Canada

Contact: Kirk Tousaw at 604-836-1420 or [email protected], or Philippe Lucas at 250-884-9821 or [email protected] The most comprehensive constitutional challenge to Health Canada's medical marijuana policy and practice will conclude next week in the B.C. Supreme Court. A decision will be heard in BC Supreme Court (800 Hornby Street Vancouver BC Canada) on the 2nd of February at 9 a.m., marking the final chapter of this nearly five year charter challenge. The decision is open to the public. This court case is the most extensive legal challenge ever mounted against Canada's much-maligned federal medical cannabis program. It stems from a May 2004 RCMP raid of a medical cannabis research and production facility near Sooke, B.C. overseen by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS), a non-profit medical cannabis organization located in Victoria, B.C. The raid resulted in the destruction of over 900 cannabis plants being cultivated for the 400+ members of the VICS, all of whom use medical cannabis with the support of their physicians, and to the arrest of Mr. Mat Beren, who was the VICS employee responsible for the facility at the time of the raid. "Our hope is that the courts will come to the aid of Canada's critically and chronically ill by defending their constitutional right to access and use medical cannabis from a safe source without unnecessary bureaucratic delays or obstacles," said Philippe Lucas, the founder and director of the VICS and a newly elected municipal councillor in the city of Victoria. "Canadians have a well-established legal right to access medical cannabis," added Kirk Tousaw, counsel to Mr. Beren. "It is tragic that Health Canada has not put in place a system to effectively allow patients to exercise that right. Because of their failure, the arrest and prosecution of both patients and caregivers continue to this day." The VICS is a medical cannabis non-profit society founded in 1999 that currently supplies a safe source of cannabis-based medicines to over 850 critically or chronically ill Canadians with a doctors¹ recommendation for its use. Where/When: Vancouver's Provincial Court (800 Hornby St.) on the 2nd of Feb. at 9:00 a.m. What: Final decision in Regina v. Beren Charter challenge Press: Press conference to follow decision (10:15 a.m. EST)

[Courtesy of North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI)] For Immediate Release: October 17, 2008 Contact: Julie Schneiderman at (604) 806-8380 Results show that North America’s first heroin therapy study keeps patients in treatment, improves their health and reduces illegal activity VANCOUVER, BC, October 17, 2008 – Researchers from the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI Study) today released final data on the primary outcomes from the three-year randomized controlled clinical trial. “Our data show remarkable retention rates and significant improvements in illicit heroin use, illegal activity and health for participants receiving injection assisted therapy, as well as those assigned to optimized methadone maintenance,” says Dr. Martin Schechter, NAOMI’s Principal Investigator, Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and Professor and Director, University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health. “Prior to NAOMI, all of the study participants had not benefited from repeated standard addiction treatments. Society had basically written them off as impossible to treat.” The data, which was collected from 251 participants at sites in Vancouver and Montreal, demonstrate that a combination of optimized methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) and heroin assisted treatment (HAT) can attract and retain the most difficult-to-reach and the hardest-to-treat individuals who have not been well served by the existing treatment system. Key findings at the 12-month point of the treatment-phase of the study showed that HAT and MMT achieved high retention rates: 88 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. Illicit heroin use fell by almost 70 per cent. The proportion of participants involved in illegal activity fell by almost half from just over 70 per cent to approximately 36 per cent. Similarly, the number of days of illegal activity and the amount spent on drugs both decreased by almost half. In fact, participants once spending on average $1,500 per month on drugs reported spending between $300-$500 per month by the end of the treatment phase. Marked improvements were also seen in participants’ medical status with scores improving by 27 per cent. Of particular note amongst the findings, participants receiving hydromorphone (DilaudidTM) instead of heroin on a double-blind basis (neither they nor the researchers knew) did not distinguish this drug from heroin. Moreover, hydromorphone – an opiate licensed for the relief of pain - appeared to be equally effective as heroin, although the study was not designed to test this conclusively. According to the NAOMI Study Investigators, further research could help to confirm these observations, allowing hydromorphone assisted therapy to be made more widely available. While a comprehensive health economics study is pending, researchers have already determined that the cost of continued treatment is much less than that of relapse. “We now have evidence to show that heroin-assisted therapy is a safe and effective treatment for people with chronic heroin addiction who have not benefited from previous treatments. A combination of optimal therapies – as delivered in the NAOMI clinics - can attract those most severely addicted to heroin, keep them in treatment and more importantly, help to improve their social and medical conditions,” explains Schechter. A summary report of the findings and background information on the study are available at: www.naomistudy.ca.

[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.

[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 www.VoteHemp.com. 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.

