterloo. [continues 317 words]
In 2016, 11 regions have gone beyond 15 overdose deaths, medical officials say Health experts painted a grim picture Wednesday morning as they updated Vancouver's mayor and council on an ongoing opioid crisis that has spread from its "epicentre" in the Downtown Eastside to touch every part of the province. Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall addressed a sombre Vancouver council chamber Wednesday, almost a year to the day after he announced a public health emergency in response to what he called at the time, "the recent surge of overdoses." [continues 572 words]
Calls for national strategy heading into summit on illicit drugs MANITOBA'S health minister is calling on the federal government to stop the flow of powdered fentanyl from countries such as China. "We need national strategies around that," Kelvin Goertzen said Monday at a news conference to mark addictions awareness week. The event, held before Friday's national opioid conference and summit in Ottawa, included some of the province's leading addictions and health officials and the mothers of two victims of fentanyl overdoses. [continues 431 words]
The Liberal government's vow to legalize pot is a flagrant violation of international drug laws, a global health law expert says - making it an ideal time to either renegotiate international drug-control treaties or pull out of them altogether, he suggests. In a commentary in this week's Canadian Medical Association Journal, the University of Ottawa's Steven Hoffman says efforts to de-penalize, decriminalize and legalize marijuana can be good for public health, "if done right." However, the Liberal government's pot bill, expected to be introduced next spring, would almost certainly run up against three UN treaties requiring marijuana possession to remain a criminal offence, and that Canada, as a signatory, is legally obliged to follow, writes Hoffman. [continues 340 words]
Supporters of Vancouver Facility Have Faced Many Obstacles but Are Seeing Successes Before there was fentanyl, the highly addictive opioid at the centre of an ongoing national crisis, there was OxyContin, another drug that took the lives of vulnerable populations. And before Oxy, there was heroin. In Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside, heroin's ravages helped tip the province into a public-health crisis in the late 1990s. Born of necessity 13 years ago, Insite, a supervised injection clinic that remains the only one of its kind of North America, persevered under the former Conservative government's tough-on-crime anti-drug strategy, which ran counter to such treatment models. After successfully battling the government in a series of court cases, the facility has emerged as a model in harm reduction, representing a new approach to addiction treatment that the federal Liberal government has embraced - and one many communities, including Toronto, are trying replicate. [continues 1658 words]
Politicians know how to harvest the low hanging fruit at election time. Now, Justin Trudeau has sniffed out the low hanging cannabis on the campaign trail - and promised to legalize it. It's time, long past time. The Liberal leader can make up for the sins - - or omissions - of his father in failing to decriminalize marijuana possession generations ago, when Pierre Trudeau ignored the recommendations of the 1973 Le Dain Royal Commission he created as prime minister. In fairness to Trudeau the elder, it was a different time. In the decades since, Canada has decriminalized homosexuality and legalized gay marriage. [continues 703 words]
Organization Calls for Voters to Back Politicians Whose Parties Support Relaxed Marijuana Laws Next month's federal election could be historic for proponents of marijuana legalization. With the country's three main political parties all taking distinct positions, which party forms the next government could determine what happens to the nation's marijuana laws. "This is our election, this is the most important election on this topic in recent memory," said Craig Jones, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada. [continues 489 words]
Activists Plan 'Mushroom Day' In Support of Psychedelic Drugs The first and, thus far, only time I did magic mushrooms, I did not have any epiphanies about my life, my spiritual existence or the universe as a whole. I did, however, develop a fascination with the carpet and wallpaper of the Amsterdam cafe where I was sitting. And eight years later, I can vividly recall the feeling of pure joy that lasted throughout the night, with its soundtrack of early Jimi Hendrix. [continues 1058 words]
Canadian experts want policy-makers to rethink perception of these medications to let research advance, but others urge caution Psychedelic drugs, including LSD and MDMA, could help some patients struggling with addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, according to a new analysis that urges Canadian policy- makers to reconsider their perception of those drugs. The analysis, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says several small studies show psychedelics may be effective at treating certain patients, but that "popular misconceptions" about the risks of the drugs are hampering research efforts. The authors argue that any novel treatment that may ease the symptoms of PTSD, addiction or anxiety should be explored, especially considering the limitations of available treatments. [continues 584 words]
