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]
JAKARTA, Indonesia - I.B. Agung Partha foresees an apocalypse, as he put it, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. The threat is not a plague of locusts, nor one of Bali's dormant volcanos springing to life. It is in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital several hundred miles away, where Parliament is debating legislation that would ban beer, wine and spirits across the thousands of islands that make up this country. For Bali, whose beaches, lush landscapes and cultural attractions drew four million visitors last year, the effect would be something like the end of the world, said Mr. Partha, the chairman of the Bali Tourism Board. [continues 1143 words]
Just in the last year alone, Colorado has brought in $1 billion from the distribution of recreational marijuana. It is generally boosting the economy's revenue. Why wouldn't all states legalize recreational use of weed when it benefited Colorado so much? Christian Cox-Elander, Reno [end]
Of the 15 companies cleared for cultivation, at least eight have ties to marijuana industries in other states. From page A1 Thirty businesses have won approval to grow and process medical marijuana in Maryland, regulators announced Monday, putting life into the industry more than three years after lawmakers legalized the drug for medical use. Several of the winning applicants have political ties - with major donors or high-ranking officials on their teams - including a company that hired the Maryland lawmaker who was the driving force behind the tightly regulated program. [continues 1024 words]
Former Sheriff Janney Has Stake in Application BALTIMORE - Today marks the day when Cecil County will find out whether its future will be green, benefitting economically from the development of potential medical marijuana growing and processing facilities. The Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, under the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which was formed by 2014 legislation to develop policies, procedures and regulations to implement the state's medical marijuana program, voted on its stage one license pre-approvals for 15 growers and the first 15 processors on Aug. 5. [continues 972 words]
BANGKOK In a backroom heavy with sawdust, Mr Akkarin Puri, 33, carefully examines the veneer of a half-finished guitar. There was a time when the craftsman's attention was more focused on inhaling the vapours from a pill of yaba - a methamphetamine - heated over a flame. In fact, by the age of 21, his drug habit had landed him in juvenile detention at least six times and a military lock-up for 18 months. There, he tried to rob a fellow addict to fund his next fix and landed himself in jail for another eight years. It was while doing time in a particularly notorious prison, in Pathum Thani province next to Bangkok, that he saw up close one of the gravest consequences of the kingdom's long-running "war on drugs". [continues 1319 words]
MD. Delegate Did Not Disclose His Connection to Dispensary Applicant The state lawmaker who led the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland is part of a company trying to sell and profit off the drug - a position he never disclosed as he pushed bills and regulations to help cannabis businesses. Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) is the clinical director for Doctor's Orders, according to a portion of a dispensary licensing application obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request. [continues 1079 words]
Severely Ill Patients Vouch for Medicinal Benefits of Dagga Oil AS A mother, Veronica Ellis would do anything to help her eight-year-old child, even if it meant the unthinkable: giving her a small daily dose of a forbidden drug. But she could no longer watch her once-radiant daughter, now a hollow skeleton, slipping away. "What convinced me was looking at Bayleigh, lying all day on a mattress here in front of the TV," says Ellis, a small-framed, resolute mother of three. "She was so tired, she just didn't want to get up. Her face was white, she had black rings under her eyes. She wouldn't eat anything. She lost 1kg in a week." [continues 1205 words]
Dueling Petitions Would Allow for Social Use of Pot Denver voters could have their pick in November between two initiatives aimed at allowing social use of marijuana in different places. One group has been gathering signatures for an initiative that would allow private marijuana consumption clubs. The other has a more expansive aim: to allow nearly any business, including a bar, to offer a set-off, 21-and-over public "consumption area," so long as the owner obtains a neighborhood group's support first. [continues 644 words]
If there was ever a time when we should restore the fourth amendment to the constitution, this is it. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches ans seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation..." This month a federal appeals court ruled that law enforcement agencies can scan credit, debit and gift cards without running afoul of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches. [continues 870 words]
The people lining up to profit from Maryland's legal medical-marijuana market include former sheriffs and state lawmakers, wealthy business executives and well-connected political donors, according to previously undisclosed public records obtained by The Washington Post. Nearly 150 businesses are competing for up to 15 cultivation licenses that will be awarded starting this summer, the first footholds in an emerging industry that is already worth billions nationally. Very few applicants have publicly discussed their plans. But through a public-records request and database searches, The Post identified more than 950 people working for or investing in prospective growing operations in Maryland. Among them: former Drug Enforcement Administration agents; the leader of a Maryland statewide police union; former heads of the Department of Natural Resources police; a former U.S. Capitol Police chief; and Eugene Monroe, the recently released tackle for the Baltimore Ravens who is the foremost advocate of medical marijuana in the National Football League. [continues 2683 words]
The marijuana policy landscape changed rapidly between 2002 and 2013. During that time, 13 states passed medical-marijuana laws, nearly as many relaxed penalties for marijuana use, and Colorado and Washington became the first states to fully legalize recreational pot use. Opponents of marijuana liberalization warned that these changes would bring devastating consequences, particularly for kids. The president of National Families in Action, an anti-drug group, warned that commercial marijuana would "literally dumb down the precious minds of generations of children." Psychiatrist Christian Thurstone, an outspoken opponent of Colorado's marijuana legalization, argued that "the state's relaxed laws have made the drug widely available - and irresistible - to too many adolescents." [continues 666 words]
The courts continue to waste time and money prosecuting people for marijuana-related offences despite feds' promise to legalize it. Welcome to the new war on drugs. The war on the drugs is supposed to be coming to an end in Canada as far as marijuana is concerned, but you wouldn't know it from the number of pot charges still making their way through Toronto's Old City Hall courthouse. Or, for that matter, from Mayor John Tory's threat to shut down what he describes as the "alarming" number of medical marijuana dispensaries cropping up around town. It's reefer madness all over again, though the federal government has promised to establish a regime for legalized weed by spring 2017. [continues 1154 words]
