MANCHACA, Texas -- When California rings in the new year with the sale of recreational pot for the first time, Texas will be tiptoeing into its own marijuana milestone: a medical cannabis program so restrictive that doubts swirl over who will even use it. Texas is the last big state to allow some form of medical marijuana, albeit an oil extract so low in the psychoactive component, THC, that it couldn't get a person high. Though it might seem that Texas policymakers have softened their attitude toward the drug, bringing them more in line with the U.S. population as a whole, they have not. A joint could still land you in jail in Texas, and the state's embrace of medical marijuana comes with a heavy dose of caution. [continues 796 words]
There's plenty of interest in selling legal pot in Manitoba. The province notes an expression of interest on the subject attracted more than 60 responses. Premier Brian Pallister said that bodes well for his government's goal to ensure official marijuana stores are accessible enough to undermine the black market. Pallister said the province aims to ensure access to marijuana sales within a 30-minute drive for 90% of Manitobans to meet that goal. "We wish to see broad coverage, broad availability," he said. [continues 204 words]
They say B.C.'s pot laws have taken so long to sort out because May's provincial election delayed the process. Either that, or our guys were hot-boxing a van behind the legislature and simply forgot to get it done. In any case, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth left more questions than answers Monday when, rather than unveiling the regulations many expected, he merely announced a public consultation process. Ontario might already have its pot plans in place, but here in the birthplace of B.C. Bud, we prefer a more relaxed approach: We'll gather information from stakeholders and the public, or maybe listen to a little Allman Brothers, until Nov. 1. [continues 634 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- Seemingly learning from past mistakes, state health officials have issued an emergency rule outlining the application process for new medical-marijuana vendors seeking to receive licenses in two weeks. The new rule, published Wednesday and going into effect immediately, outsources the evaluation of the applications to "subject matter experts," requires "blind testing" of the applications, and includes a detailed application form --- all departures from the Department of Health's previous medical-marijuana regulations that spawned a series of legal and administrative challenges. [continues 974 words]
Just six days after her 28-year-old son died from a heroin overdose, the president of the Pennsbury school board wept as she thanked her colleagues for unanimously approving an ambitious new $149,000 antidrug program aimed at fighting an opioid epidemic that has ravaged young grads in their Lower Bucks County community. "Thank you all for doing this - now more than ever it means the world to me," a tearful Jacqueline Redner said immediately after the vote. After a decadelong battle with addiction, her son Josh was found dead in a motel room on Sept. 13. [continues 690 words]
A Vancouver Island man whose marijuana grow-op was busted has had trafficking charges stayed because his case took too long to get to trial, the latest in a series of such cases in B.C. Nicholas Christian Boehme, 51, was arrested on May 25, 2012 after police searched his home in Youbou and his office in Victoria. The residence was the site of two valid licenses to grow medical marijuana issued by Health Canada, one of them issued to Boehme to grow 205 plants and store 9,225 grams of dried marijuana. [continues 448 words]
Re Think twice before decriminalizing drugs, DiManno, Aug. 7 I couldn't disagree more with Rosie Dimanno. Nearly all the harm done to users and non-users alike by illegal drugs is because the drugs are prohibited. Thousands were poisoned by adulterated booze during Prohibition and thousands more are dying today because of adulterated drugs, an aspect of government policy my wife and I became well acquainted with when our 19-year-old son, Peter, died shortly after ingesting some street heroin in 1993. [continues 77 words]
Legalizing pot is trickier than it looks, and the Prime Minister might soon be wondering if the hassle is worth the price Justin Trudeau's vow to legalize marijuana - made without much thinking, one suspects - was one of his signature campaign promises. It was intended to brand his party as progressive, youthful and enlightened. And the time seemed right. Most Canadians agree that it's time to make it legal. But when the government unveiled its long-awaited legislation - on the eve of a long weekend - our hip Prime Minister was nowhere in sight. He left the job to a bunch of hatchet-faced ministers, who grimly assured us that this was going to be all about law and order and harm reduction, not fun. Clearly, the government hoped that everyone would get distracted by the holiday and move on. [continues 641 words]
With battering rams and flash-bang grenades, SWAT teams fuel the risk of violence as they forcibly enter suspects' homes. Five months and 85 miles apart, two cases took starkly divergent legal paths. SOMERVILLE, Tex. - Joshua Aaron Hall had been a resident of the Burleson County Jail for about a week when he requested a meeting with Gene Hermes, the sheriff's investigator who had locked him up for violating probation. The stocky lawman arrived in the featureless interview room on the morning of Dec. 13, 2013, placed his soda cup on the table and apologized for not getting there sooner. He asked in his gravelly drawl if they would be talking about Mr. Hall's own case. [continues 6445 words]
America's sheriffs have given President Trump a woefully inaccurate view of civil asset forfeiture-the process through which police seize, and prosecutors literally sue, cash, cars and real estate that they suspect may be connected to a crime. "People want to say we're taking money and without due process. That's not true," a Kentucky sheriff told the president last month at a White House meeting. Critics of forfeiture, the sheriff added, simply "make up stories." In fact, thousands of Americans have had their assets taken without ever being charged with a crime, let alone convicted. Russ Caswell almost lost his Massachusetts motel, which had been run by his family for more than 50 years, because of 15 "drug-related incidents" there from 1994-2008, a period through which he rented out nearly 200,000 rooms. [continues 725 words]
