Located in Vancouver, Insite is North America's first and only safe injection site. Since it opened in 2003, nearly 10,000 individuals have visited the facility to use drugs and receive access to health care services in the event of an overdose. But even today, some five years later, its existence is far from secure. The Harper government has been fighting through the courts to have the facility shut down, and recently appealed a B.C. court decision that allowed Insite to remain open, with the final ruling coming in April 2009. Below, two U1 students debate whether Insite's resources perpetuate drug addiction or lead addicts on a path to recovery. [continues 971 words]
The more than two dozens studies on Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site, have revealed many positive outcomes associated with the facility: A decrease in needle-sharing, public injections and publicly discarded syringes, and increased uptake of detoxification and treatment services. The research has also suggested a lack of negative outcomes, including no apparent increase in crime near the site, and no increase in new drug users. Despite this, naysayers continue to lament the existence of the site, often arguing that it is simply eating up too much money to justify its existence. [continues 457 words]
With the Courts Striking Down the Federal Government's Monopoly on Supplying Medical Marijuana, Private Growers Are Bullish on Pot's Commercial Potential Eric Nash can barely contain his excitement waiting to hear from Health Canada whether he can start growing marijuana for 250 patients now that the Federal Court of Appeal has struck down the government's monopoly on supplying medical marijuana. That would be just the start. He says there are tens of thousands more who are ailing across the country, clamouring for his organic B.C. bud. [continues 1905 words]
In their criticism of Insite, Vancouver's supervised-injection facility for intravenous drug users, federal Conservatives assert the volumes of research citing the program's benefits are misleading; look closely, some say, and you will notice that the same few authors - read harm-reduction zealots - have been responsible for almost all the reports. It's a spurious criticism; these studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals. But it is a yet more flimsy argument after the Canadian Medical Association Journal's publication of the latest Insite-related research. [continues 283 words]
Not Surprisingly, There Isn't Much Help For Them Last summer, Stephen Hwang of the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital wrote a commentary, endorsed by more than 130 other scientists and health professionals, which began by asking the reader to consider the following hypothetical scenario: "An innovative new intervention for people with diabetes is developed. Health Canada provides funding to a highly accomplished group of academic health scientists, who have no financial conflicts of interest with respect to the new intervention, to conduct research on its effectiveness. [continues 1264 words]
Just Reducing Needle Sharing Could Save $14 Million In 10 Years, Research Suggests Vancouver's supervised drug injection site can save the Canadian health-care system as much as $20 million and substantially increase a population's lifespan over a 10-year period, according to a study to be published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study, which used a computer simulation, measured the projected impacts on Vancouver in the next decade with and without its controversial Insite facility, the only such facility in Canada. It found that, when the only impact of such a facility is assumed to be a reduction in the prevalence of needle-sharing by drug users, there is a projected net saving of nearly $14 million over 10 years. [continues 499 words]
Canada's only supervised drug injection site can save the Canadian health care system as much as $20-million and substantially increase a population's life span over a 10-year period in Vancouver, according to a study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study, which used a computer simulation model, measured the projected impacts on Vancouver in the next decade with and without its controversial Insite facility. It found that when the only impact of such a facility is assumed to be a decrease in the prevalence of needle sharing by drug users, there is a projected net savings of nearly $14-million over 10 years. [continues 218 words]
Keeping Vancouver Facility Open Would Help Increase Population's Lifespan, Thwart Diseases, Experts Suggest Canada's only supervised drug injection site can save the Canadian health care system as much as $20 million and substantially increase a population's lifespan over a 10-year period in Vancouver, according to a study to be published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study, which used a computer simulation model, measured the projected impacts on Vancouver in the next decade with and without its controversial Insite facility. [continues 180 words]
