Victorians would be free to smoke and grow marijuana if a push by the Sex Party to legalise the drug is successful. On Wednesday, Sex Party MP Fiona Patten will introduce a motion to the upper house calling on the government to immediately remove criminal sanctions for the possession, use and cultivation of marijuana for personal use by people 18 and older. The motion will also urge the government to allow the drug to be grown by farmers, which would create an additional revenue source through taxation. [continues 268 words]
D.C. Tenants Face Eviction As 'Drug Nuisances' Even When No One Is Charged With a Crime For eight years, Rajuawn Middleton, an assistant at a major downtown law firm, lived in a four-bedroom red-brick home she rented on a quiet tree-lined street in Northeast Washington - until she was forced out over a few cigarettes containing a "green leafy substance." In March 2014, police arrested her adult son on charges of possessing a handgun outside a nightclub. He had not lived with Middleton for years, but two weeks later, D.C. police looking for more guns raided her home. [continues 3063 words]
Philpott Says Effects of Respect for Communities Act - Introduced in 2015 - Being Monitored, Leaves Door Open to Changes If Needed Canada's Health Minister says Ottawa has no plans to repeal Conservative government legislation that harm-reduction advocates say makes opening new supervised-consumption sites unduly onerous - if not impossible. British Columbia's Health Minister, provincial health officer and others say the Respect for Communities Act puts unnecessary obstacles in the way of a proven health intervention. Overdose deaths are at a record high in B.C., having surpassed 433 as of July 31 - a 74 per-cent increase over the same period last year. [continues 552 words]
Advocates Say Clean Paraphernalia for Inmates Will Curb Blood-Borne Illness Rates in Prison, but Correctional Staff Say They're Unsafe The availability of illicit drugs in B.C. prisons underscores the need for needle exchanges to curb the transmission of blood-borne illnesses behind bars, civil liberties advocates say, but correctional staff are strongly opposed to the idea, arguing that the increased availability of clean needles could do more harm than good. Marijuana is the most commonly seized intoxicant from federal prisons in British Columbia, with 225 seizures from eight sites between January, 2010, and June of this year, according to records obtained by The Globe and Mail under freedom of information legislation. [continues 582 words]
'Epidemic' of drugs forces judge to acquit jail guard Instead of hard time, inmates are doing high time in prisons that sound more like drug dens than detention centres. An Ontario judge was recently forced to acquit a jail guard and an inmate on drug trafficking charges because the "epidemic" of illicit substances in the jail left a reasonable doubt about whether the pair were responsible for the pot and hash oil discovered during a search. Drugs are so common at London's Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), said Ontario Court of Justice John Skowronski, that a surveillance video inside the jail showed a "veritable conga line" of inmates apparently waiting their turn to buy what was being sold in the showers outside of camera range. [continues 613 words]
'Epidemic' Of Drugs Forces Judge to Acquit Jail Guard LONDON - Instead of hard time, inmates are doing high time in prisons that sound more like drug dens than detention centres. An Ontario judge was recently forced to acquit a jail guard and an inmate on drug trafficking charges because the "epidemic" of illicit substances in the jail left a reasonable doubt about whether the pair were responsible for the pot and hash oil discovered during a search. Drugs are so common at London's Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), said Ontario Court of Justice John Skowronski, that a surveillance video inside the jail showed a "veritable conga line" of inmates apparently waiting their turn to buy what was being sold in the showers outside of camera range. [continues 613 words]
You would be forgiven for not recognizing the nondescript brick warehouse in Phoenix's Grand Avenue industrial district as the site of a high-tech agricultural facility. But as soon as you step inside, the smell of hundreds of marijuana plants is overwhelming. As you make your way through the small rooms that line the main hallway, you can hear the whoosh of ventilation fans and the gentle hum of huge artificial lights suspended above a lush green canopy of leaves. Reggae, old-school hip-hop, and pop-punk blare from a portable speaker as a crew of 30 or so workers trim, water, and inspect the all-female crop of cannabis plants casually known as "the ladies." [continues 3709 words]
Youth representative says B.C. failed to provide necessary treatment B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth says the suspected overdose death last weekend of a Coquitlam teenager was a "tragedy that could have been prevented." Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said her office worked with 16-year-old Gwynevere Staddon's family to try and find her treatment, and said her father did everything possible to properly navigate the system and ask for help. She called the family's case "a heartbreaking nightmare" that was completely preventable. [continues 1028 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana activist Ed Forchion gave a famous Los Angeles graffiti artist $300 cash, an ounce of weed and an expensive bong to paint a political statement on the side of his "Weedmobile" in 2008. The provocative portrait showed NJ Weedman blowing smoke into Uncle Sam's face. The van would later become a rolling billboard for Forchion's Trenton restaurant and pot temple, capturing in cartoonishly large candor his pro-marijuana views and disdain for New Jersey's "hypocritical" drug laws. [continues 930 words]
Kate Karassev Began an Online Poll Last Week, and Will Present It to Council A Sooke mom is afraid of a mass arrival of medical marijuana dispensaries in town and wants tougher action by district officials. Kate Karassev began an online poll Thursday urging city council to regulate the medical marijuana industry in Sooke. The poll can be found here. Sooke currently has three dispensaries. The first one opened its doors in April. The City of Victoria is moving forward to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries that have popped up on city streets, in an attempt to control the booming sector. [continues 227 words]
