Health Canada doesn't want kids smoking pot. The federal agency responsible for the health of Canadians issued a tender call Thursday for a marketing campaign to raise awareness among youth aged 13 to 24 about the harmful affects of smoking marijuana on their still-developing brains. It also wants pre- and post-campaign monitoring of the awareness of youth of the affects. The advertising campaign will roll out in anticipation of Canada's legalizing marijuana next year. Ed McHugh, a professor at St. Mary's University's marketing department, offered a warning. [continues 277 words]
In 2016 more people were arrested for marijuana possession than for all crimes the FBI classifies as violent, according to 2016 crime data released by the agency on Monday. Marijuana possession arrests edged up slightly in 2016, a year in which voters in four states approved recreational marijuana initiatives and voters in three others approved medical marijuana measures. These figures should be regarded as estimates, because not all law enforcement agencies provide detailed arrest information to the FBI. But they do show that the annual number of marijuana arrests is down from their peak in the mid-2000s and stands at levels last seen in the mid 1990s. Marijuana use, particularly among adults, rose during this time. [continues 446 words]
Prosecutors in New York announced this week that an August drug raid yielded 140 pounds of fentanyl, the most in the city's history and enough to kill 32 million people, they told New York 4. Those numbers underscore the dizzying size of the current opioid crisis, and the report of the New York bust comes the same week as another shocking piece of evidence that America's pill problem has reached a critical milestone: On Tuesday, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an analysis showing the crisis has actually negatively impacted life expectancy in the United States. [continues 325 words]
Province inks supply deals, including with pot producer in pesticides probe New Brunswick became the second province to start unveiling plans to sell recreational marijuana next year, when the federal government expects to lift nearly a century of prohibition on the product. The province announced on Friday that it has created a Crown corporation to oversee sales of recreational marijuana, and has signed agreements with two cannabis-producing companies to supply a portion of its retail network. However, the New Brunswick government stopped short of releasing specific details on how the product will be sold - such as the legal age for consumption and the number of retail sites that will be permitted. The new Crown corporation will not directly conduct retail sales but will work with other entities to operate the stores, the province said. [continues 665 words]
The B.C. government plans to consult with police, local governments and the public before deciding how to sell and distribute recreational marijuana once the federal government legalizes pot next summer. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth told reporters Thursday that "all options are on the table," including selling marijuana through government liquor stores. "We have not made any decisions about that," he said. Farnworth said the government intends to gather suggestions on ways to sell and distribute marijuana, as well as on the appropriate age limit for purchasing it. [continues 556 words]
As Canada looks to legalize marijuana by 2018, companies are starting to develop cannabis-tourism business plans Canada's red-and-white tourism branding could turn a shade greener in the coming years with the legalization of recreational marijuana opening the door to cannabis-based travel businesses across the country. Federal legislation for recreational use is still a year away, and many legal question marks surrounding advertising and distribution remain, even with the government of Ontario clarifying some rules around marijuana sales on Sept. 8. Nonetheless, companies in the cannabis sector are starting to develop tourism business plans, dreaming up everything from winery-style grow-op tours to weed-and-yoga retreats in the Rocky Mountains. [continues 866 words]
Society needs to understand why people abuse substances There'll come a day, long after we're gone, when people will react with disbelief at how we now treat mental health. Those future Canadians will shake their collective heads in amazement in the manner we do today when looking back to a time when surgeons would routinely perform operations without first washing their hands. How could they have been so ignorant, will be the future common comment. But there's a chink of light emerging with next summer's planned legislation of cannabis use across Canada. Not that smoking dope is going to cure anyone's mental issues, probably the opposite, but it is recognition that locking people up as criminals because of an urge to consume mind-altering substances is being jettisoned as a long lost proposition. [continues 559 words]
Canada's police services say there is zero chance they will be ready to enforce new laws for legalized marijuana by next summer. Officials from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Saskatoon Police Service are among dozens of witnesses testifying to the House of Commons health committee this week as it studies the government's bill to legalize marijuana. They said on Tuesday they need more time to properly train officers about the new laws and more than double the number of police officers who are certified to conduct roadside drug-impaired driving testing. There also needs to be more time for public education, the police said. [continues 499 words]
With Pennsylvania teetering on the edge of another budget cliff, it is immensely clear to me that we must get creative in finding long-term revenue solutions to prevent total financial collapse. Last month, as a short-term fix to the state's cash-flow woes, I cosigned a $750 million loan from Treasury's Short Term Investment Pool. That loan cost the state $141,000 in interest. What's more, Treasurer Joe Torsella is forecasting the state's general fund balance will hit negative $1.6 billion by mid-September. This is disturbing. [continues 722 words]
Ontario AG announces plans to put controls in place concerning sale of recreational marijuana It might well be the end of the world as we know it. Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi's announcement on the legalization of marijuana - or cannabis as it's now being referred to - - next July 1, is considered fine by many recreational pot smokers. "If passed, the federal bill will set into motion a once-in-a-generation change for our society; the end of prohibition," Naqvi said at the press conference Friday. [continues 786 words]
