Windsor City Council United in Support of Anti-Substance Abuse Plan

The Windsor area has taken its first steps in a fight against the devastating effects of drugs in our region, say the authors of a new framework document aimed at preventing and reducing substance abuse.

“We’ve come together and said, ‘Yes, there’s a problem. Yes, here’s how we should work together,’” said Sheila Wisdom, executive director of The United Way.

Ms. Wisdom was one of several delegates who spoke to city council Monday about the framework, which was more than a year in the making.

Unanimously supported by council, the document will lead to the creation of an implementation committee. Ms.  Wisdom said that once the strategy is developed, the community can get better access to provincial and federal funding.

Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones noted the connection between drugs and crime. “We have a gang problem, and we have a gun problem,” he told the mayor. “And, Your Worship, behind the gangs and the guns, you have drugs.”

However, the document didn’t pass without controversy. Two of the delegates who attended voiced opposition to the mention of “harm reduction” as one of the pillars of a future drug strategy.

Sophia Martin, a recovered addict and now an advocate for those dealing with drug problems, worried that “harm reduction” might include things like the handing out of “crack kits” — drug paraphernalia issued to encourage safer practices among addicts.

“We realize it’s not written on paper,” Ms. Martin said, “(But) handing out crack kits would not preserve the community’s quality of life…. It will definitely support illicit drug activity and destroy our children’s future.”

Rob Cheshire, a volunteer chemical dependency counsellor, warned against “harm reduction” practices he described as “experimentation,” and pointed to the failings of the safe injection site in Vancouver.

“I believe that such a scenario (in Windsor) would be counterproductive, with the distinct possibility of loss of life,” Mr. Cheshire said.

Ward 1 Coun. Drew Dilkens said he’s visited Vancouver and he’s “absolutely paranoid” about its “harm reduction” practices coming to Windsor.

But Ms. Wisdom noted that “harm reduction” has yet to be defined in a local strategy, and there remains much to discuss.

“This is a wicked, messy problem, and there’s not a simple solution to it…. We’re at the starting point of this conversation, not at the end of it.”

Windsor police Deputy Chief Jerome Brannagan said he supports the document.

“The phrase ‘harm reduction’ is all over the place. I would offer a suggestion — that when people talk about ‘harm reduction,’ they look at it as a philosophy on different issues as opposed to a single way of reducing this problem,” he said
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Matt Achine, after a June 17, 2008 article by Dalson Chen in The Windsor Star

Semi-automatic Handguns Seized: Linked to Drug-Prohibition Activities

The Windsor police Drugs, Intelligence, Guns and Surveillance (DIGS) branch has taken two more handguns off city streets.

Police reported Monday that officers executed a search warrant at an eastend apartment Friday afternoon and found two loaded .380 semi-automatic pistols, both with their serial numbers removed.

“The trend for us to seize loaded weapons, especially semi-automatic handguns, is very disturbing and all too common anymore,” Supt. Dave Pickford of the investigations division said in a news release.

“Each seizure removes another potential tragedy from happening.”

The guns were discovered on the 200 block of Buckingham Dr. Along with the weapons, police found a spare pistol magazine with six rounds of ammo, a set of digital scales, and a small amount of drugs including marijuana and oxycodone, a prescribed narcotic with an opiate-like effect.

Toronto resident Shauna Gerro, 18, was arrested at the residence. She faces two counts of possessing narcotics and two counts of unauthorized possession of a firearm.

The seizure was part of an investigation into Windsor resident Kenton Barnswell, 26, who police suspect of selling drugs from a Reginald street address.

Earlier on Friday, officers executed a search warrant on the Reginald Street residence, leading to the arrest of Mr. Barnswell and another man, Michael Anthony Soulliere, 23.

Found at the home was suspected crack cocaine with an estimated $1,340 street value, 33 suspected ecstasy tablets, two sets of digital scales and about $3,000 in Canadian and U.S. cash.

Mr. Barnswell has been charged with three counts of possessing narcotics, possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking, two counts of unauthorized possession of a firearm, and five counts of breaching court orders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Neil, after a December 4, 2007 article by Dalson Chen in The Windsor Star

Detroit Tops Crime List – Mayor: Don’t Worry, It’s Not Tourists Being Killed (Just Detroiters)

Drug-related Murders No Risk to Tourists, City Says

A new report ranking Detroit as the top U.S. crime spot prompted a barrage of criticism Monday from local officials.

