Testing It Up

The United Steelworkers intends to fight the Iron Ore Company of Canada who plan to require drug testing for some new employees at its mine in Labrador West starting in January. It said drug tests would be mandatory for people hired to work in what the mine calls “safety sensitive positions.”

Union members feel that the move is a thinly veiled attempt to invade their privacy and a form of management intimidation according to United Steelworkers Local 5795 president George Kean.

“We had calls from some of our members indicating that team leaders had told them that they want them to go for drug testing today,” Kean told CBC News. “When we called back their superintendent … the supervisor said he was just kidding around. We see that as just intimidation.”

The IOC says there’s no plan in place to screen those who are already employed by the company provided there’s no suspicion that the employee may be abusing drugs. The company claims that the move is an attempt to keep the workplace safe for everyone and is based on employee concerns that were brought to management about drug use on the jobsite.  Josephine Gaulton-Rowe, the local president of MADD (Mother’s Against Drunk Driving) feels that the move is a good one.

“I don’t see why people have a problem with this,” she said. “If they have nothing to hide, why do they have a problem with it? Some of the issues we have now didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago, and we all know it’s a problem. Impaired operation of vehicles is a big problem.”

According to a report based on the use of illegal drugs over half of the citizens of Quebec who use them are completely unaware of what they’re taking an unusual and likely dangerous trust in the men and women who deal these drugs seems clear.

Designer drugs that are purported to replace the drugs ecstasy and speed are a problem in the region, the revelation that 54% of those imbibing them are wholly unaware or concerned about their contents is hardly comforting for the police forces who seize these drugs. According to these forces and the analysis of these drugs seized in Quebec between June 2007 and July 2008 often the trust these users offer dealers if far from worthy.  Most of those substances aren’t what they’re sold as. In as much as 80% of cases where a substance was being marketed as ecstasy it was another drug or a combination of drugs altogether. Often meth was used in its place and is the true number one synthetic drug in the region. No two pills despite their similar appearance, were always the same substances or the same doses. Many of these users are taking pills that are a very low dose at one point and a very high dose pill later on without even being aware of the difference.

All these variations and the lack of information these users have about them are leading to cases where adults and especially teens are leading to emergency room visits that need not have occurred. Psychotic episodes and heart problems can both results from such variances and use even over a short period of time. The problem only becomes worse when headless mixes with alcohol and other drugs occur on a regular basis and with an average cost of around $10 the problem is likely to only get worse.

Ontario is suing the tobacco industry over the cost of health care for their citizens since 1955. The move was made by Ontario to compensate the tax payers of their province for those years of care paid for by them through Canada’s health care program. Ontario is the third of Canada’s provinces to take such action (New Brunswick and British Columbia did so before them) after the three provinces passed laws allowing them to take this action in 2005 which were upheld the Supreme Court of Canada that same year.

The province is suing companies like Altria,  J.P. Reynolds, Phillip Morris USA, and JTI-Macdonald none of which have made public comments on the lawsuit. Ontario is saying that such companies have known for a very long time that their products are dangerous for those who use them and are addictive. What’s more the companies have taken no action to make them less so and took far too long to put warnings about these problems on their packaging or marketing materials. It’s also suing JTI-Macdonald for an incident where their products were shipped to an Indian reserve on the border between the US and Canada and then smuggled back in to evade Canada’s high taxes on tobacco products. The suit has the company and some of their former executives awaiting criminal trial. The company is currently going through bankruptcy after being forced to pay Quebec 1.36 billion in back taxes for the plot.

We often hear that ‘one man’s cure may be another’s poison’. This may be true not just among people, but between humans and the environment he lives in.

A study funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the St. Lawrence Action Plan and Health Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan on the St. Lawrence River downstream from the sewage treatment facility in Montreal found traces of medication in the water.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Montreal, the study found quantities of high blood pressure and cholesterol drugs in water samples which were taken half a kilometer from where treated wastewater from the sewage facility flowed into the river.

Although the quantities are minimal, there is no knowledge yet about how this build up will affect the environment according to Prof. Sebastien Suave, an environmental chemist who led the study. They are nevertheless not taking these observations lightly as it shows that there may be a buildup of compounds and pathogens in the environment because sewage processing systems fail to neutralize them.

The team tested for the presence of five different drugs, which included two kinds of chemotherapy drugs that are known to be highly toxic and carcinogenic, cholesterol drugs statin and bezafibrate, and the hypertension medication enalapril.

With the exception of statin, the team found traces of drugs in the waste water entering the treatment facility. After treatment, only the chemotherapy drugs were no longer present in water samples taken downstream. Bezafibrate and enalapril were still present. Other studies have reportedly also found traces of antidepressants, estrogen and antibiotics in bodies of fresh water.

The next logical step after this will be to study the effects of these observations to marine life. The team likewise cautions communities further downstream to subject water drawn from the river to further treatment before using.

The home of Kevin Wayne Tanner in the town of Bridgewater in Nova Scotia, Canada, is not your average suburban residence. It turns out that the house on Elm Street also serves as an underground laboratory producing oral and injectable anabolic steroids that Tanner sells online through his company Illusions Laboratories.

