Two more states voted for various forms of cannabis legalization. The District of Columbia also voted to permit marijuana possession. Several municipalities in New England passed similar initiatives. These are big deals. How they will play out in Canada (if at all) is a good topic of debate. I spoke to Yahoo News about this,… Continue reading Media II: the morning after the referenda
Author: danmalleck
Medical historian and jack-of-all-trades curmudgeon. I tend to ramble about politics, social incivility, and a self-centred culture more interested in buying the next cool ringtone or device than actively engaging in the sorts of discussions and issues that matter. The more opportunity we have to buy more stuff, the less concern there is, it seems, in politics, social justice and let's face it, basic human decency, unless those things actually can save us money or get us more things to show how awesome we are through displaying our material wealth.
And I like to brew beer, make cheese, and put food in jars.
Cannabis legalization in the media
There is a lot of attention to the issue of legalization of marijuana. So I wrote a little op-ed. It was published today. I have to say the editors came up with a much better title than I had given it. It was so forgettable, I forget my title. How to legalize pot? We figured… Continue reading Cannabis legalization in the media
Reflections on a “road” trip
I visited the United Kingdom in February, as I often do, to attend conferences and talks. There is always a lot going on in the medical history and booze and drug policy/history area, so I am always finding myself quite stimulated intellectually by these trips. This time I added the title of "unofficial university ambassador"… Continue reading Reflections on a “road” trip
Wherefore medical history
Before I begin, a little Shakespeare tutorial. When Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she's not asking "where are you?" but "why are you?" In other words, "why are you a Montague?" Her concern was, of course, that he was the child of her family's arch enemies. I say that because I'm being snooty humanities… Continue reading Wherefore medical history
Ask and you shall receive; seek and ye shall find.
So I've been a little lax on updates and am trying to catch up. this post is actually about something I found in Saskatchewan in autumn 2012. But some background. My research has involved a lot of digging through pharmacy records. I've done some detailed data collection of records from pharmacies in Ontario, Alberta, and… Continue reading Ask and you shall receive; seek and ye shall find.
Whose control is it, anyway?
So those upstart pharmacists and nurse practitioners want to edge in on doctors' business! Recently, across the country, various health practitioners have been seeking to expand their scope of practice. This is the legally defined range of activities they are allowed do. In the health system, especially, it is a highly contentious issue. Because unlike… Continue reading Whose control is it, anyway?
Pot-ty mouth
Last year I was contacted a few times by some AM Talk radio stations after Justin Trudeau made his audacious announcement about legalizing pot. The reason they contacted me was that I am a type of expert on this topic. (Interestingly, they all seem to think I smoke the stuff.) And they all have this tendency… Continue reading Pot-ty mouth
Big thinking in London
I was at a conference in London on drug and alcohol history. I go to these quite a bit. But this time they caught me on video. To avoid seeming entirely self-promoting, I encourage you to follow the links to other interesting presentations at that conference. And just in case you're wondering, the "James" to… Continue reading Big thinking in London
Finding historical newspapers and their locations
Once in a while we need to get off our butts and get to the archives. I was in the University of Toronto's Robarts Library yesterday and had the blissful feeling of going through actual real documents, coming out covered with the detritus of over 100 years of deteriorating paper, glue and leather bindings. But… Continue reading Finding historical newspapers and their locations
The dangers of relying upon scanned text searches
With all of the on-line documents out there, it is tempting to avoid the sitting-in-a-library-and-reading-miles-of-microfilms approach to newspaper research, and replace it with using text searches on digital newspapers, texts and other scanned material. There is some merit to that: saves time, microfilms readers can be annoying to use, and you can do your research… Continue reading The dangers of relying upon scanned text searches
Drug History Canada 