Health Care: Researchers Say Substances May Help Treat Addiction, Depression, Anxiety A trip to the doctor's office could someday mean a trip inside the doctor's office, if researchers calling for further study into the use of psychedelics for treating illness get their way. Dr. Evan Wood, co-director of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS, is one of four medical researchers behind an analysis published Tuesday focusing on the resurgence of research into psychedelic substances for treating illnesses, including addiction, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. [continues 575 words]
Vancouver has entered unchartered territory as the first Canadian city to regulate marijuana dispensaries, with proponents arguing that regulation protects people's health and restricts access. The chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, Dr. Patricia Daly, who helped inform the decision to regulate, says that "city council may be seen as the Wild West, but they're stepping in to reduce potential harms associated with the complaints they had from the community." Over the past few years, 100 marijuana dispensaries have opened in Vancouver. Only 25 licensed producers, which deliver their product by mail, have been approved by Health Canada to sell medicinal marijuana from federally sanctioned growers. The remainder presumably obtain their cannabis from black market sources. These businesses were run without any city bylaws restricting how the illegal drug was sold. [continues 739 words]
History shows big drug busts don't threaten heroin supply Re: Police bust international heroin-smuggling ring, May 12 The Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP have done good police work in arresting 28 drug traffickers, and deserve recognition and appreciation for their persistence, diligence and competence. Unfortunately, the RCMP's Cal Chrustie is completely wrong when he boasts that the operation has "prevented a large quantity of heroin from reaching the streets of Vancouver." Logically, a "large quantity" would mean that this seizure will increase the price of heroin or cause a shortage. [continues 214 words]
Pot seems to ease pain, but for which conditions and at what dose? A study led by Mark Ware aims to fill that gap Curled on the floor retching, Tzvetanka Chiderova yelled for her mother to get the water pipe. Within minutes, the Montreal web-designer stopped gagging. The waves of nausea disappeared, she said. "It was instantaneous," said Chiderova, who turned to marijuana for medicinal purposes as a last resort while being treated for stomach cancer. Without it, she says, she could not have continued with life-saving chemotherapy. [continues 813 words]
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, but scientific research into its appropriate uses has lagged. Dr. Mark Ware would like to change that. Dr. Ware, 50, is the director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids and the director of clinical research of the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of McGill University Health Center. Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada for 16 years, and Dr. Ware, a practicing physician, studies how his patients take the drug and under what conditions it is effective. [continues 1078 words]
Health officials reported a dramatic drop in the number of fatal overdoses linked to a toxic street drug often sold as ecstasy, but they warned the chemical has not disappeared from the black market. Officials say a steep decline in overdose deaths related to paramethoxymethamphetamine, or PMMA, came after "unprecedented" collaboration among policing and health agencies that issued public alerts about the drug. "The public awareness and the public health co-ordination was not only helpful, but it was necessary to save lives," said Dr. Mark Yarema, medical director of Alberta's Poison and Drug Information Service. [continues 432 words]
As of April, Health Canada gave doctors the go-ahead to prescribe medical marijuana, but to which patient and at what dose? It was put in the hands of physicians who did not know what to prescribe "for lack of hard evidence," says Denis deBlois, Universite de Montreal professor of pharmacy and co-director of a research group on medication. Marijuana for therapeutic reasons remains controversial. Few clinical trials have evaluated its effects. Which conditions does it help? There's a strict process of evaluation of risk-to-benefit ratio before Health Canada gives its stamp of approval to a medication, but that's not the case for marijuana, said deBlois, a co-organizer of a one-day symposium on medical marijuana that takes place Friday and brings together experts in pain management, addiction, and drug monitoring. [continues 402 words]
DOWN THE HALL from the supervised injection room at Insite, there's a mostly unused space that years ago was haphazardly filled with boxes. Unique for a storage space, it's outfitted to accommodate heavy air-handling units powerful enough to create negative room pressure. Over coffee earlier this summer, Portland Hotel Society (PHS) cofounder and former executive director Mark Townsend explained that Insite was originally planned to provide services to a variety of drug users. The room stuffed with boxes was designed as a place where people addicted to crack cocaine could smoke the drug in conditions that minimize risks of fatal overdose and infection, he said. [continues 671 words]