Health Care Could Be Spared $18 Million In Costs Vancouver's supervised drug-injection site should save the Canadian health-care system at least $14 million, even without counting the benefits of preventing drug-overdose deaths, according to a new study. The controversial Insite facility will also save hundreds of lives, or significantly extend them, by preventing HIV infection, the report finds. The study was published yesterday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a physician specializing in HIV at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and Gregory Zaric from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London. [continues 263 words]
Vancouver's safe-injection site will save the health-care system at least $14-million and prevent more than 1,000 HIV infections over a 10-year period, according to a new study about the controversial program. The study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, is the latest piece of research to suggest the potential social benefit of Insite in helping curb substance abuse, and reducing the spread of hepatitis C, HIV and other infectious diseases. "We were a bit surprised. The model really suggests that there are very considerable benefits," said Ahmed Bayoumi, lead author and scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health in Toronto. [end]
Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection facility for injection drug users, opened in 2003 under an exemption from Canadian federal drug laws. A substantial amount of research has since been conducted on the facility (www.vch.ca/sis/). Although randomized controlled trials have not been possible, the research has indicated substantial public health benefits associated with the facility's operation. In this issue, Bayoumi and Zaric present a model of the cost-effectiveness of Insite.1 The model's basic comparison is between other interventions for the prevention of HIV infection in Vancouver, such as needle-exchange programs and methadone maintenance treatment, and these interventions plus Insite. Although the authors recognize great potential variation of the cost-effectiveness in their sensitivity analyses, some of their model's assumptions are questionable. Most importantly, the model generates an incidence rate of HIV infection of 5-6 per 100 person-years over their 10-year time horizon. This estimated rate forces us to challenge their cost-effectiveness model. [continues 1541 words]
With Courts Striking Down the Government's Monopoly on Supplying Medical Marijuana, Private Growers Are Clamouring to Capitalize on Pot's Commercial Potential DUNCAN - Eric Nash can barely contain his excitement waiting to hear from Health Canada whether he can start growing marijuana for 250 patients. That would be just the start. There are tens of thousands more who are ailing across the country clamouring for his organic B.C. bud. "There is a great opportunity here for the government to collect significant tax revenue currently being lost to the street market," Nash, one of the best-known legal cannabis producers, enthused. [continues 3558 words]
It is disappointing to read another editorial in which the facts about Vancouver Coastal Health's supervised injection site (SIS) are again ignored. Over 30 independent peer-reviewed studies confirm Insite is saving lives in the Downtown Eastside. The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and the Canadian Medical Association Journal are hardly places where you'd expect to find "flawed research," as The Province states. Insite serves an extremely marginalized population, disconnected to many things most of us take for granted, including health care. Last year, Insite nurses intervened in 222 overdoses; half were full respiratory arrest. They were not breathing. Had Insite staff not intervened, many likely would have died or been permanently injured. [continues 372 words]
Study After Study Supports Insite's Value, Yet The Tories Want To Shut It Down Insite, the medically supervised injection site in Vancouver's downtown eastside, is a moral test the Conservatives seem determined to fail. As a safe, supervised place for intravenous drug addicts to go, the clinic has saved lives, helped slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, provided support to mentally ill or homeless drug addicts, and helped stabilize a large population of addicts in Canada's poorest urban neighbourhood. [continues 669 words]
I read with interest the recent Public Health piece on methamphetamine hydrochloride (crystal meth).1 Two subsequent articles on the same topic provided more details, but there were no comments on prevention programs or on limiting production of this drug.2,3 I had a distinct sense of deja vu. Forty-five years ago, I reported in CMAJ the first North American case of addiction to diethylpropion.4 This drug is chemically distinct from amphetamines, but the symptoms resulting from abuse are identical to those described by Buxton and Dove.1 The only difference is one of degree. [continues 169 words]
