by Miné Salkin | May 1, 2009 | news
For Metro Vancouver
Scoring street drugs is often the easier alternative to pain relief than acquiring prescription medication, according to a report based on a group of female users in the Downtown Eastside.
A two-year study conducted by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users Care Team found that 70 per cent of women requesting health services were stigmatized by the health-care system.
“It’s easier to get drugs on the street than drugs from a doctor,” said Dr. Amy Salmon, principal investigator from the Women’s Health Research Institute.
Three of the 50 women in the study died before the report was completed. One committed suicide, another overdosed and the other died of untreated health conditions.
The report found nearly 40 per cent had been denied pain medication by health workers despite significant health issues such as arthritis and diabetes.
Salmon said poor communication between patients and doctors was one of the system’s biggest failures.
“These women aren’t always understood or even well-respected,” she said.
by Miné Salkin | Apr 21, 2009 | news
Thousands light up joints to celebrate cannabis culture at 4/20 event
for Metro Vancouver
A girl holds a lit joint in celebration of 4/20 outside the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday. The joint weighs about seven grams. The annual event attracted several thousand marijuana enthusiasts
A crowd of more than 5,000 people lit joints and got high outside the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday to celebrate 4/20, the annual cannabis culture gala.
The impenetrable mass of people at the event counted down to 4:20 p.m., and then proceeded to spark up joints, pipes and bongs. The sky filled with a massive plume of smoke.
From teenagers to the middle-aged, the festivity attracted a wide demographic of pot smokers.
Jannis, who moved to Vancouver from Germany in July after graduating from culinary school, rolled up a hash joint and drank imported beer on the steps of the VAG.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said, adding that he was surprised to see the size of the celebration.
“The people here really know how to enjoy themselves,” he said. “I think 4/20 is an indicator for this kind of lifestyle.”
An 18-year-old girl sitting with her friends said that they had been waiting more than two years to participate in the event.
“We came all the way from Calgary for this,” she said.
“We had to lie to our moms,” said one of her friends.
B.C. Green Party candidate Jodie Emery and her husband, Marc Emery from the B.C. Marijuana Party, were seen handing out pamphlets for the upcoming May 12 election.
“Some people have been here since 7:30 this morning,” Jodie Emery said.
“It’s a great crowd today.”
by Miné Salkin | Apr 21, 2009 | news
For Metro Vancouver
The surface of Mars
A massive crater on an uninhabited island in the Arctic is a site worthy of a science-fiction movie.
With a vegetable greenhouse and an Internet network, it is a futuristic vision for how humans could survive an expedition on Mars within this generation.
The Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) has already begun to explore this possibility by leading experiments on Devon Island, Nunavut.
Researchers from Simon Fraser University, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have partnered up to see how biological systems could flourish on the red planet.
Dr. Stephen Braham, a quantum cosmologist, is a co-investigator exploration communications for HMP. He is designing the data for a computer program that controls the experiments from his chair at SFU.
“We’ve got two vehicles nearly there, and we’re going to test out NASA technology in the Arctic,” he said. “We’ll have nearly 100 kilometres of empty, Mars-like terrain to test our moon rovers.”
Steven Baird, 21, is a third-year student at the University of B.C.’s Mechanical Engineering program. He camped with Braham last summer at the project’s site.
Its polar-desert climate, remoteness and geological features make it the ideal place as a terrestrial testing ground for missions to Mars.
Much like a space expedition, Baird described the northern setting as “isolated and confined.”
“The HMP offers insight into the possible evolution of Mars’ landscape, as well as the possibilities and limits for life in extreme climates,” he said.
For now, HMP is making its way across the Northwest Passage in the first vehicle-expedition in the area, which is entirely made of ice.
Baird said that the team plans to stay there up for four weeks running experiments.
“You can only test your ideas so far in the lab. Having an on-Earth testing ground for humans is incredibly valuable,” he said.
Braham has camped with the team running experiments on site for the past 11 seasons. A report from the CPA said that lettuce and other vegetables have been growing there since 2002.
A friend of technology, Braham makes daily updates about HMP on Twitter at www.twitter.com/warp.
