The Vancouver experience with a site where heroin users can inject themselves has shown such positive results as a decrease in neighbourhood criminality and users’ increased interest in treatment for addiction.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said that Ottawa’s approval of four proposed supervised-drug-injection facilities ”should be a formality.” Rona Ambrose, the federal minister who’d be doing the approving, made it clear she doesn’t see it that way.

A University of B.C. researcher will receive a $1-million donation from a medical marijuana producer to study the therapeutic effects of medical marijuana on people with HIV/AIDS. With quotes from Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

The fate of Vancouver’s 90-plus pot dispensaries will be the subject of a contentious debate Wednesday as city hall hosts a public hearing on their potential regulation. With quotes from Dr. Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer at VCH.

“Mayor Denis Coderre is right to stand up to the federal government on the issue of supervised drug-injection sites in Montreal. The mayor, not known for mincing words, has said the facilities will open this fall, and that’s the end of it.”

The World Congress of Dermatology will be held June 8 to 13 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, where dermatologists, nurses and others from 125 countries will gather to learn about the newest treatments, advancements and products. With quotes from Dr. Harvey Lui, VCH physician.

It’s the underground lair from which uniformed heroes emerge to rescue those in peril and it’s officially open for business. Paramedics, other first responders and dignitaries gathered at the brand new North Vancouver ambulance station nestled under the HOpe Centre at Lions Gate Hospital last Tuesday to hold its official opening.

A round-the-clock clinic for seniors in Vancouver’s West End may be the first in a new wave of “integrated health care” centres in B.C. With quotes from Laura Case, VCH chief operating officer.

Residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are more likely to binge drink and smoke than people in the rest of the Lower Mainland, according to VCH’s and Fraser Health’s My Health My Community survey.
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Richmond is tied with Langley for having the lowest proportion of binge drinkers — 15 per cent — among 29 communities, according to a VCH’s and Fraser Health’s My Health My Community survey.