Only in Canada eh?

[[La...]]

 

I found this online today and copied some of the comments to the article, only because I didnt know how not too any thoughts?.

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VANCOUVER - B.C.'s top health official says taking pure ecstasy can be "safe" when consumed responsibly by adults, despite warnings by police in Alberta and British Columbia about the dangers of the street drug after a rash of deaths.

 

Dr. Perry Kendall asserts the risks of MDMA — the pure substance originally synonymous with ecstasy — are overblown, and that its lethal dangers only arise when the man-made chemical is polluted by money-hungry gangs who cook it up.

 

That's why the chief provincial health officer is advocating MDMA be legalized and sold through licensed, government-run stores where the product is strictly regulated from assembly line to check-out.

 

Just like the growing chorus for marijuana legalization, Kendall believes crushing the dirty ecstasy-saturated black market and its associated violence requires an evidence-based strategy that revolves around public health.

 

"(If) you knew what a safe dosage was, you might be able to buy ecstasy like you could buy alcohol from a government-regulated store," Kendall said in an interview.

 

He posits that usage rates would decrease.

 

Several studies agree the pure substance is not so "ominous," including research by a Harvard psychiatrist that dispels more damning earlier work.

 

Kendall was asked whether ecstasy, after further study around correct dosage and in a setting involving strict controls, could be safe.

 

"Absolutely," he responded.

 

"We accept the fact that alcohol, which is inherently dangerous, is a product over a certain age that anybody can access.

 

"So I don't think the issue is a technical one of how we would manage that. The issue is a political, perceptual one."

 

He does not advocate promoting the drug for recreational use.

 

At least 16 people from B.C. to Saskatchewan have died since last July from a tainted batch of ecstasy they obtained from criminal dealers, the only way an average person can acquire the drug in Canada. It was cut with a toxin called PMMA.

 

Police say an average of 20 British Columbians who consume street ecstasy die each year.

 

Kendall and several other health colleagues liken the mutation of MDMA into a contaminated street drug to the wave of bootleg beverages during the 1920s prohibition era.

 

"Methyl alcohol led to huge rates of morbidity and mortality in the United States under alcohol prohibition because of illicit alcohol manufacturing," said Dr. Evan Wood, a lead researcher at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and internationally-recognized expert in drug addiction and related policies.

 

"PMMA is a natural and expected consequence of the prohibition on ecstasy."

 

The RCMP in B.C., who have a team dedicated to dismantling clandestine drug labs, maintain no amount of the substance is safe.

 

"We would view ecstasy as extremely dangerous," said Sgt. Duncan Pound, adding police don't distinguish between MDMA and the street drug in terms of enforcement or prevention strategies.

 

"Not only given the fact that it's very hard to determine what might be in any given tablet, but the fact that there's such an individual reaction to those tablets."

 

The medical literature says that MDMA — technically 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine — sends waves of serotonin flooding through the brain. The natural brain chemical makes people feel happy, social and intimate with others.

 

According to Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, MDMA carries a list of potential health affects that impact each user differently. They include teeth grinding, sweating, increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and convulsions, even at low doses.

 

The drug's letdown can include feelings of confusion, irritability, anxiety, paranoia and depression, and people may experience memory loss or sleep problems, jaundice or liver damage.

 

The deaths associated with street ecstasy, says the centre's website, usually result from dehydration and overheating when teens gulp down a pill and dance the night away.

 

It's also more likely to negatively impact people with other health problems and can interact with other medications people are taking, the centre said.

 

The medical establishment widely agrees MDMA is not addictive.

 

But new research suggests some of the drug's long-stated ill effects are exaggerated.

 

Using MDMA does nothing to impair cognitive functioning, found one U.S. government-funded study published in the journal Addiction in February 2011.

 

Dr. John Halpern, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor who led the research, said pure MDMA can change core body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure in the short-term, and decrease immune resistance for a few days.

 

"But barring that, it appears ... it can be safely administered, certainly through research," said Halpern, who has studied MDMA for 15 years and advocates for medical, prescription-based use of the drug.

 

He hopes Canada leads the way in crafting a "sensible" MDMA strategy.

 

"We've got to do something to make sure that the sanctity of life is protected," said Halpern, with McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. "It's certainly worthy of a healthy discussion."

 

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has alsoadministered MDMA to more than 500 people in various FDA-approved clinical trials, and there has never been a serious adverse event.

 

"Meaning that nobody has ever required any medical attention whatsoever from overheating or from a heart attack or from a stroke or from blood pressure going up," said Rick Doblin, who has a doctorate in public policy from Harvard and founded the privately-funded organization in 1986.

