The announcement on Wednesday that Johns Hopkins Medicine was starting a new center to study psychedelic drugs for mental disorders was the latest chapter in a decades-long push by health nonprofits and wealthy donors to shake up psychiatry from the outside, bypassing the usual channels.

"Psychiatry is one of the most conservative specialties in medicine," said David Nichols, a medicinal chemist who founded the Heffter Research Institute in 1993 to fund psychedelic research. "We haven't really had new drugs for years, and the drug industry has quit the field because they don't have new targets" in the brain. "The field was basically stagnant, and we needed to try something different."

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WEST BRIDGEWATER - The class had covered bullying, Internet safety, and good decision-making, and by February, Officer Kenneth Thaxter could see that the sixth-graders were ready.

The lights went off, and the projector went on.

"Today," the DARE officer said, "we're going to talk about marijuana."

For 16 years, every elementary school student in this small town has learned about drugs from Thaxter. But this year, his lesson needed to change, and he was about to find out whether the students knew why.

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Nelson's top cop is preparing for the legalization of recreational marijuana

The woman waiting in the reception area of the Nelson Police Department spots Chief Constable Paul Burkart and calls his name.

"Hi Paul," she says.

The chief smiles and leans out through the open door, asking, "What can I get for you?"

The woman tells him she needs some volunteer security clearance forms. Burkart speaks to an officer in the front dispatch area and asks him to assist the visitor.

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During his election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize marijuana if we chose him as our leader. That day is near, and marijuana might be legalized on Canada Day 2018. Such a decision should not be taken lightly. Our country is not ready for this change.

To clarify, I don't want to come across as cynical. I know that medical marijuana has its place in treating patients with chronic or terminal illness. I also don't agree with throwing people in jail for carrying small amounts for personal use. I see this as a waste of time, money and resources. At the same time, however, I don't think that the legalization of marijuana is what our country needs. And I certainly don't think it will make our country healthier, happier or safer. The decision to legalize marijuana has implications for health, society and our youth.

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During his election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize marijuana if we chose him as our leader. That day is near, and marijuana might be legalized on Canada Day 2018. Such a decision should not be taken lightly. Our country is not ready for this change.

To clarify, I don't want to come across as cynical. I know that medical marijuana has its place in treating patients with chronic or terminal illness. I also don't agree with throwing people in jail for carrying small amounts for personal use. I see this as a waste of time, money and resources. At the same time, however, I don't think that the legalization of marijuana is what our country needs. And I certainly don't think it will make our country healthier, happier or safer. The decision to legalize marijuana has implications for health, society and our youth.

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An argument against the legalization of marijuana

We should not let underground drug lords pressure us into legalizing something that could be quite harmful for our health.

During his election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize marijuana if we chose him as our leader. That day is near, and marijuana might be legalized on Canada Day 2018. Such a decision should not be taken lightly. Our country is not ready for this change.

To clarify, I don't want to come across as cynical. I know that medical marijuana has its place in treating patients with chronic or terminal illness. I also don't agree with throwing people in jail for carrying small amounts for personal use. I see this as a waste of time, money and resources. At the same time, however, I don't think that the legalization of marijuana is what our country needs. And I certainly don't think it will make our country healthier, happier or safer. The decision to legalize marijuana has implications for health, society and our youth

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The North Bay Police Service's drug-abuse prevention program is no longer being delivered in local classrooms.

Chief Shawn Devine said the long-running DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program has been cancelled and that efforts are underway to look for other ways of working with schools to provide education regarding drugs, bullying and similar issues.

He said the decision to cancel the program was sparked by a loss of funding from local school boards that was used to help offset some of the costs of delivery.

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Ontario's puritanical plan to sell marijuana in sterile state-run stores would be laughable if it was not a striking reminder that a) with just nine months before legalization, there is still no comprehensive plan in place and; b) foot-dragging legislators seem to have lost sight of why cannabis needs to be legalized in the first place.

So here's a refresher: Prohibition does more harm than good; when you prosecute people for possessing a commonly used substance, you make a mockery of the law, you push otherwise law-abiding citizens to the black market, saddle people with criminal records for no good reason, waste the time and resources of police and the courts and forego tax revenue.

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Johnsie Gooslin spent Jan. 16, 2015, tending his babies -- that's what he called his marijuana plants.

More than 70 of them were growing in a hydroponic system of his own design.

Sometimes, he'd stay in his barn for 16 hours straight, perfecting his technique.

That night, he left around 8 o'clock to head home. The moon was waning, down to a sliver, which left the sky as dark as the ridges that lined it. As he pulled away, the lights from his late-model Kia swept across his childhood hollow and his parents' trailer, which stood just up the road from the barn. He turned onto West Virginia Route 65. Crossing Mingo County, he passed the Delbarton Mine, where he had worked on and off for 14 years before his back gave out. Though Johnsie was built like a linebacker, falling once from a coal truck and twice from end loaders had taken a toll. At 36, his disks were a mess, and sciatica sometimes shot pain to his knees.

