Dear friends, It has long been argued that the most effective harm reduction measure is ending the costly and ineffective "War on Drugs." Because of the federal government's unflagging support of drug prohibition: . substance use is stigmatized, and users continue to face arrest; . needle-exchange is under-funded or otherwise blocked; . the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst substance users continues to expand; . substance use education and/or treatment is largely abstinence-based or unavailable; . research into approaches toward harm reduction is stymied. [continues 445 words]
The Government of Canada is looking for a new pusher. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75 million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana is up for renewal at the end of September and, like it does with any public project, the government will be soliciting firms and individuals to bid on the marijuana contract. The government's current supplier--Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant Systems Inc, which grows its marijuana 360 metres down a copper and zinc mine's shaft in Flin Flon, MB--will likely bid on the contract, and could be selected again, although Canadians for Safe Access, a BC-based medicinal marijuana advocacy group, is encouraging the government to get its pot from a variety of different growers to offer users more selection. [continues 86 words]
People who want to grow pot for the federal government may soon get the chance. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75-million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana, Prairie Plant Systems, appears to be winding down and the department is preparing to seek proposals from all potential suppliers. "Public Works and Government Services Canada continues to negotiate with Prairie Plant Systems to ensure an uninterrupted supply of marijuana for research and for authorized users while a (request for proposal) process is carried out to identify a long-term supplier," said Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Saindon. [continues 224 words]
Health Canada Eager to Ensure Supply WINNIPEG - People who want to grow pot for the federal government may soon get the chance. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75-million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana, Prairie Plant Systems, appears to be winding down and the department is preparing to seek proposals from all potential suppliers. "Public Works and Government Services Canada continues to negotiate with Prairie Plant Systems to ensure an uninterrupted supply of marijuana for research and for authorized users while a (request for proposal) process is carried out to identify a long-term supplier," said Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Saindon. [continues 175 words]
WINNIPEG -- People who want to grow pot for the federal government may soon get the chance. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75-million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana, Prairie Plant Systems, appears to be winding down and the department is preparing to seek proposals from all potential suppliers. "Public Works and Government Services Canada continues to negotiate with Prairie Plant Systems to ensure an uninterrupted supply of marijuana for research and for authorized users while a (request for proposal) process is carried out to identify a long-term supplier," said Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Saindon. [continues 324 words]
Medicinal Users Want Variety WINNIPEG -- People who want to grow pot for the federal government may soon get the chance. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75-million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana, Prairie Plant Systems, appears to be winding down and the department is preparing to seek proposals from all potential suppliers. As it does for a wide range of contracts -- from building maintenance to military supplies -- the government will invite interested companies and individuals to submit bids for a pot-growing contract. It will then try to choose the one offering top quality and value for taxpayers. [continues 133 words]
Apply to Health Canada WINNIPEG -- People who want to grow pot for the federal government may soon get the chance. Health Canada's five-year, $5.75-million contract with its current supplier of medicinal marijuana, Prairie Plant Systems, appears to be winding down and the department is preparing to seek proposals from all potential suppliers. "Public Works and Government Services Canada continues to negotiate with Prairie Plant Systems to ensure an uninterrupted supply of marijuana for research and for authorized users while a (request for proposal) process is carried out to identify a long-term supplier," said Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Saindon. [continues 321 words]
It took two years for Victoria's city council to set up a meeting with Health Canada about medical marijuana, but it would seem the federal agency balked when the city said the meeting had to be open to the public. The public meeting was scheduled for the end of January before it was cancelled. "Due to the fact that the meeting was going to be public, that was an issue," says mayor Alan Lowe. Apparently, there were "certain proponents" the agency didn't want at the meeting, as it is currently fighting those individuals in court cases. [continues 309 words]
DrugSense www.DrugSense.org and its major projects, the Media Awareness Project www.mapinc.org and Drug Policy Central www.drugpolicycentral.com, were well represented at The 2005 International Drug Policy Reform Conference http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/dpa2005/ held November 10th through 12th at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach, California. Philippe Lucas, Director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society http://thevics.com and Canadians for Safe Access http://safeaccess.ca, both out of Victoria, British Columbia, moderated a panel titled, "O Cannabis: Cutting-Edge Research in Canada" [continues 566 words]
SAANICH - Whenever police bust grow ops, they give a dollar estimate of the amount they seized - street estimates that are often met with skepticism on the street. So last week when Saanich police announced they seized 11 kilograms of pot and equated that to 55,000 joints, enough to last a single user 75 years, Saanich News approached a pot-smoking expert. That is ridiculous," said Philippe Lucas, head of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society and Canadians for Safe Access, societies which supply medicinal marijuana to those with a doctor's recommendation. [continues 229 words]