The analysis of U.S. crime statistics showed that the Motor City had squeaked past St. Louis to become the most dangerous city in the country in 2006.

Detroit did not deny it has a big crime problem but police said the murders were “not random” and were drug- related. Such crimes are not likely to affect a visitor, they said.

Crime statistics can scare away tourists and conventioneers. So St. Louis officials, fearing their Missouri city would come out on top again, had joined with other cities to hire a public relations firm to try to thwart the annual crime report, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Although the group couldn’t stop the CQ Press report released over the weekend ranking 378 cities in six crime categories, the St. Louis paper was able to proudly report Monday that the city had dropped to “second-most dangerous.”

The rankings are based on Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, but the FBI refrains from breaking them down by city. Cities use different methodology to compute their own crime rates and crime levels in a particular community are affected by multiple factors.

But the publisher, the reference arm of Congressional Quarterly, said on its website Monday that local variants do not mean the cities should not face comparison.

“This would be somewhat akin to deciding not to compare athletes on their speed in the 100yard dash because of physical or training differences,” it said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after a November 20, 2007 article from Reuters

Harper’s Tories just say no! to harm-reduction measures – “..back in business..” with same-old-same-old anti-drug strategy for $64-million

Health Minister Tony Clement will announce the Conservative government’s anti-drug strategy this week with a stark warning: “The party’s over” for illicit drug users.

“In the next few days, we’re going to be back in the business of an anti-drug strategy,” Mr. Clement told The Canadian Press. “In that sense, the party’s over.”

Shortly after taking office early last year, the Conservatives decided not to go ahead with a Liberal bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Since then, the number of people arrested for smoking pot has jumped dramatically in several Canadian cities, in some cases jumping by more than one third.

Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax all reported increases of between 20 and 50 per cent in 2006 of arrests for possession of cannabis, compared with the previous year.

As a result thousands of people were charged with an act that, under the previous Liberal government, was on the verge of being decriminalized.

Police forces said many young people were under the impression that the decriminalization bill had already passed and were smoking up more boldly than they’ve ever done before.

Tony Clement says his government wants to clear up the uncertainty.

“There’s been a lot of mixed messages going out about illicit drugs,” Tony Clement said in an interview Saturday after a symposium designed to bring together Canada’s arts and health communities to combat mental health issues.

There’s also a health-care cost element to suggesting to young people that using illicit drugs is OK, the minister said.

“The fact of the matter is they’re unhealthy,” Tony Clement said. “They create poor health outcomes.”

For too long, Mr. Clement argues, governments in Canada have been sending the wrong message about drug use. It’s time, he says, to take a tougher approach to dealing with the problem.

“There hasn’t been a meaningful retooling of our strategy to tackle illicit drugs in over 20 years in this country,” Tony Clement said.

“We’re going to be into a different world and take tackling these issues very seriously because (of) the impact on the health and safety of our kids.”

The Conservatives’ wide-ranging $64 million anti-drug strategy is expected to combine treatment and prevention programs with stiffer penalties for illicit drug use, and a crackdown at the border against drug smuggling.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day will join Tony Clement in announcing the plan as part of a range of initiatives to be unveiled by the Tories surrounding next month’s throne speech.

Tony Clement has suggested in the past that he opposes so-called harm-reduction strategies for combatting illegal drug use, including safe-injection sites where nurses provide addicts with clean needles and a safe place to use drugs.

At a Canadian Medical Association meeting last month, he was quoted saying “harm reduction, in a sense, takes many forms. To me, prevention is harm reduction. Treatment is harm reduction. Enforcement is harm reduction.”

The following day, a petition signed by over 130 physicians and scientists was released, condemning the Conservative government’s “potentially deadly” misrepresentation of the positive evidence for harm reduction programs.

Vancouver’s Insite safe injection clinic is facing a December 31 deadline for the renewal of a federal exemption that allows it to operate.

Advocates say safe-injection sites help to prevent the spread of serious diseases, including AIDS and hepatitis by preventing users from sharing needles while opponents say the sites simply promote illegal drug use.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after a September 29, 2007 article from The Canadian Press

A legal Afghan poppy crop can be used on the production of legal pain-relieving medicines providing legitimate sources of income for Afghan farmers

Senlis Council (Security & Development Policy Group) calls for NATO action on soaring opium production.

The United Nations has no choice but to legalize Afghanistan’s poppy crop after its latest study documented “frightening” new levels of opium production, the Canadian-led Senlis Council think-tank and the Liberal opposition say.