[One of the authors responds:] Joseph Caplan's suggestion that the chemicals involved in the synthesis of methamphetamine hydrochloride be regulated is highly relevant to the prevention of crystal meth use, but this issue was outside the scope of my review article.1 Canada's Precursor Control Regulations include requirements, as Caplan recommends, to control precursors and other substances used in the production of methamphetamine, including ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and red phosphorus.2 Before 2003 these regulations did not exist and there was much concern, especially in the United States, about the export of precursors from Canada for illicit methamphetamine production.3 It can be argued that the Canadian legislation should be strengthened by requiring more frequent reporting by the chemical industry of the sale of precursors, by requiring licensing of end-users and by other approaches such as requiring that anhydrous ammonia (a nitrogen fertilizer used in methamphetamine synthesis) be stored in government-approved containers.4 [continues 331 words]
VANCOUVER -- The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analyzed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. [continues 166 words]
Since We Spend All Our Time Talking About the Tiny Speck That Is Harm Reduction, Maybe We Should Just Get Rid of It and Move on to the Enormous Mess of Drug Policy in General I've been writing about drug policy for more than a decade. In that time, I've seen the failure of current policies in a numbing array of statistics. I've seen the damage inflicted by our mistakes everywhere from Colombia to Russia and the streets of Vancouver's infamous downtown eastside. [continues 1291 words]
The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analyzed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. [continues 353 words]
Researchers Find Most Side-Effects Not Serious VANCOUVER - The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analyzed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. [continues 236 words]
VANCOUVER -- The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analysed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. [continues 353 words]
Users Experience More Drowsiness, Dizziness Than Non-Users, Research Finds The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, says an analysis of safety studies co-authored by University of B.C. and McGill University researchers. The researchers evaluated 31 studies done around the world during the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects like drowsiness and dizziness compared to non-users, according to the study in the June 17 Canadian Medical Association Journal. [continues 515 words]
VANCOUVER -- The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analyzed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. [continues 134 words]
'Not About Tasers' The message inside the meeting room was one thing -- "we're not talking about Tasers" one speaker said three or four times during a presentation to 250 police officers and paramedics -- but the chatter outside was quite another. "I've been Tasered twice -- once sober and once drunk," said an officer during the break. "How many times have you used yours?" another asked a colleague. A third complained her force now makes her fill out a form every time she uses her Taser, while another described it as "kind of freaky" zapping someone for the first time. [continues 897 words]
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction Gabor Mate MD; Knopf Canada; 2008; 480 pp $34.95 ISBN 978-0-676-97740-0 If stigma still shapes the ways we understand and respond to addictions in contemporary society - and it does - then this book deserves our attention. Gabor Mate employs both passion and reason in shaping an ambitious, sprawling book that is engaging and provocative. The crucible that shapes Mate's views is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where for 8 years he has been staff doctor for the Portland Hotel Society, a remarkable agency offering "safety and caring to marginalized and stigmatized people," by housing and supporting the homeless. It is there that Mate starts and ends the book - with his patients and himself. But the journey he takes us on passes through all kinds of rough terrain to show us what addiction is, how it develops and what can be done about it. [continues 967 words]
Sobriety model doesn't help many street people AS someone who has worked in the field for over 20 years, even I was stunned to see the tabulated costs of providing police and ambulance services as reported by the Winnipeg Police Service (38 street people costing millions, Free Press, Feb. 2). On a day-to-day basis, you know it is costing money somewhere, but the totals still astound. Coun. Gord Steeves had it right when he said: "There has to be a better way to do this" in response to the report, and he's also right when he said that the answer is some form of "long-term care." I hasten to add, however, that the type of long-term care we need is unlike anything that is available now. Some better solutions are out there if we want to change our thinking a bit. [continues 614 words]
