Comment: Feds should pump the brakes and rethink its token gesture on safety We're only seven weeks into the new year and already there are three major hurdles on the trucking industry's plate. The legalization of marijuana, the electronic logging devices (ELD) and either the total cancellation or just a fine-tuning of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That's more than enough for the trucking industry to swallow, so let me try to shed a little light on each of the three. [continues 647 words]
Come as city officials prepare to discuss future of storefronts Police are cracking down on illegal storefront pot shops across Hamilton even as dispensary advocates prepare for "roundtable" discussions with city officials about their future. Operators of five MMJ and Pacifico medical marijuana dispensaries - spread across the lower city and on the Mountain - told The Spectator they were raided by police late last week. Britney Guerra, a vocal dispensary advocate and former owner, said she has heard from four other raided shops - one as recently as Monday - but none of those operators were willing to speak to The Spectator. [continues 377 words]
New Study: Fatal collisions involving young drivers increase by 38 per cent after pot-smoking celebrations The risk of a fatal accident among young drivers spikes by 38 per cent in the hours after 4/20 celebrations, according to new research from UBC and the University of Toronto. The finding suggests that mass marijuana celebrations may not be entirely without consequences. John Staples, a professor of medicine and researcher at UBC's Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences, said people aged 20 and younger had a much higher risk of a fatal crash on April 20 from 4:20 p.m. until midnight compared to the same period one week before and one week after. [continues 377 words]
"I believe that nicotine is not addictive." This was the position the CEOs of the seven largest American tobacco companies staunchly stood by while testifying in front of an infamous 1994 Congressional hearing. The scientific evidence at the time rendered their ostensible belief a tragic joke - a term that accurately describes the idea that Canadians should blindly trust marijuana producers and distributors to design their own packaging. Ottawa would do well by having health experts take the lead in ensuring marijuana packaging is transparent. [continues 579 words]
In an interview with The Citizen last April during the 2017 provincial election, NDP leader John Horgan admitted that government and politicians are behind public sentiment when it comes to marijuana. Knowing it and saying it is one thing but Horgan, now the premier, still seems reluctant to act on it, based on the additional details on a provincial pot policy the NDP government announced Monday that will take effect once marijuana is legalized later this year. "Some may think that this work will end in July when non-medical cannabis is legalized by the federal government," Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said. "But the truth is our government will be dealing with this significant change in policy for years to come." [continues 652 words]
Karen Klassen has been emerging of late from her condo unit, socializing with her neighbours over coffee and when they ask what's brought her out more, she's been reluctant to answer. For at least 25 years, Klassen has endured chronic pain and she believes medicinal marijuana is what has been helping her. It began with fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, but Klassen later suffered a broken back. The last diagnosis, which she says is the most significant, is a failed back surgery, spinal stenosis and ankylosing spondylitis. [continues 940 words]
Most charged in raids were 'budtenders', along with some managers and owners An Ottawa judge has discharged drug-trafficking charges against a young clerk who worked at a marijuana dispensary but said she didn't realize the business was illegal. The woman was only 21, had no criminal record, has accepted responsibility and expressed remorse, and is at low risk of reoffending, Justice Norman Boxall said in his sentencing decision. Selena Holder-Zirbser is one of about 44 people who have been charged in police raids on illegal shops in Ottawa. She says she took the $12-an-hour job because she needed to pay her rent. [continues 732 words]
Municipalities across Metro Vancouver are considering their options when it comes to allowing legal cannabis retailers in their communities, following the release of new provincial policy around licensing. This week, the B.C. government said that under its proposed framework for the retail sales of non-medical cannabis, residents aged 19 and older will be able to buy cannabis through privately run or government-operated retail stores and online through the government once it is legalized in July. The Liquor Distribution Branch will operate public retail stores and the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch will license and monitor private stores. [continues 511 words]
The only thing clear about research into medical cannabis is that more research is needed. That was a conclusion expressed by many experts who gathered at the first cannabis conference hosted by the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medical Cannabis Research at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton West 5th Campus on the weekend. "This conference is really the initial offering we have to the scientific community," said McMaster University associate professor Jason Busse, an expert in chronic pain and a co-director of the cannabis centre that opened in October. [continues 459 words]
VANCOUVER - Diana Koch never wanted to numb her pain and anxiety with opioids. After seeing family members struggle with addiction, she felt pharmaceuticals were not an option. Medical marijuana freed the 36-year-old from her troubling symptoms. But with recreational weed legalization looming, she worries about her portion of the market being swallowed up. "People who are using it for medical purposes, they actually are suffering from something, from a condition that's handicapping them in some way in their life," she said, speaking from her home in Toronto. [continues 275 words]
