Ottawa's largest permanent supervised injection site could be open in a Lowertown trailer as soon as this weekend. The trailer, to be operated by Ottawa Inner City Health and located outside Shepherds of Good Hope on Murray Street, will be open 24/7 and serve a population of between 100 and 150 injection drug users, said Inner City Health executive director Wendy Muckle. Ontario's Health Minister Eric Hoskins has endorsed the site in a letter to federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, his office said Monday. [continues 546 words]
The provincial government's plan to make 19 the minimum age for legal marijuana use in Ontario got support Friday from health organizations - - including some that had been pushing for a higher minimum age. Ottawa Public Health, for example, suggested 25 was a better minimum age when asked for input by the federal government last year. Twenty-five is the age at which brains fully mature. A growing body of evidence shows that marijuana use earlier can do permanent damage to developing brains and that adolescents are at particular risk because their brains are growing rapidly. [continues 393 words]
Former Ottawa police chief and current senator Vern White is applauding an opioid replacement program being set up by Ottawa Inner City Health. He has been calling for similar programs across the country. White planned to contact Wendy Muckle, the executive director of the non-profit health agency that works with Ottawa's homeless. "I am going to congratulate her on being willing to take on the bigger discussion around addiction," White said. "I guarantee this will make a difference in terms of crime." [continues 325 words]
Former Ottawa police chief and current senator Vern White is applauding an opioid replacement program being set up by Ottawa Inner City Health. He has been calling for similar programs across the country. White planned to contact Wendy Muckle, the executive director of the non-profit health agency that works with Ottawa's homeless. "I am going to congratulate her on being willing to take on the bigger discussion around addiction," White said. "I guarantee this will make a difference in terms of crime." [continues 409 words]
Managed opioid program to open in response to fentanyl crisis As a fentanyl crisis sweeps the country, medical officials in Ottawa are moving quickly and quietly to open a supervised injection site for opioid users. The opioid substitution program, which will be the only the second of its kind in Canada, is expected to formally begin in September at the Shepherds of Good Hope in the ByWard Market area. While attention in this city has been focused on a recently approved supervised-injection site for illegal drug users, officials with Inner City Health have been planning the managed opioid program, which will open first. [continues 838 words]
Substitution site for addicts set for September As a fentanyl crisis sweeps the country, medical officials in Ottawa are moving quickly and quietly to open a supervised injection site for opioid users. The opioid substitution program, which will be the only the second of its kind in Canada, is expected to formally begin in September at the Shepherds of Good Hope in the By Ward Market area. While attention in this city has been focused on a recently approved supervised-injection site for illegal drug users, officials with Inner City Health have been planning the managed opioid program, which will open first. [continues 822 words]
The group that represents obstetricians and gynecologists in Canada is watching the pending legalization of marijuana with concern, saying there is growing evidence suggesting its use by pregnant mothers negatively affects brain development in their fetuses. "Our worry is that because it is made legal, people may think it is not a problem," said Dr. George Carson, president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. "While it will be legal, the SOGC's position is that we believe there are adverse effects on brain development from marijuana consumption until the brain development is finished, which is not until the early 20s. It is legal, but should be strongly discouraged." [continues 532 words]
'Our worry is that because it's made legal people might think it's not a problem The group that represents obstetricians and gynecologists in Canada is watching the pending legalization of marijuana with concern, saying there is growing evidence suggesting its use by pregnant mothers negatively affects brain development in their fetuses. "Our worry is that because it is made legal, people may think it is not a problem," said Dr. George Carson, president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. [continues 575 words]
Not to be a buzzkill, but if the feds plan to go ahead and legalize pot, they need to put strict controls in place to keep it out of the hands of kids. Why? Because pot hijacks the still-developing teenage brain. That was the loud-and-clear message Monday at a public forum held by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. Despite what many teens believe, the forum heard, marijuana is far from harmless for them. Because of the rapid changes in brain structure and function that occur during adolescence, "use of cannabis during this developmental period can have negative cognitive, mental health and physical effects," according to a 2015 report from the CCSA called: The Effects of Cannabis use during Adolescence. [continues 120 words]
With legalization on the horizon, there is mounting evidence that early and frequent cannabis use can have a devastating long-term impact on teenage brains. Researchers and officials with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse held a public forum and met with staff from Ottawa Public Health on Monday in an effort to get the message out that marijuana is not benign, especially not for adolescents. As marijuana moves to the front of public policy agendas in Canada and elsewhere, CCSA officials say it is important to better understand recent evidence about its impact on youth. [continues 551 words]
Less Expensive Than Hep C Drugs Opening two supervised injection sites in Ottawa would save the health system money, new analysis suggests. Ahmed Bayoumi, a medical researcher with St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, called supervised injection sites a "good investment in health dollars." He is among authors of a report looking at the potential cost-effectiveness of supervised injection facilities in Toronto and Ottawa. The study was published Monday in the journal Addiction. Bayoumi and others updated analysis they conducted in 2012 in light of dramatic new treatment for hepatitis C. Drugs that treat and even cure hepatitis C are now available, but they are costly, which means strategies to reduce the spread of hepatitis C by injection drug users could save the health system substantial money, Bayoumi said. [continues 407 words]
