profiterole_reads

It's hilarious that a former über all natural shoe company, that sold expensive shoes to rich tech hippie types swimming in cash, have completely ditched the greenest of the green footwear now that software engineers are all getting the boot. The Allbirds footware company has pivoted to server farms "training" LLM's. Spicy autocorrect pin-the-bit-on-the output file programs. The ones that consume as much power and water as a small town while trying to develop into automated software engineers. Oh so very much not green. It's like that Smashmouth song all over again: What the hell happened?

darkjediqueen posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Paying a Price
Rating: R
Warnings: Hate Crimes, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Sexual Assault (brief not wholly depicted), Homophobic Slurs
Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Relationships: Ilya Rozanov/Shane Hollander
Tags: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Ilya coming out put pulled Shane into the spotlight too without ever having come out himself. He pays the price.

Word Count: 5,679

( Paying a Price )

marcicat

A very un-serious Star Wars fic rec to celebrate (belatedly) Star Wars day!

We're Jedi. We've totally got this., by mytimeconsumingsidehobby

“How do a five-year-old and a four-year-old manage to sneak out of the temple in a ship?” Mace muttered to himself.

“With the Force?” the padawan responded, clearly having heard Mace’s rhetorical question.

He sighed.

smallhobbit posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Appearances Can Be Deceptive
Fandom: Miss Marple
Rating: G
Length: 748 words
Summary: Miss Marple may be gentle, but this should not be taken for granted.

( Giles Featherstone knew the type )

vilakins

Day 5: Favourite male character

You know the answer to this one: Vila of course!

My favourites in other series have usually been aliens or androids (Spock, Data, Vir, G'Kar, pretty much the whole cast of Farscape), so Vila seemed to be an outlier, but it occurred to me recently that I go for characters who don't fit the norm, like Sheldon Cooper, Wash and Kaylee from Firefly, and Jett Reno. If they're male, then they're not typically so.

Vila stands out in Blake's 7 for being nervous, often openly scared, kind, non-violent, and very funny with it, someone who defies the B7 universe by being himself. He's also the only character who drove me to write for him, because he deserved a lot better than he got.

All the questions are on Tumblr.

Current Mood: sleepy

mondtrunken

( Stock Icons )

Current Mood: tired.
Current Location: home.

lucy_roman posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Gently in the Darkness
Author:

lucy_roman
Fandom: Inspector George Gently
Rating: Teen and up
Summary/Warnings: George and John are stranded at night. Death fic.
Pairing: George/John
Word Count: 507

( Gently in the Darkness )

icon_uk posting in

scans_daily

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

What I have to assume is the end of Season 1 of "Maul: Shadow Lord" happened, as there's a lot of setup for a Season 2. The mother, father and several uncles and aunts of a sabre duel happened, with six characters involved, which must have been quite the challenge for the animators speciailisng in spinning, flipping and hacking. Yet again, I find myself wishing they would be a little more specific about dates in these spin-offs as I was surprised that one character was apparently having their first meeting with... another significant character (as they had no idea who they were)

Finally caught up with "Project Hail Mary", loved it.

Oh, and a note that parts of the UK have Local and General elections this week so we actively encourage you to exercise your vote and make sure you have your say in civil matters.

optionspolitiques_feed

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/?post_type=issues&p=304447

By: Laiba Imtiaz.

Twenty-five years after Canada committed to building a national electronic health-record system, more than 70 per cent of electronic health information is still not shared among health-care providers — despite the fact that more than nine out of 10 physicians use electronic medical record (EMR) systems.

Fortunately, the technology to fix this is not the problem. Several EMR systems are already in use, and tools for interoperability (allowing different software platforms to communicate with each other) have been developed. Most recently, the Health Application Lightweight Protocol known as HALO was developed by Canada Health Infoway in partnership with Ontario Health, British Columbia’s Health Services Authority and Hamilton Health Sciences.

The HALO protocol is designed to cut through Canada’s fragmented medical record systems — connecting physicians to their patients’ complete health information across platforms, avoiding duplicate testing, reducing delays and preventing medical errors.

So the tools to improve access to care, reduce administrative burden and ensure timely treatment already exist. The question is whether anyone is making sure they are used.

A tool without a mandate

In March 2023, the Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health endorsed the Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, a strategic plan to enable hundreds of incompatible EMR systems to communicate securely with each other, so that, for example, a physician in Hamilton can access what a specialist in Toronto already knows about their shared patient.

On paper, this is exactly what Canada has needed for decades. In practice, however, there is a question the roadmap does not adequately answer: how will we ensure these tools are actually used — especially when provinces are allowed to make participation voluntary?

AI scribes in health care raise risks for patients and privacy

Canada’s health care crisis demands a digital solution

When will Canadian health care fully ride the digital connectivity wave?

On Feb. 4, the federal government reintroduced Bill S-5 — the Connected Care for Canadians Act — which would prohibit data blocking by health IT vendors and require all health IT to be interoperable. This meaningful step ensures that technology vendors cannot obstruct the flow of patient information between systems.

