The recent announcement that the Victoria Police Board is initiating a search for a new police chief presents an opportunity to significantly improve public health and public safety. Strategies to reduce the harms associated with substance use are core components of provincial and municipal substance-use policies, as well as those of the Vancouver Island Health Authority. These strategies - which can include needle exchange services, supervised consumption facilities and overdose-prevention protocols - are well-known means to enhance health and safety, both for people who use illicit drugs and the general population. [continues 329 words]
Making Camping Illegal On The Green Won't Solve The Root Of The Problem Every day, in the neighbourhood where I live with my wife and two year-old daughter, people laugh, cry, drink alcohol, take drugs, crap, urinate and vomit. Some fight, some make love, some sell their bodies to pay for unseen addictions and sometimes the police respond to noise complaints or domestic disputes. I don't live on the 900-block of Pandora, so most of the time this human interaction goes unseen and unheard - in my neighbourhood, most people live their lives behind closed doors. [continues 582 words]
Re: “MP abstains on C-15,” June 11-17 As the executive director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society and a Graduate Research Fellow for the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., I was honoured to be one of the researchers and experts invited by the House of Commons Justice Committee to comment on Bill C-15, the Conservative Party’s mandatory minimums drug bill. As I told the committee, Parliament will not pass another bill that has a greater potential to harm Canadians than this failed and expensive approach to reducing substance use. For evidence of this threat to human rights and public health we only need to look south of our border. Mandatory minimum sentences have made our American neighbour the biggest jailer nation in the world, with over 2 million of their citizens behind bars. But I don’t really blame the Conservative Party for this debacle; it would be naive to expect anything but ideological and ill-considered legislation from the Conservatives on complex issues like gay rights, the environment or substance use. However, while the NDP and Bloc Quebecois rallied their troops to strike down this bill, the Liberals sat on their hands, leaving their moral and ethical principles at the doors of Parliament for short-term political gain. [continues 125 words]
Dear friends and supporters, It is with great pleasure that I announce the successful outcome of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS) Constitutional challenge of Health Canada's medical cannabis program and practice. On Monday, February 2nd 2009 Justice Koenigsberg ruled that the federal regulations limiting the number of people who could grow cannabis in one location, and the rules limiting the number of patients that a producer could grow for were arbitrary, served no public interest, and were therefore unconstitutional. She stayed her decision for one year in order to allow the federal government to amend their medical cannabis regulations to reflect her ruling. [continues 446 words]
As a former school teacher and childcare worker in Victoria, I can understand and echo the concerns of community members and parents worried about discarded needles in the Harris Green neighbourhood, where I've worked for the past six years. However, research suggests that needle exchange services increase safe disposal practices by users, decrease used needles on our streets and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C -- all of which improve the personal and public health of the region. [continues 120 words]
Re: "Health Canada pot worth every penny," letter, Aug. 23. Brent Zettl, the president of Prairie Plant Systems, claims compassion clubs charge $10 per gram for cannabis, while Health Canada only charges $5 for access to the 12 per cent-THC cannabis produced by his company. First of all, he's just plain wrong. Non-profit, community-based dispensaries like the Vancouver Island Compassion Society carry a wide selection of organically grown cannabis of 15 to 25 per cent THC that ranges from $5 to $10 per gram, as well as even more affordable alternatives to smoking that include baked goods, oils, tinctures, and even cutting-edge oromucosal sprays. [continues 171 words]
Re: "Inspectors needed now" (July 27). Kerry Thompson is right, both legal medical cannabis users and their neighbours would benefit greatly if Health Canada hired inspectors to ensure the safety of legal medical cannabis cultivation facilities; however, this may be wishful thinking. The inspectors' job, unfortunately, has nothing to do with safety: The inspectors hired by Health Canada are there to count cannabis plants, period. As has been amply demonstrated throughout the life of this much-maligned federal program, the government's interest and actions are focused on the moral and legal regulation of some of our sickest citizens. The function the inspectors serve is the equivalent of having your drugstore hire a stranger to come in and rifle through your medicine cabinet. [continues 64 words]
Dear friends, It has long been argued that the most effective harm reduction measure is ending the costly and ineffective "War on Drugs." Because of the federal government's unflagging support of drug prohibition: . substance use is stigmatized, and users continue to face arrest; . needle-exchange is under-funded or otherwise blocked; . the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst substance users continues to expand; . substance use education and/or treatment is largely abstinence-based or unavailable; . research into approaches toward harm reduction is stymied. [continues 445 words]
Re: Making Canada A Leader In Medical Marijuana, Alan Young, May 3. Although I applaud the recognition of the therapeutic potential of cannabis by "big business," media moguls and law professors are not the only people in Canada currently conducting research on this medicinal herb. Despite remaining unregulated by the federal government, our nation's compassion clubs and societies are involved in a number of medical cannabis studies, including a sociological examination of the patrons of compassion clubs sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). [continues 112 words]
