TORONTO - The law under which the owner of two medical marijuana dispensaries was charged last year was unconstitutional because a valid program making medicinal pot readily available did not exist at the time, an Ontario court heard on Thursday. As a result, charges of possession for the purposes of trafficking and having proceeds of crime laid against Marek (Mark) Stupak should be thrown out, his lawyer Alan Young said. Stupak, 44, operated two "medical marijuana compassion clubs" known as the Social Collective in Toronto. Police charged him in May 2016 under the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act as part of a series of city-wide raids in an operation known as Project Claudia. [continues 499 words]
Concerns over where legal marijuana will be grown has local governments looking for right to designate production areas The looming deadline for legalized marijuana has local governments in British Columbia crafting wish lists for provincial legislation, from where pot should be grown to how it should be sold. Ottawa has said regulations must be in place by July 1 and the B.C. government announced last month that it wants public input on shaping the rules. While some municipal politicians worry the timeline for regulations is too short, Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang thinks legalization can't come soon enough. [continues 578 words]
City staff responds to inquiries about medical marijuana dispensaries Don't expect a bylaw to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in downtown Orillia anytime soon. It isn't necessary, according to city staff. "While we wait for the federal government and the provincial government to regulate how and where and when marijuana will be made available ... leave the city's zoning bylaw as is," Ian Sugden, director of development services and engineering, said at this week's council committee meeting. "It would be a redundant regulation to create a prohibition for a use that is illegal." [continues 430 words]
Courtenay's mayor has received death threats from people upset that the RCMP shut down the community's first cannabis dispensary. Mayor Larry Jangula said someone posted online comments threatening to shoot him after inaccurate information that he had directed Comox Valley RCMP to raid Leaf Compassion dispensary on Wednesday circulated on social media. "It's been a very upsetting day," Jangula said. He said he has been threatened during his 27-year policing career, but never in his role as mayor. [continues 400 words]
A dozen medical pot producers plan to start a chain of Alberta marijuana stores if the provincial government allows private companies to sell recreational weed next year. The Canadian Cannabis Co-Op hopes to get in on the ground floor of what's expected to be a billion dollar Alberta industry when the federal government legalizes marijuana consumption July 1, 2018. "We will build out a retail channel in Alberta and any other province that is looking at including private sector retail and distribution in their model," Darren Karasiuk, chair of the co-op working group, said Thursday. [continues 387 words]
City council today expected to rescind business licences for 2 marijuana dispensaries The owners of two West Kelowna pot shops today face the revocation of their business licence and subsequent closure. City council is expected to rescind licences for Black Crow Herbals and The Healing Company, a move staff say would force the businesses to close. "(T)he licence holder has engaged in the illegal dispensing of cannabis, which is in contravention of the Criminal Code of Canada or the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act," reads the identical wording in two separate staff reports to be considered at today's council meeting. [continues 413 words]
The projected legalization of marijuana in Canada in July 2018 gives the federal government an opportunity to bring communities - including Indigenous ones - into this lucrative sector. For example, Manitoba's Opaskwayak Cree Nation recently took a major stake in a medical marijuana company. OCN purchased $3 million in shares in National Access Cannabis, a privately held company that recently traded publicly for the first time. Private investors in medical and recreational marijuana are watching intently as the federal government unveils its plans for how pot will be legally grown and sold in Canada. [continues 394 words]
It must have been a busy meeting. A couple of weeks ago, Canada's federal and provincial justice and public safety ministers met in Vancouver for two days of meetings. They talked about delays in the criminal system and reforms to the Criminal Code over mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. About changes to the bail system and simpler and faster court proceedings. They talked about national security legislation and the safety of Canadians, about the legalization of marijuana and the nuances of home cultivation, and the health and safety effects of the drug, both on adults and the particular risks for young people. [continues 391 words]
Former NHL player Riley Cote says marijuana helped him deal with the pain and anxiety that came with being an enforcer with the Philadelphia Flyers. "I used it as an ally," the Winnipeg native said Saturday at the Grow Up Cannabis Conference and Expo at Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls. "It helped me to manage my pain and inflammation. It helped me sleep and it helped with my anxiety. I was fighting guys way out of my weight class and cannabis was the ultimate tool for that anxiety." [continues 654 words]