However, this does not resolve the adoption and co-ordination problem. While tech vendors can be made compliant, provinces are not always compelled to join a national interoperability system. Under Bill S-5, a province that passes its own substantially similar legislation is exempt from the law entirely.

Ontario’s troubling history with health IT investments illustrates why this matters.

The province’s first major attempt at building a shared health-records infrastructure, Smart Systems for Health, spent $650 million between 2002 and 2008 — then was quietly shut down without producing anything of lasting value.

The next attempt, eHealth Ontario, fared no better. The CEO was dismissed shortly after its 2008 launch, and the minister of health resigned shortly before the Auditor General of Ontario concluded that taxpayers “had not received value” for the more than $1 billion spent on electronic health-records initiatives since 2002.

By 2016, Ontario’s ongoing spending on electronic health-records projects had passed $8 billion, according to an audit, with significant components still not operational.

Meanwhile, Alberta recently rolled out its ninth and final launch of Connect Care, becoming the only province to mandate a unified clinical-information system across its provincial health services. In just over five years, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has ensured that health information across all AHS programs and services is integrated, giving physicians a more comprehensive health history for patients and ensuring centralized access to health information across institutional care settings.

Unlike Ontario’s voluntary approach, Alberta made participation in Connect Care mandatory for physicians and staff working within AHS facilities.

Alberta committed to a mandate; Ontario has not.

Ontario goes its own way — again

On March 19 of this year, continuing a pattern of decisions, piloting and spending that keep producing the same result, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the province would develop its own provincewide Primary Care Medical System.

Describing the new system as voluntary for family physicians, the announcement emphasized a competitive bidding process to identify and contract a new technology vendor. Curiously, it made no reference to HALO — the interoperability tool that was already being piloted within the province.

When I contacted Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team to ask about any plans to work alongside the existing HALO initiative, I received a media release. When I followed up with Canada Health Infoway with questions about cross-provincial clinician representation, adoption planning, and Ontario’s plans to build its own system, I was redirected to the same officials who had sent me the media release.

This is not a minor administrative oversight. It is the fragmentation problem made visible in real time.

Ontario is not just ignoring a federally funded tool, it’s ignoring one that it helped build. Despite having a protocol under development in Ontario, the province has once again chosen to develop new technology rather than invest in the mandate and strategy to adopt what already exists.

Mandate what we already have

The solution is not another voluntary tool, nor is it another electronic medical-record system. What’s needed is the political will to mandate what already exists and to stop building parallel systems every time a province decides it prefers its own protocols and process.

Bill S-5 needs to be passed. Without it, vendors are under no federal obligation to ensure their systems are compatible with others — and when systems can’t communicate, provinces default to making adoption voluntary. In Canadian health IT, voluntary frameworks have consistently failed. British Columbia’s earlier EMR interoperability standard was never meaningfully adopted or enforced. Ontario spent decades and billions arriving at the same destination it started from.

But passing Bill S-5 alone is not sufficient, because provinces can still opt out by passing their own version of legislation — which is exactly what Ontario’s March 19 announcement risks becoming.

Rather than pursuing a third attempt at a provincewide system, Ontario should adopt and mandate HALO — a solution that already exists, that it helped build, and that does not require starting over.

Unlike a new provincewide system, HALO would not require physicians to abandon their existing EMR platforms. It functions as a connector layer on top of what already exists, giving clinicians a single point of access to complete patient health information across systems.

The EMR stays. What changes is the full scope of patient information that physicians can see.

Rather than invest in a new system that isn’t needed, Ontario’s money should instead be directed toward implementation of what exists — vendor compliance, physician training, and transition support to ensure the tool is used across the province.

This is not a technology problem. It is a co-ordination and accountability problem. Until governments acknowledge that and build the mechanisms to address it, we will keep spending billions to stay in the same place.