DrugSense (www.drugsense.org), the world leader in online drug policy research and reform, turns ten this year amid a flourish of kudos and awards. Founded in November of 1995 by Director Mark Greer (who was later joined by Webmaster and Senior Tech Support Specialist Matt Elrod), the volunteer-driven organization has rapidly expanded from its origin as an archive for drug policy related media to become a major player in drug policy-related media activism, web hosting, and grassroots organizing. [continues 389 words]
Three Decades After LeDain, A New Survey Confirms That The 'War' On Marijuana Is Unwinnable 1. The use of marijuana is increasing in popularity among all age groups of the population, and particularly among the young; 2. This increase indicates that the attempt to suppress, or even to control, its use is failing and will continue to fail -- that people are not deterred by the criminal law prohibition against its use. - -- From the LeDain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Canada, 1972 [continues 781 words]
Re: "Pot laws need thorough overhaul," Sept. 13. The editorial implies that Victoria compassion clubs have been distributing cannabis "to users who are simply asked to sign a bit of paper saying they need it for medical purposes." As the founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS), I can assure you that this is simply not the case. Like many Canadian compassion societies, the VICS requires a physician's recommendation for the use of cannabis in order to proceed with registration and treatment. [continues 194 words]
Researcher Hopes Crackdowns Signal That the End of Cannabis Prohibition Is Nigh "I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." - - Martin Luther King For several months, Da Kine on Commercial Drive has been challenging prohibition by openly selling cannabis. Following a series of high-profile national news stories about the cafe, neighbours have felt compelled to defend the establishment, saying there are now fewer dealers on the street corners, and fewer pot smokers in the nearby park. But that did not stop Vancouver police from raiding the cafe on Thursday evening and arresting six people for selling pot. [continues 556 words]
Re: Dosanjh should do the decent thing, Aug. 16. Health Canada has knowingly chosen to ignore the Ontario Court of Appeal decision that would allow medical-marijuana users to have an alternative supply of cannabis to the poor-quality, potentially dangerous Prairie Plant Systems product. Although the federal PPS-grown cannabis has been returned by nearly a third of users who have tried it due to its incredibly poor quality, Health Canada continues to support its indefensible near-monopoly on cannabis production and research by restricting almost all licensed growers other than PPS to supplying marijuana to only one licensed user. [continues 259 words]
It is with great pride and pleasure that DrugSense announces the launch of its new and improved website (www.drugsense.org), the first major facelift of our site in years! Our new site makes use of the newest technology on the web to allow users to exercise more control over content and to personalize DrugSense to meet individual needs. Now amazing drug war resources like the Media Awareness Project (the world's largest archive of drug-related news articles), the DrugSense Weekly Newsletter, and Drug Policy Central's internet services and tools are together in one convenient location! [continues 197 words]
As a legal user of medicinal cannabis who has tried the government-grown cannabis, I can assure you columnist Susan Martinuk (Gov't wrong to push medical marijuana) is right about its poor quality. Unfortunately, nearly everything else in her column is either wrong or misleading. First, Martinuk states that Canada should not be following the Netherlands in its drug policy because it is a "a land notorious for its expansive population of drug users and abusers." Actually, Holland has a much lower drug-use rate than North America, and although cannabis is de-facto legal and readily available, its rate of both teen and adult cannabis use is significantly lower than our own. [continues 124 words]
Having first heard of Health Canada's proposal to explore the distribution of cannabis through pharmacies a few months ago, the media frenzy around this pilot-project has been a bit of a surprise to me. After continued complaints from the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) regarding the short-lived plan to have physicians act as suppliers of the Health Canada grown cannabis, the government had little choice but to turn to the pharmacies. Although it is encouraging to finally see pharmacists recognize the safety and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis, is this plan really in the best interest of Canada's 700 or so legal users, and the public at large who would be funding this expensive pilot program? [continues 847 words]
Having first heard of Health Canada's plan to explore the distribution of cannabis through pharmacies a few months ago, the media frenzy around this pilot project announced last week has been a bit of a surprise to me. Although it is encouraging to finally see pharmacists recognize the safety and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis, is this plan really in the best interest of Canada's 700 or so legal users, and the public at large who would be funding this expensive pilot program? [continues 664 words]
On the 18th of February, Health Canada organized a large-scale consultation on its highly criticized federal medical marijuana program. For the first time since it's creation over 5 years ago, the Office of Cannabis Medical Access (OCMA) had the foresight to invite a small number of Canadian drug policy reform and medicinal cannabis advocates. Philippe Lucas, editor of the DSW's hemp and cannabis section, was in attendance at this meeting as Director of Canadians for Safe Access http://www.safeaccess.ca The following feature article is based on an online report he compiled for fellow activists. [continues 1248 words]
http://www.laraynesplace.net/ Jeffrey's Journey: A Determined Mother's Battle For Medical Marijuana For Her Son by Debbie and LaRayne Jeffries, 80 pages, L.P. Chronicles, $9.95 "Jeffrey's Journey" is the very real and harrowing story of a young boy named Jeffrey and his inner battle with severe emotional and behavioral problems. Written by Debbie and LaRayne Jeffries - the boy's mother and grandmother - Jeffrey's tale takes him from the depths of prescription drug despair, to the high of successful cannabis-based treatment. [continues 450 words]