Coalition Wants Matter on Agenda During the Federal Election Campaign A coalition of nurses and nursing students is hoping to put injection sites on the agenda during the federal election campaign. The group called Nurses for Supervised Injection Services is encouraging others to vote for parties that support the creation of more sites throughout Canada. The Conservative Party, which has fought Canada's only supervised injection site for drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, is the only one of the major parties that does not support the expansion of such sites. The Conservative government passed a law that supporters of the sites say creates barriers for communities opening injection sites similar to Vancouver's. [continues 514 words]
New research finds one in six who start young develop dependency Teens who start smoking marijuana early and do so frequently risk lowering their IQ scores, according to research from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, which found evidence that early and frequent cannabis use can alter the structure of the developing brain. The research, part of a larger study due out in June, was released Monday, a day - April 20 - that has become a counterculture holiday to celebrate marijuana, as part of a bid to raise awareness about the negative effects of marijuana use among adolescents. [continues 693 words]
Neighbours, Municipalities Frustrated, But Laws Changing Soon The elderly neighbour's children suspected something was up when workers began showing up at the quiet house in Ottawa's west end to do electrical upgrades and install what looked like a series of industrial-sized vents, among other things. No one seemed to live in the bungalow on the leafy street and the blinds were always drawn, although trucks pulled up frequently during the day. Peter Marshall, whose 87-year-old mother-in-law lives next door, called Ottawa police to report the family's fears that the house was being used as a grow-op, something police confirmed this week when they were called there to investigate a break-and-enter and found numerous plants and growing paraphernalia inside. [continues 717 words]
OTTAWA - Supporters of an Ottawa supervised injection site say they are disappointed that the federal government is politicizing a health issue with hurdles that would make it harder to open one here. But they remain undeterred in their push to bring one to Ottawa. "It is the right thing to do. We know that this is an important intervention and we should continue to move ahead," said Dr. Mark Tyndall, head of infectious diseases at The Ottawa Hospital, and a strong supporter of an Ottawa safe injection site. [continues 704 words]
There's a proven way to save vulnerable lives and vastly improve others, but elected officials fight it at every step Every week in Ottawa, two people die of causes that are largely preventable. Another two or three residents become infected with diseases that will shorten and worsen their lives and may eventually spread to others, something that could also be prevented. Are those numbers remarkable? Maybe not. Injection drug use is, after all, risky behaviour. But here's what is remarkable: In a city in which people are known to throw themselves into campaigns to help the sick and less fortunate, many are unaware of, or indifferent to, those facts, or even that Ottawa has an injection drug problem. [continues 705 words]
There are only so many ways the people of remote Northern Ontario can say "help us" before they begin to wonder whether anyone is listening. On Wednesday, doctors, nurses, addictions experts and First Nations officials again pleaded with the federal government for urgent help dealing with the prescription drug crisis engulfing remote communities, especially now that OxyContin has been delisted by the Ontario government. "We have a public health catastrophe on our hands and no one is stepping up to take responsibility," Nishnawbe Aski First Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin told a press conference in Toronto. "Our communities have minimal access to medical services to help cope with withdrawal symptoms. Our people have a right to timely and effective health care." [continues 668 words]
Dr. Mark Tyndall may not seem like a dangerous man to you. In fact, the recently installed head of infectious diseases at the Ottawa Hospital, who works one day a week at the Ottawa Mission treating people with HIV and recently returned from the international AIDS conference in Rome, may seem like the kind of medical professional the world needs more of. But to the Conservative government, the former co-lead investigator at Vancouver's controversial supervised injection site is a man with some dangerous, even abominable, ideas: Namely, that drug addiction is a health issue, not a political or criminal one. [continues 695 words]
Nobody wants to lead the charge for a safe injection site in Ottawa, writes ELIZABETH PAYNE. Dr. Mark Tyndall may not seem like a dangerous man to you. In fact, the recently installed head of infectious diseases at the Ottawa Hospital who works one day a week at the Ottawa Mission treating people with HIV, (and who recently returned from the international AIDS conference in Rome), may seem like the kind of medical professional the world needs more of. But to the federal Conservative government, the former colead investigator at Vancouver's controversial supervised injection site is a man with some dangerous, even abominable, ideas: Namely, that drug addiction is a health issue, not a political or criminal one. [continues 809 words]
Alcohol Found To Be More Dangerous Than Pot, Ecstasy And Acid The dreaded birds-and-bees talk looks easy compared to this new rite of modern parenthood. Among issues parents are encouraged to talk to their teen and preteen children about is how to identify a case of alcohol poisoning when they see one. "Don't leave someone to sleep it off or walk it off and don't douse him or her with cold water. A person with alcohol poisoning could die in under an hour. So don't wait it out--get help. It could save a life." [continues 747 words]
