• Drug Policy

    Insight on Insite

    It has been interesting to observe the fallout from the recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision which allows Insite, Vancouver’s largest supervised injection facility (SIF), to remain in operation.

    In essence, the SCC found that the rights of the clients and staff of Insite to Insite outweigh any salutory effects arresting them for drug possession at Insite might have.

    As the SCC put it:

    … the effect of denying the services of Insite to the population it serves is grossly disproportionate to any benefit that Canada might derive from presenting a uniform stance on the possession of narcotics.

    The court rejected the argument that Insite is a health facility under provincial rather than federal jurisdiction, but they agreed that, in this case, the Controlled Drugs and Subtances Act (CDSA) infringes on Charter rights.

  • Letter of the Week

    A Misguided Sense of Justice

    Re: Pot Growers Face More Jail Than Rapists, Sept.  23.

    I read with disbelief the proposed criminal code changes that appear to suggest that the Canadian government thinks growing marijuana is equal to pedophilia.  I would rather have someone grow 1,000 pot plants than for them to harm a single child.  The U.S.  “war on drugs” has been a complete failure, and has contributed significantly to that country’s current dismal economic situation.  Why is our government dragging us down that dead end road?

    Jim Selover

    Edmonton

     

    Pubdate: Wed, 28 Sep 2011
    Source: National Post (Canada)
    Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc.
    Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
    Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
    Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
    Author: Jim Selover
    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n597/a03.html

  • Drug Policy

    Insite victory an embarrassment for Harper

    Denial of health services and increased risk of death among drug users outweighs any benefit from absolute prohibition on drug possession

    By Peter McKnight, Vancouver Sun

    If nothing else, Friday’s unanimous Supreme Court of Canada decision on the future of Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, reveals the federal government’s striking ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And in spectacular fashion.

    The plaintiffs, after all, lost on both of their primary grounds of appeal, yet still managed to win the case. The plaintiffs’ first argument, which previously persuaded the B.C. Court of Appeal, concerned the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity, while the second argument, which previously convinced the B.C. Supreme Court, concerned section 7 of the Charter. Yet, while these two arguments swayed lower courts, the Supreme Court of Canada wasn’t having any of either.

  • Letter of the Week

    Facts About Pain And Cannabis

    ‘Christine’ says arthritis is not an excuse to take illegal drugs, and ‘it’s a known fact that cannabis leads to paranoia’ ( LT, September 2 ).

    Firstly, it is not an ‘illegal drug’, it is the possession, cultivation and supply that is illegal.

    There is a big distinction there: the law is aimed at people, not substances.

    Secondly, paranoia is a mental health problem experienced by some people and whilst cannabis may worsen it for some, it eases it for others – there is plenty of information online to confirm that.

    An estimated 3 to 5million people in the UK use cannabis, many to ease dreadful pains and suffering that prescribed medication does not touch.  They are not all paranoid, by far.

    Furthermore, cannabis as plant material is now available on prescription, through doctors, pharmacists and clinics, in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Canada and many US states.

    Pain is no excuse to break the law – but it is a justifiable reason and anybody who suffers or is watching somebody suffer ought to understand that.

    People who possess or grow cannabis in their own homes for their own use and do no harm to others ought not to be punished.

    That is where the law is at fault.

    Alun Buffry

    Norwich

     

    Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2011
    Source: Lancashire Telegraph (UK)
    Copyright: 2011 Newsquest Media Group
    Contact: [email protected]
    Website: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/
    Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4381
    Author: Alun Buffry
    Reference: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/9230722.Pain_no_excuse_to_break_law/

  • Announcements - Hot Off The 'Net

    Prohibition Documentary

    Premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS

    CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS

    PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

    Prohibition was intended to improve, even to ennoble, the lives of all Americans, to protect individuals, families, and society at large from the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. But the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    marijuana-arrests.com

    An Online Library About Marijuana Possession Arrests, Race And Police Policy In New York City And Beyond

    U.S. government studies consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks or Latinos. Yet, in large cities and counties throughout the United States, young blacks and Latinos are arrested and jailed for marijuana possession at much higher rates than young whites.

    In New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, police arrest blacks for marijuana possession at seven times the rate of whites. Usually, the people arrested were not smoking in public. Police typically found the small amount of marijuana when they stopped, frisked, and searched the young people, often in their own neighborhoods.

    Marijuana-Arrests.com is an on line library of materials about the huge numbers of racially-biased marijuana possession arrests, their consequences, and the law enforcement policies and operations which produce them.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Court decision on Insite safe-injection project coming Friday

    For Donovan Mahoney, the Insite facility in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside was more than just a safe place to turn to for drugs.

    Since 2004, he’s checked in at the clinic about 1,000 times for heroine, cocaine and morphine injections but he credits the controversial site for helping him get to treatment when he was ready and for housing him while he works on transitioning from life on the street.

    He was sitting in a Maple Ridge, B.C., jail for petty crime when he called on the people he’d met at Insite for help.

    “By then, I kind of burnt a lot of bridges so the people I had to turn to when I was in jail (were) these guys,” he said.

    “They went all the way out to Maple Ridge and drove me out to Miracle Valley (Treatment Centre). It was my first real crack at treatment.”

    On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada will announce its landmark decision on whether North America’s first supervised injection site for addicts, will be allowed to operate without a federal government legal exemption from drug laws.

    Should the Supreme Court not rule in Insite’s favour, the organization would need to continue to rely on a federal government exemption to remain open.

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Drugs, Risk and the Myth of the ‘Evil’ Addict

    By MAIA SZALAVITZ

    My column on making Naloxone available over-the-counter to reverse overdoses drew many plaudits and two main strands of criticism. One group argued that addicts aren’t worth saving and we need to cut the drug supply; the other said that Naloxone, also known by its brand name, Narcan, is too risky to be available without a prescription.

    Let me address the second argument first. More than 50,000 Naloxone kits have already been distributed to drug users, pain patients and their loved ones in the United States and 10,000 successful overdose reversals have been reported.

    The health advocacy group Public Citizen has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize over-the-counter sales and has received a response that details the agency’s requirements for reclassification. A meeting on the topic of how best to expand access is expected to be held by the agency next May: according to its letter, the F.D.A. would probably want expensive clinical trials before granting over-the-counter status. It is not clear how that would be funded or whether it would allow alternative approaches