[Courtesy of Beyond Prohibition Coalition] For Immediate Release: February 1, 2008 Contact: Dr. Susan Boyd: cell: 788-828-8828, email: [email protected] 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. www.educatingharper.com

[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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 3, 2007 CONTACTS: Jacob Hunter, National Event Coordinator, [email protected] or 604-803-4085, Kirk Tousaw, 604-836-1420, [email protected]. 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."

[Courtesy of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network] History On 26th July 2007, NDP MP Peggy Nash organized a community meeting at Toronto's Parkdale Community Health Centre with a panel of speakers including NDP Drug Policy critic Libby Davies, MP, the Toronto Drug Secretariat’s Susan Shepherd, Dr. Joanne Csete, from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Chantal Desgranges from the Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force, Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo and community activist Mark Dukes . It was an evening full of energy and lively debate, and a call went out at the end of the meeting for the community to take action against the regressive “Anti-Drug Strategy” being proposed by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Then on 4th October, Libby Davies again visited Toronto, this time for an appearance at the Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force’s Speakers’ Series – on the very day that Canada's Anti-Drug Strategy was being announced – see Stephen Harper’s speech at http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1837 With about 40 people in attendance, there was much dismay around health minister Tony Clement’s comment that “the party’s over” – like life’s ever been a party for poor people, who are the main targets of drug criminalization. A group of people signed up to meet and strategize, and on October 18th, we formed the Harm Reduction Action Group. Next Steps Our next meeting will be held at 1.00pm on Thursday November 15th, at John Howard Society, 60 Wellesley St. West, in Toronto. We agreed that our first priority is to develop an “ideal world” harm reduction strategy for ourselves, and then reach out to community action groups in other centres across Canada for buy-in, and present the Harper Conservatives with OUR vision for a strategy that reduces harm – including the harm that comes from the enforcement of prohibition that just isn’t working. Take Action – NOW! Interested? Visit our website, http://www.harmreductionactiongroup.wordpress.com and post a comment on our forum, come to our next meeting, or email Sarah Prowse at [email protected].

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- August 9, 2007 CONTACT: Rielle Capler, T: 604-875-0214, E: [email protected] Report Reveals Massive Inefficiencies in Government's Medical Cannabis Program, Urges Cost Coverage for Medicine A report released today by the BC Compassion Club Society (BCCCS) uncovers massive spending inefficiencies in Health Canada's Medical Cannabis program. It was recently discovered that the government is marking up their supply of cannabis by 1500%--and that many people who have ordered the government's supply are unable to afford it and have been cut off from accessing this sole legal source. The BCCCS felt this situation warranted further scrutiny of the cultivation contracts between Health Canada and its supplier of cannabis, Prairie Plant Systems (PPS). The report's highlights include findings that: 63% of the cannabis Health Canada buys from PPS is unusable, at a cost of $220,000 this year; and 80% of the total cost of the government program are operational costs, including the cost of reports at a price of $86,740 per month. These are some of the costs being passed on to patients. The original contract between Health Canada and PPS began in December 2000, with the cost of the contract now totaling over $10 million. The report finds that community-based dispensaries are more cost-effective--while also providing higher quality services to many more people who suffer from critical and chronic illnesses. It costs the government $500,000 more per year to serve 10 times fewer people than the BC Compassion Club. The BC Compassion Club, a non-profit medical cannabis dispensary, just celebrated its 10th year anniversary of distributing high quality cannabis to over 4000 critically and chronically ill Canadians. Together compassion clubs across the country serve an estimated 10,000 people, whereas Health Canada's program has licensed only about 1,700 Canadians, of whom only 350 are accessing their cannabis from PPS. "Health Canada is requiring taxpayers and medical cannabis patients to fund inefficient practices, capital upgrades, and equipment for a private contractor. Instead of providing affordable medicine to those in need, Health Canada has chosen a policy and program that seemingly creates a windfall for one monopoly supplier," states Rielle Capler, the report's author. The report highlights the need for cost coverage of this important medicine, regardless of the source. "The cost of cannabis for those in medical need must be covered under Canada's universal health care system as it is for other medicine," says Ms. Capler. The Attorney General's office is in the early stages of an audit of certain user fees in Health Canada's program. The Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS) is currently in court with a constitutional challenge of the government's program. Senator Pierre Claude Nolin and Lynne Belle-Isle of the Canadian AIDS Society testified against the program this week in Victoria. "It's clear from the testimony of patients enrolled in this program that the cost is an obstacle to safe access to medical cannabis," said Philippe Lucas, director of VICS. "Compassion clubs have long urged the government to explore cost-coverage options through provincial or federal funds." To see the report: http://safeaccess.ca/pr/hc_pps_contract_report.pdf

Angus Reid Strategies has released the results of an opinion survey showing that a majority of Canadians believe marijuana should be legalized. The full report is at http://www.angus-reid.com/admin/collateral/pdfs/polls/ARS_Drugs.pdf The release is found at http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16300.