With unlicensed marijuana dispensaries popping up in urban areas and thousands of unregulated medical licences for home growing still in legal limbo, the Trudeau government is starting work on its promise to legalize recreational use. Marijuana was a media darling in the recent election, but meeting in Vancouver with provincial ministers last week, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott found herself preoccupied with issues deemed more urgent. These include shifting our post-war acute hospital model to community primary care, tackling aboriginal health care needs, pooling pharmaceutical purchases to slow rising costs, and meeting an urgent Supreme Court of Canada directive to legalize assisted dying. [continues 518 words]
Needle disposal sites are coming to several Invermere public washrooms. Interior Health and the District of Invermere will work together to install secure disposal sites for syringes in various spots around the community, which could include Kinsmen Beach and the Mount Nelson Athletic Park. Public health nurses Crissy Stavrakov and Jeff Quinn were at district council September 12, and told councillors they've found used needles lying on the ground in public playgrounds and on hiking trails. "We've also talked with pharmacists and they've been selling needles and not getting them back in the proper manner, or not getting them back at all," Quinn added. [continues 236 words]
While stationed at my first posting in Agassiz we happened to stop an American citizen who happened to be transporting 76 kilos of marijuana. The stuff was stashed all over the place. Trunk, hood, under the seats, back of the seats and car doors. As I was the junior member I got to be the exhibit person. I did my job well enough that I was able to mark each kilo and document where it came from. Being the young energetic cop, I was going to impress the judge come court time, and from memory describe the location of each exhibit. [continues 204 words]
Dear Editor: Should marijuana be legalized? Independent candidate Brent Bush thinks so. The April 3 Golden Scoop quotes him as saying: "I support decriminalization. I think the so-called 'war on drugs' is actually creating and accelerating the violence within organized crime circles because it drives up the price. If marijuana were deregulated it would allow people to grow small amounts for personal use, the market price for local product would go down, and the profit motive of it would be eliminated. There would be no reason for organized crime to be in that business anymore. The same thing happened with alcohol during the prohibition; it turned out to be a disastrous failure." [continues 200 words]
Dear Editor of the Valley Echo, Isn't there a conflict of interest when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police give a one-sided presentation of cannabis? The likelihood of Staff Sgt. Marko Shehovac honestly talking about the history of cannabis is almost nil. For example, will the presentation include how cannabis prohibition originated because of greedy corporate interest, along with race discrimination interests, and should have never been prohibited from the beginning? Will Shehovac divulge that in over 5,000 years of documented use there is not one dead body to show cannabis has ever caused cancer while cigarettes kill over 1,000 North Americans daily? If truth be told, cannabis prohibition would end immediately. All citizens will get from the RCMP is lies, half-truths and propaganda regarding cannabis. Truthfully, Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
The effects of drugs and alcohol abuse was at the forefront of a presentation and discussion at David Thompson Secondary School. The event gave both parents and some youth in attendance the chance to hear two presentations dealing with substance abuse. Staff Sgt. Marko Shehovac of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment in Invermere was on hand to talk about both the history of drugs and how they have changed over the year. "Right out of the gate I have to make it very clear that drugs and tobacco are the number one case issue that we tend to have to deal with," Shehovac said. He went on to explain how TCH levels in marijuana have changed over the years and why it has become much more potent. [continues 383 words]
The struggle to save the position of drug and alcohol prevention worker at David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) continued recently in Kelowna as former DTSS student Tonie Minhas had the chance to talk at a meeting for Interior Health. Minhas was not sure if she was going to have her say at the meeting but was hopeful she would be heard. Upon arriving at the meeting Minhas was met by local representative David Goldsmith who sits on the board of Interior Health. He informed Minhas that after a special meeting the night before the board decided to hear what she had to say. [continues 217 words]
It has been well over a month since it was announced that the position of drug and alcohol prevention worker at David Thompson Secondary School would be cut by Interior Health. Students and now former students continue to fight to save the position. Tonie Minhas has just graduated from the school but is continuing to try and reverse the position taken by the board. She feels the position is vital to the students who will continue on at the high school. [continues 336 words]
As a Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User who is also married to one, I consider DARE nothing less than a government-sponsored hate-crime. Sending military cops in to teach kids about drugs is like sending in a priest to teach them about sex: "Just don't, or you will be in trouble." Also, the fact that taxpayers' dollars are used for this fear and fealty campaign is sick and reprehensible in the extreme. It should be illegal to go into schools and deliberately frighten and mislead kids, but no, we use taxpayers' dollars and send cops in to do it! It isn't just irresponsible, it is obscene! [continues 425 words]
For some, this question is not an easy one to tackle. But a class in Invermere demonstrated this week that they can deal with the toughest of questions with respect, confidence and some common sense on their side. The Grade 5 class at Invermere's J. Alfred Laird elementary school has just finished the final class of the D.A.R.E. program. D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education and aims to empower school children with facts about drugs so they can resist the pressure to become involved in them. [continues 402 words]
