Tag: Canada

The Physical Toll of Alcohol and Drugs

You don’t have to be addicted to have an increased risk for disease associated with alcohol or drug use.

Addiction can have a massive impact on your relationships, emotional health and mental well-being. That can make it easy to forget that using drugs or alcohol — even recreationally — can raise your risk for some physical illnesses, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Considering the physical impacts of substance use can be scary, but there’s good news: getting sober or reevaluating your relationship with drugs or alcohol can help you reclaim control over your health.

Here’s what you should consider about the physical impact of drugs and alcohol, and how they fit within the larger social, environmental and personal framework that impacts our health.

What drug and alcohol do to the body

The exact physical effects of addiction will depend on your drug of choice. Most people know that drinking alcohol excessively can take a toll on your liver, while using meth can deteriorate your oral hygiene and the appearance of your teeth. Living with active addiction can impact your sleep patterns and nutrition, leaving you looking haggard or generally unwell.

There are also links between drug and alcohol use and serious illness. It’s important to recognize that you don’t have to be addicted to experience these effects. Even recreational use can raise your risk for disease. For example, people who have one drink per day are at increased risk for cancer compared with people who don’t drink. It’s estimated that about 20,000 people in the United States die each year from cancers that are alcohol related.

Recreational alcohol use can also have an impact on your heart, which is especially concerning considering that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the U.S. and Canada. This trend holds true among young people, who are generally at a lower risk for cardiovascular disease. According to a 2021 study, young people who use cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol increased their risk of premature heart disease by up to three times. People who use four or more different substances recreationally had a nine-times higher risk of heart disease than their peers who didn’t use drugs or alcohol recreationally.

Physical illness, addiction and trauma

Research shows a clear correlation between substance use and chronic illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular disease. But the story of causation is trickier to pinpoint. People who are at higher risk for substance use might also be at higher risk for certain diseases.

Consider the research on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These are potentially traumatic events in childhood, ranging from abuse to having a parent with mental illness to having an incarcerated parent. These events can create toxic stress, which changes how the brain and body function. Because of that, people who experience a significant amount of ACEs are more likely to experience mental illness, addiction, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

People who drink heavily or use illicit drugs might wonder if those decisions impacted their cancer diagnosis or heart health. The truth is that a complex variety of biological processes, behavioral choices and environmental factors influence our health over the lifetime.

Sobriety and physical wellness

It’s never too late to take charge of your overall health. The first step is getting treatment for substance use disorder and evaluating the past traumas that might be impacting how you interact with drugs or alcohol. Counseling can help you understand the ways in which your past is still affecting your current behaviors and future health.

When you stop using drugs and alcohol, you might notice some immediate changes to your physical health. You may begin sleeping better or notice a change to your weight. Your immune system, which can be depressed by alcohol, will likely rebound, offering you more protection against everything from a cold to COVID. In addition, paying more attention to your health can help you notice concerning symptoms and connect with care early on, preventing more serious outcomes.

Over time, the health implications of drinking less and not using drugs add up. People who drink less alcohol and don’t use recreational drugs are less likely to develop heart disease or cancer than those who indulge heavily. It’s too late to change the past, but you can take control of your future health today by exploring sobriety.

Sunshine Coast Health Centre is a non 12-step drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in British Columbia. Learn more here.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2022
Canada Faces Year-Long Legal Marijuana Shortage

Supply issues began almost immediately after recreational marijuana officially became legal in mid-October.

Less than a month after declaring marijuana legal, Canada’s legal dispensaries are struggling to meet the overwhelming demand for cannabis, which may remain in short supply or out of stock.

News outlets like Vice have laid the blame on licensed producers that grossly overestimated their ability to deliver their product in massive amounts, though High Times noted that the supply issue is a temporary problem that will be corrected once growers can bring their production up to speed. How long that will take remains unclear, though some projections see the dry spell lasting up to 18 months.

