Vancouver’s Insite celebrates 10 years, 2 million visits, zero deaths. A man shooting up in the back doorway of an alley with dirty water.
A First Nations elder found dead in her rocking chair with a needle in her arm. Countless people overdosing and dying alone in dilapidated single room occupancy hotels. That was what addiction looked like in the Downtown Eastside before Insite, North America’s first legal supervised drug injection site, opened its doors, said Mark Townsend of the Portland Hotel Society, which helps operate the site. But 10 years later, despite continuous opposition from the federal Conservative government, the picture is much brighter.
“We brought people inside. Not a single death has occurred during more than 2 million visits under Insite’s watchful nurses and counsellors, all because a group of allies from the community, the city and the province decided “not to treat addicts like animals,” Townsend said. The attitude toward the site has dramatically changed since it opened, he said. Why Pot Makes You Feel Good. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/takito August 18, 2013 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Last week, CNN’s Dr. Here’s what he — and those studying the chemistry of marijuana — now understand. Marijuana makes chemical contact with human bodies through cannabinoids, which are chemical compounds in marijuana (cannabis). Just as there was a time when we didn’t know we had immune systems or hormonal systems, until 1988 we didn’t know that we had cannabinoid systems. The human body produces and utilizes its own cannabinoids, but the body can also utilize cannabinoids from external sources.
Any woman who has had a hot flash can find an analogy in the hormone estrogen. Other women, during menopause, seek to balance their hormonal systems through the use of a synthetic estrogen (rather than a plant-based one) such as with the pharmaceutical Premarin. So, in this analogy, pot is to a yam what Marinol is to Premarin. LSD and other psychedelics not linked with mental health problems. Public release date: 19-Aug-2013 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Teri Krebskrebs@ntnu.no 47-922-93108Norwegian University of Science and Technology The use of LSD, magic mushrooms, or peyote does not increase a person's risk of developing mental health problems, according to an analysis of information from more than 130,000 randomly chosen people, including 22,000 people who had used psychedelics at least once.
Researcher Teri Krebs and clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Neuroscience, used data from a US national health survey to see what association there was, if any, between psychedelic drug use and mental health problems. The authors found no link between the use of psychedelic drugs and a range of mental health problems. The results are published in the 19 August edition of journal PLOS ONE and are freely available online.
Symptoms and mental health treatment considered. Prison is for Rapists & Murderers. Most Canadians In Favour Of Decriminalization Or Legalization. The majority of Canadians support the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana, a new poll shows.
Sixty-five per cent of Canadians over 18 support either pot legalization and taxation, or the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, according to the survey from Forum Research. Since December 2011, support for legalization has decreased from 40 per cent to 33 per cent, while support for decriminalization has increased from 26 per cent to 32 per cent. The poll surveyed 1,849 Canadians randomly. According to Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, Forum Research president, "legalization is a smart policy for the Liberal Party to adopt as it plays into their natural strengths and against those of the government. " The poll comes after Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau publicly backed decriminalization last week. “I think we have to recognize first and foremost that the war on drugs, as it exists right now, doesn’t work,” he said, according to The Guardian.
Related on HuffPost: Economist on Why Drugs Should Be Legalized.