We're All Strung Out Somehow A Vancouver Doctor Who Treats The Most Desperate Calls For Compassion And Common Sense In Our Approaches To Addiction In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate Knopf Canada, 465 pages, $34.95 He would dispute it, pointing instead to a deep clinical understanding of the nefarious workings of addiction, but Dr. Gabor Maté is something of a compassion machine, hugely wary of casting the first stone. How else to regard the one-man M.A.S.H. unit (a physician working Vancouver's squalid Downtown Eastside) whose pitiful patient roster includes hardcore drug addicts who can't stop using despite pregnancy, potential limb and digit amputation and even possible quadriplegia? [continues 934 words]
Youth Substance Use And Abuse: Challenges And Strategies For Identification And Intervention Jeremy is 17 and has lived on the street for 3 years. He visits the emergency department for the fifth time in the past month reporting chest pain: "My heart's jumping out of my chest. Think I'm having a heart attack or something." He further reports symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks. He admits to using cannabis daily, and cocaine and ecstasy several times a week. The emergency physician takes a few minutes to ask Jeremy about his health concerns. Jeremy says he wants "to know that I'm not crazy." The physician wonders why Jeremy has not visited the substance abuse treatment agency he has been referred to and subsequently allays his fear that he will be "locked up" if he goes for treatment. With Jeremy's permission, the physician leaves a message for a worker at the street youth centre where Jeremy often hangs out. The following week, the worker accompanies Jeremy for an assessment at the treatment agency and to an appointment to see a psychiatrist. With support from the youth centre, Jeremy applies to stay at a group home to stabilize his living situation while he seeks treatment. [continues 2310 words]
Safe Injection Sites Aren't The Entire Solution to Addiction, but They Do a Great Deal of Good I remember my first experiences in the Downtown Eastside as shocking, and I too was naive about the problems there when I left the hospital as a nurse to work in the community. It's now been almost 17 years working in that very neighbourhood. Addiction is clearly dreadful and tragic, but those who offer simplistic solutions offer false hope. Meanwhile, people with addictions suffer and die. [continues 791 words]
Vancouver's safe injection site isn't the whole solution to the drug problem in the Downtown Eastside -- but it has done a great deal of good Liz Evans Citizen Special I was saddened by Margret Kopala's recent column, "Revoke this licence to enable" (Dec. 8). Like Ms. Kopala, I remember my first experiences in the Downtown Eastside as shocking, and I too was naive about the problems there when I left the hospital as a nurse to work in the community. It's now been almost 17 years working in the very neighbourhood Ms. Kopala describes. [continues 885 words]
Interesting ideas can cross your mind at the strangest times. Recently, my own ruminations were sparked in the men's room on the fifth floor of Davis Library, where I noticed that someone had scrawled "legalize it" on the tile wall. Normally, the graffiti found in UNC's bathrooms is entertaining but not very thought provoking. But this wasn't your ordinary act of vandalism. Instead it inspired me to ponder if I could answer the question of whether marijuana should be legal from an objective point of view. [continues 542 words]
Re: "Europeans know that drug abuse is an illness and not a crime," Oct. 23. That drug abuse is an illness not a crime is not an argument to make marijuana freely available. To clarify the dangers of marijuana use: Ottawa Citizen columnist Margret Kopala wrote about the issue in the Oct. 9 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In her article, Kopala refers to a 2007systematic review published in the highly regarded British Lancet on cannabis use and the risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes. According to this meta-analysis, all users are at risk of developing mental illness and 14 per cent of British patients with schizophrenia could have avoided the illness if they had not used the drug. [continues 97 words]
COMMENT: (1-4) Thursday more than 200 medical cannabis patients and advocates rallied in front of the Governor's office in downtown Los Angeles demanding that he stand up for patients' rights and the will of California voters and lawmakers. Thursday evening the DEA and LAPD staged a raid on one of Los Angeles' most respected collectives, the Arts District Healing Center. Dozens of protesters turned out to defend the dispensary. The newspaper articles did not relate the two events, but we have to wonder if the DEA and the LAPD staged the raid when they did to thumb their nose at both the patients and California law. [continues 6090 words]
Studies have suggested that as many as 1 in 4 cannabis users may be genetically at risk for developing schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder. Now, a new study reveals all users are at risk.[1] Given recent United Nations' statistics citing Canada as the industrial world's leading consumer of cannabis, this news should set alarm bells ringing. After all, a leading role in cannabis consumption sets the stage for a leading role in psychotic disorders. Instead, Canada's mainstream media responded in chorus from The Happy Hippy Hymn Book, failing to notice that it is 10 years out of date. [continues 667 words]