It's a rare occurrence for Cochrane park users to stumble across strewn syringes and hypodermic needles in a public area. Needless to say, it created concern for soccer player Lucy Lovelock when she came across a scattered pile of such paraphernalia in the soccer field parking lot in community of GlenEagles the evening of Aug. 2. "I have no issues with what people do in their private lives, but it concerns me to find this in a public area used by kids all the time," said the mother of two, who contacted Cochrane Fire Services to dispose of the mess. [continues 125 words]
TRENTON - Facing an 11-count indictment on drug charges, Ed Forchion, aka NJ Weedman, is not breaking a sweat. In fact, the pro-marijuana activist has challenged acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri to take the lead on the case. "I'm ready for it," Forchion said Tuesday shortly after learning of the indictment. "I really hope that Prosecutor Onofri presents this case and takes this ass whooping himself." Onofri announced Tuesday in a press release that a grand jury returned the indictment charging the 52-year-old with numerous drug offenses stemming from a raid on April 27 at his restaurant and pot temple directly across from City Hall on East State Street. [continues 630 words]
Police Lack Test to Identify Those Too High to Drive There are certain telltale signs that a person is stoned: bloodshot eyes, forgetfulness, ravenous late-night cravings. But the November ballot measure that would legalize recreational pot in California says nothing about how police should detect tokers who climb behind the wheel. There's no marijuana equivalent to the famed bloodalcohol content tests - taken by breath, blood or urine - that have planted .08 into the American consciousness. It's not a pressing concern for marijuana advocates, even as entrepreneurs try to develop a better sobriety test for dope smokers. But it's a big quandary for California law enforcement officers, who are facing a question that has vexed several other states where recreational pot is legal. [continues 1255 words]
Unsanctioned Tent a Response to Overdoses, Mayor's Rebuff Only hours before the B.C. government announced a new high-level task force to curb skyrocketing overdose deaths, a small ragtag group took action themselves in one of the Lower Mainland's injection-drug hot spots. They set up a tent on the side of 135A Street in Surrey's Whalley neighbourhood. Before 9 a.m., the group had unfolded plastic tables, separated sterile drug paraphernalia into cardboard bowls and clipped Naloxone overdose response kits to their belts. [continues 286 words]
At the time of this letter, 58% of people voted "no" on "Are you OK with three safe injection sites being allowed to operate in Toronto?" (July 15). I personally would rather see that than needles found in parks and playgrounds and the spread of intravenous disease caused by shared needles. Drug users with hep C and HIV have sex with our sons and daughters. Though abstinence may be ideal in prevention, it is not always likely. The program in B.C. also cut down on overdoses. [continues 96 words]
Dispensary Making Cannabis 'Cool and Interesting' To Vulnerable Youth, Council Told A Nanaimo musician is seeing red over the appearance of a pot-themed parody of the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham in a local cannabis dispensary's window display. Shauna McAllister recently told Nanaimo city council about her concerns over the appearance of Green Buds and Hash and Harry Pothead and the Marijuana Stone at Island Releaf's storefront window. McAllister, a.k.a. alt recording artist Jupiter Jill, said she was shocked to see what initially appeared to be a Dr. Seuss book while walking by the shop at 115 Chapel St. [continues 602 words]
Regarding the article Bat-wielding ' hero' slammed by critics (July 13). I don't agree with Dave McCallum threatening two intravenous drug users with a baseball bat, but I sympathize with him. Living in the core, I see drug paraphernalia littering the sidewalks. I witness people cooking drugs in Market Lane. Needles are discarded in Ivey and Harris parks. Isn't it better for everyone that this activity happen at a safe injection site rather than in our streets? Marsha Lemon London [end]
Toronto City Council voted 36-3 on Thursday in favour of setting up three supervised injection sites for drug users. That in itself was remarkable, an overwhelming mandate for a program that often runs into heavy community and political opposition. What was even more remarkable was how it happened. In a city with a recent history of divisive quarrels, in which evidence is the first casualty, this was a civilized, deliberate, rational debate that ended with a sensible, fact-based decision. In Toronto, that is something worth applauding. [continues 609 words]
CLARIN, Bohol-Alma Arcales Sabejon, 42, tried to flee her assailants, wounded in the initial volley of fire. Desperate, she pleaded for help to bus passengers who could just watch as the gunmen ran after her and finished her off with a shot in the head. Ariel Pitong Unay was in his hotel room when policemen came knocking at 4:30 a.m. Minutes later, he lay dead in the bed with multiple gunshot wounds. Theirs is the latest in a string of killings being attributed to the heightened war on drugs launched by the Duterte administration. [continues 551 words]
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that drugs seized from a man charged in a narcotics case could not be used as evidence, because agents had not obtained a warrant for a covert cellphone tracking device that led them to his Washington Heights apartment, where the drugs were found. The portable device, known as a cell-site simulator and often referred to as a Stingray, has been used widely by federal and local law enforcement officials around the country, including in New York, to solve crimes and locate missing people. [continues 521 words]