The controversial Marijuana Decriminalization Bill has already died twice on the Order Paper. It's up before the House Justice Committee this fall, but lobbyists say there's little support for the bill, on either side of the decriminalization debate. The highly-controversial Marijuana Decriminalization Bill C-17 has remained in suspended animation since its reintroduction last fall, despite meriting a specific mention in Prime Minister Paul Martin's most recent Speech from the Throne, but lobbyists on either side of the debate say the bill is seriously flawed, is a "half-baked measure" and should be killed. [continues 3570 words]
Cindy Reardon lives with constant pain in her legs. The Toronto resident says she would be bedridden with a debilitating nerve condition, if it weren't for the only thing that gives her relief: medical marijuana. Reardon is one of about 800 Canadians licensed by the federal government to buy pot through a four-year-old Health Canada experiment in growing medical marijuana. But Reardon says the stuff that Ottawa sends her is powdery and sub-standard. "It's not potent enough," says Reardon. "Generally cannabis works for me -- this does not." [continues 591 words]
Head-Shop Owner Has Built A Retail Empire Dominic Cramer is running late. But when you preside over a growing retail empire rooted in marijuana, being time-challenged comes with the turf. Make no mistake, though, Cramer is no ordinary pothead. The self-described entrepreneur, activist and philanthropist makes a living from the retail business of marijuana-related products, with four outlets and a fifth, an organic fair-trade coffee shop, opening in June in downtown Toronto. He's also a tireless crusader for the cannabis cause, Ontario director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), active with Canadians For Safe Access and co-founder of the Toronto Compassion Centre, which supplies marijuana for medicinal purposes to those with a doctor's prescription. [continues 883 words]
Canada yesterday become the first country to legalize a medicinal spray form of marijuana, to treat pain in the country's 25,000 multiple-sclerosis sufferers. Health Canada said the pain of MS patients was not met by current prescription and over-the-counter medicines, so approval of the new marijuana drug was expedited. The spray Sativex contains THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. It is to be taken every four hours in a spritz into the mouth, five times a day. [continues 212 words]
A group representing medical users of marijuana has pulled negative comments from its website after receiving a cease-and-desist notice from the company Ottawa hired to grow the pot. "On the advice of our counsel, we have temporarily removed the open letter of concern," Phillipe Lucas of Canadians for Safe Access said in an interview yesterday. "But we certainly stand by the concerns that are cited." The open letter, which was posted on the group's website in January, listed criticisms of the quality, ingredients and health standards of the marijuana that has been grown by Prairie Plant Systems at its underground facility in Flin Flon. [continues 276 words]
Three Decades After LeDain, A New Survey Confirms That The 'War' On Marijuana Is Unwinnable 1. The use of marijuana is increasing in popularity among all age groups of the population, and particularly among the young; 2. This increase indicates that the attempt to suppress, or even to control, its use is failing and will continue to fail -- that people are not deterred by the criminal law prohibition against its use. - -- From the LeDain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Canada, 1972 [continues 781 words]
Big Pharma Budding into Medical Pot Plan With Pill for the Ill The med grass community is fuming. Not over the Libs' lousy pot legislation, but over Health Canada's sneaky new regs requiring them to get their official pot at pharmacies. At first glance, doling out Prairie Plant Systems' stockpiled "dirtweed" through drug stores seems like a wonderful idea. But many users are worried that the plan is intended to grease the way for Big Pharma to monopolize the med-grass supply, thus ending licensed users' right to grow their own safe, cheap, effective stash, and threatening compassion clubs with police crackdowns. [continues 1116 words]
Researcher Hopes Crackdowns Signal That the End of Cannabis Prohibition Is Nigh "I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." - - Martin Luther King For several months, Da Kine on Commercial Drive has been challenging prohibition by openly selling cannabis. Following a series of high-profile national news stories about the cafe, neighbours have felt compelled to defend the establishment, saying there are now fewer dealers on the street corners, and fewer pot smokers in the nearby park. But that did not stop Vancouver police from raiding the cafe on Thursday evening and arresting six people for selling pot. [continues 556 words]
Re: Dosanjh should do the decent thing, Aug. 16. Health Canada has knowingly chosen to ignore the Ontario Court of Appeal decision that would allow medical-marijuana users to have an alternative supply of cannabis to the poor-quality, potentially dangerous Prairie Plant Systems product. Although the federal PPS-grown cannabis has been returned by nearly a third of users who have tried it due to its incredibly poor quality, Health Canada continues to support its indefensible near-monopoly on cannabis production and research by restricting almost all licensed growers other than PPS to supplying marijuana to only one licensed user. [continues 259 words]
THE federal government, it appears, can't manage the growth and distribution of pot - even though it controls all key respects of the activity. Ottawa decides what is legal in the marijuana business and what is not. In 2000, Health Canada decided to give a five-year, $5.5 million contract to Prairie Plant Systems to grow pot in an abandoned Flin Flon Manitoba mine and supply it to people who need the drug for approved medical purposes. The company's first batch did not exactly get rave reviews. Nearly a third of those who got the government dope returned it. It was ugly, bad tasting, not strong enough and cost way too much. "High school students in a cupboard could grow a product that is better and safer," Philippe Lucas, director of Canadians for Safe Access, told Canadian Press. [continues 494 words]