 

The trials were conducted with pre-screened, healthy adults who did not use other drugs.

 

MDMA generally only produces the "peace-love" effect that users desire at low dosages, Doblin added.

 

He supports Kendall's proposal, but agreed applying it in the real world has major challenges.

 

"There are problems with criminalization, there are problems with legalization," he said.

 

"But the problems with criminalization are worse."

 

Kendall's harm-reduction approach flies in the face of long-standing drug laws. MDMA was criminalized in Canada in 1976 and in the U.S. 1985. It was recently boosted to the top of Canada's drug scheduling list under the federal government's omnibus crime bill.

 

Kendall argued the criminal designation is not based on pharmacology, toxicology, economic analysis "or even a really good analysis of what stops people using drugs."

 

MDMA ranked 17 out of 20 drugs when compared in terms of their harms, below No.1-rated alcohol, and other drugs including heroin, cocaine, tobacco, pot and steroids, according to a U.K. analysis published in The Lancet in 2010.

 

The research was conducted by Professor David Nutt, a former chief adviser on drugs to the British government, who asked drug-harm experts to rank both legal and illegal drugs on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society.

 

Nutt found the legal status of most drugs bears little relation to their harms.

 

Health Canada approved the protocol for a Vancouver-based study of MDMA as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder three years ago. However, researchers have hit multiple roadblocks getting necessary approvals for importing and storing the drug.

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73 comments

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Killz • 2 hours 33 minutes ago

If E is legal before pot we have a problem, but that would show us that it really is about the money.

 

 

 

 

 

Andy2 hours 22 minutes ago

Not really, there is no BAD pot out there. The problem is the dirty pills that are out there that actually kill people. Not the case with pot.

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Cortec2 hours 15 minutes ago

You can add things to pot that will kill, nothing on the street is truly safe.

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hunkydory2 hours 6 minutes ago

Ya and you can and stuff to corn flakes that kill people too

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Altarose • 1 hour 2 minutes ago

IS ECSTASTY ADDICTIVE? If so, this is not good. My concern is the side effects part...confusion, paranoia, depression...sounds to me like this is opening up many more possibilities for murders, beatings, rape, child abuse, verbal abuse, etc. Or does that mean you just stay on ecstasy continually to prevent that possibility? Sounds like a great way to make money plus have a country of phony people who cannot deal with life unless using a manmade, artificial pick me up.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike_The _Hammer14 minutes ago

I agree 100%, and kind of any drug, meth, cocaine, ecstacy, all no good!!! shoot the manufactures!!

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Craig9 minutes ago

but some how alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals are better? just sayin...

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our country is being sold ... • 37 minutes ago

drugs are illegal because the government doesnt get thier cut of the profits.

but seriously doc,i think your doing a little too much personal testing.where are your ranks for cocaine and meth.chemicals are chemicals .

atleast pot grows naturally...and nothing is really safe,remember the poisoned tylenol scare

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Thomas •  Nelson, British Columbia • 15 minutes ago

These are the same idiots that will tell you that there is a safe way to inject heroin into your veins. They should be fired.

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C. • 1 minute 14 seconds ago

Perhaps this gentleman should take some ecstacy and video tape the results for us to see since he is making such a bold claim. Only garbage seems to spew from those in control in British Columbia.

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Bad as hell • 34 minutes ago

Welcome to the NWO. Take all the drugs you want, because we want you DEAD! If floride in your water won't kill you or if the the chemtrails don't poison the air we breath and GMO foods don't work then try the drugs, it feels good!

 

 

 

 

 

thekingofcats10 minutes ago

If you want to get dead, become an alcoholic. Did the NWO have anything to do with that? Floride in the water and chemtrails are the least of your concerns if you're downing 6 G&T's a night.

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Thomas10 minutes ago

Contrails, stupid. Contrails.

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Maestro Nice Guy • 4 minutes 27 seconds ago

The trouble with the Truth is everbody likes their own Version of it.

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denewark • 13 minutes ago

the guy likes ecstasy..sees a need to "have ecstasy" says its ok not too too health risking as long as money hungry drug czars do not get invalid putting more highly toxic chemicals in the soup. Okay..so legal ice it and make it available...that is the only way to ensure its purity...how bout that? Why is pot and all those natural things illegalized? Manage this monkey prison right then!