Two Oro-Medonte men were arrested this week for growing marijuana, despite having a licence to grow Angered over an "unjust" police raid over medicinal marijuana, two Oro-Medonte men feel victimized after being arrested at their home and taken away in handcuffs. "We're two sick and injured people who were taken to jail," Christian Gadsden, 36, said Wednesday outside the Orillia OPP detachment, a day after police raided the Line 13 home he shares with Larry Parisien. "It was scary, incredibly scary," said the 62-year-old Parisien, adding he suffers from a range of ailments including fibromyalgia and has been prescribed medicinal marijuana for close to seven years. [continues 411 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- Even as the state prepares to carry out a constitutional amendment authorizing medical marijuana, a lack of guidance from health officials could create a "very murky and dangerous legal area" for patients and doctors. Authors of the amendment, industry insiders and legislative leaders have called on the Department of Health to clarify what doctors and dispensing organizations can legally do under existing state laws and the voter-approved amendment that went into effect Tuesday. To date, the health agency has remained mum, referring only to the language of the constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters in November and to state laws approved in 2014 and 2016. [continues 347 words]
DARTMOUTH, N.S. - What if Walter White was a Mennonite? "Pure," which premieres Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV, is based on actual accounts of Mennonites acting as drug mules. Various reports suggest some members were smuggling cocaine and marijuana into Canada all the way from Mexico by hiding drugs in hollowed-out car batteries and wheels of cheese. Series writer and creator Michael Amo ("The Listener") optioned one such magazine article nearly a decade ago but had a hard time selling networks on a Christian sect version of "Breaking Bad." [continues 521 words]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Dr. Joseph Dorn has had a unique vantage point when it comes to the burgeoning medical marijuana industry in Florida. Dorn was the medical director of Surterra Therapeutics, which is one of the six dispensing organizations licensed to grow and distribute medical cannabis in the state. He resigned from that position two months ago and has opened a medical marijuana treatment center as Amendment 2 takes effect on Tuesday. The constitutional amendment, which was approved by 71 percent of Florida voters, allows higher-strength marijuana to be used for a wider list of medical ailments. However, the true measure of what the amendment means won't be immediately seen until a new set of rules are adopted and implemented by the Florida Legislature and the Department of Health. [continues 558 words]
How a renowned Canadian feminist popularized our racist war on drugs Detective Joe Ricci and his partner, Alex Sinclair, were out on a routine bust in Vancouver's Chinatown. It was 1916, and Ricci and Sinclair were front-line officers in the war on opium. The drug had been criminalized in Canada eight years earlier through the introduction of the Western world's earliest drug prohibition law, and the Vancouver police department had been chasing down traffickers ever since. Ricci was a familiar sight in the neighbourhood. He had made such a big arrest in 1913 that for days after, the Vancouver Daily World reported, "not a light [was] to be seen and the ringing noise of the chuck-a-luck dice [had] stopped." But the gamblers and the opium smokers were soon back, and Ricci was out patrolling the streets again. [continues 4172 words]
Andrew Freedman is Colorado's director of marijuana coordination. DENVER - Marijuana legalization brought unexpected challenges to Colorado, and it was rarely clear what part of state government was supposed to solve them, or how. Businesses were selling marijuana-infused, animal-shaped candy attractive to children. Residents growing pot at home were selling it illegally in other states. Growers were applying pesticides to cannabis plants even though none was specifically approved by the federal government for such use. Enter Andrew Freedman, Colorado's pot czar, who is bringing together the state's bureaucracy, marijuana industry, law enforcement community, and public health advocates to fix problems no other state had faced. [continues 1132 words]
An American fugitive who was dubbed the Godfather of Grass because of run-ins with the law involving the large-scale production of marijuana will be detained in Montreal for at least another week while authorities decide when he will be deported. John Robert Boone, 73, was arrested by Montreal police Thursday afternoon at a shopping centre, at the corner of Ste-Catherine St. W. and Atwater Ave., putting an end to a police search that lasted eight years. He had been sought by the Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service since 2008. He was detained at the Riviere-des-Prairies Detention Centre where he had a hearing Friday afternoon before an adjudicator with Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board. [continues 457 words]
At 4:50 a.m., the stragglers dashed through Manila's darkened streets, hoping for a spot in the pews. But they were too late. Hundreds of worshipers had already packed the Sto. Nino de Paz Community Greenbelt Chapel, a low, white dome in a sprawling outdoor shopping complex, for Friday's Simbang Gabi Christmas Mass. So at least 100 more crowded on the pavement outside, singing "Glory to God" beneath a crisp crescent moon. Christmas in the Philippines is a long, spirited and, to many, exhausting affair. About 90% of Filipinos are Christian, and they take the holiday seriously. Stores start playing Christmas music as early as September and don't stop until early January. Christmas trees spring up in malls and public parks. Carolers go door to door singing "Jingle Bells," "Silent Night" and "Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit", a lively Tagalog tune celebrating Jesus' birth. The holiday delicacy is lechon - -- whole suckling pig, a Filipino delicacy. [continues 868 words]
Why the celebrity licensing model is not just the gold standard for a cannabis brand, it's a necessity Cedella Marley's voice has a comforting, familiar lilt, the sound of the Jamaican heritage she shares with her late father. Some 35 years after Bob Marley's death, the Marley family has moved into the cannabis business with Seattle-based Privateer Holdings to launch Marley Natural, a line of hemp body products, elegant black walnut accessories and smartly packaged smokeables. Their biggest target market? Canada - once the recreational market opens up. [continues 2529 words]
I cannot think of anything more insane as this issue of providing clean needles to the dope addicts. Why not provide sophisticated tools to car thieves, so they can break into cars without damaging the door? Whoever takes dope must know the consequences and those peddling dope know also what they are doing, so victim and perpetrator alike should be held responsible, and if you are a parent and don't know what your kids are up to, then don't cry to the public for help. [continues 174 words]
