OTTAWA - The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show. Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical-marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. [continues 168 words]
* This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n479.html#sec1 (1) Pot Is Called Biggest Cash Crop (2) Drug-Driving Test Fails Public Exam (3) Sobering Vacation (4) Bongs Set For National Ban * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n479.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Column: Drugs: Why We Should Medicalise, Not Criminalise (6) Column: The Other War We Can't Win (7) N.J. Legislature Approves Pilot Needle-Exchange Plan (8) OPED: Who Got Trans Fat In My Water Bong? [continues 299 words]
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]
Legal marijuana users decry federally sanctioned product as weak and pricey The cannabis menu at the Vancouver Island Compassion Society changes daily. On this particular day, clients have a choice of Pochi, Hog, Shishberry, Imposter or Jack Herer. Beneath each name, a brief description of the effects of the variety is provided: strong and heady, reads one; mellow and body buzz, reads another. In addition to supplying medical cannabis buds to about 600 clients on Vancouver Island, the compassion society offers an arrange of cannabis by-products and alternatives to smoking, such as cookies, oral sprays and tinctures, says society director Philippe Lucas. [continues 1196 words]
Legal Marijuana Grow-Op To Continue But Activists Decry Research Cutbacks OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have decided the study of medicinal marijuana is a waste of money, but his government is still interested in selling pot. After gutting a $4-million fund destined to research the therapeutic properties of cannabis, the Conservatives recently extended the contract of Canada's only legal grow-op. As part of the new deal, Prairie Plant Systems Inc. will keep growing marijuana inside an abandoned mine shaft and sell it to the government for at least one more year. [continues 538 words]
A $4 million slash to medical marijuana research funding announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Monday (September 25) led to early celebration among medpot activists. "It was really exciting this morning when the rumour was that the Tories cut the whole program," says Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas with only a small hint of sarcasm. Turns out the Tories aren't stoner stupid. The "cut" represents money that hadn't actually been allocated, just earmarked for research. Any elimination of funding for Health Canada's medpot program would, activists argue, have put the feds in violation of the 2000 Parker court ruling that upheld the right to medical pot and killed possession laws. [continues 283 words]
The Budget Axe The Conservatives were wielding the budget axe yesterday and it came down on medicinal marijuana research and department for the Status of Women. The $1 billion in federal funding cuts were announced at the same time the government reported a $13.2 billion surplus in the last fiscal year. "They never really viewed the work of grassroots women's organizations as real work," said B.C. Coalition of Women's Centres spokeswoman Debra Critchley of the $5 million cut to the Status of Women. "At the end of the day really what it does is facilitate silencing women." [continues 73 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]
Re: Making Canada A Leader In Medical Marijuana, Alan Young, May 3. Although I applaud the recognition of the therapeutic potential of cannabis by "big business," media moguls and law professors are not the only people in Canada currently conducting research on this medicinal herb. Despite remaining unregulated by the federal government, our nation's compassion clubs and societies are involved in a number of medical cannabis studies, including a sociological examination of the patrons of compassion clubs sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). [continues 112 words]
A Toronto weekend reveller pops into a local drugstore to pick up some ecstasy. He's followed by an addict who's there to buy a single-dose, non-reusable syringe for her fix. Both transactions are administered by a pharmacist trained to offer advice on the safest way to use the substances. Nearby, at a "natural herbal products" outlet, pot smokers are lined up for some grown-in-Ontario weed. The sales are all legal, controlled, regulated and taxed -- with profits divided among suppliers, distributors and sellers once a sizeable chunk of cash has been diverted to government coffers for enforcement, management and treatment of drug dependency, and for other social programs. [continues 706 words]
The former chief of the Seattle police, Norm Stamper, was in Calgary lifting weights in a hotel gym on Monday, at the same time as Canada's conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, appeared on television in a live broadcast of his speech to the Canadian Professional Police Association's meeting in Ottawa. Among other things, Harper promised to introduce tougher minimum sentences for drug offences and to drop the Liberals' legislation that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. [continues 418 words]
Victoria's mayor has thrown his support behind local medicinal pot users and called upon Health Canada to conduct an immediate review of how it provides medical marijuana to Canadians. A presentation to council by local compassion clubs last month prompted Alan Lowe to draft a letter to federal Health Minister Tony Clement criticizing public access to the Federal Marijuana Medical Access Regulation program. "Many of these citizens rely on marijuana for the purpose of pain management and have expressed an inability to access the... program," he wrote in the March 20 letter. [continues 392 words]
