Vancouver Marijuana Dispensary Manager Offers to Help Revive Langley Operation After Raid The manager of a Vancouver medical marijuana dispensary has offered help to the people trying to resurrect a similar dispensary in Langley. Well-known marijuana activist Dana Larsen said assistance from the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary could include loans of money and marijuana on credit to re-establish the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary that was closed down following a July 19 raid by the Langley RCMP. "Our dispensary has donated medicine and cash to other dispensaries that get into legal trouble," Larsen told The Times. [continues 355 words]
There were five Langley RCMP officers, all wearing "flak jackets" Randy Caine said. The owner and operator of the "Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary" was raided Tuesday afternoon (July 19). The officers removed all of the marijuana from the premises during their 4 p.m. visit, but made no arrests, Caine told The Times. Caine said the seizure has deprived his clients of access to marijuana for chronic pain and other medical conditions. "I see this as a theft" Caine said. "Their medication has been stolen." [continues 540 words]
A former Marijuana Party candidate and a former Canadian Border Services officer petitioned city councillors on Monday to support the creation of a "compassion club" in Castlegar and push for the decentralization of medical marijuana distribution. The duo told council about the benefits of medical marijuana and said federal policies governing the way in which licensed patients can access their medication are ineffective. That responsibility, they added, should lie with provincial governments, just like other matters of health-care administration. "The program isn't being run well from a centralized location -- we believe the province could do a much better job," said Jim Leslie, a former border guard and current executive director of the Grand Forks Compassionate Society. [continues 459 words]
Canada's "Prince of Pot" has contracted a serious bacterial infection while serving a five-year prison sentence in the U.S. for selling marijuana seeds. Vancouver marijuana activist Marc Emery was diagnosed with MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -a painful infection that often appears on the skin -after he was transferred from a private prison in Georgia to Mississippi in late spring. According to Emery's wife Jodie, the trouble began when Emery was bitten by a brown recluse spider while serving time in Georgia and the bite took several months to heal. He was given antibiotics but then developed a painful boil on his backside while transferring by bus to a U.S. federal prison in Yazoo City, Miss. Doctors tested the boil and discovered the skin infection, Jodie said. [continues 126 words]
Jailed marijuana activist Marc Emery is suffering from a "superbug" infection called MRSA, leaving his wife seriously concerned for his health as he serves at least three more years in a Mississippi prison. Jodie Emery said he was diagnosed earlier this year after a boil above his buttock tested positive for the infection While his initial outbreak has been treated, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus is a staph bacterium that can cause infections that are resistant to most antibiotics. MRSA is highly contagious and has become a widespread problem in prisons and hospitals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control website. [continues 333 words]
The Saskatchewan Marijuana Party has gone up in smoke. The party did not file a 2010 financial statement with the chief electoral officer and has notified Elections Saskatchewan it intends to deregister as a provincial political party. Brent Nadon, manager of election finances for Elections Saskatchewan, said the party will be required to liquidate its assets and present them to the chief electoral officer along with a final report. Any assets will be held in trust for two years, although those are likely to be minimal. The Marijuana party's last financial statement showed it had $260 cash in hand in 2009. [continues 90 words]
NDP leadership hopeful Dana Larsen is looking to a famous stoner to help spark up his campaign. Actor/comedian Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame has thrown his support behind former Marijuana Party leader Larsen as he takes a run at the top NDP job, which will be decided at the leadership convention on April 17. "Dana was the only voice in B.C. that I heard of in politics that could actually further the marijuana course along," said Chong, who headlined a Larsen fundraising show at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver on Monday night. [continues 111 words]
Tommy Chong, the actor who rose to fame in the 1970s as part of the cannabis-consuming comedy duo Cheech and Chong, recently endorsed B.C. NDP leadership candidate Dana Larsen. Mr. Larsen is the director of the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary and the founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party. Mr. Chong played host to a Larsen campaign fundraiser Monday night in Vancouver. He tells The Globe and Mail why Mr. Larsen should be premier and when he thinks marijuana will be legalized. [continues 642 words]
Controversial marijuana advocate and B.C. NDP leadership candidate Dana Larsen will be holding a public open house in Prince George tonight. Larsen was a founding member of the B.C. Marijuana Party and ran for the federal NDP in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast in 2008. Larsen withdrew his name from the ballot in 2008 after video surfaced showing Larsen consuming marijuana and narcotics, then driving. "I'm obviously associated with the cannabis issue. [But] I haven't heard any negative feedback - people saying I shouldn't run," Larsen said. "It is NDP policy to support the taxation and regulation of marijuana. But some policies come up more than others." [continues 240 words]
