TORONTO - Some people who use marijuana to try to control epilepsy could actually risk making their seizures worse -- if research showing the drug's effects on laboratory rats is any indication. Scientists at the University of Saskatchewan have found that although a synthetic version of pot's active ingredient can suppress grand mal seizures in lab rats, in some cases it may intensify the most common cause of convulsions, those which originate in the front of the brain. Some people who can't tolerate side-effects associated with epilepsy medicine turn to marijuana or synthetic forms of the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, to reduce the severity of seizures. [end]
Some people who use marijuana to try to control their epilepsy could actually risk making their seizures worse -- if research showing the drug's effects on laboratory rats is any indication. Scientists at the University of Saskatchewan have found that, although a synthetic version of pot's active ingredient can suppress grand-mal seizures in lab rats, in some cases, it may intensify the most common cause of convulsions, those which originate in the front of the brain. [end]
Headly the Hemp Leaf's first Buffalo Days parade appearance may be his last after the mascot for a Regina hemp products store was weeded out of the event. Tim Selenski, owner of Head to Head Novelties, said he followed all the rules to be in the annual parade, where he was dressed in a custom-made, bright green, 3.7-metre-tall outfit that resembles a pot plant. He said he had the proper permit. Selenski said he was using the opportunity to advertise his store, which sells hemp products and medicinal marijuana paraphernalia, and is an outlet for the Alberta-based Krieger Foundation, which provides medicinal marijuana to people with proven medical conditions. [continues 481 words]
Headly the Hemp Leaf's first Buffalo Days parade appearance in Regina may be his last after the mascot for a local hemp products store was weeded out of the event. Tim Selenski, owner of Head to Head Novelties, said he followed all the rules to be in the annual parade, where he was dressed in a custom-made, bright-green, 3.7-metre-tall outfit that resembles a pot plant. Selenski said he had the proper permit and that he was using the opportunity to advertise his store that sells hemp products, medicinal marijuana paraphernalia and is an outlet for the Alberta-based Krieger Foundation, which provides medicinal marijuana to people with proven medical conditions. [continues 105 words]
With as much as 10 times the active opiate ingredient as other painkillers, OxyContin was marketed as a powerful relief with a built-in safety measure: a time-release formula that allowed the drug's opiate to be delivered over a 12-hour period. Other painkillers, including OxyContin's predecessor, Tylox, contained only five mg of opiate, but oxy was made available in 20-, 40- or 80-mg doses. An aggressive marketing campaign, cut with the euphoric powers of oxy, mainlined the drug to the top of the pain-relief charts. [continues 632 words]
With as much as 10 times the active opiate ingredient as other painkillers, OxyContin was marketed as a powerful relief with a built-in safety measure: a time-release formula that allowed the drug's opiate to be delivered over a 12-hour period. Other painkillers, including OxyContin's predecessor, Tylox, contained only five mg of opiate, but oxy was made available in 20-, 40- or 80-mg doses. An aggressive marketing campaign, cut with the euphoric powers of oxy, mainlined the drug to the top of the pain-relief charts. [continues 627 words]
Organized Crime Has Been Growing In Little-Policed Rural Areas CALGARY - Alberta needs more Mounties to keep up with the growth of organized crime and drugs in rural areas, says the province's solicitor general. The number of RCMP officers patrolling rural Alberta has barely budged in recent years, while smaller communities are becoming home to sophisticated criminal groups seeking to escape the scrutiny of big-city police forces. "Policing has changed dramatically over the past 31/2 years," Solicitor General Heather Forsyth said Thursday. "When I took over, people in places like Camrose were talking to me about issues like vandalized farm equipment -- now we're talking about organized crime, meth and marijuana grow-ops." [continues 100 words]
LETHBRIDGE - The chief, councillors, police officers and even teachers on the Blood reserve might face mandatory drug testing under measures considered by a task force on violence and substance abuse. Stepping up enforcement of a curfew for teenagers is another possibility examined by the task force, appointed by the reserve's tribal council. Task force chairman Charles Weaselhead said he recognizes such measures could be controversial but stressed representatives from Stand Off and other small reserve communities will be consulted before decisions are made. "It's not a top-down (approach); it's a grassroots movement," he said. "If we get the blessing of the community, we'll introduce it." [end]