By: Laiba Imtiaz  Twenty-five years after Canada committed to building a national electronic health-record system, more than 70 per cent of electronic health information is <a href="https://www.mltaikins.com/insights/data-saves-lives-bill-s-5-revives-interoperability-requirements-for-health-care-technology/">still not shared</a> among health-care providers — despite the fact that more than nine out of 10 <a href="https://www.cihi.ca/en/taking-the-pulse-measuring-shared-priorities-for-canadian-health-care-2024/canadians-and-health-care-providers-want-connected-electronic-health-information">physicians use electronic medical record (EMR) systems.</a>   Fortunately, the technology to fix this is not the problem. Several EMR systems are already in use, and tools for interoperability (allowing different software platforms to communicate with each other) have been developed. Most recently, the Health Application Lightweight Protocol known as HALO <a href="https://www.hamiltonhealthsciences.ca/share/infoway/">was developed</a> by Canada Health Infoway in partnership with Ontario Health, British Columbia’s Health Services Authority and Hamilton Health Sciences.   The <a href="https://simplifier.net/guide/halo?version=1.0.0-DFT-preBallot">HALO protocol</a> is designed to cut through Canada’s fragmented medical record systems — connecting physicians to their patients’ complete health information across platforms, avoiding duplicate testing, reducing delays and preventing medical errors.   So the tools to improve access to care, reduce administrative burden and ensure timely treatment already exist. The question is whether anyone is making sure they are used.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">A tool without a mandate</h2>   In March 2023, the Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2023/05/advancing-on-our-shared-priority-of-connecting-you-to-modern-health-care.html">endorsed</a> the<a href="https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/component/edocman/resources/interoperability/6444-connecting-you-to-modern-health-care-shared-pan-canadian-interoperability-roadmap"> Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap,</a> a strategic plan to enable hundreds of incompatible EMR systems to communicate securely with each other, so that, for example, a physician in Hamilton can access what a specialist in Toronto already knows about their shared patient.    On paper, this is exactly what Canada has needed for decades. In practice, however, there is a question the roadmap does not adequately answer: how will we ensure these tools are actually used — especially when provinces are allowed to make participation voluntary?   <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/04/ai-scribes-health-care-canada-privacy-safety-risks/">AI scribes in health care raise risks for patients and privacy</a>   <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/03/health-digital/">Canada’s health care crisis demands a digital solution</a>   <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2021/05/when-will-canadian-health-care-fully-ride-the-digital-connectivity-wave/">When will Canadian health care fully ride the digital connectivity wave?</a> </blockquote>   On Feb. 4, the federal government reintroduced <a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/s-5">Bill S-5</a> — the Connected Care for Canadians Act — which would prohibit data blocking by health IT vendors and require all health IT to be interoperable. This meaningful step ensures that technology vendors cannot obstruct the flow of patient information between systems.   However, this does not resolve the adoption and co-ordination problem. While tech vendors can be made compliant, provinces are not always compelled to join a national interoperability system. Under Bill S-5, a province that passes its own substantially similar legislation <a href="https://www.mltaikins.com/insights/data-saves-lives-bill-s-5-revives-interoperability-requirements-for-health-care-technology/">is exempt</a> from the law entirely.   Ontario’s troubling history with health IT investments illustrates why this matters.    The province’s first major attempt at building a shared health-records infrastructure, Smart Systems for Health, spent<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ehealth-scandal-a-1b-waste-auditor-1.808640"> $650 million between</a> 2002 and 2008 — then was quietly shut down without producing anything of lasting value.    The next attempt, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ehealth-scandal-a-1b-waste-auditor-1.808640">eHealth Ontario</a>, fared no better. The CEO was dismissed shortly after its 2008 launch, and the minister of health resigned shortly before<a href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/specialreports/specialreports/ehealth_en.pdf"> the Auditor General of Ontario concluded that taxpayers “had not received value” </a>for the more than $1 billion spent on electronic health-records initiatives since 2002.   By 2016, Ontario’s ongoing spending on electronic health-records projects had passed $8 billion, <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/auditor-generals-2016-annual-report-identifies-need-for-improvements-603812056.html">according to an audit</a>, with significant components still not operational.   Meanwhile, Alberta recently rolled out its ninth and final launch of <a href="https://www.canhealth.com/2024/11/06/alberta-expands-epic-ehr-across-the-province/">Connect Care</a>, becoming the only province to mandate a unified clinical-information system across its provincial health services. In just over five years, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has ensured that health information across all AHS programs and services is integrated, giving physicians a more comprehensive health history for patients and ensuring centralized access to health information across institutional care settings.   Unlike Ontario’s voluntary approach, Alberta made participation in Connect Care mandatory for physicians and staff working within AHS facilities.    Alberta committed to a mandate; Ontario has not.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Ontario goes its own way — again</h2>   On March 19 of this year, continuing a pattern of decisions, piloting and spending that keep producing the same result, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/files/2026-03/moh-primary-care-action-team-briefing-deck-en-2026-03-19.pdf">Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced </a>the province would develop its own provincewide Primary Care Medical System.    Describing the new system as voluntary for family physicians, the announcement emphasized a competitive bidding process to identify and contract a new technology vendor. Curiously, it made no reference to HALO — the interoperability tool that was already being piloted within the province.   When I contacted Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team to ask about any plans to work alongside the existing HALO initiative, I received a media release. When I followed up with Canada Health Infoway with questions about cross-provincial clinician representation, adoption planning, and Ontario’s plans to build its own system, I was redirected to the same officials who had sent me the media release.   This is not a minor administrative oversight. It is the fragmentation problem made visible in real time.   Ontario is not just ignoring a federally funded tool, it’s ignoring one that it helped build. Despite having a protocol under development in Ontario, the province has once again chosen to develop new technology rather than invest in the mandate and strategy to adopt what already exists.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mandate what we already have</h2>   The solution is not another voluntary tool, nor is it another electronic medical-record system. What’s needed is the political will to mandate what already exists and to stop building parallel systems every time a province decides it prefers its own protocols and process.    Bill S-5 needs to be passed. Without it, vendors are under no federal obligation to ensure their systems are compatible with others — and when systems can’t communicate, provinces default to making adoption voluntary. In Canadian health IT, voluntary frameworks have consistently failed. <a href="https://competition-bureau.canada.ca/en/unlocking-power-health-data">British Columbia’s earlier EMR interoperability standard</a> was never meaningfully adopted or enforced. Ontario spent decades and billions arriving at the same destination it started from.    But passing Bill S-5 alone is not sufficient, because provinces can still opt out by passing their own version of legislation — which is exactly what Ontario’s March 19 announcement risks becoming.    Rather than pursuing a third attempt at a provincewide system, Ontario should adopt and mandate HALO — a solution that already exists, that it helped build, and that does not require starting over.   Unlike a new provincewide system, HALO would not require physicians to abandon their existing EMR platforms. It functions as a connector layer on top of what already exists, giving clinicians a single point of access to complete patient health information across systems.   The EMR stays. What changes is the full scope of patient information that physicians can see.   Rather than invest in a new system that isn’t needed, Ontario’s money should instead be directed toward implementation of what exists — vendor compliance, physician training, and transition support to ensure the tool is used across the province.   This is not a technology problem. It is a co-ordination and accountability problem. Until governments acknowledge that and build the mechanisms to address it, we will keep spending billions to stay in the same place.

