Re: Policing a 'perfect storm,' Nov. 23 How nice. CityTV decides to "entertain" us by showing the poor and the mentally ill desperately trying to survive in the dangerous environment of the Downtown Eastside and you decide to promote this sick freak show. I'll bet my pension CityTV will never mention that most of the harm done by illegal drugs is because the damn stuff is prohibited. Alan Randell [end]
Doctors in Canada are so skittish about the medical use of marijuana that a third of MDs who have been asked to endorse a patient's access to the drug never agree to it, a Canadian Medical Association survey suggests. Another 25 per cent of doctors who responded to the survey said they would "seldom" be willing to support a patient's access to medicinal pot; 64 per cent are worried that patients who request medical marijuana might only want it to get high. [continues 453 words]
Editor: I don't know what Glenn Driedger has been smoking, but he should change to cannabis and come to grips with reality (Faith Today, Nov. 22 Times). The Dutch consume cannabis in levels much lower than Canadians or US citizens. Any increase he notes when it semi-legalized was a short-term phenomenon, just as it will be in our countries when it is re-legalized. Dutch teenagers are much less likely to use it because the forbidden fruit syndrome has been removed and they think cannabis is something boring that old hippies do. People like Glenn are afraid of reality and the earth we live on. The rest of us don't need to be saddled with their fears and phobias. Dave Lane Santa Cruz, Calif. [end]
Editor: Re: Faith Today, Nov. 22. It's interesting that you use The Netherlands as your example for what could go wrong if we relaxed our laws on cannabis since the Dutch have between one half and one quarter the usage rates as we do in Canada, depending on what drug we are talking about. A quick check of Wikipedia found that the percentage of Cannabis users in Canada is 12.4 per cent and in the Netherlands the cannabis usage rate is 5.9 per cent. [continues 104 words]
The City of Saskatoon will soon "clarify" the definition of medical clinics to include needle exchanges, with a report saying Saskatoon's harm reduction efforts are working to reduce the spread of HIV. The report - tabled Monday with city council's executive committee - is a response to a vocal group of residents and business owners in Caswell Hill and Mayfair who spoke out against the 601 Outreach Centre needle exchange operated by AIDS Saskatoon earlier this year. The AIDS Saskatoon needle exchange has operated for 3 1/2 years out of a nondescript building at 33rd Street and Avenue F. A number of nearby business owners say the needle exchange has residents and business owners fighting perceptions the area is unsafe. [continues 437 words]
Editor: Regarding Mr. Driedger's opinion regarding legalizing cannabis and the growing numbers of calls for changing our policies concerning cannabis(Times, Nov. 22). A person totally loses all cred-ility to me when they compare using a recreational drug to robbery or murder. Now using drugs or alcohol may not be wise, may lead to problems that do affect others but we cannot police so-called crimes where all parties consent. Nor is it likely you would find 50 per cent of the population in favour of decriminalizing activities that produces actual victims. If someone is murdered, there is a victim. If someone is robbed, they call the police. If someone sells someone else a bag of pot, both people generally leave satisfied; there is no complaint to the police. Laws that attempt to make consenting activities illegal fail to curtail such activities and cause people to disrespect the law. [continues 253 words]
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that drug evidence obtained in an illegal police search can nonetheless be used by the Crown to prosecute a Nova Scotia motorist. In a 5-2 decision, the majority said that a Kentville man, Brendan David Aucoin, should not have been searched while an officer was preparing a traffic ticket for him. However, they said that the need to prosecute crime outweighs the unconstitional nature of the search. The search arose after a routine traffic stop in 2008 by a police officer who suspected a licence plate infraction. Detecting alcohol on Mr. Aucoin's breath, the officer administered a roadside screening test and impounded his car. [continues 465 words]
To the editor: Re: Marijuana busts in Northumberland spark online debate (www.northumberlandnews.com Oct. 25). I'm sorry that I did not write this letter sooner when the subject of marijuana had not yet past its due date, but I still wanted you to know that I was grateful for the firm stance you took against the decriminalization of the drug. You wrote clearly, plainly and absolutely on the topic and this is not (sadly) something people nowadays are used to. [continues 146 words]
Re: More Harm Than Good?, Meghan MacIver, Nov. 28. Atira Women's Resource Society is feminist identified, works within an anti-oppression framework and applies harm reduction principles in our day-to-day practice. With the possible exception of our feminist identity, these principles - anti-oppression and harm reduction - are widely embraced in our kind of work and are not unique to Atira. We reject the notion that the consequences of being assaulted or raped rests inside women's heads, to be "fixed" by professionals. We believe women with lived experience and women who reflect the diversity of the women who live with us are best suited to support women victims of violence. We do not refer to our women as "clients." [continues 237 words]
Canadians need to stop framing the marijuana issue in the timeless tradition of good vs. bad. We have to get past the medical argument, the gateway argument, the economic argument, the addiction argument, the failure of the war on drugs argument and many others. It's not a question of right or wrong. The legal status of marijuana, like anything else that is relatively harmless, should be based on one simple principle: that a responsible adult has the right to be in charge of his or her own affairs. [continues 540 words]