OTTAWA - Some patients are spurning a new batch of government-certified marijuana, dismissing Health Canada claims that it's a stronger, better quality smoke. Prairie Plant Systems, which produces medical marijuana on contract for Health Canada, began shipping a second batch on May 21, after getting bad reviews about the initial harvest. "It's no good," Marco Renda, 45, said Monday from his home in Dundalk, Ont. "It didn't burn properly, (and) it had no effect." Users complained the first batch was too dry and far less potent than the package claimed. [end]
HOLDEN - RCMP have yet to find marijuana plants that disappeared from a grow operation under investigation in May near Holden. An internal investigation has been ordered into the disappearance of the plants. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the probe will look at whether officers followed proper procedures. Volunteer firefighters from Holden, Ryley and Tofield stumbled onto the grow operation after they were called May 27 to a fire on an abandoned farm. The RCMP said they secured the buildings before leaving to get a search warrant, but when firefighters were called back to the farm the next morning to deal with smouldering hay bales, the marijuana plants were gone. [end]
HALIFAX -- Former Mountie Danny Ryan from Tantallon, N.S., has been found guilty of trafficking about 1.4 kilograms of marijuana and breach of trust. Ryan was about to join then-prime minister Jean Chretien's security detail when he was arrested on the charges in 2002. Ryan, who now lives in Quebec, did not attend court yesterday and plans to appeal. Prosecutor David Bright said the RCMP got onto Ryan in December 2001, after two Halifax Regional Police officers arrested another man on outstanding warrants. The man said Ryan, then a constable with the Tantallon RCMP detachment, had given him drugs for him to sale. [end]
OTTAWA - Canada Post is refusing to deliver medicinal marijuana to a Brockville, Ont., man, despite his licence from Health Canada to receive it legally. It may be academic, anyway, because the package has gone missing. The dosage was mailed April 22 from Grand Forks, B.C., by Brian Taylor, a federally licensed grower and supplier. When Taylor filed a complaint, Canada Post warned him such shipments, if detected, would be confiscated under the corporation's non-mailable substances policy. Spokesperson John Caines said Taylor did not have a licence to ship medicinal marijauna through Canada Post. [continues 96 words]
MONTREAL - The Marijuana Party rolled out its election platform on Tuesday, hoping its 100 or so candidates can convince voters that it's more than just a token party. Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice wants voters to know he and his fellow candidates aren't taking the election lightly. He will run against Prime Minister Paul Martin in LaSalle, Que. "We are a single-issue party but that issue covers finances, social climate, justice, international relations and agriculture. "There's hardly any ministry that isn't affected. In fact, I think there should be a ministry of marijuana at some point." [end]
The odds of early adolescents getting drunk and using drugs are relatively high if they see their parents as constantly nagging them, Statistics Canada's first national study of alcohol and drug use among 12- to 15-year-olds suggests. The survey of 4,296 young people, released yesterday, found hostile parenting styles -- characterized by nagging, inconsistent rule enforcement, threats and anger -- affect teen behaviour. After asking the youths questions about their relationship with their parents, the researchers considered three aspects: hostile parenting, parental monitoring and parent-child cohesion. Only young people whose parents had a negative or hostile parenting style were found to have significantly high odds of drinking to intoxication or drug use. The odds increased by a factor of about 1.1 for every point increase in the hostile parenting scale. [end]
Revenue Could Be Used to Treat Drug Addictions VANCOUVER -- Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell says marijuana sales should be taxed and the revenue used to fund treatment for the effects of more serious drugs. Campbell made the suggestion Saturday in a speech to the annual meeting of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. "Taxes levied on marijuana sales could add to the resources for treatment. Remember, the B.C. marijuana trade is estimated at $6 billion annually -- larger than construction or forestry," Campbell said. [continues 110 words]
