Canada
Report on Harm Reduction in Canada
Posted in In the Trenches by David Guard on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 1:20pm[Courtesy of Canadian Harm Reduction Network]
The Canadian Harm Reduction Network and Canadian AIDS Society Launch a New Report on Harm Reduction in Canada
18 June 2008
The Canadian AIDS Society and the Canadian AIDS Society, in partnership, have launched a new publication entitled "Learning from Each Other: Enhancing Community-Based Harm Reduction Programs and Practices in Canada." The report is the culmination of a 17-month-long study based on the findings of a harm reduction symposium and a series of focus groups, site visits and community walkabouts in nine medium-sized cities across Canada. The study was funded by the federal government's Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund.
"The recent judgment on the operation of Insite, Vancouver's safe injections site, reminds us that harm reduction services are fundamental healthcare rights and that to deny such services is in effect an infringement of the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Our report shows how Canadian harm reduction programs are vital to our communities through their service to a population that is often marginalized and alienated," says Monique Doolittle-Romas, Executive Director of the Canadian AIDS Society. "These programs are making a valuable difference in people's lives and to society by helping protect the health and well-being of those most in need. They typically do this under the constraints of insufficient or insecure funding."
Targeted to health care professionals, outreach workers and service providers working in the field of harm reduction in Canada, the report highlights how various programs were developed and implemented, the challenges encountered and the lessons learned along the way. It also provides in-depth testimony from people with drug-use experience about what works well, what does not, the impact that harm reduction programs and services have on their lives, and what can be done to improve programs.
"People who work in harm reduction and people who use drugs told us at various meetings that they don't know what is happening in other cities. The need for information sharing is critical," says Gail Flintoft, Chair of the Board of the Canadian AIDS Society. "We took this project on so that people don't have to recreate the wheel. Sharing this information will enhance harm reduction services by enabling people to learn from each other's experiences."
"Service providers and service users alike told us that having information about the 'unknown' harm reduction - what goes on outside the major cities across Canada - would help them save both lives and money, said Walter Cavalieri Director of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network. "Now they have it."
The report shows how community and health care organizations prevent harms related to drug use, primarily the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. It also portrays the holistic underpinnings of the programs which cater to both the basic health and emotional well-being of people who use drugs.
Most importantly, the report shows the human side of harm reduction, including the perspectives from the many people harm reduction programs serve, in their own words. It's a celebration of the dedicated harm reduction pioneers and proponents who are working to protect the lives of people who use drugs. Often discussing issues beyond harm reduction, it also provides a compelling glance at societal challenges, including poverty, homelessness and gentrification in urban centres.
The report can be accessed, in English and French, on the websites of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network at www.canadianharmreduction.com/project
and the Canadian AIDS Society at: www.cdnaids.ca/learning_from_each_other.
Feature: Western Hemisphere's Only Heroin Maintenance Program Coming to an End
Every day for 15 months, Vancouver heroin addict Rob Scott Vincent, 36, went into a nondescript building on the city's Downtown Eastside where a nurse would hand him a syringe loaded with pharmaceu
Feature: BC Supreme Court Rules Vancouver Safe Injection Site to Stay Open, Federal Drug Law Controlling It Unconstitutional
In a ruling that stunned and very pleasantly surprised advocates for Vancouver's Insite safe injection site, the British Columbia Supreme Court Tu
Canada: Marijuana Legalization Retains Majority Support, Poll Finds
Feature: Vancouver's Safe Injection Site Fights for Its Life -- Again
The only officially-sanctioned safe injection site in North America, Vancouver's InSite will have to close its doors June 30 if the Canadian feder
Canada: Supreme Court Nixes Random Use of Drug Dogs
In a ruling last Friday, the Canadian Supreme Court held that the use of drug-sniffing dogs in a random s
Community Forum on the National Anti-Drug Strategy
Do you think drug use is a health issue or a criminal justice issue? Do you want Canada to follow the U.S. style "War on Drugs?" Do you agree with the elimination of harm reduction?
Come and discuss the implications of the National Anti-Drug Strategy.
Happy 10th Birthday, Canadian Hemp Industry!