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/?post_type=issues&p=304447

optionspolitiques_feed

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/?post_type=issues&p=304420

By: Justin Bergamini.

Justin Trudeau’s 2018 embrace of cannabis legalization, in addition to its political upside, was based on three policy premises: reducing crime, increasing tax revenue and protecting young people.

Today, cannabis-related arrests have fallen, the black market has shrunk and governments collect significant tax revenue from a regulated industry — but the idea that teens are better protected is up in smoke.

Eight years after legalization, it may be time for Ottawa to take stock of why the Trudeau government’s signature policy has failed to achieve one of its key targets.

Let’s look at what the data tells us.

Increased use

In a fully developed policy framework, some of the key metrics of success would be a reduction in the number of teens using cannabis or engaging in frequent and heavy usage, and a reduction in injury or harm related to cannabis. Yet what we see is quite the opposite.

Research done prior to legalization suggested that roughly 25 per cent of older teens used cannabis annually. Today, that figure is closer to 40 per cent.

One of the central arguments for legalization was that regulated retail would reduce access by youth under 19. Dispensaries check proof of age; illicit dealers do not. But that logic was based on an assumption that the illegal market would disappear. In reality, there are still people willing to supply teens with cannabis — now supplemented by a legal industry that is producing ever-stronger products.

Legalization did not just regulate cannabis, it transformed it.

Greater potency

For decades the potency of cannabis has been steadily increasing. Since legalization, and the commercial investment that followed, that trend has only accelerated. Today’s cannabis is far stronger than what previous generations encountered.

This is no accident, but rather the result of an incentivized marketplace — an “arms race” among producers competing for consumers through increasingly potent products. Levels of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis, jumped from about four per cent in the 1990s to 12 per cent in early 2010s. Since legalization, some high-potency cannabis products have THC levels of more than 30 per cent.

A still-hazy picture of cannabis after five years of legalization

What Quebec’s cannabis strategy shows

The benefits of intelligent regulation of cannabis edibles

Medical cannabis will be lost amid the gummies and suds

Cannabis is no ordinary consumer good. Its risk levels follow a dose-response curve: The higher the potency, the greater the risk.

And harm is not evenly distributed. Adolescence and young adulthood — the age range with the highest cannabis consumption — is also a critical period of brain development.

During these years, the brain is still refining the systems responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation and executive function. Introducing high-potency psychoactive substances into that process is not benign. It poses real threats to healthy development and, more broadly, to mental health.

Those risks are increasingly visible. From 2007 to 2020, cannabis-related emergency-room visits in Canada more than doubled among youth for conditions like cannabis-induced psychosis and cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.

These sharp increases can be attributed to changes in the potency of cannabis, consumption patterns — and how the product is being packaged.

Vapes and edibles

The soaring popularity of cannabis vaping cartridges — discreet, convenient and often highly concentrated — has changed the way many young people consume cannabis. These products can contain upwards of 90-per-cent THC.

At the same time, the era of legalization has seen a proliferation of edible products like gummies, chocolates and cannabis-infused beverages. These innovations may be driven by adult demand, but they are very appealing to youth.

Adding cannabis to candy or soda lowers the psychological barrier to entry, feeling less like a drug and more like a treat. Indeed, the edible products are often connected to cannabis-related hospitalizations, given the risk of over-consumption, delayed-effect onset and increased psychoactivity when THC is metabolized via the liver.

We have confronted problems like this before.

In 2010, Canada became the first country to ban flavoured cigarettes and cigarillos. Yet in the case of cannabis, we are allowing a parallel trend to flourish — legal products that blur the line between regulated intoxicants and candy.

This is an important consideration, because the earlier someone starts using cannabis, the greater their risk of psychological harm and dependency.

The popularization of cannabis as “treats” has also triggered a spike in hospitalizations involving young children who accidentally consume cannabis, thinking they are eating candy. One study recorded a nine-fold increase in such poisonings across Ontario since cannabis became a legal substance.

But, to be clear, even though Canada has been slow to confront the negative consequences of legalized cannabis, the answer is not a return to prohibition.

