Medical Marijuana OK'd In Oil, Brownies Patients can take their medical marijuana in oils, cookies and teas after B.C.'s highest court ruled that federal health laws limiting use to dried leaves are unconstitutional. The B.C. Court of Appeal released its 2-1 ruling on Thursday, upholding a lower court decision in the case of Victoria resident Owen Smith, who was charged in 2009 with possession for trafficking of THC, marijuana's active compound. Smith, arrested while baking cookies for the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada, was also charged with possession of dried marijuana. [continues 541 words]
An overflow crowd of voters quizzed the four major candidates vying for the federal seat representing Victoria on Wednesday night. People filled every chair in the James Bay New Horizons auditorium. Others stood around the room or sat on the floor while those turned away for lack of space huddled around open windows and listened from the lawn. At the meeting were Donald Galloway of the Green Party, Dale Gann of the Conservatives, Murray Rankin of the NDP and Paul Summerville of the Liberals. [continues 556 words]
Almost 500 motorists passing through Saanich in the last few weeks have been asked to provide breath and saliva samples to test for drug and alcohol levels. Doug Beirness, who is not a police officer, has been asking motorists to voluntarily provide the samples for a survey commissioned by the B.C. Superintendent of Motor Vehicles. If they refuse, they're free to go. But 85 per cent agreed to participate, a response Beirness calls amazing. "If we find someone who's had too much to drink, we put them in a cab and send them home," Beirness said. [continues 444 words]
B.C.'S chief medical health officer is calling on the federal government to evaluate its marijuana laws, including penalties, regulation and taxation, as a way to improve community health and safety in Canada. Dr. Perry Kendall and his Nova Scotia counterpart, Dr. Robert Strang, hope the Canadian government will reconsider elements of the omnibus crime bill, particularly sections that call for mandatory minimum sentences for those running afoul of drug laws. Kendall and Strang have co-written a paper on improving public health and safety through evidence based policies on illicit drugs, published today in Open Medicine, an international peer-reviewed journal. [continues 345 words]
MS Sufferer, Partner Suing RCMP Over Licensed Medical Marijuana Grow-Op Bust A Sooke couple has launched a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the RCMP, the B.C. solicitorgeneral and Health Canada, alleging a medical marijuana grow-op licensed by Health Canada was twice raided without a warrant by Sooke RCMP. Carlos (Cam) Cavaco, 49, a former Mountie, is now severely debilitated by progressive multiple sclerosis. His partner, 47-year-old Marnie O'Neil, is his sole caregiver and suffers from fibromyalgia, causing her long-term pain throughout her body. [continues 513 words]
Drug users in Greater Victoria are moving away from injecting cocaine and toward smoking crack cocaine, a health survey has found. Seventy-four per cent of participants in the I-Track 2009 survey reported injecting cocaine at least once in a six-month period -- down from 93 per cent in 2003 and 90 per cent in 2005. The survey, which monitors trends and prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C among drug users in the capital, examined the habits of 256 intravenous drug users. Its results are used by Vancouver Island Health Authority and other service providers when planning harm reduction and related programs. [continues 301 words]
Marijuana grown on Vancouver Island could soon be offering pain relief and other benefits to medical patients across Canada. Horticulturist Eric Nash and his partner Wendy Little operate Island Harvest in the Cowichan Valley, which they say is Canada's first and only production facility of certified organic medical marijuana. Their operation is licensed and approved by Health Canada, and they have been supplying two patients with marijuana who are registered with the Health Canada program authorizing use of the drug for certain medical conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord disease and cancer. [continues 551 words]
Cowichan Growers Apply for Contract to Be Major Supplier of Medical Marijuana Marijuana grown on Vancouver Island could soon be offering pain relief and other benefits to medical patients across Canada. Horticulturist Eric Nash and his partner Wendy Little operate Island Harvest in the Cowichan Valley, which they say is Canada's first and only production facility of certified organic medical marijuana. Their operation is licensed and approved by Health Canada, and they have been supplying two patients with marijuana who are registered with the Health Canada program authorizing use of the drug for certain medical conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord disease and cancer. [continues 550 words]
