The retail wilderness of the Bayers Lake Industrial Park “severely lacks” the transit and accessible infrastructure needed for the province’s new outpatient centre, say planning advocates. On Thursday the provincial Liberal government announced it had purchased 15 acres of land in the BLIP as part of the redevelopment of the ageing QEII Health Science Centre. […]
Health
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province announce over $1 million in new funding to combat fentanyl
The provincial government is putting an extra $1 million towards trying to prevent a fentanyl-fuelled opioid crisis in Nova Scotia. In a press release sent out Friday, the Department of Health and Wellness announced details of the increased spending, including $564,000 for expanding access to the overdose-countering naloxone drug kits to pharmacies, police and health care organizations […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sickle Cell blood drive this Friday at Dal
Geneive Walker is a registered nurse back home in Jamaica, where she’s had first-hand experiences helping persons living with sickle cell disease. “I’ve seen it, how it actually, you know, destroys peoples’ lives. Their quality of life completely diminished,” she says. “It’s very painful to watch.” Walker is a member of the Sickle Cell Disease […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Death’s companions: Meet Nova Scotia’s forensic pathology team
In a modern glass and steel building, embedded in the Burnside Industrial Park, reside the dead. The Dr. William Finn Centre for Forensic Medicine—named after Nova Scotia’s first medical examiner, appointed in 1895—was designed by Fowler Bauld & Mitchell, the same architect firm that created the sprawling cathedral that is the Halifax Central Library. The […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The ruthless capitalism at work in cannabis dispensaries
At a show last summer, a musician friend said to me, “This is Pineapple Express—I bought it legally in Kensington Market.” Legal. Weed. Kensington. Toronto. That stuck in the memory banks, and I followed up next time I was in Toronto, visiting several locations of one well-reputed dispensary, sampling as many marijuana strains and concentrates […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Music kept me alive
My first memories are a mix of Cystic Fibrosis and He-Man. Of hearing somewhere that the disease would kill me by 31 (the national average age), and having bullies use it against me. I lived my life with that. Music gave me great comfort when I was just six years old and onward. Jackson 5, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Halifax Sexual Health Centre sees people through their most intimate problems
They come to talk about the things they can’t with anyone else. Some patients will furtively glance up at the waiting room door, wary of running into someone they know—others have travelled long distances to ensure that they don’t. Some book a general appointment because the real reason they’re here is too personal to share over […]
Posted inLifestyle
Dispensing with marijuana prohibition
[Image-1] Even though it may seem like the illegality associated with weed today is akin to the criminal severity of something like jaywalking, the fact is that here in Nova Scotia, under many circumstances, having, selling or smoking the stuff could still get you thrown in jail. That’s exactly what may happen to Shirley Martineau, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Check out this Swiss Army knife for weed
Brett Evans wants to squash the stigma around cannabis and do away with the stereotype of lazy “potheads.” He’s invented the DoobTool, a product meant to cater to cannabis users with active lifestyles. “Here’s a tool that will allow you to go hiking and camping,” says Evans, who is based in Halifax. He’s also the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Get the lead out
[Image-1] There’s no question lead service lines in Halifax constitute a public health problem, says Graham Gagnon, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Centre for Water Resource Studies. But figuring out a solution to that problem isn’t so cut-and-dried. Halifax Water has been working since 2013 on a plan to replace HRM’s lead service lines (LSLs)—the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Five things we can do right now to help Nova Scotians who use opioids
[Image-1] The opioid crisis we hear about in the news has not escaped Nova Scotia. The chief public health officer recently reported that 49 Nova Scotians—between one and two per week—died from opioid overdoses in the first eight months of 2016. Around 11 people each day are taken to provincial emergency departments for opioid overdose. Effective […]
Posted inLifestyle
Task force makes recommendations for legalizing weed in Canada
Canada now has a possible blueprint for its legal marijuana system. The federal task force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation released a list of recommended guidelines today. If the government follows on the recommendations, Canadians will be able to buy and consume weed as soon as they turn 18. Other recommended guidelines include allowing the […]