It was a discussion with a patient, who attempted suicide after failing to respond to antidepressants, which recently prompted Dr. David Juurlink of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre to do something he had never done. The man explained how after years of suffering anxiety and work-related stress, and not responding to psychotropic drugs, he only felt at peace when smoking a joint during his evening walk with the dog. For the first time in his 20-year career, Juurlink, an internist and head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, suggested the patient talk to his family doctor about medical marijuana. "This was a revelatory clinical encounter for me," recalls Juurlink in a commentary published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. "Endorsing the use of medicinal cannabis for this patient was the right thing to do." He wasn't the only one weighing in on the issue. [continues 523 words]
The Evidence Shows That Enthusiasm for Medical Marijuana Has Outpaced the Scientific Evidence in Favour of It With very little fanfare, Health Canada has changed the law and now allows physicians to prescribe marijuana to patients for certain medical conditions. On April 1, Health Canada implemented its Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations. Why it chose April Fool's Day and why it spells marijuana with an "h" are still unclear to me. Nevertheless, Canadians can now go to their doctor and ask for a prescription of dried cannabis for medical purposes. But just because you can does not mean that you should. [continues 595 words]
The Vancouver Police Department says it has no plans to investigate a non-profit society for selling crack cocaine pipes from two vending machines located in the Downtown Eastside. The PHS Community Services Society, which also co-manages the Insite supervised drug injection site, installed the vending machines eight months ago and has sold an average of 700 pipes per week for 25 cents each. "While there may be sections within the Criminal Code [of Canada] that could be applicable to the sale of such an item, the police have to consider the likelihood of a conviction and public interest when contemplating any investigation or recommending charges," said Const. Brian Montague, a VPD liaison officer, in an email to the Courier. "At this time, it is being considered a public health matter and there are no plans to begin a criminal investigation." [continues 559 words]
Pro-Medical Marijuana Organization Targets the 2014 Ohio Ballot; Entrepreneurs Prepare for Eventual Legalization Ohioans could soon legally toke up if the Ohio Rights Group succeeds in its efforts to legalize medical marijuana and industrial hemp across the state. The 2014 ballot effort tackles the issue as Colorado and Washington move along with full-on marijuana legalization and President Barack Obama, a vocal skeptic of legalization, allows both states to pursue their "experiments." But before Ohio can vote on the issue in November, the Ohio Rights Group first needs to gather 385,247 petition signatures, which in large part must come from at least half of Ohio's 88 counties, and present them to Ohio's secretary of state before a July deadline. For a grassroots campaign, that presents a considerable -- and costly -- statewide undertaking. [continues 1067 words]
MEDICAL MARIJUANA A 'TOOL IN THE TOOL BOX' Dr. Mark Ware first witnessed the powerful pain relieving effects of marijuana while working at a clinic dedicated to sickle cell anemia research in Jamaica in 1998. A Rastafarian in his late 70s, with full blown sickle cell disease, had made the trek from his home in the mountains to the Kingston clinic. He was much older than the average life expectancy for someone with the disease and didn't exhibit any of the tell-tale symptoms, such as severe pain in the chest, hands and joints. Instead, he was fit and spry. [continues 965 words]
What role should doctors play in the control of marijuana? Health Canada in a news release late last year announced proposals for "new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations," suggesting that "changes improve public safety [and] maintain patient access."1 The document goes on to suggest that "the proposed new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations aim to treat marihuana as much as possible like any other narcotic used for medical purposes."1 Under the existing regulations it is the federal minister of health who issues a patient with authorization to possess marijuana. Under the proposed new regulations it is doctors, or possibly other health practitioners, who will issue "a medical document, similar to a prescription" allowing their patient to obtain marijuana. The language is soothing and suggests that marijuana is a medicine, albeit one that needs special oversight like morphine and for which users may be seen as patients in certain circumstances. It is but a sma! ll step from here to suggest that doctors should prescribe marijuana for medical indications. But is marijuana a medicine? Or, more specifically, is it a prescription medicine? [continues 819 words]