A well-known Victoria pot advocate learned yesterday that someone was hitting up the contacts in his e-mail directory and scamming them for cash. An e-mail that looked like it came from Ted Smith, organizer of weekly marijuana "smoke-ins" around the city, was sent early yesterday to thousands of Smith's contacts, begging for cash to get him out of a sticky situation overseas. "I'm pretty upset," said Smith, a principal of International Hempology 101 Society, yesterday. "This is causing us all sorts of headaches, that's for sure." [continues 509 words]
Probation Terms Can't Be Enforced If Addicts Lack Treatment, Court Says The B.C. Court of Appeal is urging the provincial government to address critical shortages of resources for mentally ill offenders, especially those with addictions, after there was no medical help available for an alcoholic homeless man convicted in a string of offences earlier this year. According to a court decision made public yesterday, Jonah Jae Donato, 27, committed six offences in Victoria between Dec. 5, 2006, and Jan. 18, 2007, including spraying graffiti on downtown buildings and robbing an adult video store of $20. [continues 495 words]
Regulation Of Marijuana, Ecstasy Would Reduce Youth Death Toll, He Says Marijuana and ecstasy pose a serious health threat to youth, but by making these drugs legal we'd be better able to regulate and control their use, a UVic researcher said yesterday. "We're doing a much better job of regulating tobacco than we are the illegal drugs," Dr. Tim Stockwell, a UVic psychology professor and director with the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., said in an interview. [continues 382 words]
Prohibition Simply Not Working, Speaker Tells Conference At UVic A retired career cop speaking in favour of the legalization of drugs? You've got to be kidding. But Hunter McDonald, 63, is dead serious about his stance, so much so that he gave a speech at the eighth annual cannabis convention at UVic yesterday. "It's my first talk so I'm really quite nervous," said McDonald outside the David Lam Auditorium before taking the podium. "I'm not an advocate of drug use, but to promote legalization," McDonald said. [continues 486 words]
They Claim They're Being Framed, But A Legal Glitch Might Be What Saves Them An American couple arrested in Zeballos in January 2006 on warrants from their home county in Colorado are immersed in a legal quagmire as they fight extradition charges and pursue refugee status in Canada. They spent seven months in jail on immigration holds but they're out now, and for that at least, 36-year-old Lori Romero and Michael Welch, 33, are thankful. That freedom came at a price -- the cost of the both of them being fitted with electronic ankle monitors was $16,000. They borrowed the money from family in the U.S. [continues 684 words]
Victoria's downtown is crawling with tourists, business folk and shoppers. What you don't see are many police officers. While it would be great to think that everything is orderly downtown, anybody can see we have a problem with panhandlers, drug dealing and the homeless. If people are afraid to go downtown, our local economy will surely tank. On a weekday afternoon, police say there could be two Victoria officers downtown on foot, two to six on bicycles and two to six on motorcycles. [continues 657 words]
Two islanders charged after weekend raid that left one Mountie with a broken leg Sandra Mcculloch, Times Colonist Published: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 You might smoke marijuana there and not raise an eyebrow, but Saltspring Island folks get downright cranky when it comes to people dealing cocaine. The island's rumour mill is buzzing with word that two born-and-bred island men were arrested on the weekend and charged with cocaine trafficking. One of them is also accused of beating up a police officer and breaking one of his legs. [continues 374 words]
Mounties Suspect Large Ring Behind Effort; Use Technology And Manpower To Ferret Out Drugs RCMP suspect organized crime played a role in the attempted importation of Mexican marijuana worth $6.5 million. "Behind every large importation of drugs there's a distribution network and you're talking about different groups involved in these things," said Insp. Paul Nadeau at a Friday press conference beside the MV Bakur, moored at CFB Esquimalt. The 47-metre former fishboat had been towed to Esquimalt following its seizure early Monday by RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency officials in Ucluelet. Its five male crew were arrested on charges of drug smuggling. [continues 608 words]
Five men charged with importing drugs made a brief appearance in Victoria provincial court Wednesday only to have their bail hearing put off until next week. That happened while officials at CFB Esquimalt were faced with the smelly task of unloading rotten fish from the hold of a former tuna boat to see what, if anything, was stashed beneath it. The men were arrested early Monday in Ucluelet as the 47-metre vessel, the MV Bakur, tied up. Mounties had been tracking the vessel since it left Halifax in December and travelled through the Panama Canal bound for the West Coast. [continues 484 words]