Fifteen people, a tiny downtown apartment and a man sick from AIDS with anywhere from one to five years to live. This is the heart of the Kelowna Compassion Club-the latest medical marijuana operation to grace B.C.'s map. It's a spin-off of highly successful efforts in Vancouver, Victoria and Nelson to provide safe, accessible cannabis to patients with otherwise debilitating conditions. To say it's a fledgling operation is a bit of an understatement. "It's been a slow grow," said founder Richard Babcock. [continues 676 words]
Victoria's two compassion clubs are operating illegally, that much appears clear. Apparently, the chances of either the Vancouver Island Compassion Society or the Cannabis Buyers Club receiving a legal exemption to provide medical marijuana for their members is slim at this point. "Ultimately Health Canada's position on this is compassion clubs are illegal," organization spokesperson Chris Williams said this week. As for the clubs' continued operation, he added "it's a matter for law enforcement agencies." Essentially, the Victoria police have bigger fish to fry right now, according to Insp. Les Sylven. [continues 613 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]
TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2005/ds05.n428.html#sec1 (1) Governor Set To Push Anti-Marijuana Legislation Again (2) Case Of Killing In Line Of Duty Sent To Jury (3) SAFER Pushing Coors Boycott (4) Clandestine Network Controls Drug Passage * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2005/ds05.n428.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Shows Kids Learn To Weed In Middle School (6) Day-Care Workers Are Also On The Frontline In Drug War (7) Drug Testing Coming To Television's Popular Pro Wrestling Circuit (8) Anti-Smoking Drug May Cut Crystal Meth Craving (9) Court Strengthens Safeguards Against Searches [continues 238 words]
DrugSense (www.drugsense.org), the world leader in online drug policy research and reform, turns ten this year amid a flourish of kudos and awards. Founded in November of 1995 by Director Mark Greer (who was later joined by Webmaster and Senior Tech Support Specialist Matt Elrod), the volunteer-driven organization has rapidly expanded from its origin as an archive for drug policy related media to become a major player in drug policy-related media activism, web hosting, and grassroots organizing. [continues 389 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]
Andre Boisclair Is Top Candidate to Lead the Parti Quebecois Gay politician, Andre Boisclair, remains the frontrunner in the race to lead Quebec's separatist party, Parti Quebecois, despite his recent admission that he used cocaine while serving in the provincial parliament. Parti Quebecois members are scheduled to vote for party leader by telephone Nov. 13 to 15. There are nine candidates. As of mid-September, Boisclair appeared to have twice the support of his nearest rival, Pauline Marois, a former deputy premier who has held several senior cabinet positions. [continues 607 words]
Some people might be shocked at the idea of pregnant women smoking marijuana to deal with nausea. But a U.K.-based medical publication, Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, has taken the idea seriously and published a study by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. The Victoria-based society, which provides medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses, recently completed the study, which examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. The study argues that marijuana is an effective method to deal with nausea and vomiting with pregnant women. [continues 428 words]
Some people might be shocked at the idea of pregnant women smoking marijuana to deal with the nausea that comes with pregnancy. But a UK-based medical publication, Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, has taken the idea seriously and published a study conducted by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society on the topic. The Victoria-based society, which provides medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses, recently completed the study that examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. The study argues that marijuana is an effective method to deal with nausea and vomiting with pregnant women. [continues 440 words]
92% of Pregnant Users Surveyed Report Relief The controversial use of medicinal marijuana as a weapon against pregnancy-induced morning sickness has been given a boost in a B.C. study to be published by a British journal. While women are traditionally told to avoid drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, one researcher from each of the Vancouver Island and B.C. Compassion Societies and the University of B.C. and the University of Victoria looked to see if pregnant therapeutic users of medical marijuana reported relief from their nausea and vomiting. [continues 208 words]
Here's How It Works The legal avenues for growing pot legally in B.C. are more convoluted than a corn maze. People with licenses issued by Health Canada to use marijuana for its medicinal benefits not only deal with municipal bylaws and Health Canada regulations, but they have to surrender their personal information to police so they won't get busted. And all this red tape is driving people with legal permits to obtain their marijuana illegally through Compassion Clubs, said the founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, Philippe Lucas. [continues 227 words]
