Drug rehab centers in Montreal

Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec. It is also Canada's second most populated city after Toronto with over two million people.

Montreal is situated in the southwest of the province, approximately 200 km southwest of the provincial capital Quebec City.

Once the largest city in Canada; Montreal remains a vibrant major center of commerce, industry, culture, finance, and world affairs. The majority of Montreal citizens are French speaking. While the official language of Montreal is French, services are also commonly offered in English in downtown and tourist areas, as well as areas designated as bilingual.

Montrealhas a huge diversity of illegal substances within the city. Most street drugs are available in Montreal, from Cocaine, to Heroin, and also softer drugs like Marijuana and Hashish. Cocaine is probably the most widely used street drug in Montreal.

Drug Addiction in Montreal is wide spread amongst the youth of the city. A great deal of youth hooked on drugs end up living on the street and or in shelters.

Street Youth: Adolescents leave home to escape physical, emotional and sexual abuse or neglect in the home. Once on the street, they adopt many high risk behaviors including high levels of licit and illicit drug use and needle sharing. A 1989 national study showed that 1 in 4 street youth used cannabis daily, 4% used Cocaine daily and 4% used LSD daily. A recent study in Montrealfound that half of street youth injected drugs, and that suicide and drug overdose was so prevalent that the children studied were 12 times more likely to die than their peers.

Party Drugs in Montreal

Montreal has also a problem with party Drugs such as Ecstasy, Methamphetamine etc.

Montreal (CP) - Police arrested 31 people for alleged Drug-related offences at the beginning of a marathon rave in a downtown convention center.

Twenty-five party-goers were released and were to appear in court at a later date on Drug-possession charges. Five people were to be arraigned Monday or Tuesday on trafficking charges, while one other person faced a charge of possession with conspiracy to traffic.

Police said they seized pills when they made the arrests Sunday evening.

Several thousand people attended the Bal en Blanc - an annual rave where clothing is usually white.

Montreal has also in big dilemma regarding the legalization of Marijuana and the use of Cannabis for medical treatment.

In the province of Quebec in the year 2003, there were 692 vehicular fatalities.  Out of these 692 fatalities,643 were determined to be associated with alcoholic consumption in some aspect. In Other words an outstanding 92.9% of all fatalities for the province of Quebec were related to alcohol consumption. 213 or 33.1% of all fatalities were caused directly by alcohol consumption.

2093 serious traumas occurred in single vehicle wrecks during the year 2003 alone. 605 or 28.9% pf the collisions could be assigned to alcohol disablement. Multi vehicle collisions resulted in 5785 severe harm. 315 or 5.4% were related to alcohol. According to the study, the difference between alcohol being involved and being a deciding factor depends on the amount of info available to the study, and the position of the persons involved who perished. "A motor vehicle death was regarded to be alcohol involved if  at least one vehicle’s driver or pedestrian in the fatal crash, had consumed alcohol.

In the province of Ontario it is a minimum of $200 to see an emergency doctor before they run any tests, let alone do any hands on work. If this cost is used as general standard, the approximate cost on the Quebec medical system, would amount to $184,000.  Seems like a waste considering this money could be used in a more positive way.

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Montreal - Two people who provided Marijuana for sick people were charged with Drug trafficking Friday as Health Minister Allan Rock said the federal government is a better source of medicinal grass.

The arrests were made Thursday after a search of the Compassion Club, which has chapters in Toronto and Vancouver.

Police had warned the club when it opened in October they would enforce Canada's Drug laws. The club's doors were locked Friday and a telephone answering machine told callers it would be closed indefinitely.

Marc St-Maurice, 31, and Alexandre Neron, 21, two volunteers at the club, were arraigned on possession and trafficking charges.

They will return to court March 13.

Rock, who was in Montreal to announce increased funding for medical research, wouldn't comment on the arrests but said he has been trying to expand the use of Marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"I think the better approach is . . that they are given access to Marijuana that is safe and clean from a government source," he said.

Rock said the government has received proposals from potential sources.

"I hope the day will come when the government will be in a position to supply those who on medical grounds justify their needs to use it."

Ottawa gave 20 people legal permission last fall to grow and use Marijuana for therapeutic purposes. But it did not allow them to buy the substance from other suppliers, whose activities are still considered illegal.

Most of the people allowed Marijuana suffer from cancer or AIDS. The Drug, which is usually smoked, can relieve pain and stimulate appetite.

Montreal police said in a statement they are aware of the therapeutic uses of Marijuana.

"We did meet with the people responsible and we did tell them that as long as laws are in effect that restrict the possession of Marijuana we were there to enforce the law," said Montreal police Cmdr. Andre Durocher.

"I don't think it's up to the police department to decide which laws we apply or do not apply."

About 66 grams of the herb were seized from the club, enough for between 150 and 300 cigarettes.

Thirty-three people had doctors' notes to obtain Marijuana for therapeutic reasons while 93 others had been refused.

Jean Drury, a lawyer for the Compassion Club, said police could turn a blind eye if they wanted to.

"It's not true to say that police can't exercise some discretion," Drury told RDI, Radio-Canada's all-News channel.

Drury said police don't always arrest those involved in Marijuana cultivation. He also cited prostitution as another area where police don't always act.

Police have the discretion to "proceed or not," he added.

Montreal and his surrounding has large number of private Drug rehabs and also government funded Drug rehab centers.