Posted in In the Trenches by David Guard on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 5:16pm[Courtesy of Ruth's Hemp Foods]
This week marks the 10th anniversary since Canada's Industrial Hemp Regulations came into effect.
On March 12, 1998, about 100 people gathered in Tillsonburg, Ontario with great excitement to hear our former Minister of Health, Allan Rock, make the announcement, formalizing what we had been working towards for several years previous.
We've come a long way. Starting at just 264 licensed acres in 1998, a high point was reached in 2006 at over 48,000 acres.
And the players have changed as well - very few of the faces in that room are still involved, and many new ones have appeared.
Now to grow hemp in the US... see below for a delicious way to support American farmers.
To celebrate the birthday of the modern hemp industry, we're taking 20% off of all our products! Shop at www.ruthshempfoods.com, and at check-out, code in Happy 10 to receive the discount. It will be good until March 22. 
In Hemp and Health,
Ruth
VoteHemp bar
Support the right of American farmers to grow hemp!
Despite the fact that most Canadian hemp is now sold in the US, it is not legal to grow in that country... yet! Read about the struggle to legalize commercial hemp at
And here's a delicious way to support VoteHemp: buy the VoteHemp bar - we donate 20% of the profits of this bar to VoteHemp. Scroll to the bottom of this page http://www.ruthshempfoods.com/hempbars.html to buy the VoteHemp bar.
Press Release: Educating Prime Minister Stephan Harper about Drug Policy
Posted in In the Trenches by David Guard on Fri, 02/01/2008 - 12:14pm[Courtesy of Beyond Prohibition Coalition]
For Immediate Release: February 1, 2008
Contact: Dr. Susan Boyd: cell: 788-828-8828, email: sboyd@live.ca
Educating Prime Minister Stephan Harper about Drug Policy
In response to Prime Minister Stephan Harper’s flawed drug policy, which emphasizes increased crime control rather than harm reduction and drug policy reform, researcher and educator Dr. Susan Boyd in partnership with Beyond Prohibition Coalition, a Vancouver-based group, has created an educational website called “Educating Harper” at http://www.educatingharper.com.
For each of the next 52 weeks, Dr. Susan Boyd will send Prime Minister Harper a letter containing a research article on harm reduction and/or drug regulation. The weekly readings are listed on the website along with a summary and a direct website link to the original paper. The website also provides concerned Canadians with information about drug policy.
The first readings on the reading list pertain to the failure of drug prohibition and criminal justice initiatives such as mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences, the necessity of drug user input, and 25 peer-reviewed articles about the harm reduction initiative Insite. These are followed by summaries of a number of film documentaries and the 1973 federally funded Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-medical use of Drugs, better known as the LeDain Report. Other federal commissions and provincial and city reports about drugs and regulation, such as the Report on the Task Force into Illicit Narcotic Overdose Deaths in British Columbia, A Framework to Action: A Four-Pillar Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver, and Cannabis: report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, are included in the reading list.
Dr. Susan Boyd is Associate Professor in the Studies in Policy & Practice program and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Addictions Research-BC at the University of Victoria. She is the author of: Hooked: Drug war films in Britain, Canada, and the United States (2008), From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Law, and Policy (2004), Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths (1999), and co-editor of With Child: Substance Use During Pregnancy, A Woman-centred Approach (2007).
Beyond Prohibition Coalition is a Vancouver-based group that promotes community health, safety, and drug policy reform. They support moving towards the development and implementation of a system of regulation and control of currently illegal substance within a framework of public health and human rights.
Canada: Marc Emery to Accept Canadian Prison Time on US Charges
Marc Emery, Canada's most well-known marijuana activist, has reached a tentative plea bargain agreement with US federal prosecutors who charged him and two associates as drug dealers for selling ma
Editorial: A Matter of Basic Fairness in the Marc Emery Case
David Borden, Executive Director
Canada: The Drug Business is Booming, Says Mounties Report
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued its annual report on the state of the drug fight on Monday, and the report shows that prohibitionist Canadian drug policies have largely failed to ma
December Cannabinoid Chronicles Newsletter Available Online
Posted in In the Trenches by David Guard on Tue, 12/11/2007 - 12:34pm[Courtesy of Vancouver Island Compassion Society]
The December issue of Cannabinoid Chronicles is online and available for
viewing at: http://www.thevics.com/publications/vol5/VICSNews5_4.pdf
Some stories:
Constitutional Challenge Hits Bump
Loosen Medical Cannabis Rules, Lawyers Argue
Ontario Court Ruling Challenges Cannabis Prohibition
Comments on Swiss Study (Cannabis and Adolescents)
Drug Disposal 101
IACM Bulletin
Enjoy,
Robin at the VICS
Canadians Unite Against Bill C-26 - Ask MPs "Why Prohibit Marijuana?"