B.C. residents are boozing more and toking up less, according to new research. The average resident drank almost 9.2 litres of pure alcohol last year, up more than 10 per cent from 8.26 litres in 2002. That's among the findings of multiple B.C. academics compiled and released by the University of Victoria's Centre for Addictions Research. The province's per capita liquor intake has been almost twice as fast as the rest of Canada. B.C. has also seen a 17% jump in the number of people hospitalized because of their drinking over the past 10 years. [continues 249 words]
Educators for Sensible Drug Policy is an organization of educators devoted to facts about Canadian drug policy in our schools and communities. Bill C-15 is not helping educators to do their jobs. The government is setting a dangerous precedent of how to teach for failure rather than success. The government is sending a message to our educators that 'kids don't matter'. Our government wants to prescribe drug education that is both dangerous and futile. Our government wants educators to teach Canadian youth that it is acceptable to be liars, act violently and mistrust those in power. [continues 270 words]
Following the release earlier this year of the provincial results of the McCreary Centre Society's 2008 Adolescent Health Survey, local results are now available. Results for the East Kootenay area, which included students in Southeast Kootenay, Rocky Mountain and Kootenay Lake, showed that the majority of Grade 7-12 students in East Kootenay are in good health; are feeling connected to their family, school and community; and are engaging in health promoting behaviours that will assist them to transition into healthy adults. [continues 271 words]
Open letter to the Honourable Nicholson: I truly hope you will reconsider your research into the dangers of marijuana. You are totally the missing the point if you think that prohibition does or ever has helped people not to use drugs. Certainly education is the best tool. There was a letter in our local newspaper from a U.S. police officer, who said he has never in his 35 years as a police officer, seen violence or crime from use of marijuana alone. Usually those issues were from alcohol or other drugs. [continues 515 words]
It was graduation day for all 36 Grade 6s at Windermere Elementary School on Wednesday, May 13 and they passed with flying colours. The children have all been participating in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) program, taught by the RCMP. Throughout the nine lesson course the students learnt valuable information and useful tools to help them combat the peer pressure they will undoubtedly face in their teenage years with regard to drug and alcohol usage. "It's an education program which will help the kids find other options to deal with peer pressure," Constable Steffler said at the graduation ceremony. "This is a phenomenal groups of kids and I wish them a lot of success in the future." [continues 357 words]
Government and media are partly responsible for North America's meth problems (Editorial: Meth Has crept into our valley, Feb. 3, 2009), due to supporting and enabling cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. The question isn't if, but rather what, percentage of North America's drug problem is due to prohibiting the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant cannabis? How many youths and adults try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful as taught in DARE type government environments? Then they think other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to deadly drugs like meth. The federal government even classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance along with heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. That harmful message to citizens must change. [continues 72 words]
Seizing a new opportunity, Harper transferred to the Columbia Valley RCMP detachment last April. Harper explained that the crimes associated with the use of methamphetamines aren't present in the valley yet. "The meth problem in the city was very prevalent," said Harper, noting that crimes, particularly theft, accompany meth addiction. "We're not seeing the crime that is associated with meth use here right now." Harper explained that the theft generally starts at home, from friends and family, and can escalate to auto theft and random violent attacks. [continues 333 words]
All anyone has to do is listen to the news broadcasts, or read a newspaper and they will see references to gang-related crime. Is this issue confined to the "big cities" or are rural and smaller communities affected too? That is the question I want to discuss. When people hear the word "gang," several images come to mind. Most of them fuelled by television/movie images of archetypical criminals. But that is not always the reality. In many cases, criminal gangs are loosely associated individuals who come together to form a common purpose. That common purpose is to make money the quickest way possible with the least risk and exposure to them. [continues 643 words]
As a regular part of her job, Chaney visits classrooms to discuss substance abuse and the prevalence of drugs within the community. "Anytime I asked about meth, nobody raise their hands in response to seeing it," explained Chaney of when she started two years ago. "Last year one kid knew someone who had done meth." When she asked the same question in the fall, a few kids raised their hands, and just prior to Christmas break it became evident that more kids knew of people who had tried the drug, and more disturbing to Chaney was that the attitude toward the drug had shifted from one of disgust to one of indifference. [continues 412 words]
Local high school children are becoming more aware of methamphetamines (crystal meth). That's enough to set off a few alarm bells, including coming from David Thompson Secondary School drug and alcohol prevention counsellor Shelley Chaney, who has noticed an increase in awareness of meth from students, as well as growing indifference toward its presence. Meth is nothing new. Speed, as it used to be known as, has been messing up the daring, desperate, dense, dim and nearly dead for decades - spanning back to the 1960s. [continues 555 words]
