The shortages, which have been going on for years, have typically affected only low-cost generics rather than profitable brand-name drugs.
Canadians pay high drug prices, but the pharmaceutical industry claims it is a ‘key partner in economic resilience, recovery and growth.’
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Canadians pay very high drug costs, but Canada also does not receive the same economic benefits from pharmaceutical industry investments as other countries do.
Getting high to get spiritual insight isn’t a new pursuit.
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A scholar of religion who is writing a book on sacred drugs explains how today’s ‘psychedelic renaissance’ reflects a millennia-long history of using intoxicants to seek insight and connection.
Freud doing cocaine. Psychologist William James experimenting with nitrous oxide. A new history tells of the Romantic rebels who first sampled psychoactive substances.
Drug checking is a harm reduction practice that provides chemical analysis of substances. Fentanyl test strips help drug users ensure that substances are free of dangerous fentanyl.
(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
Most consumables in Canada have quality controls that inform purchasing and consumption decisions. People who use illicit drugs deserve the same. Drug checking provides that harm-reduction service.
Resistance to policies like safe supply still create barriers for vulnerable people, despite evidence that harm reduction saves lives.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Harm reduction is grounded in evidence. But policies, stigma and ignorance about substance use still create barriers in battling Canada’s drug poisoning crisis.
Ozempic, a semaglutide drug being used for weight loss, could impact how society sees fat people.
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Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation; Boké Saisi, The Conversation, and Kikachi Memeh, The Conversation
As the use of Ozempic, a drug for diabetes, slams into the mainstream as a weight-loss method, will the drug’s use impact our concept of fatness? And how does fatness intersect with race and class?
People for millennia have used what grows around them as medicine.
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Instead of forcing people into substance use treatment, provinces should work with municipalities and health boards to expand life-saving safe use sites and tackle the housing crisis.
From Tupac to Jay-Z, many a rap artist has set pen to paper to pay homage to the women who gave them birth.
When regulatory agencies like Health Canada approve a new drug, they require the drug company to continue monitoring the product’s safety.
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Health Canada continues to monitor newly approved drugs to determine if the benefits identified in the pre-market trials hold up to further scrutiny. Canadians need better access to that information.
They tend backyards brimming with cactus varieties, consuming the produce. Prudence Gibson meets a hidden group of gardeners and ponders the allure – and – danger of psychoactive plants.
Millions around the world use acetaminophen every day, but relatively few people are aware of the dangers of overdose.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Malaysia and Indonesia have been considering whether to follow Thailand in legalizing the use of cannabis, particularly for medical purposes. But another country could serve as a better example.
Poppy seeds can become contaminated with opiates during harvesting. For the US Defense Department, invoking a ‘poppy seed defense’ may not be enough to rule out a positive drug test result.
A man runs past shoes hung on the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver in remembrance of victims of illicit drug overdoses on International Overdose Awareness Day in August 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Decriminalization helps recharacterize drug addiction as a chronic health condition instead of a criminal activity, reduces the stigma associated with drug use and improves treatment options.