Afghanistan’s status as the world’s leading supplier of the key ingredient of heroin remained unchallenged as opium production soared 34 per cent in the last year, according to the latest annual audit by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released yesterday.

The UN agency also called for more active NATO military involvement to eradicate the illicit opium trade.

However, Senlis and its Canadian leader, Norine MacDonald, as well as Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s western allies to reconsider legalizing poppy production so money now funnelled into the illicit narcotics trade can be spent on the production of pain-relieving medicines that provide legitimate sources of income for Afghan farmers.

They say this latest UN report is a dramatic example of the failure of the $600 million the U.S. has pumped into eradication efforts in Afghanistan.

The UN opposes the legalization of the poppy trade as generally unworkable and against the Islamic principles of the western-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Though illicit poppy cultivation has risen steadily in the six years since western forces deposed the Taliban, yesterday’s UN report was the first to draw a direct link between the opium trade and the anti-western insurgency that Canada and its NATO allies continue to battle in southern Afghanistan.

“Since drugs are funding insurgency, Afghanistan’s military and its allies have a vested interest in destroying heroin labs, closing opium markets and bringing traffickers to justice. Tacit acceptance of opium trafficking is undermining stabilization efforts,” said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN drug agency.

For the most part, the 37,000 troops from the 26 NATO countries and its 11 allied countries are reluctant to take part in direct counter-narcotic efforts.

Mr. Coderre reiterated his party’s support for the Senlis proposal. He said past eradication efforts have simply not worked and that in the short term there is little financial incentive for farmers to grow legal crops.

“This is the only way for farmers to get bread on the table,” said Mr. Coderre. “The reality is, if you eradicate, the farmers are against you and they become allies to the Taliban. I would suggest, like Senlis Council proposes, a supply management strategy.”

Yesterday’s UN report showed that Afghanistan opium now accounts for 93 per cent of the world’s heroin trade (up from 92 per cent), and that its poppy farmers are now more productive than all the coca farmers of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined, who form the backbone of the global cocaine trade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after an August 28, 2007 article by Mike Blanchfield in The Ottawa Citizen

The Thin Blue Line: Suspended drug squad officer faces charges

A disgraced Windsor-born Toronto cop facing an array of corruption, assault and sex assault charges is out on bail.

On Friday evening, after a lengthy hearing presided by Justice Richard Gates, 44-yearold Ned Maodus was released from custody for the first time in five months.

“I’ll win,” said Mr. Maodus when asked his opinion of the charges that remain levelled against him in several jurisdictions across the province.

The former member of the Toronto police drug squad would not offer further comment about his time in jail, but acknowledged he will now be living with his 81-year-old mother in her downtown residence.

“Which is where he was residing before all this ‘in custody’ stuff,” said Mr. Maodus’s lawyer Patrick Ducharme.

Mr. Ducharme said he was “very happy” with the outcome of Friday’s bail hearing, and stressed that his client is not a danger to the public. “Absolutely, the public has nothing to fear. This man has been a police officer for 20 years.”

According to Mr. Ducharme, Mr. Maodus has suffered in custody, especially during two months at Maplehurst Correctional Complex where he lived in “deplorable conditions.”

Mr. Ducharme said Mr. Maodus was confined to a cell with “bodily substances on the wall” and was forced to sleep on a mattress only a half-inch thick.

Mr. Ducharme said the Maplehurst cell measured seven feet by seven feet in floor space, and the cramping aggravated Mr. Maodus’s osteoarthritis. “He’s six foot three. He used to weigh 200 pounds. He now weighs 170 pounds. He’s lost 30 pounds in custody.”

Smoking a cigarette as he left the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, Mr. Maodus would not speak about his jail conditions, but indicated his thin frame — still clad in prison issue clothes.

Mr. Maodus has been held since March 12 when he was arrested for allegedly attacking his then girlfriend. He was acquitted of those charges on July 21 after the woman recanted her story, saying she “felt bad” for not telling the truth.

In March, Mr. Maodus was also acquitted of charges stemming from an alleged road rage incident in 2005, due to the lack of believability in the complainant’s testimony.

Mr. Ducharme said he expects more of the charges against Mr. Maodus will turn out favourably for his client.

According to Mr. Ducharme, at least half of the approximately 40 total charges against Mr. Maodus have already been or will soon be materially affected or dismissed.

“The fact is, he’s facing far fewer charges than he was before,” Mr. Ducharme said.