At Hot Box Cafe, heads smoke out Tory crime bill targeting reefer It wasn't the vaporizers at every table or the bong-wielding middle-aged women that stood out most at Saturday's (February 12) Bill S-10 forum at the Hot Box Cafe. It was when the weed-lovers' hangout lived up to its name, filling with enough pot smoke to trigger a visit from the fire department. Responding to an alarm at the Baldwin Street venue, three bashful firefighters seemed amused to find a smoky room of marijuana enthusiasts gathered for a panel on the bill that would require mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences. [continues 626 words]
Tommy Chong Backs Marijuana Activist Marijuana activist Dana Larsen is hoping his NDP leadership bid gets a bit of a buzz from a smokin' endorsement by Canadian comedian Tommy Chong. "I joined the B.C. NDP for one reason, and that is Dana Larsen," said Chong, best known as half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong who starred in the pot-buster movie Up In Smoke. Chong released a video Tuesday in which he appeared in a jovial, relaxed mood, with a Free Marc Emery poster shown prominently in the background. [continues 155 words]
A one-time federal NDP candidate for West Vancouver who was forced out of the 2008 election by a drug scandal is running for the leadership of the provincial New Democrats. Dana Larsen, who contested the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding with John Weston before dropping out, announced Wednesday that he will be vying for the spot vacated by former B.C. NDP leader Carole James. Larsen, an outspoken advocate for the legalization of marijuana, kicked off his campaign in Vancouver. [continues 549 words]
Brass Claim Pot Activist Is 'Ineligible' To Run It must have seemed like a bad-trip flashback for Dana Larsen. Shortly after announcing his run for the B.C. NDP leadership Wednesday morning, the controversial 39-year-old pot activist and failed federal NDP candidate found out second-hand that party brass apparently wanted to weed him out. Party president Moe Sihota told The Province that Larsen is "currently ineligible and may be ultimately ineligible," to run for the provincial NDP leadership, because his membership had lapsed, and he had already been declared ineligible for the federal NDP in 2008. [continues 295 words]
Larsen Blames Clerical Error For Lapsed Party Membership Marijuana activist Dana Larsen was the first to declare a bid for the leadership of the B.C. New Democratic Party. But B.C. NDP president Moe Sihota said Larsen is ineligible. "He's currently ineligible because he's not a member," Sihota explained Wednesday. Larsen's NDP membership expired last November, the party said. Larsen later blamed a "clerical error" for his lapsed membership. "I donate regularly to the NDP and have been a member in good standing for seven years. In November, I spoke with the B.C. NDP office to renew my membership, change my address and make a donation. The donation was processed, however, my address change, and now it seems my membership, were not," Larsen said in a statement. [continues 453 words]
A marijuana legalization advocate said Wednesday he doesn't believe his past will interfere with his bid for the leadership of B.C.'s New Democratic Party. "I believe I offer a fresh vision and a real alternative choice in this leadership race," Dana Larsen told reporters Wednesday. Larsen, 39, said he has been an NDP member for seven years. He is the first declared candidate for the NDP leadership to succeed Carole James. But party president Moe Sihota said Larsen is ineligible to run. [continues 249 words]
The B.C. NDP leadership race got off to a shaky start Wednesday, with a dust-up over whether the first person to declare his candidacy was a paid-up party member. Marijuana activist Dana Larsen held a news conference to announce his intention to campaign for the leadership. Three hours later, NDP party president Moe Sihota said Mr. Larsen was ineligible because he did not have a membership card. Mr. Larsen subsequently blamed a clerical error at NDP offices for the mix-up. [continues 748 words]
Longtime pot activist Dana Larsen will announce today that he is running for the leadership of the B.C. New Democrat Party, making him the first former leader of the Marijuana Party to seek that job. The former federal NDP candidate and founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine, who was caught up in a pot-smoking controversy two years ago, has a news conference planned for 10:15 a.m. to formally announce his candidacy. Larsen, an NDP member for seven years, told The Vancouver Sun Tuesday that he decided to run after much serious consideration. [continues 239 words]
Cedar's David Hodgkinson is afraid he'll be spending Christmas in the dark after the RCMP swooped in on his home Friday, dismantled his medicinal pot operation and cut off his power. Hodgkinson has been growing medicinal marijuana in his house for about a year under a licence to cultivate the controversial herb from Health Canada. Hodgkinson was licensed to grow up to 49 pot plants, but his licence expired in August, despite the fact that he applied for its renewal eight weeks before its expiry date, as stipulated by Health Canada. [continues 477 words]
Marc Emery has been transferred from the West Coast to a prison in Georgia. Vancouver's "Prince of Pot" was shipped last week to the D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkstone, Ga., a low-security federal prison that holds mostly non-U. S. citizens. "He's doing all right," Emery's wife Jodie told The Province on Monday. "He is only one of six Canadians with about 700 Mexicans in there. He finds it very lonely. The hardest part is being isolated from people who speak English." [continues 229 words]
Prince of Pot Marc Emery's ex-business partner and medical marijuana advocate, Michelle Rainey, has died from cancer. Rainey had lived with Crohn's disease since she was a teenager and in the last years of her life struggled against melanoma and lymphatic cancer. Her husband, Jef Tek, and mother, Emilie, were at her side, each holding a hand, when she died Wednesday night at her home in Maple Ridge in spite of last-ditch, high-dosage experimental cannabis treatment. [continues 497 words]