As the New York Times observed, shortage issues began almost immediately after the October 17 launch of legalization in the country. Some provinces were simply unprepared to meet the staggering demand. In Ontario, where physical cannabis stores will not be open to the public until April 2019, the sole online retailer received more than 150,000 orders in a single week, while in British Columbia, just two government-sanctioned retailers—one a 10-hour drive from Vancouver—are available to customers.

But even provinces with more retailers find themselves unable to keep up with orders. Quebec has 12 shops, but has been forced to close them for three days a week in order to catch up with the demand.

According to one industry member, the problem lies with licensers who saw the cannabis industry as the means to a quick cash influx. “Most of these guys, they’ve been wearing pinstripe suits their whole career,” said Dan Sutton, founder of Tantalus Labs in British Columbia. “They’ve never spent any time on a farm, and they don’t know shit about agriculture.”

Sutton said that time and understanding are crucial to creating a sustainable cannabis facility with repeatable product. Tantalus Labs took four years to design and build its greenhouse, but according to Sutton, other companies have devoted only months to their operations.

Additionally, few of the growers hired by these facilities have the experience to maintain large cannabis crops, which have specific requirements for irrigation and nutrients that, if not met, can spell doom for a crop.

With those factors in play, Sutton said that “we will not see anything close to equitable supply relative to demand in the next 18 months.” But other industry members believe that patience is the key to solving the shortage problem. Jordan Sinclair, vice president of communications for Canopy, the largest legal cannabis producer in the world, said that some product has yet to reach the level of maturity needed for cultivating, and the market will even out in a few months.

Increasing the number of licenses issued to producers may also help, but as Rosalie Wyonch, an analyst with C.D. Howe Institute, said that even that may not be enough to deal with the problem. She also noted that the Canadian government should adhere to its plan to reduce the country’s black market marijuana trade, but ultimately, the solution remains with the supply.

“Licensed producers basically need to grow as much weed as possible,” she said.

View the original article at thefix.com

9 November 2018
Despite Legalization, Canada’s Pot Black Market Continues To Thrive

Officials are hoping that dealers on the illegal market will be priced out.

Last week Canada became only the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, but the black market for pot is continuing to thrive as customers seek out products that they can’t buy legally, including edibles, and sellers push back on government intervention in their industry.

“We’ll keep selling what we are selling,” Don Briere, the owner of an illegal Vancouver pot shop, told The New York Times. Briere sells edibles and other products that are currently illegal under the national law, which only allows for the sale of fresh or dried cannabis, seeds, plants and oil.

Canada—especially Vancouver—has long had a thriving illicit marijuana industry, worth an estimated 5.3 billion Canadian dollars each year.

One of the aims of legalization was to close the illegal shops that are common in cities like Vancouver.

However, Briere and other industry insiders object on principle. “The government taking over the cannabis trade is like asking a farmer to build airplanes,” he said. He’s not alone. In Vancouver, hundreds of illegal shops remain open.

At a lower level, street dealers try to entice customers by offering services like delivery and selling joints at a two-for-one price. Some customers who were frustrated that legal stores ran out of product went back to their illicit contacts.

“Definitely going to use my dealer from now on his business is going way up because of your crappy service,” one frustrated customer wrote on Twitter.

Despite the disregard for the law, Canadian law enforcement isn’t likely to step up consequences for people who are selling illegally. They have their hands full dealing with more pressing issues, including fentanyl overdoses, said Chief Constable Del Manak, police chief of Victoria and president of the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police.

However, this doesn’t mean that authorities are oblivious to the fact that the illegal market still exists. “It is naïve to think that just because cannabis is legalized, the criminal will walk away from a highly lucrative industry,” said Del Manak.

Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s minister of public safety, said that the government is hoping that over time the legal market will undermine the demand for illegal sales. “It’s a very Canadian way of doing things,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight.”

Farnworth added that there won’t be any police raids with “guns and head-bashing.”

However, in Toronto, police raided five illegal pot shops after the legalization law was passed. Others have voluntarily closed, showing that the government’s approach might be working. Even Briere has shuttered some of his stores across the country and is applying for licenses for the remaining stores.