The harms of criminalization were real, and legalization has helped to address them. But policy success in one domain does not justify complacency in another. If legalization was meant to be a public-health reform, then youth health must be central to how we evaluate and refine it.

While only a handful of countries have legalized cannabis, there are nevertheless models that Canada can learn from.

Uruguay, for example, took an approach that prioritizes public health over commercialization. Instead of fostering a competitive consumer market, it implemented strict controls on product types, potency and distribution. One significant result: research suggests that cannabis use has remained stable among teens in the South American country.

If Canada is serious about learning from international experience and our own missteps, policymakers should act accordingly. That includes considering a higher legal age for high-potency products, establishing evidence-based THC ceilings across all product categories — not just edibles — and treating high-potency products as an aggravating factor in cases involving the supply of cannabis to minors.

It also means putting youth health at the forefront when reviewing all existing and future policies.

Legalization was never meant to be the final word on cannabis policy; it was a starting point. Canada got many things right, but when it comes to protecting young people from the dangers of high-potency cannabis, Parliament, the federal government and provincial counterparts have more work to do.

By: Justin Bergamini  Justin Trudeau’s 2018 embrace of cannabis legalization, in addition to its political upside, was based on three policy premises: reducing crime, increasing tax revenue and protecting young people.   Today, cannabis-related arrests have fallen, the black market has shrunk and governments collect significant tax revenue from a regulated industry — but the idea that teens are better protected is up in smoke.    Eight years after legalization, it may be time for Ottawa to take stock of why the Trudeau government’s signature policy has failed to achieve one of its key targets.    Let’s look at what the data tells us.    <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Increased use</h2>   In a fully developed policy framework, some of the key metrics of success would be a reduction in the number of teens using cannabis or engaging in frequent and heavy usage, and a reduction in injury or harm related to cannabis. Yet what we see is quite the opposite.   <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canadian-alcohol-drugs-survey/2015-summary.html">Research</a> done prior to legalization suggested that roughly 25 per cent of older teens used cannabis annually. Today, that <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/research-data/canadian-cannabis-survey-2024-summary.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">figure</a> is closer to 40 per cent.   One of the central arguments for legalization was that regulated retail would reduce access by youth under 19. Dispensaries check proof of age; illicit dealers do not. But that logic was based on an assumption that the illegal market would disappear. In reality, there are still people willing to supply teens with cannabis — now supplemented by a legal industry that is producing ever-stronger products.   Legalization did not just regulate cannabis, it transformed it.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Greater potency</h2>   For decades the potency of cannabis has been steadily increasing. Since legalization, and the commercial investment that followed, that trend has only accelerated. Today’s cannabis is far stronger than what previous generations encountered.   This is no accident, but rather the result of an incentivized marketplace — an “arms race” among producers competing for consumers through increasingly potent products. Levels of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis, jumped from about four per cent in the 1990s to 12 per cent in early 2010s. Since legalization, some high-potency cannabis products have THC levels of more than 30 per cent.   <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2023/10/cannabis-need-data/">A still-hazy picture of cannabis after five years of legalization</a>   <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2023/10/quebec-cannabis-regulation/">What Quebec’s cannabis strategy shows</a>   <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2018/09/cannabis-edibles/">The benefits of intelligent regulation of cannabis edibles</a>   <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2019/11/medical-cannabis-will-be-lost-amid-the-gummies-and-suds/">Medical cannabis will be lost amid the gummies and suds</a> </blockquote>   Cannabis is no ordinary consumer good. Its risk levels follow a dose-response curve: The higher the potency, the greater the risk.   And harm is not evenly distributed. Adolescence and young adulthood — the age range with the highest cannabis consumption — is also a critical period of brain development.    During these years, the brain is still refining the systems responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation and executive function. Introducing high-potency psychoactive substances into that process is not benign. It poses real threats to healthy development and, more broadly, to mental health.   Those risks are increasingly visible. From 2007 to 2020, cannabis-related emergency-room visits in Canada <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-45-no-6-2025/trends-cannabis-attributable-hospitalizations-emergency-department-visits-canadian-substance-use-costs-harms-study.html">more than doubled</a> among youth for conditions like cannabis-induced psychosis and <a href="https://www.ccsa.ca/en/addressing-cannabis-hyperemesis-syndrome-canada#:~:text=About%20this%20evidence%20brief,on%20Canada's%20health%20care%20system.">cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome</a>.   These sharp increases can be attributed to changes in the potency of cannabis, consumption patterns — and how the product is being packaged.    <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Vapes and edibles</h2>   The soaring popularity of cannabis vaping cartridges — discreet, convenient and often highly concentrated — has changed the way many young people consume cannabis. These products can contain upwards of 90-per-cent THC.   At the same time, the era of legalization has seen a proliferation of edible products like gummies, chocolates and cannabis-infused beverages. These innovations may be driven by adult demand, but they are very appealing to youth.   Adding cannabis to candy or soda lowers the psychological barrier to entry, feeling less like a drug and more like a treat. Indeed, the edible products are often connected to cannabis-related hospitalizations, given the risk of over-consumption, delayed-effect onset and increased psychoactivity when THC is metabolized via the liver.   We have confronted problems like this before.   In 2010, <a href="https://cancer.ca/en/get-involved/advocacy/what-we-are-doing/tobacco-control/history-of-tobacco-control">Canada became the first country to ban</a> flavoured cigarettes and cigarillos. Yet in the case of cannabis, we are allowing a parallel trend to flourish — legal products that blur the line between regulated intoxicants and candy.   This is an important consideration, because the earlier someone starts using cannabis, the greater their risk of psychological harm and dependency.   The popularization of cannabis as “treats” has also triggered a spike in hospitalizations involving young children who accidentally consume cannabis, thinking they are eating candy. One <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/about-us/media/news/cannabis-poisoning-young-children-increased-nine-times-afterlegalization#:~:text=January%2010%2C%202022-,Cannabis%20poisoning%20in%20young%20children%20increased%20nine%20times%20after%20legalization,-Largest%20increase%20seen">study</a> recorded a nine-fold increase in such poisonings across Ontario since cannabis became a legal substance.   But, to be clear, even though Canada has been slow to confront the negative consequences of legalized cannabis, the answer is not a return to prohibition.   The harms of criminalization were real, and legalization has helped to address them. But policy success in one domain does not justify complacency in another. If legalization was meant to be a public-health reform, then youth health must be central to how we evaluate and refine it.   While only a handful of countries have legalized cannabis, there are nevertheless models that Canada can learn from.   Uruguay, for example, took an approach that prioritizes public health over commercialization. Instead of fostering a competitive consumer market, it implemented strict controls on product types, potency and distribution. One significant result: <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10686048/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">research</a> suggests that cannabis use has remained stable among teens in the South American country.   If Canada is serious about learning from international experience and our own missteps, policymakers should act accordingly. That includes considering a higher legal age for high-potency products, establishing evidence-based THC ceilings across all product categories — not just edibles — and treating high-potency products as an aggravating factor in cases involving the supply of cannabis to minors.   It also means putting youth health at the forefront when reviewing all existing and future policies.   Legalization was never meant to be the final word on cannabis policy; it was a starting point. Canada got many things right, but when it comes to protecting young people from the dangers of high-potency cannabis, Parliament, the federal government and provincial counterparts have more work to do.