Posted in In the Trenches by David Guard on Tue, 12/11/2007 - 12:03pmFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 3, 2007
CONTACTS: Jacob Hunter, National Event Coordinator, arplar@gmail.com or 604-803-4085, Kirk Tousaw, 604-836-1420, kirk@tousawlaw.ca.
Canadians Unite Against Bill C-26 - Ask MPs "Why Prohibit Marijuana?"
An exciting new grass-roots political campaign is beginning to grow across Canada. In response to the Americanization of Canadian drug policy by the Conservative Party of Canada, ordinary Canadians are standing up to ask a simple question: Why?
On November 20th, 2007 the Conservative government of Canada introduced Bill C-26, imposing mandatory minimum jail sentences for cannabis (marijuana) offences in an attempt to appear "tough" on crime. In reality, the government's own experts have said time and again - most recently in the Department of Justice analysis accompanying the CPC's other "get tough" crime bill - that these extreme measures simply don't work. This American-style legislation has been met with sweeping condemnation from experts and members of the public across Canada. At noon on December 17, 2007, ordinary Canadians will be gathering at their local Member of Parliament's office to ask their MPs to vote against Bill C-26 and to force them to justify any continued support for the failed and harmful policy of marijuana prohibition.
"Mandatory minimums have already failed to curb drug use and sales in the US and simply ended up filling their jails to brimming with non-violent marijuana offenders" said Kirk Tousaw, a Vancouver criminal defence lawyer that has practiced on both sides of the border, "Worse, the evidence on marijuana is pretty unequivocal: prohibition is causing more harm than it prevents. So the question for Parliament is why? Why does marijuana prohibition have the support of the House of Commons?"
Tousaw, whose UBC Master's in Law thesis examined Canadian cannabis policy, said: "Cannabis and cannabis policy has been studied extensively and thoroughly by our government and many others. The conclusions are unequivocal. Prohibition doesn't reduce use or supply. Prohibition supports organized crime by providing criminals with constant revenues. Prohibition creates dangerous black markets with no controls and causes people to grow marijuana in suburban basements instead of on farms and in greenhouses. And marijuana itself is far safer than virtually all of our legal drugs, including alcohol, tobacco, prescription and over-the-counter medications. The public understands this perfectly - 63% support legalization. Yet Parliament has ignored all of this. Why?"
To find out the answer, on December 17, 2007 Canadians will meet at MP's offices across Canada. Starting at noon, these citizens will ask their representatives to meet and explain what the MP's marijuana position is. If the MP supports prohibition, he or she will be asked why. Event organizer Jacob Hunter put it this way, "We want them to tell us what their reasons are. Virtually all the reasons I ever hear given to support prohibition are at odds with the scientific and expert evidence, but I think many of the MPs may simply not understand the issue well enough. It seems that our government is more willing to listen to the Bush administration than to the evidence and the Canadian public. I want to know why."
How Should Public Money Be Spent?
Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue?
This is part a free series being held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27.
Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations
What Do We Tell the Kids?
Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue?
This is part a free series being held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27.
Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations
Where Should Public Health End and Criminal Justice Begin?
Drug Policy Public Health or Criminal Justice Issue?
This is a free series held over three Wednesdays, February 13, 20, and 27.
Facilitator: Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations
Canadian Tories' Mandatory Minimum Drug Bill Draws Stiff Opposition, But Can It Be Stopped?
Canada: Federal Government Introduces Anti-Drug Legislation
Canada's Conservative federal government Tuesday introduced legislation that would create mandatory prison sentences for drug trafficking and drug producing offenses, including marijuana cultivatio
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