When Tanner’s home was raided, law enforcers were able to seize more than $300,000 worth of anabolic steroids. He is in trial for his offenses which include smuggling of controlled substances, evasion of import duties, possession, production and selling of anabolic steroids, and selling fake Cialis, Viagra and Nolva, in violation of the Food and Drugs Act. Tanner had market shares in 31 states.

Photographs from the raid were incriminating. They displayed evidence of an underground lab, with raw chemicals, packaging and labeling material. Equipment to make injectable steroids in liquid form as well as oral steroids in pill form was also found on the premises.

These violations have potentially life-threatening consequences, which is why they are considered grave offenses. Making steroids in a home lab, with unreliable raw materials imported from China, present dangers. These imported chemicals are prone to mislabeling or mix-ups, and may even contain heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, tin and mercury. There is also no assurance that the production process was performed in a sterile environment.

In the case of Kevin Tanner, while he did try to take steps to ensure the quality of his home-made drugs, such as using bacteria-killing products and filtering impurities, these are not enough to ensure the safety of the drugs.

Tanner sold the drugs through contracts to other labs as well as directly to consumers over the internet. His internet operation uses an encrypted mail service, which means that he may have unknowingly sold his products to minors.

Trevis Smith, former football player for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, has been granted parole. Smith, a native of Alabama, was sent to six years in prison after being convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault for knowingly exposing women to HIV. Smith is HIV-positive.

One of Smith’s ex-girlfriends attended the parole hearing. The woman from Regina, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered ban, asked the National Parole Board to deny Smith’s request and keep him in jail. She was not one of the victims named in the case that brought Smith to jail, but her being tested positive for HIV led to Smith’s being tested for the virus and subjected to an investigation.

Trevis Smith used to be the starting middle linebacker for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He was arrested in 2005 towards the end of the CFL’s regular season, just as the team was preparing for the playoffs.

He was convicted based on testimonies from two of his former girlfriends, a woman from Regina and another one from British Columbia, saying that he did not disclose to them that he was HIV positive when they had unprotected intimate relations with him. Trevis Smith is married and has two children by his wife.

During the trial, Smith denied the allegations of both women, saying that he was honest about his condition. He also disclosed that after his diagnosis he had used protection when with his girlfriend of three years, the woman from British Columbia, and that he had ceased being intimate with his girlfriend from Regina after being tested positive for HIV.

Despite these declarations, however, the provincial court judge ruled against him. He was given 5 ½ years and an additional six months for violating bail conditions.

Now set to be released next month on parole, Smith will be deported from Canada to his home country, the United States, where he plans to re-unite with his wife and two daughters.

Believe it or not, drugs are in Canada too.

On April 11, police received a tip that some people staying in a hotel were in possession of drugs. Not only that, but they had firearms on them as well. As a result of this tip, two individuals were arrested after a search of the room uncovered 65 oxycodone tablets, 35.8 grams of cocaine, a small amount of crack cocaine, cash, materials used to package drugs, drug paraphernalia, and three sets of digital scales. The drugs valued around $4,900.

Of those arrested was 32-year-old Heidi Debassige and 29-year-old Gary Saunders. Debassige had no known address, but Saunders is a Sault, Michigan resident. He was charged with a single count of possession of a controlled substance. Debassige was charged with two counts of possession with the intent of trafficking a controlled substance. She was also charged with two counts of resisting arrest and one count of possession of a controlled substance.

Thanks to the tipsters, there are two more drug dealers off the streets.

Michigan Drug Screening

There’s a great write up at Canada.com about Confirm BioSciences product, HairConfirm. The one-time use kits make it easy to detect drug use in people of all ages, but it is especially beneficial to parents of teens.

Parents can use the tests on their kids by collecting a small sample of hair–about 30-40 strands. This can then tell you if your kid has merely tried drugs, or if they are flat out addicted.

Drug testing such as this can really discourage drug use in teens. However, you shouldn’t use this test without your teen’s knowledge. You might find out what you want to know, but is that worth the loss of trust? Just something to think about.

I read something simultaneously amusing and disturbing in the news today. Apparently out of all the reasons human beings bite each other, alcohol holds the number one spot. Yes, that’s right. People get liquored up, in a foul mood, start fighting and the next thing you know skin chunks are flying. Okay, that’s pretty gross.

I am reminded of the most famous of human bites. What else could I be talking about than the flying chunk of ear captured in video history during the Holyfield v. Tyson fight.

But in all seriousness, about 86% of all human bites occur with alcohol involved! That’s unbelievable. I guess alcohol tips the scales just enough for the the full blown idiot to come out of people. Or when someone gets drunk, “biting” suddenly pops on their mental “things I can do in a fight” list.

Also, men are 12 times more likely to encounter a human bite wound according to the Emergency Medicine Journal. I guess that’s because men are more likely to get drunk?

Who knows the reason. What I do know, is that alcohol being the number one reason people bite each other is just a great news story. Don’t you think? I saw that headline and just had to read it. Maybe the biting acts as a DUI deterrent? “I want to drive while intoxicated and you can’t stop me! ::CHOMP::”

Regardless, I’m going to start carrying an alcohol testing kit with me wherever I go. If I see suspicious behavior, I’ll pull out that test. You can never be too careful. I mean, human bites are nasty. The bacteria, the infections, ugh! Okay I’m done.