February 2023

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Personal possession of a small amount of hard drugs is now legal in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The controversial move is intended to reduce deaths from drug use.

The personal possession of 2.5 grams of hard drugs, including cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and morphine, has now been decriminalized. This temporary exemption means a person found with a small quantity of these drugs will not have them seized nor face arrest or any criminal charges. 

An average of six people a day die in British Columbia from illicit drug use, mostly men in their private residences. 

The day the three-year pilot program went into effect, the provincial coroner announced 2,272 people had died in 2022 from drug overdose. That was the second highest on record, topped only by 2,306 deaths in 2021. 

It is hoped decriminalizing small-scale possession will help fight drug mortality by putting the focus on treatment instead of criminal prosecution. 

Retired police officer Chuck Doucette, president of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, is strongly opposed to the move, and said that “it really doesn’t address the issues at all, it’s not going to save any lives.” 

He pointed to the number of deaths by overdose and added that with drugs, “Whether they’re legal or decriminalized or not — doesn’t make them any less likely to kill you.” 

Kora DeBeck, a research scientist at the BC Center on Substance Use in Vancouver and an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, backs decriminalization. She said that research shows prohibition does not work, but compassionate treatment of drug-dependent people can work. 

“We see so many signals that that improves our ability to connect with people who use drugs — to connect them with supports and services and things to reduce harm to them, and to their community,” DeBeck said.  

She added that decriminalization had already happened to a large extent nationwide, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other law enforcement agencies already not arresting anyone found with a small amount of narcotics. 

Constable Tania Visintin of the Vancouver Police Department says the difference now is that any small amount drugs found will not be seized. 

“We were legally bound to seize those drugs, even if it was a small amount, and we would seize them for destruction. So they would never be part of any kind of charge or court case at all,” Visintin said. “But now under this new exemption, then, we just won’t be seizing any drugs that we find that are in a small personal use possession type of form.” 

For DeBeck, the benefit of this is that those addicted to drugs won’t be compelled to go to extraordinary lengths to replenish their supply. Before, said DeBeck, if their drugs were seized, “they may go to a less reliable source.”

DeBeck said that it placed people “in a desperate situation, they may have to resort to risky income generation or criminal activity or something like that.” 

The exemption, which has the blessing of the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will last for three years and is limited to British Columbia for now. 
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For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians mummified their dead in the search for eternal life. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of jars to figure out how they did it.

Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on a rare archaeological find: An embalming workshop with a trove of pottery around 2,500 years old. Many jars from the site were still inscribed with instructions like “to wash” or “to put on his head.”

By matching the writing on the outside of the vessels with the chemical traces inside, researchers uncovered new details about the “recipes” that helped preserve bodies for thousands of years.

“It’s like a time machine, really,” said Joann Fletcher, an archaeologist at University of York who was not involved with the study. “It’s allowed us to not quite see over the shoulders of the ancient embalmers, but probably as close as we’ll ever get.”

Those recipes showed that embalmers had deep knowledge about what substances would help preserve their dead, said Fletcher, whose partner was a co-author on the study. And they included materials from far-flung parts of the world — meaning Egyptians went to great lengths to make their mummies “as perfect as they could possibly be.”

The workshop — uncovered in 2016 by study author Ramadan Hussein, who passed away last year — is located in the famous burial grounds of Saqqara. Parts of it sit above the surface, but a shaft stretches down to an embalming room and burial chamber underground, where the jars were discovered.

It was in rooms like these where the last phase of the process took place, said Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at The American University in Cairo who was not involved with the study. After drying out the body with salts, which probably took place above ground, embalmers would then take the bodies below.

“This was the last phase of your transformation where the secret rites, the religious rites, were being performed,” Ikram said. “People would be chanting spells and hymns while you were being wrapped and resin was being anointed all over your body.”

Experts already had some clues about what substances were used in those final steps, mainly from testing individual mummies and looking at written texts. But a lot of gaps remained, said senior author Philipp Stockhammer, an archaeologist at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany.

The new finds helped crack the case.