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/?post_type=issues&p=304420

ysabetwordsmith

My internet connection has been spitty for a week, losing hours every day. So I'm posting this after midnight in hopes it will go through. The Poetry Fishbowl will actually open at noon.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for characters we haven't seen in a while, dimensional travelers, time travelers, man out of time, alternate self, historians, futurists, explorers, inventors, quantum mechanics, quantum physicists, mad scientists, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other remnant characters, revisiting older scenes, filling in details, missing scenes, learning from the past, moving on to the next scene, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, older storylines and series, the multiverse (quantum physics), the multiverse (F&SF), landing pads, world portals, liminal zones, schools, churches, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, mysterious storms, crystal balls and other magical scrying devices, chronoscopes and other technological scrying devices, psychohistory (academic), psychohistory (science fiction), puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, strange loops, fix-its, enemies to friends/lovers, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Greek Myth Fest Bingo Card 5-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One features the autistic secession in space.

Arts and Crafts America is largely about using crafts to solve problems.

The Bear Tunnels is about time travel to early colonial New England.

The Blueshift Troupers travel space to help planets in distress.

A Conflagration of Dragons involves civilization collapse.

Daughters of the Apocalypse is mostly about poor, brown, nonmale, queer, and/or disabled people.

Eloquent Souls features soulmates and soulmarks.

Feathered Nests is science fiction about avian aliens with unusual sex/gender dynamics.

Fledgling Grace has a mortal realm, an angelic realm, a demonic realm.

Hart's Farm is a Swedish free-love commune.

The Hollow Way features various mystical occurrences including strange travel paths, but the series is apparently unpublished.

Kande's Quest has a mortal realm and a demonic realm.

Monster House includes a variety of unusual characters.

Not Quite Kansas has an angelic realm, a demonic realm, and two versions of a mortal realm.

The Ocracies is a fantasy setting with diverse political systems.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis has a mortal realm and a divine realm.

Path of the Paladins has a mortal realm and a divine realm.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy with a disabled hera.

Schrodinger's Heroes is all about trying to save the world from alternate dimensions.

The Steamsmith features a black, genderqueer, British steampunk engineer.

The Time Towers compares time travel to Jenga.

Tripping into the Future is about one-way time travel and its consequences.

Walking the Beat is lesbian romance.

Shorter series appear on the Serial Poetry page.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.

Cyberfunded Creativity

I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:

1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.

2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.

3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).

0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.

4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"

5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.

Linkback perk: Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted.

Additional Notes

1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."

2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.

3) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.

4) If donations total $100 by Sunday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a half-price sale in one series.

Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "Older Series and Forgotten Characters." See above for details. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.

I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.