Philippe Lucas, head of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, will be in at the Western Communities court house tomorrow and Friday for a preliminary trial into a RCMP raid on the compassion society's grow-op in Sooke. Lucas plans to use the case to springboard a constitutional challenge to the right to life and freedom in higher courts over the lack of access to medicinal marijuana in Canada. After the Terry Parker case in January 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered the Canadian government to distribute pot, said Lucas. [continues 53 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]
Supreme Court Rules That Federal Law Supersedes State Legislation Allowing Medical Use WASHINGTON -- Americans who smoke marijuana for medical purposes -- even with a prescription from their doctor -- will risk federal prosecution following a ruling Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision was a major victory for the White House and a setback to the legalized marijuana movement in the U.S., which had succeeded in convincing 10 states to allow the drug to be used by patients suffering from chronic or severe pain. [continues 520 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]
Medical Marijuana Patients Offended By RCMP Drug-Awareness Campaign Medical marijuana patients and some B.C. drug educators are angry the RCMP continues to demonize their medicine and is distributing misleading material that paints the drug as illegal and dangerous. For medical patients suffering from a variety of illnesses, they say, marijuana not only is legal, but also it is exceedingly safe. "How would you like to be using marijuana to counter the nausea of chemotherapy and your kid comes home from school saying the local Mountie says you should be turned in?" fumed Judith Renaud, executive-director of Educators for a Sensible Drug Policy. [continues 841 words]
Will a New Marijuana Mist Become the Aspirin of the Twenty-First Century? Philippe Lucas is apologizing for the quality of his cannabis. He is director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, which dispenses medicinal marijuana from behind an old storefront in Victoria. "This used to be a school of Chinese medicine," he says. "Can you feel the healing vibe?" Not at first. Apart from a comfy, well-worn couch in the waiting area, and a batik with yin-yang dolphins that you brush aside to enter the dispensing office, the place feels like a regular medical clinic. It reflects Lucas's personality: lean, clean-cut, and intense - there's nothing of the spacey stoner about him. If there's a "healing vibe," it emanates from the staff: the receptionist dressed in a fuzzy old sweater welcomes clients with "Hello, beautiful!" and "Can you use a hug?" Then she hugs. [continues 4609 words]
On the face of it, Phillippe Lucas, and Ted Smith, share common cause. They are both passionate in their belief in medical marijuana, to the extent that both have faced criminal prosecution in pursuit of their convictions. Why, then, do they barely talk to each other? Times Colonist staff writer Richard Watts examined the lives and styles of both men and found the two crusaders separated by a yawning philosophical gulf. Ted Smith stopped cutting his hair when he was 15, while Philippe Lucas looks like he just came from the barber. [continues 1718 words]
TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm#sec1 (1) Canada: Poll Shows Pot Use Up, Legalization Favoured (2) U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Marijuana Case (3) Prop. 36 Clients Applaud UCLA Report (4) UK: The Price Of Powder * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm#sec2 Drug Policy (5) The Intoxication Instinct (6) Lawmaker Calls for National Meth Fight (7) Caffeine Withdrawal Is The Real Thing (8) Drug-Suspect List Angers Students [continues 210 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]
Never mind the name. Marijuana will be the order of the day for area residents Nov. 15. International Medical Marijuana Day, being celebrated for a seventh year in the City of Victoria, is a creation of Cannabis Buyer's Club co-founder Ted Smith of Victoria. He is an oft-criminally charged advocate for better access to marijuana within Canada for chronically ill patients, as well as the legalization of pot in general. In previous court decisions, including one of Smith's, judges threw cases out because it could not be proven Health Canada was adhering to its own pledge to supply marijuana to people who qualified for it. Since the government's grower in Flin Flon, Man. has started sending out its supply, the rules have changed, said Smith. [continues 115 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]
VANCOUVER - Justice Minister Irwin Cotler laid an egg by resurrecting the old Liberal government's marijuana decriminalization bill. This legislation will do the opposite of what Mr. Cotler says it will do. It will increase enforcement by bringing in a ticketing regime for small amounts of marijuana akin to the current collection racket run by traffic cops. It will increase policing and jailing costs and the human cost will be staggering. Imagine -- 14 years in prison if you are caught growing more than four plants. That's on par with our murder laws and if that doesn't constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the crime of horticulture, I don't know what does. [continues 766 words]