Officials are also hoping that dealers on the illegal market will be priced out. Today, marijuana on the street costs about one-third of what it did five years ago, making it less lucrative for dealers.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 October 2018
Canadian Pot Companies Use Legal Gray Areas To Promote Product

The companies are not allowed to promote their product with testimonials, glamorous images or mascots, according to Bill C-45.

As Canada attempts to contend—with varying degrees of success—with the massive demand for cannabis after the country legalized recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, various entrepreneurs have leapt into the fray to connect consumers with product in creative ways.

Among these is the delivery start-up Eddy Delivery, which is offering a unique promotional campaign to bring visitors to its website. The company offered to deliver free snacks to those who add their information to its mailing list, and add their names to a grand prize drawing for a visit to a licensed cannabis production facility.

The campaign is intended to help Eddy add delivery of recreational marijuana to its current service, which delivers medical marijuana.

Eddy’s website states that customers who sign up for its service would be added to a delivery list, which will be served with free snacks (while supplies lasted) on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales.

Those who signed up could increase their chances for a windfall of munchies by sharing the information and tagging friends on Instagram. Participants were also entered into a random drawing for a “Lucky Green Ticket,” which would grant four winners a tour of a licensed cultivation facility—or “local weed factory.”

The ultimate goal for Eddy is to branch into recreational cannabis delivery, though it will have to overcome considerable hurdles set in place by the legalization legislation.

As High Times noted, prospective cannabis companies are not allowed to promote their product with testimonials or mascots, but the specifics of this rule are—according to Scott Hulbert, managing director of the promotional products company Ideavation—”really gray.”

“It’s a moving target, as far as legalities, restrictions and advertising opportunities,” said Hulbert. “Will it be like tobacco, which is very restricted in its advertising, or alcohol, which has been given more of a carte blanche? We just don’t know.”

Eddy CEO Ryan Dempsey echoed Hulbert’s understanding of the current bill. “They recently changed regulations to allow Ontario retail stores to be run by private companies,” he said. “They’re still also considering changes for other rules, such as private e-commerce and delivery.”

As for Eddy’s chances of entering the recreational market, Dempsey said, “Nothing definite at this point, but we’re optimistic.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 October 2018
Walmart Canada Considers Selling Marijuana Products

The mega chain is reportedly investigating the viability of carrying CBD products in their stores.

As a growing list of major companies either embrace or consider the option to include cannabidiol (CBD)-based products in their retail offerings, a representative from Walmart Inc. in Canada told the Vancouver Sun that the mega-chain has conducted research into the viability of carrying CBD products on store shelves.

Diane Medeiros, a spokesperson for Walmart Canada, said that while the company does not have plans to carry CBD products at this time, it “has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue.”

The timing of their investigation coincides with the legalization of marijuana at the federal level throughout Canada on October 17, 2018.

In an email exchange with the Sun, Medeiros said that the review of CBD-based products—goods that contain the active but non-psychoactive compound cannabidiol—is standard operating procedure, something they carry out for “any new industry.”

As High Times noted, the investigation is also good business practice, as Canadians are expected to drop $1 billion on marijuana in the first three months after legalization. Response to the company’s announcement also proved positive for Walmart, whose shares rose nearly 3% in afternoon trading that day.

And while Walmart is apparently not ready to offer CBD-based product to its customers, other brands, both global and regional, have already announced their intent to cater to the new market.

In Canada, the drugstore chain Shoppers Drug Mart was approved as a licensed medical marijuana producer, which will allow them to dispense cannabis to their customers, while the Montreal-based Molson Coors Canada has entered into a joint venture with The Hydropothecary Corporation to produce non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages.

The Coca-Cola Company, too, has reported making inroads towards CBD-based products with a beverage produced in conjunction with Aurora Cannabis, while Estee Lauder has added Hello, Calm—a face mask infused with sativa—to its line of cosmetic products.

Several U.S. breweries like Lagunitas and Coalition Brewing have already begun selling CBD-infused beer products, and the vegan chain By Chloe offers CBD-based products in its nationwide locations.