Current Mood: creative

dine

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

sovay

With great disgruntlement, Hestia submitted to the invasion of her sovereign space as I cleaned and restocked the pantry, disposing in the process of many of the shredded paper bags in which she had been pleased to nest and very unfairly folding the unshredded ones into the indispensable bag of bags, out of reach of the mighty paw of kitten. I have been so ill for so long that I have been barely cooking for myself and tired of it: nothing is superabundant, but groceries were included among the errands I spent my day running. The shelves tidily contain cornmeal and jam and tinned fish and soup.

spatch organized his ramen. When I have finished cleaning the counters, I will be able to bake something. I just heard a train whistle blowing in the night, which always makes me think of Tom Waits' "Gun Street Girl" (1985). Someday I will eat a seaweed cheese.

Current Music: Pylon Reenactment Society, "Flowers Everywhere"

ysabetwordsmith

This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject. Read Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert, Part 2: Architecture, Part 3: Dance, Part 4: Music, Part 5: Painting, Part 6: Poetry, Part 7: Sculpture, Part 8: Conflict Resolution, Part 9: Cooking, Part 10: Coping Skills.

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Part 11: Gardening

Gardening is a large set of skills aimed at growing plants for food, craft materials, or other uses. Most people think of a garden as a small separate patch of cultivated land full of domesticated crops, but it can also mean forest gardening, permaculture, wildlife gardening, and so forth. Aspects include types of plants, regional environments, style such as organic or conventional, themes like butterfly or moon gardens, and many more. Everyone needs to eat, so ideally each person should develop at least some gardening skill. Different cultures have developed crops to suit their own cuisines. Here on Dreamwidth, check out

birdfeeding and

common_nature (for wildlife gardens),

fresh_haul and

gardening (for edibles).

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth April 25-May 15

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

tsuki_no_bara

may the fourth be with you!

(and also with you.)

( tiny death star on a non-star wars calendar )

of course a new hope is on tv. :D tonight is also the met gala so i've been reblogging clothes and occasionally judging over on tumblr and yes i know lauren sanchez bezos is an easy target but her attempt to channel john singer sargent's madame x is, uh, well, i guess i could give her a point for trying but as much as i love sargent (and i do), hers is a really boring interpretation. i was expecting something tight and tits-forward and tacky and definitely got two of those. (whether or not her bargain basement imitation is tacky or not is open to interpretation.)

in other fashion news, the kentucky derby was on saturday and the hats were fabulous.

also on saturday i got a haircut (which is important to no one but me) and met my sister at a market for makers, kind of like a craft fair. i got fish earrings and a very serene print and got a headache from smelling candles. they smelled great! but there were a lot of them. so, so many. also a lot of jewelry. it was fun tho. afterwards we went to costco, we got dinner, we went back to my sister's to watch wonder man which i really liked and highly recommend.

and sunday was somerville open studios! surprise. (i mean it was saturday too but i had other things to do.) i saw a bunch of potters and my former roommate and her friend who makes jewelry and a fiber artist altho i think the girl manning the table was actually the fiber artist's kid - they raise sheep, shear them, spin the wool, and knit it. everything except the dyeing. i even got to see some pics of the sheep. they're very cute, i'm sure you're surprised.

may totally snuck up on me. i mean, next week is the last week of classes at the u and i am un. prepared. for it to be summer. did april move really fast for anyone else or is it just me?

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: now i'm watching futurama

snowynight

Troika: Dagrun the Astronaut: "Damn it! I'm an astronaut , not an orc!"
From The Compendium by Axes and Orcs.

( "You are told you are an orc because you arrived here through a 'magical mishap.' No one believes that you aren't an orc, but are an astronaut of the most powerful nation on your world. Or maybe they simply don't care." )
Troika: a surreal science-fantasy roleplaying game where you and your cosmopolitan group of fellow travellers fly on mystic barges, help dying gods, solve confounding crimes, plunder dead worlds, and meet strange & wonderful people.

Mork Borg: Eldar the Forlorn Philosopher: "So many riddles..."
( You once thought that cold analysis might tame Fate itself, now that dream of reason has decayed to shifting madness and only the cold remains. )

ysabetwordsmith

The ‘Complete Collapse’ of the Job Ladder for Gen Z

A new working paper from three economists explains how the U.S. job ladder has been breaking for 40 years. This decades-long problem doesn’t affect just Gen Z but has also stymied wage growth for Americans in their 30s, 40s and 50s. This could be why the midlife millennials I interviewed a few years back felt that they were physically in their 40s but economically in their 20s, unable to find a career that felt secure.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

reeby10

From

maevedarcy

Food related questions that will make you hungry

What is a food you loved as a child but do not enjoy anymore? I guess the closest thing is that I had a phase as a kid where I drank milk like crazy. Like half a gallon or more a day until I drank so much that I made myself really sick. I am now vegan so I don't drink cow milk anyway, but I could not stomach it after that.

What’s a food you used to dislike but now enjoy? What changed? Blueberries! I used to haaaate them and wouldn't even eat/drink anything with mixed berries bc of them. And then one day I accidentally ordered something with blueberries and... it was good?? No idea what changed.