Take the word “antiu,” which shows up in a lot of Egyptian texts but didn’t have a direct translation, Stockhammer said. In the new study, scientists found that several jars labeled as “antiu” contained a mixture of different substances — including animal fat, cedar oil and juniper resin.

These substances, along with others found in the jars, have key properties that would help preserve the mummies, said lead author Maxime Rageot, an archaeologist at Germany’s University of Tubingen.

Plant oils — which were used to protect the liver and treat the bandages — could ward off bacteria and fungi, while also improving the smell. Hard materials like beeswax, used on the stomach and skin, could help keep out water and seal the pores.

Some of the substances came from very far away — like dammar and elemi, types of resin that come from the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. These results show that ancient Egyptians would trade far and wide to get the most effective materials, the authors said.

“It’s interesting to see the complexity,” Stockhammer said. “Having this global network on the one hand, having all this chemical knowledge on the other side.”

Ikram said an important next step for the research will be to test different parts of actual mummies to see if the same substances show up. And these recipes probably weren’t universal — they changed over time and varied between workshops.

Still, the study gives a basis for understanding the past, and can bring us closer to people who lived long ago, she said.

“The ancient Egyptians have been separated from us through time and space, yet we still have this connection,” Ikram said. “Human beings all throughout history have been scared of death.”
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Australian authorities on Wednesday found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) stretch of highway, officials said. 

The Caesium-137 capsule was discovered when a vehicle travelling at 70 kms per hour equipped with specialist detection equipment picked up the radiation, according to officials from the state of Western Australia. 

The search team then used portable detection equipment to find the capsule, which was located about 2 meters from the side of the road, they added. 

“I do want to emphasize this is an extraordinary result,” Western Australia’s Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a news conference. 

“When you consider the scope of the research area, locating this object was a monumental challenge, the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack,” Dawson said. 

The military was verifying the capsule and it would be taken to a secure facility in the city of Perth on Thursday, he added. Officials from Western Australia’s emergency response department, defense authorities, radiation specialists and others have been combing a stretch of highway for the tiny capsule that was lost in transit more than two weeks ago. 

The radioactive capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed from Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine in the state’s remote Kimberley region. The ore was being taken to a facility in the suburbs of Perth – a distance longer than the length of Great Britain. 

Officials said the capsule apparently fell off a truck and landed on the side of the road, adding that it was unlikely there will be contamination in the area. 

The silver capsule, 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm long, contains Caesium-137 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour. People had been told to stay at least five meters (16.5 feet) away from the capsule if they spotted it, because exposure could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness. However, driving past it was believed to be relatively low risk, akin to taking an X-ray. 

Western Australia’s Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson said the capsule was found in a remote area far from any community and it was unlikely anyone had been exposed to radiation. 

He said there would be an investigation and prosecutions would be considered under state radiation safety laws from 1975. The maximum penalty for failing to safely handle radioactive substances is $780 and $35 per day the offence continues, though the state government said on Wednesday it was considering a change to laws to allow for bigger penalties. 
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Two mass shootings in California in one week have highlighted the complex mental health issues faced by older Asian Americans who may have been traumatized in their homelands and who — after building new lives in the United States — now find themselves facing additional challenges as they age.

Some first-generation Asian immigrants, especially those who emigrated from conflict zones, arrive with trauma issues that often go untreated during the push to find work, housing and a community, according to experts.

Depression and loneliness are major problems among elderly retired immigrants whose limited English skills impose limits on developing social circles of friends and acquaintances. Generational differences between the immigrants and their children, who are native or near-native Americans, create another layer of isolation for older immigrants, according to numerous studies.

Some Asian community leaders say more attention needs to be paid to the multifaceted mental health issues of older Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI).

Congresswoman Grace Meng tweeted, “I wonder how things could’ve been different had there been a strong mental health and social service network. Yes, it’s about gun safety laws, yes, it’s about stopping Asian hate, but also a generation of #AAPI elders with a life of unaddressed trauma.” 