"It is time for the government to make up its mind." So says Canadian Medical Association Journal editor-in-chief John Fletcher in the current issue of the journal. "Does it want marijuana to become a medicine?" It's a good question, and one that Fletcher poses in response to proposed changes to the medical marijuana regulations, changes that, according to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, "strike the right balance between public access and public safety." Noting that, "In the past decade, Canada's Marihuana Medical Access program has grown exponentially, from under 500 authorized persons in 2002 to over 26,000 today," the feds expressed concern that many people have been hiding behind the regulations to produce marijuana in their homes. [continues 432 words]
An unprecedented initiative led by Vancouver Coastal Health that saw 150,000 crack cocaine smoking kits distributed in the city is expected to continue, according to the agency's chief medical health officer. Dr. Patricia Daly said the number one recommendation of a draft report on the initiative, which included an experiment that monitored 250 crack smokers in the Downtown Eastside, is to hand out more kits. Participants of the experiment and non-participants received the kits and Daly said supplies are still available, although increasing the number of kits and extending the experiment is a decision of Vancouver Coastal Health's harm reduction committee. The program so far has cost $100,000, according to Vancouver Coastal Health. [continues 412 words]
To the Editor, Re: Police seize cocaine, cash in drug arrest, Jan 17. The recent seizure of drugs and weapons by Nanaimo RCMP does nothing to disrupt supply and won't prevent more illicit drugs from entering the city. The largest drug seizure in Canadian history took place in 2000 when 100 kilograms of heroin was confiscated in Vancouver's port. Subsequent research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2003 showed that contrary to law enforcement predictions, the price of heroin actually dropped in Vancouver. A seizure of this magnitude had no impact on supply. [continues 176 words]
Medi-Pot Good for a Number of Ailments Proponents of medical marijuana have rolled out any number of useful applications from curing cancer to easing boredom. Here are five trial-proven uses for medi-pot: Chronic pain: In a 2010 study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, 21 volunteers were tested with three different strengths of cannabis. Subjects smoked a random strain of pot for two months, three times a day in five-day stretches. The upshot of the experiment: The stronger the pot, the more their pain was reduced. [continues 141 words]
For years, multiple sclerosis patients have told doctors that smoking marijuana makes them feel better. Now there is research to back up those assertions. The study, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that cannabis eased pain by 50 per cent and reduced spasticity, or muscle stiffness, by 30 per cent. "We were very, very skeptical in the beginning," said the lead researcher Jody Corey-Bloom, a neurologist at the University of California, San Diego. "But we were able to look at this objectively and, in fact, we did demonstrate some efficacy. It does at least give credence to what some patients have been saying." [continues 271 words]
Smoking marijuana can relieve muscle tightness, spasticity (contractions) and pain often experienced by those with multiple sclerosis, says research out of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The findings, just published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, included a controlled trial with 30 participants to understand whether inhaled cannabis would help complicated cases where existing pharmaceuticals are ineffective or trigger adverse side effects. MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. [continues 282 words]
Canada's new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders are based on "very bad criminal law policy" and constitute a threat to public health as well as the concept of judicial proportionality, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour says. The law should, and almost certainly will, face a justifiable constitutional challenge, Arbour adds of the omnibus crime legislation, Bill C-10, which received royal assent in March (www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocidT65759&file=4). Forcing judges to impose minimum sentences for drug offences endangers the legal precept of proportionality, under which judges must tailor the level of punishment to the severity of the crime, adds the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights and former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. [continues 734 words]
THE QUESTION Marijuana has been investigated as a medicinal aid for people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions. Might smoking marijuana help relieve the muscle spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis? THIS STUDY involved 30 adults (average age, 51) with MS who had spasticity (tight, difficult-to-control muscles) that had not responded well to treatment. To get around, nearly half used a cane or walker, and 20 percent needed a wheelchair. Under supervision, they smoked either a marijuana cigarette or a placebo cigarette once a day for three days, averaging four puffs per cigarette. Eleven days later, the process was repeated but with participants smoking the other substance. Before and after each daily session, health professionals used a standardized scale to evaluate muscle tone in elbows, hips and knees; cognitive abilities also were tested. Participants had about 30 percent less spasticity after smoking marijuana than after using the placebo, and they reported 50 percent less pain. Scores on cognitive tests were consistently lower after marijuana use than before. The marijuana was described as well tolerated, but side effects included dizziness and nausea, and a few people said they felt "too high." [continues 222 words]