I read with interest Evan Wood's opinion (Vancouver Sun, Nov., 3, 2012) of a new drug, unavailable in Canada that could aid in the battle against addiction. While I would love to be able to support the notion that Vivitrol (naltrexone) will be a huge asset in the fight against addictions, I am highly skeptical. In my experience as executive director of Edgewood, one of North America's most respected addiction treatment centres right here in British Columbia, we have yet to find anything that is as effective as well-structured, long-term, abstinence-based residential treatment. No pill, injection, short-term detox or therapy-of-the-month has had any lasting benefit for the majority of substance-dependent people and their families suffering from this disease. [continues 577 words]
I know - I've been there and done that My solution these days does not come in a pill form. It comes in acceptance. In action. What I've been doing for 24 years. I didn't wake up. I came to. Usually abruptly. Panicked. Terrified. The first five minutes were always the worst. Where was I? Who is that person beside me? Is anything broken? Where's my wallet? Where am I supposed to be? I need water. I smell like a brewery. What did I do with my car? [continues 770 words]
Vancouver's legal supervised injection site for drug addicts IT'S just after 7:00 am but already a group of men and women stand shivering in the chilly Vancouver air, but it's not only the frigid Canadian weather and spending the night outdoors that has caused the shakes. These are drug addicts anxiously waiting for the doors of Insite - a safe and legal drug injecting facility - to open. This facility, operated by the Portland Hotel Society with partial government funding, provides drug addicts with all the sterile paraphernalia needed to inject illegal substances - such as heroin - in a safe environment where they are monitored by the staff to prevent them overdosing. [continues 895 words]
Researchers behind a four-year scientific study have recommended the establishment of two safe injection sites for Ottawa which they say would help drug users and reduce drug use in the capital. Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi and Dr. Carol Strike presented the findings of the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment on Thursday evening. The researchers participated in a panel discussion with representatives of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa and the Drug Users Advocacy League, as part of Ottawa AIDS Awareness Week. [continues 645 words]
Now that neighbouring Washington state and Colorado have legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim Canada must uphold marijuana prohibition in order to maintain good U.S. relations. In 2002, the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs concluded that marijuana is relatively benign, prohibition contributes to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on patterns of use. Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current world leader in per capita incarceration. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available to adults. The only winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant. Robert Sharpe MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC [end]
Couple Accused of Endorsing Bogus Files for Medical Marijuana Say They Don't Know Gravelle A Bancroft area doctor facing numerous charges for allegedly falsifying medical marijuana documents is connected to an ongoing police probe into a notorious Hamilton criminal organization. The RCMP say kingpin Andre Gravelle, 48, is the subject of the investigation. Police passed information to his parole officer, which led to Gravelle's parole being suspended last week. He remains in jail awaiting word from his parole officer or for a Parole Board of Canada hearing. [continues 688 words]
More Than Half of North Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana More than half of Canadians and Americans support the legalization of marijuana, according to a new poll. A two-country online survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion showed 57 per cent of Canadians and 54 per cent of Americans support the legalization of the drug and said it should be "readily available for those who want to use it." The highest support for marijuana legalization in Canada was in the Atlantic provinces, at 64 per cent. [continues 561 words]
A majority of Canadians (57%) now support full legalization of marijuana, and believe that the War On Drugs has failed (68%) and the country should seek alternatives, according to a recent Angus Reid Public Opinion Poll. Less than 11% of respondents, however, believe all drugs should be legalized. "There is growing recognition that our current system failing us," said Dr Thomas Kerr, Urban Health Research Initiative director. "We know there was a randomized control trial of heroin here in Vancouver and the results were that peoples' lives were stabilized. They used less of the drug, and they committed far fewer crimes." [continues 224 words]
Re: "Date set for D.A.R.E. (Drug Addiction Resistance Education) tribute" - published Nov. 17 on castlegarnews.com It would be of interest to Castlegar readers to know on what basis you have determined the D.A.R.E. program to be "highly successful." The opinions of the RCMP members that are being paid to promote the effectiveness of their own program, does not provide any evidence that the program is actually accomplishing the goals that it upholds, namely, "working with school children to equip them with the information and skills they need to make safe and responsible choices," "As these children grow to be responsible citizens, they will lead healthier and more productive drug-free lives." [continues 145 words]
Society Hopes to Build, Run Home for Addicts at Murdo Fraser Park A Vancouver-based non-profit is proposing to build a nine-bed women's addiction recovery house for the North Shore. The Turning Point Recovery Society of B.C. held an information meeting for residents living near the site of the proposed house at the very north tip of Lloyd Ave, past Highway 1 on Monday night. Turning Point, which has run four other recovery houses in Richmond and Vancouver for the last 30 years, is hoping to build and finance the home on land it will lease from the District of North Vancouver, according to Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn chairman of the North Shore Substance Abuse Working Group. [continues 447 words]
Inside Canada
