News

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has compared cannabis to heroin. NEW YORK - In a national vote widely viewed as a victory for conservatives, last year's elections also yielded a win for liberals in eight states that legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use.

The compact mass spectrometer shows precisely what's in marijuana. The compact, high-tech chemical sensors made by the Boston startup 908 Devices are used by emergency responders to scan for toxins after industrial accidents, and by researchers in the pharmaceutical and energy industries to profile the composition of drugs and petroleum products.

An initiative to amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to operate near liquor stores, child-care centers and parks could appear on the November ballot, after a group behind the effort submitted thousands of signatures backing the measure.

Efforts underway to establish a new needle exchange site in the city The North Parry Sound District Health Unit indicated in a release Friday that harm reduction services, including the needle exchange program, continue to operate in the community and that work is underway to find ways to further increase access.

Opinions

The audacity of the Sahota family is breathtaking. Its patriarchs are notorious slum landlords, who wanted to branch out and run a cannabis shop in the heart of Vancouver's west side.

The lethal danger of fentanyl is becoming well-known. No one knows precisely how many people die per year in Canada from opioid overdoses. Last year, there were 922 opioid overdose deaths in B.C. alone, and more than 340 overdose deaths in Alberta were specifically from fentanyl. While Saskatchewan numbers are much smaller and their official count is unclear at this point, the drug's lethal toll may well be on the rise in this province as well; it is clearing coming east from the coast and from Alberta.

Junk science endangers lives. Forensic junk science in the hands of overzealous prosecutors, ignorant police detectives and reckless experts threatens liberty.

A decision to increase the minimum distance between marijuana dispensaries in Victoria, as part of the rezoning and business licensing process for such shops, was no doubt applauded by many.

Letters

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has "seen the science" regarding marijuana and young people, and because of this, he wants the minimum age to purchase marijuana to be 21. Has Nenshi bothered to notice the science regarding tobacco, which directly kills 45,000 Canadians every year, or alcohol, which directly kills 4,500 Canadians every year? yet, anyone 18 or over can purchase these products. Marijuana-related deaths in Canada for 2016: 0. In fact, marijuana-related deaths for the years 2000 B.C. to 2017 A.D.: 0. Don't worry about adults purchasing marijuana at 18, Mr. Nenshi. It will be fine.

Re: "Cannabis front and centre in on Parliament Hill" Kudos to NDP MP Alistair MacGregor for pressuring the federal government to desist from criminalizing cannabis consumers while we wait for their new regulatory regime.

With fentanyl killing young people all across North America, the primary goal of the revised drug education in Alberta schools, and in the home, should be harm reduction.

Re. "Pot legalization sparks new issues for school boards," June 28 With fentanyl killing young people all across North America, the primary goal of the revised drug education in Alberta schools, and in the home, should be harm reduction.

A recent letter writer seems to have all the answers regarding pot legalization. I guess, with his criticism of legal marijuana, he feels that booze and cigarettes should be criminalized as well.

To the Editor: Using jail as a program for drug users is a symptom of another urgent problem: mass incarceration, which increasingly takes the form of an overcrowded rural or small county jail.

In "A New Kind of Jail for the Opiate Age" (Sunday Review, June 18), Sam Quinones argues for in-jail treatment as a solution to rising opioid use.