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Educating teenagers about the safety of recreational drug use is an age-old conundrum for Canada, one at the forefront as the country pushes ahead with legalizing marijuana by next year

The ad shows four pretty young women laughing as their convertible rips past the picturesque Rockies on a warm sunny day, the driver - eyes narrowed slightly - joyfully passing a doobie to her friend.

In the next one, a hip young guy with high-top dreadlocks pinches a smouldering joint (backwards) in one hand and adjusts the car stereo with his other as his date leaves her house and approaches in a red party dress.

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Timmins teen selected as the national rep for a you advisory board for D.A.R.E. in the U.S. . A young Timmins woman has been selected as the first ever Canadian to join the national youth advisory board for D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) in the United States. Alexya Racicot, a 16-year-old student of Ecole secondaire catholique Theriault, will soon be travelling to Hawaii and also to Texas to help advise and shape D.A.R.E. programs in the future.

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Editor:

Re: Delve deeper into drug issue, Dec. 28 editorial.

Quite frankly, I was appalled at the tone of your editorial, which I assume was written in reply to your paper's online survey results that showed an overwhelming response from your readers who wanted to see governments reduce spending to fight the current drug crisis.

Your passive-aggressive and condescending tone to somehow guilt the reader was, to be blunt, shameful. How dare you accuse us of lacking empathy or sympathy.

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On June 20, The Day published a guest commentary by Jim Spellman of Groton, "Stopping heroin at the source," which contended that "two appropriate recommendations have been offered to counter the heroin crisis - treat it as an epidemic and counter it as a village."

Left unclear was who determined that these are the two appropriate recommendations in all of Connecticut.

But, on his first point, I will agree that the heroin crisis in our state should be treated as an epidemic.

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Officer-Led Program Emphasizes Good Decision Making

Knowledge is power. and Emily Hind feels powerful after graduating from the North Bay Police Service's dare (drug abuse resistance education) program Tuesday morning.

Emily, 10, said she will use the knowledge she gained when facing peer pressure.

Emily, a Grade 5 student at J.W. Trusler, is one of about 25 who have spent the past 10 weeks learning about drugs and alcohol, the harmful effects of tobacco, the importance of making good choices and confident speaking.

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RCMP Brings Drug Awareness to Students in the Valley

Port Alberni kids transitioning between elementary and high school will get a burst of drug awareness thanks to a new two-day program.

Yes 2 Know is a province-wide RCMP-led initiative that seeks to give youth the knowledge about how to say 'no to drugs' now.

The program goes beyond the DARE education that Grade 5 students receive.

The Port Alberni Yes 2 Know edition takes place from April 5-6 and is a partnership between the RCMP, the school district parent advisory council and sponsors like Valley Vision and Brent Manson's office.

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It seems like only yesterday Ontarians were faced with the news that, after many years, the sex education curriculum in public schools was getting a much needed revamp.

Imagine if you will, in an alternate reality, that this new curriculum contained a directive to teach students that masturbation led to blindness. In 2016, we would collectively consider this absurd. We would identify this as blatant attempt to frighten students from seeking out any sexual encounters in the vain hope that they will put any ideas of sex from their minds indefinitely.

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It was a full-house at the Timmins Public Library on Saturday afternoon as 40 youngsters celebrated Daren the DARE Lion's 20th birthday.

The lion is the mascot for the Timmins Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, which also marked 20 years of serving the community at the event on Jan. 30.

"Twenty years in anything is quite the achievement, so we're proud of that," said Const. Rick Lemieux, the Timmins Police DARE officer. "We had 40 spaces available, and 40 kids showed up, so it's a huge success; they're having a blast."

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Coaldale schools have a new RCMP School Resource Officer (SRO).

His name is Const. Doug Sokoloski and he's all geared up since the RCMP took over policing duties from the Lethbridge Police Service on Jan. 1.

Previously, Sokoloski was stationed in Pincher Creek for more than seven years. Part of his duties in the community was working within the M.D.

"I was a community policing officer. Part of that was school resource officer and traffic and public relations were the other few main components. I have done that, of course, at the normal detachment level when I was in Raymond/Magrath - schools were part of our mandate and in Fort McMurray, as well," said Sokoloski., who has been a member of the RCMP for more than 19 years.

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An updated program of drug, mental health and social media awareness is being presented to children and youth in Brantford schools.

Part of a changeover that began in 2014 as a pilot project across city schools in both the public and separate boards resulted in an agency name change to TICK (Teaching Intelligent Choices to Kids) from the former DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).

"The DARE program met the needs of our community for a long time," said TICK Inc. president Susan Reid.

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The "Just Say No" campaign kept me off drugs.

NOT! Still, I appreciate Nancy Reagan for using ignorant scare tactics to at least try to keep kids like me away from the Devil's Lettuce. Drugs are for adults, and having a dialogue about that notion is important.

The conversation does not, however, require a sizzling egg to represent your brain on drugs.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education campaigns, aka DARE, were all the rage in the 1980s and '90s, sucking up hundreds of millions of tax dollars on TV spots, branded backpacks, stickers, and even cartoons featuring Daren the Lion. At its peak, the program was deployed in 75 percent of American schools, with police officers leading classroom discussions and assemblies that students absolutely loved-not because of the content, but because it got us out of math class.

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