Pilot Arrested, Jailed In Washington State After Carrying Out Suspected Marijuana Drop The former owner of a defunct Campbell River airline is scheduled to appear in a Spokane, Wash., court today on charges of possession of ecstasy and 100 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute. The value of the drugs is $2 million US and the Cessna 185, $300,000. All have been seized by police. Kevin Haughton, 41, of Courtenay, has been held in the Spokane County jail since his arrest Wednesday on the Colville Indian Reservation. [continues 346 words]
Suspect Faces Extradition Hearing On Drug Charge A 35-year-old Victoria man was arrested and his residence searched Thursday by RCMP officers acting on behest of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Douglas James Sharples is awaiting an extradition hearing to the U.S. on a charge of importing crystal meth. He is expected to appear in Victoria provincial court today for a first appearance and scheduling of a bail hearing. The charge follows a year-long, covert investigation involving the Internet, undercover operators, members of the RCMP's Island district drug section, Victoria police and the DEA, based in Newark, New Jersey. [continues 257 words]
Sergeant Claims 'Big Dent' In Downtown Trade With 20 Arrests, But Others Skeptical Of Cleanup In a bid to clear downtown Victoria of street-level drug dealers, police announced Wednesday the arrest of 20 people and that warrants have been issued for 17 more. The crackdown is part of Operation Combined Effort where police relied partly on downtown business people to target drug dealers. Two dozen police officers were part of the four-week undercover operation, Victoria police said. But a Victoria defence lawyer suggests that any effects of the cleanup will be short-lived because the root of the problem is drug addiction. "These people are without exception drug addicts themselves," said Mike Mulligan. [continues 401 words]
Mayor, Health Honcho Sold On Europe's Mainstreet Drug Injection Centres It wasn't the usual slide show of European tourist attractions, but a few dozen people turned out anyway on Thursday to see images of stark tiled rooms used by drug addicts in Bern, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany to shoot up, inhale and puff their poison. Giving the commentary were Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe and Dr. Richard Stanwick of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, who returned last week from a five-day trip checking out supervised injection sites in Europe. [continues 470 words]
Forewarned Is Forearmed. That was the motivation for close to 200 people to attend a forum at Oak Bay high school on the dangers of crystal meth, a powerful and highly addictive street drug. Some were curious, like grandmother Barbara Lewis of North Saanich. "I have a daughter-in-law that told me quite a bit about it, how accessible it is and cheap -- it upsets me," said Lewis, a former corrections employee. "I was reading that some of the provinces are enacting legislation to make it more difficult to get and that's fine by me." [continues 361 words]
Victoria Clued In About Addictive Scourge VICTORIA -- Close to 200 people attended a forum last night organized by The Province on the dangers of crystal meth, a powerful and highly addictive street drug. Some were curious, like grandmother Barbara Lewis of North Saanich. "I have a daughter-in-law that told me quite a bit about it, how accessible it is and cheap -- it upsets me," said Lewis, a former corrections employee. "I was reading that some of the provinces are enacting legislation to make it more difficult to get and that's fine by me." [continues 220 words]
The seizure by Mounties of marijuana plants from an East Sooke home and outbuilding last week means 390 ill people will now have to rely on the black market for their supply, said Phillippe Lucas, president of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. On Thursday, West Shore RCMP officers acting on a search warrant raided a home and outbuilding in the 5000-block of Mount Matheson Road. They arrested two men, one of whom was a paid caretaker and the other a friend who stopped by, said Lucas. The two men face charges of growing and trafficking in marijuana. Their names have not been released. [continues 353 words]
Capital Region housing can evict man whose medical marijuana smoke has neighbours kicking up a stink, and moving out A Saanich man with a medical prescription to smoke marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis symptoms faces eviction from a subsidized housing complex after losing a case in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday. Eric Young and his wife Marlene live in a two-bedroom unit in Beechwood Park, managed by the Capital Region Housing Corporation. Young declined to comment. The 84-page decision of Justice Malcolm Macaulay on the Youngs' two petitions to B.C. Supreme Court was released Monday. [continues 350 words]