Only 32 per cent of respondents favour restrictions like those on smoking It's not like tobacco and those who want to treat it like tobacco are probably the ones who want to smoke it anywhere. More than half of Calgarians believe the way public consumption of cannabis is regulated and enforced should more closely resemble controls on drinking alcohol than those on smoking tobacco. That's according to the city's Cannabis Research Combined Study, prepared by Environics Research and released Friday. [continues 844 words]
British Columbia's civil forfeiture regime violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by forcing individuals to produce evidence against themselves and by resulting in penalties that are grossly disproportionate, says a new constitutional challenge. The case, which will proceed to trial in B.C. Supreme Court in November, stems from a 2015 police search of a multi-million-dollar home on Vancouver's west side that turned up hundreds of marijuana plants. It is expected to be the second constitutional case involving B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office heard this year; a case involving the Hells Angels is scheduled for April. [continues 672 words]
The fight by a popular Bank Street marijuana dispensary to stay in business has taken an intriguing twist. Cannabis Culture closed in December after the frustrated landlord evicted his tenants, who were selling marijuana obtained from the black market. Now the operators of Cannabis Culture have filed a court application demanding their lease be honoured so they can get back to operating their illegal business. The lawsuit might be an indication that some dispensaries are digging in for a fight with authorities as the country gets closer to the legalization of recreational marijuana, expected this summer. The province has vowed to shut down the dispensaries as it prepares to open legal pot shops run by a subsidiary of the LCBO. [continues 645 words]
Councillors might still squabble over budgets, but no one questions the fact that the opioid crisis must be solved Mark Tyndall stood before Vancouver City Council at a recent meeting to proselytize for his latest harm-reduction scheme: vending machines to dispense opioids to drug users. "I really wish we could get 50 of these things going in the next year," said Dr. Tyndall, executive medical health director of the BC Centre for Disease Control. "We could supply clean drugs to thousands of people and our overdose numbers would plummet." He plans to start with a pilot project in Vancouver. [continues 634 words]
Ottawa introduces 'transition' period of up to 12 weeks after law passes for firms to adapt to rules Canadians will have to wait until late in the summer before they will be able to legally consume cannabis under a new timeline laid out by the federal government - even if the Senate votes in favour of the legislation by May or June. Ottawa now says it will give industry up to three months to adapt to strict packaging rules and legally ship their products to provincially regulated stores. This new timeline, unveiled by Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor on Tuesday, means adults will not be able to purchase marijuana for recreational purposes immediately after Bill C-45 is adopted in Parliament. [continues 752 words]
Dear editor: If cannabis legalization gets any more costly, we may need to revert back to the black market model. At least then, patients needn't struggle to get their medication. The current victims of the legalization effort are the dispensaries, and with them the patients. They filled a gap left when the government permitted medical marijuana in 2001, but left the patient without access to their medication. Fifteen years later, Neil Allard successfully sued the government for unduly restricting the access to medical cannabis. [continues 318 words]
After three years of addressing substance abuse issues while patrolling local high schools, city police community services officer Const. Andy Hatton said he has learned more about how important the lines of communication are between parents and their children. Drug Awareness Week continues until Friday and city police and health care and public health partners point out it's a ideal time to have serious conversations about the topic. "Don't be afraid to ask those difficult questions. Don't be afraid to have those sometimes difficult conversations. It's important to know what's going on," the officer said during a Tuesday morning launch for the week at Westmount Pharmacy. [continues 625 words]
Statistics Canada has persuaded a handful of Saskatchewan people to weigh in on their weed use. And the verdict is in: Marijuana in the province is both strong and cheap. The agency's StatsCannabis portal is designed to help measure "the evolving social and economic impacts of cannabis legalization." It asks users to anonymously report their marijuana purchases to the data agency, including how much they paid, how much they bought and how satisfactory the product turned out to be. [continues 280 words]
A Green Gold Rush gets a wet blanket from a Father Knows Best government It should embrace the employment opportunities, the tourism potential, the joie de vivre with which California has legalized. The provincial government's initial plan for marijuana legalization must have been put together by spoilsports and dour Mrs. Grundies. It's tone-deaf. B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth "sounded like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas unveiling details of the province's blueprint for cannabis," Ian Mulgrew writes. [continues 797 words]
Provincial patchwork isn't a bad thing for Canadians, writes Ed Whitcomb. Many Canadian politicians are tying themselves in knots over pot, begging the federal government to extend the July 1 target date for legalizing cannabis use. But many of the so-called problems they cite are molehills, needlessly being turned into mountains. Let's look at some: It will become legal for about 25 million Canadians to smoke pot as of July 1 - but it will remain illegal for those under 18 or 19. [continues 555 words]