And, as the Vancouver Sun noted, companies that have refused to expand its offerings to CBD product may experience a setback: PepsiCo’s declaration to not sell CBD-infused goods resulted in a decline in its market share.

Cowen & Co. analyst Vivien Azer underscored the retail industry’s growing focus on CBD-based products in a research note that stated, “Health and wellness consumers are beginning to find value and use cases from CBD-based oil extracts, tinctures, topicals and capsules to improve everyday life. We expect to see CBD used as a functional ingredient in non-alcoholic beverages.”

View the original article at thefix.com

19 October 2018
Marijuana Is Now Legal In Canada

While cannabis enthusiasts rejoiced, policymakers cautioned that the legalization effort would have unpredictable, wide-ranging effects.

While the United States has dabbled in legalizing marijuana in piecemeal legislation passed through the states, our neighbors to the north have fully ended the prohibition on cannabis, becoming just the second country in the world to legalize marijuana.

The new law took effect Wednesday at midnight, with Canadians from coast to coast hosting parties to smoke in freedom, according to The New York Times. The legalization fulfilled a campaign promise by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The fact that we are moving away from a Prohibition model is a victory for human rights and social justice, an economic windfall for the Canadian economy and a sign of social progress,” said Adam Greenblatt, a director at Canopy Growth, a producer that has been valued at more than $10 billion, told the Times.

While cannabis enthusiasts rejoiced, policymakers cautioned that the legalization effort would have wide-ranging effects, some of which would be hard to predict.

“Legalization of cannabis is the largest public policy shift this country has experienced in the past five decades,” said Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s minister of public safety. “It’s an octopus with many tentacles, and there are many unknowns. I don’t think that when the federal government decided to legalize marijuana, it thought through all of the implications.”

The Canadian Medical Association Journal took a strong stance against the move, calling the legalization plan an “uncontrolled experiment in which the profits of cannabis producers and tax revenues are squarely pitched against the health of Canadians.”

Under the new law, Canadian adults can possess up to 30 grams of marijuana and have up to four plants growing at home. The logistics of the legislation—like setting up marketplaces—was left up to municipalities, meaning that it will vary across the country. The federal government will also be examining how to adjust the criminal records of people with marijuana-related offenses.

To deal with intoxicated driving, the number of police certified in sobriety tests will double over the next few years. However, other than keeping risky drivers off the road, the police did not seem too concerned with the change in the law.

“Fentanyl kills 11 Canadians a day,” Adam Palmer, Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department and the president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said. “Marijuana does not.”

While many people celebrated legalization, some cannabis consumers said that it was just a way for the government and big business to get their hands into the pot industry, which was estimated to be worth $5.6 billion in Canada last year.

“People don’t want to buy government-approved joints,” said Jodie Emery, a leading cannabis activist in Vancouver. “Legalization is little more than the whitewashing of cannabis culture.”

View the original article at thefix.com

18 October 2018
Temporary Overdose Prevention Site Gets Extension

The site was expected to close by September’s end, but the government made a last-minute decision to extend it for another month.

At the end of September, the government of Ontario province in Canada decided to extend operations of its Temporary Overdose Prevention Site (TOPS) through October—but with no current plans for a permanent site, the community says it will be ready to pick up where TOPS left off.

“If the government was going to let these people down then our community needed to step up,” said community organizer Blair Henry.

TOPS, located in the city of London, was expected to close at the end of September, but the government made a last-minute decision to extend the site for at least one more month.

TOPS is the first sanctioned supervised consumption facility (i.e. supervised injection facility or SIF) in Ontario. The first SIF in North America, Insite, resides in British Columbia province in Vancouver. A handful of American cities are planning to establish SIFs as well, despite opposition by the U.S. government.

According to Canada’s Global News, about 2,000 people have visited TOPS 8,000 times since it opened in February. The non-profit that runs TOPS—Regional HIV/AIDS Connection—estimates that there have been about 400 drug-related deaths in London and greater Middlesex County in the last decade.