VANCOUVER - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has closed the door on decriminalizing illicit drugs to combat a national overdose crisis but British Columbia's addictions minister says unprecedented deaths are a "wake-up call" to reconsider that stance. Trudeau said decriminalization is not the approach Canada will take to deal with deadly overdoses often involving the opioid fentanyl. "We are making headway on this and indeed the crisis continues and indeed spreads across the country but we are not looking at legalizing any other drugs than marijuana for the time being," Trudeau told a news conference Thursday at the end of a caucus meeting in Kelowna. [continues 267 words]
IF Canada's experience with legal recreational marijuana parallels what is taking place in U.S. states, we have much to anticipate in terms of entrepreneurial ferment, job creation, wealth expansion and boosted tax receipts. Legal recreational marijuana has been law in Colorado for three and a half years, and a little more than three years in Washington. Oregon staggered its rollout of recreational marijuana between 2015 and last year, Alaska and Nevada's programs are up and running and soon to follow are Massachusetts, Maine and the cannabis behemoth known as California. [continues 638 words]
The point of Narcos was never Pablo Escobar. For its first two seasons the series rooted itself firmly in the rise and fall of Escobar, the most notorious of maniacal drug kingpins, and a performance by Wagner Moura as Escobar was as emphatic as it gets. But Narcos was always planned as a vast epic about the drug trade - what fuels it, who runs it and how every lame attempt to curb it goes awry. Two years ago when I spoke with Jose Padilha, the Brazilian director, producer and screenwriter who is an executive producer on Narcos, he said it's about, "What cocaine is - it's cheap to make, it's a natural product and it makes the human brain go haywire. The American approach to dealing with the cocaine problem is basically fighting cocaine by fighting supply. So yeah, you wage war on the Medellin Cartel. You kill Pablo Escobar. And then it goes to Cali. Then you wage war on Cali. And then it moves on and then it goes to Mexico. It's always there." [continues 753 words]
The legalization of cannabis and rapid scale up of supervised-injection sites - as well as community-led initiatives, such as the site set up by Overdose Prevention Ottawa in Lowertown this month - have thrust Canada back into the limelight of global drug policy. Against the backdrop of a national overdose crisis and a fracturing of global consensus on drug prohibition, these are welcome changes. Yet they only begin to chip away at the drug policy challenges facing Canada. Canada's policy community remains divided about how best to tackle the overdose crisis. As the death toll mounts, should we invest more in law and order approaches, treatment, harm reduction or some combination? [continues 582 words]
It looks like Attorney General Jeff Sessions has run into some problems in his crusade against the marijuana. While the new Department of Justice administration has long been mounting pressure against the marijuana industry, the latest suggestion from the Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety is to, well, do nothing. The subcommittee was announced months ago and tasked with developing a legal avenue for Session's marijuana crackdown. However, the Associated Press reported the group "has come up with no new policy recommendations to advance the attorney general's aggressively anti-marijuana views." [continues 521 words]
Largest drug seizure in OPP history has three men facing charges ORILLIA - The OPP showed off the largest ever drug seizure of its nearly 110- year history Monday morning. Three men have been arrested, accused of importing 1,062 kilograms of pure cocaine. The drugs were displayed by police during a press conference in four specially constructed glass containers, each with a dimension of about four feet tall by eight feet wide. "This is a massive seizure, bigger than I've ever seen in my 33 years of policing," OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes said during the press conference at OPP Headquarters in Orillia. [continues 825 words]
Metric tonne found after force tipped off The cocaine was hidden inside hollowed-out quartzite stones packed onto shipping containers coming from Argentina - the drugs were concealed so well that even police dogs couldn't detect them. It was a tip from the public that ultimately led to the largest drug seizure in the Ontario Provincial Police's history as the force carried out an investigation into an international cocaine-smuggling ring with ties to Mexican cartels. Altogether the force seized 1,062 kilograms of cocaine during a months-long investigation that culminated in July, according to OPP deputy commissioner Rick Barnum. [continues 394 words]
Hundreds of health-care workers have requested that Ontario declare a state of emergency as a result of the opioid crisis. Such a declaration would allow for an influx of funding - the signatories to an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne asking for the declaration estimate it should run into the millions of dollars - to create more overdose-prevention sites, money for frontline workers and more opioid programs. The government would be well advised to listen; if it doesn't declare a state of emergency, it should at least take to heart the requests made of it and make decisions quickly. [continues 362 words]
A Taiwanese prosecutor is calling on Ottawa to provide better co-operation and intelligence to help stop the flow of Canadian marijuana, after two massive busts in the Asian country earlier this year. More than 70 kilograms of marijuana shipped from Vancouver were seized in April and June by Taiwanese customs at the Port of Keelung. Seven Taiwanese were charged in the busts. However, the official says Taiwan has had no luck in getting information about the Canadian end of the situation. [continues 600 words]
Advocates say they can't wait any longer and will open a safe-injection location Drug users are dying while politicians fill out forms and wait for approvals for supervised injection sites, says a group promising to open a guerrilla injection tent of its own somewhere in Ottawa Friday. Overdose Prevention Ottawa, which has only existed for a matter of days, is taking the delicate political compromises that have let harm-reduction efforts lurch forward here and kicking them aside. Because waiting is costing lives, the group says. [continues 1487 words]