If you could eat only one cuisine for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Chinese. Very versatile and tasty and easily veganizable if not already vegetarian/vegan.

What food instantly makes you feel comforted or happy? Mac and cheese, because the southern will probably never really leave me lol

What food reminds you most of your childhood? Maybe beans and weenies? I feel like we ate that a lot when I was a kid. But also potato soup, which we probably honestly ate even more bc it was really cheap. It was actually the first thing I was allowed to make on my own!

Are there any foods you think are overrated? Burgers. They're fine every once in awhile, but they aren't that great tbh.

What traditional dish from your country would you recommend to a visitor? Ok this isn't really a dish, but I'm going to say milkshakes bc I love milkshakes. I joke that they're my favorite food group lol

Who is the best cook you know, and what makes their food special? Uhh maybe the best friend? I think she's maybe a better baker, but she does make good food and she's always willing to experiment with making vegan food for me.

althea_valara

1. one creative thing I did today

Saturday: Gathered projects to take along to an outing, and thought about knitted tee
Sunday: Did more swatching on the knitted tee, and washed the swatch
Monday: Measured gauge on washed swatch, and considered new yarn/new gauge tools but did not order any.

2. one thing I'm proud of today

Saturday: I streamed that evening after I got home from seeing

goody_scrivener
Sunday: I made a to-do list and did most things on the list, including cleaning my room some! (If you know me, you know this is a big accomplishment)
Monday: Did more work after I got home from therapy, even though I wanted to just play on the internet. Also, played some FFT!

3. video game progress

Saturday: leveling progress on an FFXI alt, streamed new alliance raid in FFXIV
Sunday: more leveling progress in FFXI, and EFC's birthday party in FFXIV
Monday: Played some FFT! didn't get much done because of liveblogging, but folks! Activation energy is HARD for me, so I am very proud that I turned the thing on and played some at ALL.

days_unfolding

I ordered a travel cushion for my flight to Reno. The flights will be long enough for it to be helpful. Plus the trip to Europe later this year.

Woke up at 7:30 AM. Threw myself together and left for my physical therapy appointment.

Physical therapy was okay. I’m not getting stronger fast enough, so they added extra sessions twice a week in June. And they want me to do exercises pushing against an exercise band.

The crazy dogs don’t want to come in even though it’s raining. Well, Bella came in but Gracie did not.

The Starbucks in the student union is giving away used coffee grounds to gardeners. I’d like some, but parking near there is a major pain. Maybe I could take the bus? Or I could start drinking coffee.

I don’t know why I’m so flipping tired. I got a decent night’s sleep last night.

The choir concert went well. No major gaffes. The piano accompanist complimented me on my solo. That was nice of her.

Fed us all. I need to get to sleep soon because I have a mammogram and ultrasound in the morning.

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profiterole_reads

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Page Summary

frith - Might As Well Be Walking On The Sun
darkjediqueen in fan_flashworks - Heated Rivalry: Fan Fiction: Paying a Price
marcicat - fic rec Tuesday
smallhobbit in fan_flashworks - Gentle: Miss Marple: Fanfic: Appearances Can Be Deceptive
vilakins - 30 Days of Blake's 7 - day 5
mondtrunken - Stock Icons [50]
lucy_roman in fan_flashworks - Inspector George Gently: Fanfiction: Gently in the Darkness
icon_uk in scans_daily - Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday
optionspolitiques_feed - Canada has the tech to connect health records. Why isn’t it being used?
optionspolitiques_feed - Legalization’s blind spot: youth exposure to stronger cannabis
ysabetwordsmith - Poetry Fishbowl Open!
dine - do the best that you can in the place where you are, and be kind
sovay - Eating cereal, remembering the sky
ysabetwordsmith - Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Gardening
tsuki_no_bara - aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
snowynight - 30 Characters for 30 Tabletop RPG Challenge (Pt1)
ysabetwordsmith - Economics
reeby10 - Food Meme
althea_valara - 3W4DW check-ins: the catching up quick hits (Days 8, 9, 10)
days_unfolding - Physical Therapy/Concert

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profiterole_reads

Network

Might As Well Be Walking On The Sun

Heated Rivalry: Fan Fiction: Paying a Price

fic rec Tuesday

Gentle: Miss Marple: Fanfic: Appearances Can Be Deceptive

30 Days of Blake's 7 - day 5

Stock Icons [50]

Inspector George Gently: Fanfiction: Gently in the Darkness

Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

Canada has the tech to connect health records. Why isn’t it being used?

A tool without a mandate

Ontario goes its own way — again

Mandate what we already have

Legalization’s blind spot: youth exposure to stronger cannabis

Increased use

Greater potency

Vapes and edibles

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

do the best that you can in the place where you are, and be kind

Eating cereal, remembering the sky

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Gardening

aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?

30 Characters for 30 Tabletop RPG Challenge (Pt1)

Economics

Food Meme

3W4DW check-ins: the catching up quick hits (Days 8, 9, 10)

1. one creative thing I did today

2. one thing I'm proud of today

3. video game progress

Physical Therapy/Concert

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May 2026

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