If news headlines are to be believed, no one in Canada has ever driven a car after smoking marijuana: "Legalized marijuana has provinces worried about drug-impaired driving" "The new impaired driving: legal marijuana" "If Canada legalizes marijuana, how will cops combat high drivers?" Such headlines suggest that drugged driving will become an issue only if the federal government makes good on its promise to legalize marijuana next year. The Criminal Code sees it rather differently, as it has prohibited driving under the influence of drugs since 1925. [continues 598 words]
Outcomes improve when you take the drug off the street and bring it into a clinical environment For the last 16 months, with fentanyl ravaging street-drug users across the country, more than 100 users at Vancouver's Providence Crosstown Clinic have been quietly injecting prescription heroin. During that time, not one of the clinic's patients has received heroin laced with fentanyl. Not one has overdosed. And not one has died. This is all the more striking when you consider that Crosstown's patients are among the most vulnerable of drug users. All are long-term heroin addicts, many have previously overdosed or suffered other serious complications associated with their drug use, and all have repeatedly tried and failed to get clean. [continues 607 words]
If we are ever to divorce drugs from death, we must not be afraid to implement bold solutions to medical emergencies When gang violence erupted in British Columbia in 2009, the federal government acted at light speed to implement measures to contain the violence. That rapid response stands in stark contrast to the feds' lethargy in dealing with the very things the gangs were fighting over:drugs. Drug overdoses are nothing new, of course, especially in Western Canada. But at the onset of the gang war, something new did appear: fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 100 times more potent than morphine. [continues 818 words]
Recent overdose figures from the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use confirm one thing: Anyone who wants opiate drugs can get them. The network's bulletin, released this week, focuses on fentanyl, a synthetic opiate about 100 times more potent than morphine. The report notes that fentanyl contributed to at least 655 Canadian deaths from 2009 to 2014 - an average of one death every three days. And in British Columbia, which has long experienced high rates of opiate use, fentanyl-detected deaths increased 700 per cent from 2012 to 2014. [continues 504 words]
When it comes to reforming laws governing marijuana, politicians send message that they just don't want to know In these days of high anxiety, there's a phobia for just about everything. Consider, for example, "epistemophobia," the fear of knowledge. Now you might be wondering about who could possibly fear knowledge, given that a lack of knowledge is invariably fatal. So I'll tell you who's afraid of knowledge: Your elected representatives, that's who. We have seen successive governments shy away, not merely from repealing damaging laws that criminalize possession of and trade in marijuana, but from learning anything about the effect of such drugs or such laws. [continues 1178 words]
Global Commission Produces Powerful Report The war on drugs has failed, and policies need to change now. Those words come, not from some motley group of hippies fighting for their right to party, but from the august Global Commission on Drug Policy, an international consortium that includes such dignitaries as the former presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Poland and Greece, former U.S. secretary of state George Schultz and former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Paul Volcker. So some of the most forceful voices against the war on drugs are former high-level officials of the very countries that have long been at the forefront of that war. That alone speaks volumes. [continues 742 words]
B. C. Health Officer Perry Kendall Has Learned the Hard Way That Long- Held Dogma Must Not Be Challenged From our supposedly sophisticated 21st-century perspective, it's easy to look condescendingly on our past, when people were persecuted for nothing more than denying or doubting the received "truths" of their religion. Yet for all the progress we've made in accepting unorthodox religious beliefs, the persecution of heretics remains a live issue. And worse, it's now taking place in a field ostensibly governed not by faith but by reason. [continues 517 words]
After ' bath salts' were said to be behind a cannibalism case in the U. S., politicians jumped on the criminalization bandwagon As a message of vital public importance, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants you to know that there is no zombie apocalypse. Seriously. I know, it sounds like a headline from the satirical newsmagazine The Onion - and I had to check repeatedly to ensure it wasn't an Onion story. But it is apparently legitimate, given that CDC spokesman David Daigle recently emailed the Huffington Post stating, "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombielike symptoms)." [continues 1111 words]
Denial of Health Services and Increased Risk of Death Among Drug Users Outweighs Any Benefit From Absolute Prohibition on Drug Possession If nothing else, Friday's unanimous Supreme Court of Canada decision on the future of Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site, reveals the federal government's striking ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And in spectacular fashion. The plaintiffs, after all, lost on both of their primary grounds of appeal, yet still managed to win the case. The plaintiffs' first argument, which previously persuaded the B.C. Court of Appeal, concerned the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity, while the second argument, which previously convinced the B.C. Supreme Court, concerned section 7 of the Charter. Yet, while these two arguments swayed lower courts, the Supreme Court of Canada wasn't having any of either. [continues 712 words]