Safe Injection Site Advocates Call Six-Month Reprieve a Political Move The organization that conducted the most comprehensive evaluation of the city's supervised injection site has rejected a contract with the federal government to conduct further research on the facility. The government contract offered two weeks ago to the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS included a "gag order" on the results of the research, said Dr. Thomas Kerr, a research scientist with the B.C. Centre. "We could produce an analysis showing that there's been a huge reduction in some type of health outcome and then have the health minister stand up and say once again the research has shown nothing--and we're supposed to sit there and not say anything," Kerr explained. "It was a very politically motivated contract, and we just couldn't do it. We don't work that way." [continues 460 words]
Federal Minister of Health Tony Clement promised a bevy of new health-related federal initiatives in an address to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) annual General Council in Vancouver Aug. 20, including a crackdown on illicit drug use, a renewed tobacco-control strategy aimed at reducing national smoking rates to 12% from 19% by 2011 and more stringent regulations to prevent the import of counterfeit or contaminated food, drugs and consumer products. Clement was most emphatic about the need for a tough new national strategy to prevent illicit drug use, indicating that the government is determined to redress the long-standing absence of a "significant anti-drug campaign," a condition that he asserted has led to Canada having the highest percentage of marijuana users (16.8%) in the industrial world. [continues 205 words]
(1) COPS SAY RESOURCES STRETCHED THIN Pubdate: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Province Author: John Colebourn Vancouver police said yesterday their resources are being "stretched thin" in the war on gangs. "The violence is on everybody's radar," said Insp. Dean Robinson. "We are doing everything we can about it as a police department and we are working in concert with other agencies. "We're stretched thin .... We're not the only section in the department that could use more numbers. [continues 7074 words]
But Where's The Science? New evidence-based guidelines are urgently needed to help doctors negotiate Canada's hazy medical marijuana landscape, particularly in light of Health Canada's efforts to impose new dose limits, say the nation's leading cannabis researcher and doctors who have been queried about their marijuana authorizations. Canada should also re-establish a formal process for developing responsible dosing strategies, says Mark Ware of McGill's University Health Centre, the sole researcher funded under the now defunct Medical Marijuana Research Program (CMAJ 2006;175:[12]: 1507-8). [continues 948 words]
There are few votes to be had in looking out for the interests of prison inmates. But in light of new research, it has never been clearer that politicians are not just endangering criminals with their refusal to do so but also costing the rest of us. Official policy is to keep illegal drugs out of jails. This is an admirable goal, but it does not appear to be working. Whether through employees or visitors, narcotics have a way of making it into prisons. And when inmates use them, they do so with an even higher risk than drug users on the outside. [continues 557 words]
Nearly one-third of federal prison inmates in Atlantic Canada have hepatitis C, prompting officials to hire a hepatologist to manage their care. Documents from Correctional Service Canada say about 29 per cent of inmates in this region are known to be infected with the hepatitis C virus, which can lead to chronic liver infection, cirrhosis and even liver failure. That rate compares to 0.31 per cent of the Nova Scotia population who were infected with hepatitis C between 1997 and 2006, according to the provincial Health Promotion and Protection Department. [continues 599 words]
'The Evolution of Drug Use' Brings Hillbilly Heroin into High Fashion An increasing number of Victoria drug dealers are selling prescription painkillers -- sometimes referred to as hillbilly heroin -- on the streets, pushing the city toward a troublesome trend already plaguing major Canadian cities. "I would term it as the evolution of the drug use in Victoria," said Const. Conor King, a drug expert. "What we're seeing is people who are heroin and cocaine dealers are becoming prescription drug dealers as well." [continues 590 words]
Evan Wood, MD PhD, Julio S. Montaner, MD, Kathy Li, MSc, Lucy Barney, RN MSN, Mark W. Tyndall, MD ScD and Thomas Kerr, PhD From the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (Wood, Montaner, Li, Tyndall, Kerr), St. Paul's Hospital; the Department of Medicine (Wood, Montaner, Kerr), University of British Columbia; and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (Barney), Vancouver, BC Correspondence to: Dr. Evan Wood, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Rm. 608, 1081 Burrard St., Vancouver BC V6Z 1Y6; fax 604 806-9044; ewood@cfenet.ubc.ca [continues 295 words]
