The entertainment section

Vancouver band Black Mountain could quit their day jobs... but I hope they don't. Very vocal about three members' work at Insite, they're getting word out in a different section of papers the world over: the entertainment section.

Check out the review band interview in the Times of London, the review on the U2 fan 'zine Interference, their homepage, and then check out their new disc, In the Future.

International Carnival of the Positivites 2.7 (Jan '08)

The International Carnival of Positivites (ICP) most recent edition (2.7) is up over at The Spin Cycle. What is ICP you ask? It is a blog carnival (a.k.a roundup) of blog entries written recently with the theme of HIV. Written from all sorts of points of view: health care folks, positive men and women, councellors, researchers, you name it, someone has written on it.

Mark over at DropDeadHappy nominated "Burnout on the Frontlines" from this very blog for this latest one. Thanks Mark!

Interested in submitting to the next ICP? Follow the link to the official site. It lists the next issue on Feb 10 hosted at Not Perfect At All

How many pillars...

Here's a good editorial from the Chilliwack Progress. It sucks ya in, thinkin' its gonna say one thing, and then goes for the other...

It does bring home the important point that harm reduction is only one of 4 pillars (along with prevention, treatment, law enforcement).

Harm reduction programs under threat nationwide

[photo credit]
So the Ontario government has stepped in to save Ottawa's crack pipe program.

The City's mayor & City council had kiboshed the Ottawa Public Health program back in July, a program that created a necessary link for health care workers to a very hard-to reach segment of the community (facilitating entry in to drug treatment) and, oh yeah saves lives and health care dollars. Easy to see why that's gotta go .

Ontario's Ministry of Health & Long Term Care has granted funding to a community clinic to re-instate 2 outreach workers to run the program. Apparently, the mayor is disappointed.

Meanwhile, in related news, the Georgia Straight has a health feature looking at how not only Insite, but Vancouver's other harm reduction programs, including a crack pipe program are at risk thanks to the new federal government's ideology based, "addiction is a crime, not an illness" drug policy, a hard line approach that will recreate all of the US' mistakes.

The Straight article looks closely at that ideology and suggests that Harper & Clement's approach isn't at all answering WWJD.

Interview with Dr. Robert Kerr, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Rabble News has an interview with Dr. Robert Kerr, recent recipient of a Canadian Health research award.

There are some really interesting insights (pun not intended) on the interference of politics on evidence based policy making.

Good reading!