Health: Province Plans to Limit Travel Subsidies to 18 Months for Patients Attending Daily Clinics SAINT JOHN - Craig McInnis spends about $210 every month to make the daily journey from his home near the Saint John airport to Prince Edward Guardian Pharmacy to take his dose of methadone. He arrives at the clinic, tucked away at the back of the pharmacy, sits on a chair and waits. There isn't much to look at on the walls, except for shapes cut from bristol board, posted to remind patients how to behave: be respectful, leave pets outside and if you come without a way to pay for your dose, you don't get your drink. [continues 645 words]
SAINT JOHN - Canada's Criminal Code is outdated and needs to be modernized and Bill C-10 and other proposed new laws are part of that process, says federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. "It updates the Criminal Code so that it reflects what's actually happening," he told the Saint John Law Society on Thursday night. Nicholson was an invited guest at a fundraising dinner for the law society as the organization raises money for a new stained glass window it has commissioned for the city's new courthouse. [continues 523 words]
Health: Retention rate in project is double Vancouver's SAINT JOHN - The uptown methadone clinic is leading the country in its retention rates, and could serve to be a model across the globe, says a researcher with the Horizon Health Network. Operating out of the St. Joseph's Community Health Centre, it is one of two methadone clinics in the city, and in its first year of operation 95 per cent of participants stayed. That is more than double the rate in Vancouver's program, said Tim Christie, director of ethics for Horizon. [continues 703 words]
The Insite ruling is the most brutal collision to date between the Supreme Court of Canada and Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Despite the imminent appointment of two more Harper nominees to the top court's bench, it will likely not be the last. On Friday, the Court ordered the federal government to grant a special exemption to allow Vancouver's supervised drug injection clinic to operate without fear of prosecution for possessing and trafficking in hard drugs. The ruling is the latest volley in an ongoing battle of wills between the top court and the ruling Conservatives. [continues 522 words]
Last week, I wrote a column on how the right-wing Tea Party movement in the United States is hijacking the Republican Party, moving it further to the right into a terrain where ideology takes precedence over fact, thus the title of my column, "When ideology trumps facts." This ideology over fact trend is not solely an American phenomenon; it is happening right here in Canada with the Harper Conservatives. Ideology over facts in the Conservative government has been seen with the abolition of the long form census requirement, something that will greatly hinder data gathering, and with cutbacks to Environment Canada which performs important air quality monitoring services. Maybe this latter one reflects, as well, a nod to global warming deniers. [continues 626 words]
New Brunswick is among the first group of provinces included in a new online RCMP database listing the locations of marijuana grow operations that police have busted. Launched this week, the RCMP website is available to the public and is comprised of information from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada, as well as data from six other provinces. It provides the addresses of the grow-ops that have been shut down and the number of plants that police seized. [continues 554 words]
SAINT JOHN - A dangerous new hallucinogenic drug is causing more criminal problems in Bangor, Maine than any of the other illegal drugs combined, Bangor police say. And the drug - called "bath salts" - could easily make the roughly three-hour trek across the border to Saint John, Ron Gastia, Bangor's police chief said. "This is the worst drug we have seen here in my career," said Gastia, who has 29 years of experience. "This is my primary focus right now. Officers are out there responding to these calls and I fear my officers will be in a position of kill or be killed, or another member of the public will be hurt." [continues 654 words]
SAINT JOHN - If policy-makers want to prevent a drug epidemic in Saint John, they must figure out why users are attracted to drugs in the first place, says a Vancouver-based HIV expert. "The big thing is, what's the root cause of why people are abusing the drugs, and attack those issues. That's not a police issue, that's a societal issue," Michael O'Shaughnessy said in an interview after making a presentation for AIDS Saint John Wednesday night. [continues 526 words]
SAINT JOHN - At Lorne Middle School, in the heart of the north end, it's not uncommon for youngsters to start their school days high on marijuana. The Grade 6, 7, and 8 students are "extraordinarily impressionable," says principal Greg Norton, but that's his biggest worry. With a crack house on one street corner, and known drug dealers and ex-convicts on the next, Norton is worried the acceptance of pot among his students will lead to something much worse. [continues 572 words]
Warning - Police Warn Students of New Highly Addictive Drug on the Market That Could Ruin Their Lives SAINT JOHN - A dangerous new form of ecstasy is turning up in schools throughout the region, police say. Drug dealers are turning to young teens as a lucrative market for ecstasy laced with methamphetamine - a highly addictive and toxic substance. The pills come in all different colours, with graphics such as Transformers or kangaroos and names such as Facebook. "There's no question about it. They've recognized that ecstasy is a gateway to the kids," said Sgt. John Wilcox, who heads the street crimes unit for the Saint John Police Force. "It's a way of increasing their addictive base." [continues 635 words]