Currently TOPS remains a temporary program while the Ontario government considers a permanent site. While there is no guarantee of a permanent program, volunteers are prepared to serve the community if TOPS should close for good.

Last month Blair Henry organized about 200 volunteers to help operate a “pop-up tent” in the heart of London—equipped with medical supplies and treatment services—in case TOPS did close at the end of September.

But even though the government extended the program for one more month, Henry’s group, This Tent Saves Lives, still has work to do. “We have to help use this public momentum to inform Doug Ford (premier of Ontario) that there is support for this project,” said Henry.

“There will be an overdose prevention site of some sort that will be erected should that funding (for TOPS) go, but we are going to make sure that that messaging gets out so we can avoid that,” said Henry.

Another potential safety net for drug users—should TOPS close down in the near future—is to dispatch public health workers on bicycles throughout London.

According to the London Free Press, city health officials is considering a plan to reach drug users on the street with naloxone, medical supplies, and other harm-reduction supplies. A similar program exists in Vancouver.

“In urban cores, cycling tends to be the most efficient way of getting around,” said Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for the Middlesex-London Health Unit. “One thing we would do, that we’ve worked on with the London Bicycle Cafe, is we would put our staff on the street on bicycles, with naloxone, so that they’re traveling around.”

View the original article at thefix.com

4 October 2018
Harm Reduction Program Offers Cannabis As Alternative To Hard Drugs

The Canadian program also offers free fentanyl testing strips and naloxone training.

A Canadian harm reduction program is hitting the local opioid addiction crisis from a unique angle—by providing cannabis at little to no cost as an alternative to street drugs.

The High Hopes Foundation, based in Vancouver, Canada—also home to North America’s first legal supervised injection site (SIF)—is the country’s first “full-time cannabis harm reduction program,” CTV News reports.

While this isn’t the first recovery program to feature cannabis as a treatment, it’s still a rather novel idea that some consider controversial. But Sarah Blyth, president of High Hopes, says the program is a realistic approach to attacking the most potent addictions.

“It’s not always possible for people to just completely come off all drugs, because they’ve got trauma. They have pain. They need something,” Blyth said last August, according to CBC. “Opiates may not be the best option for everyone so we’re trying to give them the options we have available.”

High Hopes offers free or low-cost cannabis and CBD oils to people trying to wean off drugs like opioids, which have been a big problem in Canada as well.

According to CTV News, nearly 4,000 Canadians died of opioid overdose in 2017; about 1,400 of them were in British Columbia, the province that Vancouver resides in.

The foundation also offers free fentanyl testing strips and naloxone training. According to Blyth, the majority of illicit drug samples analyzed by the Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society tested positive for fentanyl, which raises the risk of overdose.

The cannabis program, established last year, started out by collecting cannabis donations from registered patients or dispensaries. Once Canada’s marijuana legalization law goes into effect this October, perhaps High Hopes will have an easier time procuring legal cannabis.

“What we are doing is not fully legal but we see it helps and we are desperate to help people. Watching people die isn’t okay,” said Blyth.

The program’s goal is to give people with addictions an alternative to using potentially dangerous street drugs. Blyth noted that many are just seeking relief for pain, anxiety or inflammation. “It gives them a way to have an alternative to the drugs that they’re getting on the street,” said Blyth, who is also the founder of the Overdose Prevention Society. “It’s safe, it can reduce pain.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 September 2018
Canadians More Worried About Trump Than Legal Marijuana

A new survey explored Canadians’ feelings on topics ranging from Trump and national health care to housing, climate change, and cannabis legalization.

When it comes to the issues that worry Canadians, the impending legalization of marijuana is keeping fewer citizens awake at night than Donald Trump.

That’s among the findings from a new poll from Abacus Data, which surveyed 1,500 Canadians about their political choices and concerns as they approach the 2019 federal election.

Nearly half of participants said that they were “extremely concerned” about the U.S. president, while just 18% gave the same response about cannabis legalization.