Sylvia Chan-Malik, an associate professor in the departments of American and women’s and gender studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, told VOA Mandarin that the mental health problems of AAPI elders were often neglected when they were younger because they were busy working. Upon retirement, the problems cannot be papered over by work.

“You might have a lot of trauma and even issues around depression and anxiety that you’ve never really dealt with because you were always working or trying to achieve something and trying to just move forward,” Chan-Malik said. “Then suddenly you don’t have to go to work, you’re at home, you are by yourself and you feel depressed or sad or unhappy in a way that you didn’t.”

Raymond Chang, president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative, said, many elderly people in the Asian American community struggle with the sense that they are a burden to their families economically.

“It’s so challenging and in a society that values ‘production,’ you’re not able to produce as much the older you get,” he said.

COVID pressures

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by a virus first identified in China, and the subsequent hate crimes against Asians during this period have increased the mental and economic pressure on AAPI elders.

According to a 2021 report from the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, 59% of Asian American Pacific Islanders said the United States has become more dangerous for their ethnic group during the pandemic.

Chan-Malik pointed out that like other Americans, many AAPI elders go online for information, and algorithms may push content to them that heightens their sense of danger.

She added, “They take a very partisan, very ideological approach to thinking about what’s happening in the world because their YouTube feed or whatever is being curated for them. The algorithm is just giving them more and more of the same viewpoint all the time.” 

Yet it can be difficult for AAPI elders to obtain effective mental health assistance. Part of this is due to the influence of Asian cultures that stigmatize mental health issues, experts say.

But in the U.S., where only 27.7% of all mental health care needs are being met, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, AAPI elders tend to seek help from family and friends rather than professional institutions. 

A report from UCLA Medical Center says, “Embedded in collectivist culture and traditional views of body and mind as a unitary entity, older Asians … tend to [suppress or discount] psychological or emotional symptoms, which often makes it challenging to apply psychiatric diagnoses based on Western views.”

Other restrictions on seeking timely treatment for mental health problems include health insurance limitations or the lack of insurance, immigration status and language preferences.

Reluctant to seek help

Compared with Americans of other ethnic backgrounds, Asian American Pacific Islanders are the least likely to seek mental health services, three times less than whites, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Kathleen Cameron, a senior director of the National Council on Aging, told VOA Mandarin that therapists who understand Asian languages are critical to providing better mental health treatment for older Asians. But, she said, language isn’t the only issue.

“It’s not just the language but understanding the undertones of what they’re experiencing and being able to pull out what someone may be feeling,” Cameron said, saying therapists could perhaps use body language and other cues to understand what people cannot articulate.

The January 21 Monterey Park shooting, which left 11 people dead and nine wounded, may have brought new trauma to AAPI elders because it took place in a popular Los Angeles-area dance hall — a familiar social space. Community centers, dance halls and churches are among the few settings where AAPI elders may feel comfortable expressing their emotions.

According to the New York Times, the Monterey Park ballroom where the shooting took place had parties almost every night where often more than 100 AAPI elders sang, danced and socialized. The ballroom was hosting a Lunar New Year celebration on the day of the shooting.

The other recent mass killing left seven people dead on two mushroom farms in the northern California enclave of Half Moon Bay.

Last May, an Asian man opened fire at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church in Southern California, killing one and injuring five. The church in Laguna Hills is one of the largest Taiwanese churches in the United States, with hundreds of members, and they were holding a welcome back event for a pastor who had been working in Taiwan for two years. 

Chang said that since the church shooting last spring, his organization has discussed with federal officials how to strengthen security protection for the church. The challenge is that the protective measures may make AAPI elders feel uncomfortable. 

“When you start putting security guards and metal detectors and armed guards at the front, what ends up happening is that strangers who are often looking to be friends feel like they’re viewed with far more suspicion because they now seem more like a threat,” he said. 

After a spate of mass shootings and years of collective trauma in the Asian American community, Cameron worries that even more older Asian Americans either will not seek help nor receive appropriate treatment. 

“For some Asian Americans, that’s going to prevent them from maybe carrying on the things that they want to do or bring them joy in their life for fear that something might happen to them,” he said. 

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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