Criminal Model Hasn't Worked, but Maybe Health Guidelines Could In 1932, Ernest Lapointe stood before the House of Commons and asked "What is Cannabis sativa?" It was an odd question since the drug had been illegal for nine years, and since we would expect Lapointe, as a former attorney-general, to know something about it. But then again, virtually no parliamentarians knew anything about cannabis in 1932, or in 1923 when its possession was first criminalized. Indeed, when Minister of Health Henri-Severin Beland introduced the bill that would add cannabis to the list of prohibited drugs in the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, he mentioned not a word about it. [continues 658 words]
In 1932, Ernest Lapointe stood before the House of Commons and asked "What is cannabis sativa?" It was an odd question since the drug had been illegal for nine years, and since we would expect Lapointe, as a former attorney general, to know something about it. But then again, virtually no Parliamentarians knew anything about cannabis in 1932, or in 1923 when its possession was first criminalized. Indeed, when Minister of Health Henri-Severin Beland introduced the bill that would add cannabis to the list of prohibited drugs in the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, he mentioned not a word about it. [continues 659 words]
Despite Indisputable Proof That Supervised Injection Site Has Saved Countless Lives, Federal Government Forges Ahead With Bid to Shut It Down When Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site, opened in the fall of 2003, critics set for it what seemed an impossible task: The facility could not be considered a success, they argued, unless it represented a cost-effective way of increasing drug users' use of detox and treatment services, reducing needle sharing and public disorder and, perhaps most important of all, reducing overdose deaths. [continues 622 words]
The Supreme Court knocks down a centuries-old principle and shows that the majority doesn't always get it right Picture this: You're in your home and suddenly a team of armed men smash their way through your front door. Would you not do everything in your power to protect yourself and your family, including using a weapon if you had one at your disposal? In 2007, Laval businessman Basil Parasiris did so. Parasiris grabbed his revolver and shot at the men he believed were home invaders, killing one and injuring another. As it turned out, the men were police officers, and Parasiris was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. But he was acquitted on the ground that he was acting in self-defence, and he is now suing the police. [continues 1183 words]
When former U.S. president Richard Nixon first used the term "war on drugs" in 1969, it was a mere metaphor. While the term referred to a number of measures ostensibly designed to combat illicit drug use, it in no way signified a real war. It does now. From Colombia to British Columbia, with stops in Mexico and the United States, the war on drugs has become indistinguishable from a real war, replete with military campaigns, insurgent groups, countless combat deaths and collateral damage. [continues 598 words]
Ex-MP's Plea-Bargain Must Be Explained According to Justice Douglas Maund of the Ontario Court of Justice, Rahim Jaffer received "a break." And according to Ontario's attorney-general, it's none of your business why. Jaffer is, of course, the former Alberta Conservative MP who, as a result of a plea bargain, pleaded guilty to careless driving this week in Orangeville, Ont., after the Crown withdrew charges of possession of cocaine and driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. [continues 586 words]
Opiate Pain Killer Hydromorphone Doesn't Carry the Esthetic Negative Baggage of Heroin and Is Already Licensed for Use The sorry fact about drug policy is that esthetics matter. Heroin, for example, is seen as a dirty drug taken by dirty people, unkempt down-and-outers writhing in agony and angst on skid row. Methadone, on the other hand, is a pharmaceutical preparation distributed by people wearing white coats in the antiseptic wards of hospitals and medical clinics. These vastly different esthetics help to explain why we have treated heroin addicts with methadone for decades, while prescribing heroin remains highly controversial. But it wasn't always so. [continues 564 words]
Both Drug-Related Pathologies And Overall Drug Use Have Decreased There Since Its Drug Law Was Moderated With Mexico being increasingly rapidly and increasing visibly crushed by its war on drugs, some politicians in Mexico and the United States have dared to suggest that decriminalization is the answer. According to these politicians, decriminalization would allow governments to switch their focus from supply reduction to demand reduction, and to redirect funds away from law enforcement and toward treatment. The end result, they argue, would be a reduction in the harms caused by substance use. [continues 1080 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]
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that on the matter of criminal justice the Conservatives are not listening to "people who work in ivory towers" because "we believe they are wrong." Now it seems odd to hear a prime minister proudly declare his intention to ignore the best criminological research and the advice of those who have spent their lives studying crime. And it would be nothing short of a miracle for a political party to produce a rational criminal justice policy when it ignores the research. [continues 711 words]
Court Ruling Recognizes Harm Reduction As An Important Form Of Health Care Strange as it may sound, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Ian Pitfield's decision concerning Insite could spell the end of harm reduction as a separate modality for addressing substance abuse in Vancouver. Stranger still, that could prove beneficial for both the city and for people struggling with drug addiction. Pitfield held that the possession and trafficking sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) are unjustifiable infringements of Insite users' rights under s. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees "the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice." [continues 1131 words]