The Police "Green Team" Busted A Heavily Fortified House Tuesday Morning. Both the front and back doors of a house in the 800 block of Applewood Drive in the southeast were nailed shut with two-by-fours from the inside. No one was home. "It was locked up tighter than most," said Det. Chris Fileccia, who oversees the Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigation Team. Police also discovered a crude warning system -- empty beer cans strung together. The 320 pot plants seized would be worth $450,000 on the street, police said. A Crime Stopper's tip led to the house. Police said the grow op may have been in progress for at least a year. To mask the odour, a venting system had been installed on the home's roof. [end]
WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation has soared, and this year's harvest could be twice as large as last year's near-record crop unless eradication efforts are stepped up immediately, a U.S. State Department official said Thursday. The heroin business is "almost definitely" filling the coffers of the Taliban and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, another Afghan extremist group linked to Osama bin Laden, and "possibly" enriching al-Qaeda fighters as well, said Robert Charles, assistant secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. [continues 80 words]
Drug-sniffing dogs won't be spot-checking Calgary schools any time soon, the public board says. A suggestion by Learning Minister Lyle Oberg to consider funding police dogs to regularly search for illegal drugs in schools, as a St. Albert school and RCMP detachment are doing, is not being considered in Calgary. "We would need just cause to use the K-9 service to have belief that a student had an illegal substance in their possession or in their locker," said Calgary Board of Education spokesman Graham White, adding the board has its own search procedures and the large public high schools would be hard to search on a regular basis. "We haven't considered it and it's not practical for us." [end]
1908 The new Opium and Narcotic Act creates the framework for prohibiting illicit drug use in Canada. 1922 Social reformer Emily Murphy's book The Black Candle sounds an alarm about drug addiction in Canada. One chapter is devoted to "Marahuana: A New Menace." 1923 The addition of "Cannabis Indica" to the federal schedule of prohibited drugs makes marijuana illegal in Canada. 1932 Marijuana cigarettes are seized by police for the first time. 1938 Reflecting "reefer madness" scare, Toronto Daily Star runs story from U.S. headlined, Marijuana Smokers Seized With Sudden Craze to Kill. [continues 342 words]
VANCOUVER -- British Columbia marijuana is financing guns being used by Afghan rebels, the province's top cop said Friday. "We have just lost a soldier in Afghanistan," B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman said in a speech Friday to the Vancouver Board of Trade. "When we first arrived in Afghanistan, the weapons that were shipped to (rebel) soldiers in Afghanistan, a lot of it could be traced to the marijuana drug trade in British Columbia." Weapons used in Afghanistan against Canadian soldiers were tracked and the trail led back to the sale of B.C. marijuana, he said. [continues 371 words]
SHAWNIGAN LAKE -- Police dismantled a marijuana-growing operation about two weeks ago in a Shawnigan Lake home owned by David Basi, the former assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins at the centre of B.C.'s latest political scandal. The drug raid, at 3260 Shawnigan Lake Road, happened over the Christmas holidays. It was around the same time police raided Mr. Basi's office in the legislature as part of a 20-month investigation into organized crime, commercial crime and drugs. [continues 440 words]
Eric Young has a medical exemption allowing him to legally smoke marijuana. But that didn't impress some of his neighbours in an apartment run by the Capital Region Housing Corp. They complained that Young's marijuana smoke permeated the hallways, seeped into other suites and even worsened existing health problems of other tenants. The corporation, run by the Capital Regional District, evicted Young and his wife on the basis that the marijuana smoke posed a "nuisance" to other tenants. Young appealed, but an arbitrator upheld the corporation's decision. Young then took his case to the courts. This week the B.C. Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether a tenant can be evicted for exercising his legal right to smoke pot. [continues 111 words]