Mr. Maodus is one of six Toronto police officers who have been charged as a result of an RCMP probe into alleged corruption in the Toronto police drug squad.

But Mr. Ducharme said he believes several of those corruption-related charges will be dismissed or withdrawn after Justice Casey Hill’s ruling last week that drugs and guns allegedly found in Mr. Maodus’s Orangeville home aren’t admissible as evidence due to a “very, very serious breach of (Maodus’s) constitutional rights.”

Mr. Ducharme said there are “stringent conditions” attached to Mr. Maodus’s bail. A total surety of $45,000 was posted for Mr. Maodus’s release.

Along with living in his mother’s home, Mr. Maodus must regularly check in with a police officer when he’s in Toronto for court appearances.

“He’s essentially under house arrest,” Mr. Ducharme said.

Asked how Mr. Maodus was feeling after Friday’s bail hearing, Mr. Ducharme replied: “I’ve never been kissed by a client. He kissed me three times.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by a Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after an August 4, 2007 article by Dalson Chen in The Windsor Star

Drugs, guns fuel crime fears

Don’t tell Bill Iggulden crime is down in his neighbourhood.

Police released statistics Wednesday showing Windsor is similar to the rest of the country, with an overall decline in crime rates. But in the Drouillard Road area, Mr. Iggulden’s home for 33 years, he said the drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes and violence are still prevalent on the often rough and tumble streets.

“In a way, they control the neighbourhood, the bad ones,” said Mr. Iggulden, 49, a security guard who also helps out at a methadone clinic and volunteers with New Song Church. “There’ve been stabbings, there’s been beatings, murders.”

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that Canada’s crime rate dropped another three per cent last year, to its lowest point in 25 years. Windsor’s crime rate ranked 10th among 18 cities with populations between 100,000 and 499,999. Our city had 6,754 Criminal Code violations per 100,000 people.

Windsor police also said Wednesday that crime here was down 12 per cent in the first half of 2007 compared to last year.

But some crimes were on the rise, including drug offences, which increased from 28 in June 2006 to 53 last month. There were 294 drug charges in the first half of 2007, compared to 261 for the same period last year.

Where there are drugs, said Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton, you’ll often find guns.

“We’re seeing it more frequently,” he said. “That combination is a deadly one. It is a great concern to us.”

Sgt. McNorton said the police service’s recently restructured guns and drugs unit is having success. He pointed to an arrest Wednesday night on Tecumseh Road East, where police seized a package with $17,000 in cash, 14 packages of suspected cocaine and a loaded handgun.

“We’re picking up guns on a regular basis.”

Drugs also bring prostitution into neighbourhoods, he said. Police have laid 80 prostitution charges this year, including 10 last month.

Some of the worst areas have been Wyandotte Street West and Drouillard Road, he said, and police are battling the problem year-round. A lot of the fight is complaint driven, with people calling police after seeing the hookers in their neighbourhoods.

“We send undercover officers into those areas,” he said. “People don’t want that around their neighbourhood.” Count Mr. Iggulden among them. “The cops have been cleaning it up,” he said. “But it hasn’t really changed. It quiets down, then it comes back again. They get banned from the area for a period of time, then they come back. It’s frustrating. After a while it gets routine. You expect it to happen. What else can we do?”

Mr. Iggulden, part of a group trying to clean up Drouillard, said he often spends his nights walking the area picking up trash and whatever else he finds. At the park, among the wrappers and beer bottles, there are often needles.

“I find so many,” said Mr. Iggulden, who lives above a Drouillard bar. “It’s all over, drugs.”

Prostitution isn’t the only byproduct of neighbourhood drug use, he said.

“They beat each other up. They’re running, chasing each other with baseball bats. There’s guys pulling knives.”

A week ago, he said a fight broke out at a church dinner between a pair of drug addicts.

But people in other neighbourhoods describe different lives, where crime does seem to be declining.

In Walkerville, Kelly Shepherd is so unconcerned with crime that she lets her four-year-old daughter play by herself in the neighbourhood.

“She gets to wander because there are good neighbours,” Ms. Shepherd, 27, said from her front porch while her daughter played nearby. “Everyone watches out for everyone’s kids.”

She said someone once broke into her car, and she is concerned enough about crime that her house has an alarm. But nothing has happened in the 18 months that she’s lived here to make her afraid to walk alone at night or fear for her daughter’s safety.