Robbery: After Cabbie Relieved of Money at Knifepoint, Taxi Industry Veteran Says Crime Byproduct of Bad Economy SAINT JOHN - Desperate times and desperate people are what a veteran of the city's taxi industry believes led to an armed robbery of a cab driver early Thursday. "This type of crime usually surfaces when the economy is bad," said Gerry Lowe, the former owner of Vet's Taxi. "People looking for a (drug) fix is also part of it." Saint John police are investigating the armed robbery. [continues 443 words]
If harsh criminal penalties deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern neighbour would be a "drug-free" America. That's not the case. The U.S. drug war has done little other than give the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. Despite zero tolerance, the U.S. has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Thanks to public education efforts, legal tobacco use has declined considerably in recent years, without any need to criminalize smokers. Apparently mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not necessarily the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
Charles Moore's column "Drug laws dumb on crime" (Feb. 17) presents a thoughtful critique of Bill S-10. I would add that creating a 'prohibition' situation around marijuana growing will achieve the same results as alcohol prohibition did years ago. It will enable organized crime to cash in on growing and distribution opportunities when small growers leave the market. Tough on crime? When pigs fly! Rick Roth Sussex [end]
I support much of the Harper government's legislative agenda, but they're spectacularly, tragically wrong in their dogged determination to impose harsher marijuana laws. A case in point is their Bill S-10, currently before the Senate, which among other things proposes a mandatory six-month sentence for possessing as few as six marijuana plants. Passing such a law would be invidiously unjust and counter-productive, resulting in prison sentences and criminal records for substantially greater numbers of people, most of them young, for engaging in a harmless activity that millions of Canadians believe should not be criminal at all. [continues 761 words]
Court: Defence calls verdict 'great injustice,' promises to appeal A Hainesville man who argued against the legality of Canada's drug laws and claimed he was permitted to possess marijuana for medicinal purposes was found guilty of possessing the narcotic by a provincial court judge. Todd Terrance LeClair was fined $500 by Chief Judge R. Leslie Jackson after a trial in which the defence argued regulations governing access to medicinal marijuana are unconstitutional because of unreasonable delays in processing applications for permits. LeClair also argued certain sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) had no force with respect to marijuana because the medical exemption regulations were unconstitutional. [continues 836 words]
Bud: Following Arrest, Hamptonian Was Granted Permit To Grow Marijuana For Medical Use SUSSEX - A 49-year-old Hampton man who's now legally permitted to produce home-grown marijuana for medicinal purposes wasn't in the same position when police raided his trailer on June 12, 2008. Last week in Sussex provincial court, Garth Adrian Shaw was convicted of producing marijuana on his property. While the evidence of drugs found in his possession were not disputed by Shaw or his lawyer Joel Hanson, they argued that police didn't properly execute their search warrant and therefore the evidence should be tossed out. [continues 210 words]
SUSSEX - Calls from people stumbling across marijuana grow operations is ramping up, police say. Sgt. Bruce Reid of the Sussex RCMP said the weather this summer has been particularly conducive to outdoor growing operations, and the success of the season for illegal horticulturalists is becoming more evident with the high number of people letting police know about their discoveries while out and about. "District 3 RCMP has begun to receive reports of marijuana finds from citizens enjoying the nice weather and who have been out hiking in local areas and riding their ATV on the many trails," he said. [continues 176 words]
Scanning coverage of Conrad Black's release from prison on bail, I was amused (sort of) by a reporter's describing Mr. Black as a "one-time conservative." This assessment was based on Mr. Black's taking up the cause of prison and drug-law reform during his incarceration, and says more about the writer's superficial, stereotyped perceptions of "conservatism" than about Mr. Black's politics. Perspectives broadened, mind focused by circumstances, Mr. Black lobbed withering and well-deserved broadsides from behind bars at the United States justice system, which he accurately describes as "putrefied," "'a carceral state' that imprisons eight to 12 times more people per capita than the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan..." [continues 717 words]
SUSSEX - A provincial court judge ruled police went beyond their authority and therefore deemed evidence collected during a search of a couple's Apohaqui home inadmissible. As a result, federal Crown prosecutor Gerry McCracken dropped a charge of marijuana production that had been laid against Jason McGrath and Angela Bernard. The couple was represented by defence lawyer Peter White during a voir dire hearing in late May. At the time, White argued McGrath and Bernard's rights were violated when Sussex RCMP officer Const. Justin Helm searched their home looking for a grow operation. Helm had been asked by social worker Michelle Campbell to accompany her to ensure her safety during a home inspection in February. [continues 665 words]
Panel: Inquest rules inmate died of lethal cocktail of drugs MONCTON - A coroner's inquest has ruled that a lethal cocktail of prescription and illegal drugs caused the death of an inmate on remand in a Moncton detention centre. The jury at the three-day inquest labelled the death of Derrick Phillip Urwin as accidental in its findings, but recommended that further action be taken to eliminate the flow of illegal drugs into the province's correctional facilities. "We recommend that as contraband will always be a problem, that correctional staff persevere and continue to develop new ways to detect contraband," said Mark Powers, the juror who delivered the five-person panel's findings on Wednesday. [continues 472 words]