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Raye • 57 minutes ago

How about these doctors try helping to fix programs already in place, like the Methadone Maintenance Treatment progam, before trying to get any new substances de-criminalized, legalized or regulated. As it is the MMT program is nothing but a way for the doctors and government to put extra cash in their own pockets. Yes, it may help by keeping an addict from seeking street drugs, but that's about it. As someone with family members in this "program", I can say with certainty, that once you're on it, the doctor is your dealer for life. They're supposed to offer counselling, yet I know of no one who has actually been made see a cousellor. And rather than try and help someone wean off the methadone after being "clean" for any amount of time, they rather encourage you to keep upping your dosage, insuring you're on it for life. "How've been?" "Well I haven't been sleeping well the last two nights." Up your dose. Had a headache? Up your dose. Your back's sore? Up your dose. They'll up it for a hangnail, yet if you don't push (and I mean PUSH) them to try and start lowering your dosage, you'll be on it for life.

Sorry for the rant.....just irks me when there are so many other things that could be worked on to help addicts, other than making illegal substances safer and legal, yet idiots like this would rather take this route.....

 

 

 

 

 

Kristina12 minutes ago

Methadone is not a helpful drug, and hence the program is broken at it's base.

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Disgusted.. • 7 minutes ago

I wonder how many idiots will die from taking ecstasy because they think Dr. Perry Kendall says it is not bad for you?

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M. • 24 minutes ago

I just want them to correct the headline. It should read "responsibly."

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Kevin L • 1 hour 54 minutes ago

I just want to say "I LOVE YOU GUYS ... let's all cuddle!"

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Darcy • 30 minutes ago

why would you primt this crap .... like really not what people need to hear ...

 

 

 

 

 

sanpatricio22 minutes ago

Better than thinking about the latest Conservative scandal.....

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thekingofcats18 minutes ago

Yeah, why print the truth. Why try and accurately reflect what the problem is and why the current methods of regulating these substances are not working. I love how in spite of really really smart people, (scientists and doctors), providing the scientific evidence behind what is happening, the RCMP still maintains their opposite view. "Ugggg, drugs bad. Me no believe scientists. Me know drugs bad."

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A linda15 minutes ago

make ONE good case for synthetic chemicals used to get High (escape life) and I'm including the legal poisons.

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Stephanie • 1 hour 16 minutes ago

I'm not a drug user but the way I see it is that there are nastier chemicals in cigarettes, over-the-counter medications, and even big macs. Alcohol will kill you if you ingest too much. As will tylenol...advil...pretty much everything on the shelf at shopper's drug mart. How many people does oxycontin kill every year? Spray paint? Gas fumes? If this really has been proven to be "safe" in minimum dosages than why not? Just like marijuana, it will only be sold for medical purposes anyway if it's legalized.

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P. •  Calgary, Alberta • 24 minutes ago

I say, lets clean up the "GENE' pool, and watch our Health Care Costs soar out of conrol, as all of the Yahoos and Wazoos cook their brains.

It is bad enough now with people drinking and driving , Driving while stoned on POT, , so lets clean up the "GENE pool even further, so lets legalize it,and clean up the "gene" pool even more, Innocent people driving will be killed because people are either drunk stoned or spaced out on a nother planet wow .

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Words of Wisdom •  Vaughan, Ontario • 30 minutes ago

WHO WILL SUPPLY THE ECSTASY, WE ALL KNOW THAT THE NARCOS DONT PAY TAXES JUST GOOD COMMISSIONS FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, OOOPPPS, DID I SAY MUCH....

 

From the last paragraph: "However, researchers have hit multiple roadblocks getting necessary approvals for importing and storing the drug" I would like to know WHY....

 

Please imagine o wonderful world would be if people can buy cocaine(eventually another BC HEALTH OFFICER would say,Cocaine is good for your nose), ecstasy, pot, etc at the local DRUGS STORE.

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A Yahoo! User • 2 hours 20 minutes ago

Stupid is stupid is stupid!

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wondering • 1 hour 5 minutes ago

I wonder how many kids who were on the fence about taking this drug(peer pressure) will now give in. The seller will quote the 'doc" and make another sale. The consequences will be on this mans head.Very irresponsible to go public.Save his comments for Colleagues

and gov. think tanks.( I now it's an oxymoron)

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Ralph •  Edmonton, Alberta • 58 minutes ago

MDA, LSD, a little coke, pot and I am sure a little heroin probably wont hurt if it is the right dose and prescribed clinically to adults. Maybe a little mescaline, peyote, mushrooms. This guy probably thinks a little drinking and driving wont hurt as long as it is to pick the kids up at school.

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A Yahoo! User •  Toronto, Ontario • 1 hour 18 minutes ago

good thing the government is paying this guy

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[[pr...]]

Actually MDMA has been used in PTSD therapy with some benefit I think.

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I am speechless.