“Nothing big, so far.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by a Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after a July 20, 2007 article by Trevor Wilhelm in The Windsor Star

Police draw guns in Howard Ave. residential neighbourhood – seeking drug-related suspects

Residents of a Howard Avenue neighbourhood south of Niagara Street were witnesses Tuesday night to a gunpoint arrest of suspects by Windsor police.

Around 7 p.m., officers in an unmarked vehicle following a northbound Ford Escape forced the silver SUV to pull over to the side of the road, then approached it with guns drawn, witnesses reported.

John Bernier, 52, who lives in the 900 block of Howard near the scene, said he heard the officers shout to the SUV’s occupants that they were under arrest for drug possession.

“They were all in the tactical team,” said Mr. Bernier about the arresting officers. “My wife — as soon as guns were drawn, she headed for the hills.”

Police took into custody the SUV’s male driver and male passenger. Mr. Bernier said the men didn’t resist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHS Note: It’s been a little over a year since Windsor Police Constable John Atkinson needlessly lost his life by gunfire, on streets in east Windsor, due to illegal drug-related activities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by a Windsor Humanist, Alexander Hodgins, after a July 18, 2007 article by in The Windsor Star

Canadians Number 1 in Use of Marijuana

Marijuana use in Canada is the highest in the industrialized world, far higher than in the Netherlands where it’s legal, and more than four times the global rate, a report by the United Nations has found.

The report also says cannabis use around the world appears to have stabilized and appears to be declining in North America. A plunge in use by Ontario high school students was cited as a factor in the trend.

The world drug-use study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used other cannabis products in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics were cited.

Marijuana possession remains illegal in Canada.

For years, parliamentarians have worked to decriminalize it to no avail. As a result, tens of thousands of people have criminal records for possession.

The study, using the most recent statistics collected from each country — although some dated back almost a decade — estimated that 3.8 per cent of the world’s population aged 15 to 64 used cannabis in 2005. That was about 159 million people, down slightly from 162 million the previous year.

The data show Canadian usage fifth after Zambia (17.7 per cent in 2003). Ghana (21.5 per cent in 1998) and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia tied for first place at 29 per cent each in 1995.

The Canadian statistics compared to 2005 rates of 8.7 per cent in England and Wales, 12.6 per cent in the United States, 8.5 per cent in Israel; 10.7 per cent in Jamaica (2001), and 6.1 per cent in the Netherlands (2001), where it is legal to buy and sell marijuana for personal use.

In some countries in East and Southeast Asia, such as Korea and Singapore, and in the Middle East, such as Oman and Qatar, cannabis use is negligible.

The report said cannabis comprises, by far, the largest illicit drug market on the planet.

The study also noted a 38 per cent decline in cannabis use among U.S. 12th graders between 1979, when marijuana use peaked, and 2006. A 19 per cent drop in use by Ontario high school students between 2003 and 2005 was also noted.

The report also said there was slightly less trafficking of cannabis from Canada into the United States in 2005.

“This could indicate that cannabis production stabilized or even declined slightly in Canada, following large production increases in previous years,” the report said, citing Canadian government estimates. “Between 2000 and 2004, production in Canada more than doubled.”

However, the report suggested that the altered trafficking trend could also indicate that organized crime groups have relocated to the American Pacific northwest and California to avoid tightened border controls.

Forty per cent of Canadian cannabis is produced in British Columbia, 25 per cent in Ontario and 25 per cent in Quebec, the report noted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by a Windsor Humanist (Neil.Hod.) after a July 10, 2007 article in The Windsor Star

Cannabinoids Enhance Analgesic Activity Of Opiates In Inflammatory Pain

THC (the active ingredient of marijuana) when administered in combination with morphine, acts synergistically to reduce symptoms of chronic pain, according to preclinical data to be published in the European Journal of Pharmacology.

Investigators at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Pharmacology (in Richmond, Virginia, USA) assessed the antinociceptive interaction between cannabinoids and morphine in an animal model of arthritis. The administration of THC enhanced morphine’s anti-inflammatory activity on chronic pain, researchers concluded.

Preclinical data published last year in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia reported that the co-administration of cannabinoids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSIADS) also act synergistically to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation.

Clinical trial data published in the February 2007 edition of the journal Neurology reported that inhaled cannabis significantly reduces HIV-associated neuropathy, a painful nerve condition that often goes untreated with standard pain medications.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…this post forwarded by a Windsor Humanist (N.Hod) after an article published in medical journal The European Journal of Pharmacology