There are times when we here in The Tribune's editorial department peruse the Canadian Press wire service and just shake our heads in disbelief. Here are a couple of examples. It seems that researchers at the University of Lethbridge and the University of Toronto are launching a project that will involve enlisting the aid of 180 sex offenders in a study. Over the next two years, those involved in the study will be paid a nominal fee to study computerized images of fully clothed children and then discuss their sexual and emotional reactions. [continues 367 words]
Ottawa must build its own drug policy. Just as wise people listen graciously to advice, Ottawa can learn from other cities, including Vancouver. But as with people, so with cities: Maturity means making your own decisions. Insp. John McKay, a Vancouver police officer, knows the notorious Downtown Eastside too well. He recently warned Ottawa that the capital could also become a haven for drug use if it relies too much on harm reduction and forgets enforcement, treatment and prevention. He's right that those other approaches are necessary, although his statement that "harm reduction for drug addicts is harm production for everyone else" is unfounded. It should be noted that Insp. McKay is speaking for himself, not for Vancouver. In Vancouver as in Ottawa, there is often tension between the police and the city authorities. [continues 336 words]
Officers Deserve Credit For Targeting Dealers, But The Only Real Solution Is To Reduce Demand Full credit to Victoria police for a successful undercover operation aimed at disrupting a major local source of heroin and cocaine. But don't expect "Project Plato," as the exercise was dubbed, to have any effect on problems on Victoria's streets in terms of making drugs harder to get or more expensive or curbing crime. The five people charged will go through the legal process and, if convicted, will likely face prison time. Every dealer will likely be looking nervously over their shoulders for a while. [continues 365 words]
Trend Has Created Increased Trafficking In Sometimes-Deadly Counterfeit Medications, UN-Affiliated Agency Says VIENNA -- Abuse of prescription drugs will soon be higher than the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade -- counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill -- a global watchdog warned Wednesday. Already, prescription drug abuse has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the UN-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006. [continues 479 words]
Two major studies on the health effects of marijuana were published this week, but they blew in opposite directions. One study found that cannabis could be an effective means of easing nerve pain in patients infected with the virus that causes AIDS. "This placebo-controlled clinical trial showed that people with HIV who smoked cannabis had substantially greater pain reduction than those who did not smoke cannabis," said Donald Abrams, who led the research team at the University of California, San Francisco. [continues 820 words]
We read with interest Wendy Muckle and Jeffrey Turnbull's guest editorial on homelessness.1 Although shelters are not perfect, they do protect people from some aspects of homelessness. For example, there is evidence of cognitive impairment in some homeless people,2 and this association is partially dependent on housing quality.3 We compared substance misuse in 31 homeless people staying in supportive shelters with that in 15 people who were literally roofless in Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Thirteen (87%) of the roofless people had injected drugs in the past month compared with only 4 (13%) of the people in shelters. All 15 (100%) of the roofless people had been using heroin or crack cocaine regularly in the past year compared with only 10 (32%) of the people living in shelters. [continues 200 words]
During the last decade, Vancouver has been the national epicentre for drug-related harm. Particularly within the Downtown Eastside (DTES), illicit injection drug use has led to epidemics of overdose-related deaths and infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. The DTES has an estimated number of 1,400 to 1,900 HIV-positive residents -- approximately one-tenth of its total population. This costs the Canadian health care system roughly $320,000 for each person infected. For years groups in the affected community, such as the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, have been advocating for a medically supervised safe injection clinic. [continues 1917 words]
Rejecting the findings of a Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) review that indicated needle-exchange programs for injection drug users in prisons reduce the need for health care interventions, the Conservative government says sterile syringes aren't needed to control the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C in cellblocks. Although a Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP) has long been advocated as a means of reducing the spiraling incidence and cost of treating infectious diseases within the prison population, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has decided a needle-exchange program is fiscally unjustified. [continues 390 words]