Four men and a woman convicted of trafficking and conspiring to traffic in cocaine should go to jail for six to nine years, a prosecutor recommended Tuesday. Neil Grandmaison, Angela Araujo, Victor Camara, Mikel Oulton and Robert Jenkins were found guilty in Victoria provincial court in March of the conspiracy counts, trafficking in cocaine, and other charges in a case that has been before the courts for nearly eight years. In the mid-'90s, about 40 police participated in an investigation dubbed "Project Egbert," which focused on drugs being smuggled from South America to the Lower Mainland and the capital region. Officers seized drugs, cash, handguns and vehicles when they raided four homes in Victoria, Burnaby and Vancouver on Oct. 25, 1995. [continues 421 words]
The Victoria lawyer representing a 17-year-old girl facing marijuana possession charges asked a Victoria provincial court judge Thursday to stay the charges on constitutional grounds. Bradley Hickford argued that the federal laws dealing with simple possession of marijuana no longer exist. Hickford represents a Victoria girl who was arrested May 17, 2002, and charged after Saanich police found a joint and roach at her feet when they stopped the car she was riding in. The girl cannot be named under the Young Offenders Act. [continues 414 words]
A drug case that was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2000 and sent back to Victoria provincial court resulted Tuesday in convictions of four men and a woman. Neil Grandmaison along with Angela Aroujo, Victor Camara, Mikel Oulton and Robert Jenkins -- all of the Victoria area -- have been found guilty of conspiring to traffic in cocaine, trafficking in cocaine and other charges. Their trial has been held intermittently since Oct. 1, 2001. On Tuesday, provincial court Judge Ann Ehrcke announced the convictions and gave her reasons for the judgment. [continues 400 words]
A Victoria man who has permission from the federal government to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes says the Capital Region Housing Corporation and Saanich Police Department are blowing smoke in his face. Eric Young is in B.C. Supreme Court chambers asking the court to decide whether he and his wife Marlene can be evicted because he legally smokes pot to treat a serious illness. The Youngs live in an apartment run by the housing corporation. Neighbours have complained about Young's marijuana smoke damaging their quality of life. [continues 290 words]
About 100 people gathered at the Richard Blanshard Building Wednesday evening to hear marijuana activists condemn a police bust at Victoria's compassion club earlier in the day. Ted Smith, who ran for Victoria mayor on a legalize-marijuana platform, used an amplifier to condemn the arrests and told his listeners to show up at today's court appearance for the two men arrested. Smith said the men were arrested at the Cannabis Buyers' Club, 826 Johnson St. For the past seven years the club has supplied marijuana to people suffering from such conditions as HIV-AIDS or Parkinson's disease. [continues 109 words]
A Victoria man who was selling drugs while having a coffee at local pub received a conditional sentence Friday and a tongue-lashing from the judge. David Cooper, 41, pleaded guilty in Victoria provincial court to possession for trafficking in a controlled substance. Crown lawyer Patrick Weir told the court a bartender at the Flying Beagle Pub at 301 Cook St. called police May 23, 2001, after he saw Cooper acting suspiciously -- nursing a coffee for an inordinate amount of time while a stream of people stopped by his table. [continues 200 words]
Judge Cites Accused's Accomplishment, Advocacy In Decision A 32-year-old Victoria man who pleaded guilty to possession of less than three kilograms of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking walked out of Victoria provincial court Friday free of a criminal record. "I feel amazing and greatly relieved," said Philippe Lucas outside court. "This has been a heavy weight on my shoulders for the last 20 months." Lucas received an absolute discharge on a matter that was closely watched by those seeking the decriminalization of marijuana. Lucas is the president of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, an organization that provides marijuana to its members for medical purposes. The society has operated from a commercially zoned site in Oak Bay for 14 months with tacit police approval. [continues 484 words]
"It's really highlighting the stupidity and injustice of the drug war." Ian Hunter on Olympic marijuana scandal. It would appear an outpouring of support by Canadians for embattled Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati has been a mind-expending experience for parliamentarians. Several federal politicians sniffed the wind Thursday and said they would welcome a debate on the subject of decriminalizing marijuana use in the wake Rebagliati's positive test for pot at the Winter Games. The Whistler resident had his gold medal reinstated Thursday by the International Olympic Committee to wide-spread applause in Canada. [continues 451 words]
