This week, the Harper government showed Canadians they're serious about "respecting communities," but not quite as serious about respecting the health of every Canadian living in those neighbourhoods. Earlier this week, the House of Commons passed Bill C-2, known as the Respect for Communities Act, a piece of legislation that will add more red tape and bureaucratic hurdles to the implementation of new supervised injection clinics in Canada. Putting these restrictions in place, and the Conservative Party's continued opposition to these clinics, flies in the face of numerous studies and research supporting its existence. [continues 670 words]
Locals Asked to Help With Drug Tips The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team's Green Teams sent out a reminder to Albertans to be on the lookout for illegal rural outdoor marijuana grow-operations during the summer months. The ALERT Green Teams consist of Calgary and Edmonton police services, as well as RCMP members that investigate and dismantle grow-operations in Alberta. Between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012 the teams seized more than 57,000 marijuana plants that were collectively worth nearly $69 million if sold at street level. [continues 449 words]
A University of Alberta professor is using the age-old marijuana munchies trick to get cancer patients to build up their appetites. Wendy Wismer, a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Science, was the lead researcher in a group that studied the effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive found in marijuana plants. The group used a pharmaceutical known as marinol, the synthetic form of THC, on patients with advanced forms of cancer. As the appetites of these patients improved and they indicated that their food also tasted better, results corresponded with the known belief about the marijuana munchies. [continues 539 words]