Abacus Data conducted the survey online with 1,500 Canadians aged 18 and over from August 15 to 20, 2018. In regard to the federal election, respondents echoed statistics recorded earlier this year, with Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party netting 37% of the potential vote and Conservatives earning 33% of the vote.

Trudeau was viewed in a positive light by 43% of participants, and 41% believed that the country was moving in what they viewed as the right direction.

In regard to political issues concerning Canadians, Abacus Data listed nine topics, ranging from Trump and national health care to housing, climate change, border crossings and cannabis legalization.

Responses were somewhat varied according to demographic and political affiliation: voters under the age of 45 listed climate change and housing affordability among their top concerns, while those over 45 ranked health care and affordable housing as second and third of their most pressing issues.

Climate change and health care also saw high numbers from liberal voters, while conservatives leaned towards border crossing and debt among their top three concerns.

However, there were two factors which received a near-unanimous response across age and party lines: Donald Trump was listed as the top concern for voters both under and over 45, as well as with liberals and supporters of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Trump also topped lists for voters in major cities and smaller communities, and among respondents from specific territories like Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Only conservative voters listed Trump at a lower position on their lists, where he placed 5th, while border crossing was given as their most pressing concern.

Demographics were also largely in agreement in regard to cannabis legalization, which was listed last among the nine issues for voters under and over 45 years of age, liberals and NDP voters, big city residents and those in smaller communities.

Again, conservatives placed cannabis higher than other groups, but even in that demographic, it was ranked relatively low at 6th out of nine, below health care, housing and even Trump.

As High Times noted, the response to cannabis legalization echoed similar results from polls in 2017 that found that 68% of adults favored legalization, and in 2018, where 42% of adults voted in the positive for legalization.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 August 2018
Fentanyl Found In Startling Number Of Heroin Samples In Canada

“Something like 60% of the drugs that we check are not what people think they are,” said the author of a new drug-testing study.

Drugs in Vancouver, Canada may be even more dangerous than normal, according to a new pilot project.

The project from the B.C. Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) found that more than 80% of drugs sold as heroin in Vancouver do not actually contain heroin, but rather a dangerous synthetic opioid called fentanyl.

For the project, the BCCSU gave local users the opportunity to test their drugs for fentanyl as well as other substances. The study took place from November 2017 to April 2018 at two supervised-consumption sites in the Downtown Eastside part of Vancouver.

In total, 1,714 samples were tested with fentanyl test strips and an infrared spectrometer.

The results, which the Globe and Mail reports will be published in September in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal, demonstrated that fentanyl was present in a great deal of local drugs, especially heroin. The project also found that types of drugs such as stimulants and hallucinogens are more likely to contain the substance they are sold as.

The findings, according to co-author Mark Lysyshyn, give insight into how problematic the contamination of various drugs is locally.

“Something like 60% of the drugs that we check are not what people think they are,” Lysyshyn said on Tuesday, according to the Globe and Mail. “We’ve always had the idea that drugs could be something different, but right now [the contamination rate] is really high.”

During the study, the Globe and Mail states, authors found that the majority of drug samples (58.7%) were expected to be opioids. They received 907 samples of what was thought to be heroin, but only 160 (17.6%) contained heroin. Of the total 907, 822 contained fentanyl.

Lysyshyn says the results aren’t necessarily indicative of the illegal drug market as a whole since the study was concentrated in downtown Vancouver.

He also added that the intention of the study was not to prove whether an illegal drug is safe, but instead to encourage those who use the drugs to seek out more information about what they are putting into their bodies.

“I don’t think the purpose of drug checking is to say, ‘These are safe; take them recklessly.’ That’s not what we’re trying to do,” he said, according to the Mail and Globe. “We’re saying, here’s a bit more information about these substances; they still could be risky. Because even if you find out there’s no fentanyl in your heroin, heroin causes overdoses, too. We don’t want people to forget all about the other harm-reduction advice that we’re giving; this is just additional information that we think could be helpful.”

View the original article at thefix.com

23 August 2018