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BY EVAN WOOD AND DAVID BRATZER, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

The front lines of the War on Drugs in British Columbia are not for the faint of heart. As an internal medicine specialist and a police officer who has spent much of his career at the forefront of anti-drug enforcement efforts, we’ve witnessed the bloody aftermath of shootings, stabbings and other violent confrontations that are common in B.C.’s drug trade. Read more »

Editorial, The Daily News

Harm reduction isn't only about protecting the health of a drug user. These types of programs reduce the impact narcotics have on many aspects of society, from health-care costs to crime.

We're glad that the Vancouver Island Health Authority is expanding its harm-reduction kits around Vancouver Island, including Nanaimo, as long as they do so with proper consultation and transparency.

Last year, VIHA started distributing kits with crack-pipe mouthpieces, syringes and other items in Nanaimo as part of its secondary harm-reduction program, geared to discreetly reducing the spread of disease among addicts. Read more »

BY GORDON YOUNGMAN, THE DAILY NEWS

Distribution of safer crack-smoking kits reduces the risk that people will share pipes or use broken ones. It is also an opportunity to connect more drug users with harm reduction programs and other health and social services.

Sometimes, these are people who would otherwise never approach a program or agency.

Unfortunately, safer-crack kits that have the materials to make a safer-crack pipe are not available in all communities.

It is gratifying to see VIHA expanding the crack-pipe kit distribution as a part of their harm reduction program with Harris House as a model fixed site program in Nanaimo. Its purpose is not to encourage or condone the use or possession of illegal drugs. It is to help people make safer choices in their use of drugs that will reduce the spread of Hep C and HIV as well as other STIs. Read more »

Brandon Rosario — The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) — The University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) has agreed to move forward with the installation and ongoing maintenance of needle disposal boxes in designated areas around the Student Union Building (SUB).

A motion to provide the main hallway bathrooms and on-site bar with drop-off boxes was put forward by UVSS chairperson Tara Paterson, after the UVic Department of Occupational Safety and Environment reported its finding of 10 stray needles on university grounds in 2010 and 15 more in 2011.

AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI) and Campus Security have also discovered a number of discarded needles in various places around UVic. Read more »

By Sean Leslie, CKNW

Attorney-General Shirley Bond says she still doesn't know how much Ottawa's omnibus crime bill cost the province.

Bond discussed the bill with other provincial justice ministers last week.

She says they expressed concern about the financial impacts, but in general they support the changes.

"So in fact we are partners in this, we expressed our views, but you know what? We're gonna work to be constructive with our federal counterparts, we're not gonna behave like the NDP did when they were in government, refusing to participate in a constructive way, that continues under Adrian Dix and the NDP." Read more »

BY LOUISE DICKSON, TIMES COLONIST

A Victoria woman who suffers from chronic pain told a court Wednesday that her family doctor refused to help her obtain approval from Health Canada to use medical marijuana.

"She was against it. She said 'I don't want to be a drug dealer,' " Sandra Large testified from her wheelchair at Owen Edward Smith's trafficking trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

"It made me angry. I think a doctor's purpose is to help patients."

Smith, 29, the head baker for the Cannabis Buyers' Club of Canada, has launched a constitutional challenge against Health Canada's medical-marijuana access regulations.

He was charged on Dec. 3, 2009, with possession for the purpose of trafficking THC and unlawful possession of marijuana after the manager of an apartment building complained to police about a strong smell wafting through the building. Police obtained a search warrant and discovered that the suite was being used as a bakery. Officers recovered substantial quantities of cannabis-infused olive and grapeseed oils, as well as pot cookies, destined for sale through the club. Read more »

BY JEFF DAVIS, POSTMEDIA NEWS

OTTAWA — Canada's prison population is not growing as fast as expected in the wake of Tory tough-on-crime legislation, prompting Corrections Canada to abort plans to hire 4,000 new prison guards.

According to the most recent data, Canada's federal prison population stood at 14,893 at the end of 2011, significantly fewer than the 17,189 prisoners Corrections Canada predicted would be locked up by then.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he never believed predictions that the prison population would grow significantly when the government passed legislation that increased mandatory minimum sentences and repealed the two-for-one time served provisions.

Toews said he now feels vindicated. Read more »

By Dan Ferguson - Langley Times

The owner of the shuttered Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Langley has informed the courts that he will insist on a jury when his drug possession case goes to trial.

Randy Caine made the demand during a brief appearance in Surrey Provincial Court on Wednesday (Jan. 11).

Caine was charged with one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking after the RCMP raided the Langley City dispensary on July 19.

Officers seized more than eight pounds of marijuana and what an RCMP release described as “a large quantity of marijuana products, including cookies and candies” from the dispensary. Read more »

By: Matthew Burrows, Georgia Straight

A Toronto author and one-time “crackhead” with a PhD is convinced Vancouver’s ethical treatment of addicts at places like Insite mirrors how other visionaries changed society’s perception and treatment of previously oppressed groups.

“I want to tell the people of Vancouver that you’re on the cutting edge of something fantastic, because the war on drugs is going tits-up all over the place,” Peter Ferentzy told the Straight by phone. “What would happen if slavery were abolished and women’s suffrage were introduced one city at a time, after the fact, 20 years later? What would people think of a city that could say, ‘We were the first to do it?’ That’s what these people are doing for Vancouver.” Read more »

By Jenn McGarrigle - Nanaimo News Bulletin

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is looking at distributing crack kits, needles and other harm reduction supplies at additional facilities across the Island.

The health authority made harm reduction a hot topic in Nanaimo when it rolled out a pilot project for a mobile service without consultation in 2007, drawing backlash from the community and city council.

The health authority backed off, but last year implemented the first phase of its harm reduction strategy, which included distributing these items at eight 'secondary' sites across the Island, meaning the facilities' primary purpose is not to distribute harm reduction supplies, but service users can get the supplies while there. Read more »