A study published Monday contends medically prescribed heroin is more cost-effective than methadone for treating long-term heroin users. The people given the medically prescribed heroin in the form of diacetylmorphine were also likely to live longer than those on methadone maintenance. They stayed in treatment longer and spent less time in relapse than methadone users. Those results are associated with less criminal activity and lower health-care costs. An average lifetime societal cost of $1.14 million was predicted for people in the methadone study group. But those in the diacetylmorphine group were projected to cost $1.09 million over their lifetimes. [continues 165 words]
Addicts given the traditional maintenance drug were more likely to relapse and for longer, and cost the health, justice systems more Using heroin to treat relapsed heroin users is more cost-effective than traditional methadone maintenance, according to a new study based on North America's only clinical trial of medically prescribed heroin. A mathematical analysis using data from the North American Opiate Medication Initiative ( NAOMI) found that addicts prescribed heroin were less likely to relapse than those taking methadone and spent less time in relapse, which reduced their lifetime costs for health care and criminal justice and extended their lives. [continues 588 words]
Treatment More Economical, Users Likely to Live Longer, Research Shows VANCOUVER - A study published Monday contends medically prescribed heroin is more cost effective than methadone for treating long-term street heroin users. The people given the medically prescribed heroin in the form of diacetylmorphine were also likely to live longer than those on methadone maintenance, according to the study by researchers at Providence Health Care and the University of B.C. Addicts stayed in treatment longer and spent less time in relapse than methadone users. Those results are associated with less criminal activity and lower health-care costs. [continues 306 words]
Health: Retention rate in project is double Vancouver's SAINT JOHN - The uptown methadone clinic is leading the country in its retention rates, and could serve to be a model across the globe, says a researcher with the Horizon Health Network. Operating out of the St. Joseph's Community Health Centre, it is one of two methadone clinics in the city, and in its first year of operation 95 per cent of participants stayed. That is more than double the rate in Vancouver's program, said Tim Christie, director of ethics for Horizon. [continues 703 words]
Drug Companies, Government and Doctors Remain Divided on Plant's Medical Future A decade after Canada legalized the medical use of marijuana, most doctors are still refusing to sign the declarations patients need to get legal access to pot - meaning patients in pain risk being jailed if they use a drug that helps them function. It's a predicament that threatens to become worse because of proposed changes to how Health Canada regulates access to the drug. At first glance, it appears the government is easing up on strict rules for obtaining medicinal marijuana. Health Canada has proposed removing itself as the ultimate arbiter in approving or rejecting applications to possess. [continues 1421 words]
Drug Companies, Government and Doctors Divided on Plant's Medical Future A decade after Canada legalized the medical use of marijuana, most doctors are still refusing to sign the declarations patients need to get legal access to pot -- meaning patients in pain risk being jailed if they use a drug that helps them function. It's a predicament that threatens to become worse because of proposed changes to how Health Canada regulates access to the drug. At first glance, it appears the government is easing up on strict rules for obtaining medicinal marijuana. Health Canada has proposed removing itself as the ultimate arbiter in approving or rejecting applications to possess. [continues 1422 words]
Patients Left in Pain; Some Users Risked Being Jailed for Using a Drug That Helps Them Function. and Proposed Health Canada Changes Could Make the Situation Worse, Writes Sharon Kirkey A decade after Canada legalized the medical use of marijuana, most doctors are still refusing to sign the declarations patients need to get legal access to pot - meaning patients in pain risk being jailed if they use a drug that helps them function. It's a predicament that threatens to become worse because of proposed changes to how Health Canada regulates access to the drug. [continues 1353 words]
Re: "No fan of Insite," Letter, Sept. 8. MP Joy Smith states there are "no peer-reviewed, scientifically sound studies that support claims that safe injection sites save lives and have significant success in helping their clients to become drug free." This is either misinformed or intentionally misleading. Since 2003, Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site, has been subject to more than 30 peer-reviewed studies which found a reduction in public injecting, lower levels of HIV risk behaviours (e.g., syringe sharing), an increase in uptake of addiction treatment among the facility's clients, and a reduction in overdose deaths. [continues 113 words]