Grassroots harm-reduction initiative launched as those on the front lines lament provincial government's boardroom approach Health officials in New Brunswick are taking too long to address the serious and growing opioid problem in the province's two largest cities, say local harm-reduction activists who have launched a grassroots initiative in the face of what they describe as government inaction. It has been more than six months since the province's top doctor formed an advisory group to come up with solutions to address the issue, but the government's response so far has been lean compared with that of other Atlantic provinces and the rest of the country. [continues 996 words]
Growers swapping produce for marijuana A large-scale multinational Delta vegetable producer is swapping out its tomato plants for pot plants in a 1.1-million-square-foot greenhouse because it says it can make more than 10 times the money. Greenhouses operated by Village Farms International in Delta: If various levels of government allow it, the facilities here will be converted into marijuana growing greenhouses. JASON PAYNE/ PNG Village Farms International also has plans to expand five times that scale, resulting in a warning from Delta Mayor Lois Jackson about the future of farms on Agricultural Land Reserve. [continues 421 words]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making a huge mistake legalizing marijuana for everyday use. He promised his electors in the past election. What was he thinking? Votes? Taxes? Why does he want to create a bigger problem than it already is? The legal age for purchase is going to be 19. Does he not realize children (15+) will be smoking marijuana? It's been impossible to prevent them from smoking cigarettes, even with all the packaging and cigarettes hidden away in stores. They'll be walking around at school 'high'. And what about those developing brains? Medical marijuana is easily accessible for those that need it. Why do we have to create a society of "legal stoners"? Judy Riseborough Owen Sound [end]
Grow Up Expo features Jodie Emery as speaker at convention focussed on impending legalization of marijuana next July Jodie Emery laughs when reminded of her last visit to Niagara Falls seven years ago. It started with a trip to MP Rob Nicholson's office on St. Paul Avenue for a protest. It ended waiting for two members of her group to be released from the Niagara Regional Police station on Morrison Street after they were arrested. Emery and several pro-marijuana advocates were hoping to speak with Nicholson, Canada's justice minister at the time, about the extradition of her husband Marc, who was facing five years in a U.S. federal prison for selling mail-order pot seeds across the border. [continues 746 words]
Toronto city council has, by a narrow margin, endorsed Premier Kathleen Wynne's plan for tightly regulated marijuana sales through LCBO-style stores. Council voted 21-16 Wednesday in favour of backing Wynne's pot plan, while demanding that the city be compensated for any related costs when the federal government legalizes marijuana next year. Councillor Cesar Palacio, chair of the licensing committee, said the city must endorse the closure of all illegal, private dispensaries to prevent "chaos" in the new marijuana marketplace. [continues 152 words]
The approach being taken by federal and provincial governments, when it comes to the legalization of marijuana is just another form of prohibition, says a woman who is a longtime advocate for allowing unrestricted access to cannabis. "We're seeing prohibition 2.0," said Jodie Emery, who along with her husband, Marc, have been campaigning for legalization for more than two decades. Jodie will be among the speakers taking part in the Grow Up Cannabis Conference & Expo taking place Friday and Saturday at the Scotiabank Convention Centre. "It's very upsetting." [continues 437 words]
Re. Why not legalize everything?, Letter, Sept. 23: I am a "senior" in my fifth decade who is offended deeply by this letter. Marijuana was purely and simply outlawed in the 1930s by Harry J. Anslinger merely because of corporate pressure for what scientists could manufacture in a lab to soar profits. Is the writer even aware of the many medical benefits of CBDs or the many societal uses of hemp, the non-psychoactive parts of marijuana (hint: these are the very reasons it was outlawed in the first place). [continues 190 words]
Plan for legalized sales included warning that rogue shops would be shut down Last month Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi declared war on the province's illegal pot shops, and this week Ottawa police ramped up efforts to shut down the illegal businesses. Police swooped down on the busy Cannabis Culture store on Bank Street, the Dr. Greenthumb on Montreal Road and "several" outdoor grow ops on Tuesday, arresting eight people. "The provincial government has made it clear that independent storefronts will not be part of a legal framework in Ontario," said Staff Sgt. Rick Carey of the Ottawa police drug unit in a news release. "These storefronts are now and will continue to be illegal operations and property owners need to be aware that they could face serious repercussions for allowing them to continue to operate." [continues 731 words]
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent for CNN is reported to have said, "Every 19 minutes somebody dies of a prescription drug overdose. It doesn't happen with marijuana." In the past Gupta was against legalising medical marijuana in the U.S. but now he is in favour of it. He sees some benefit for certain types of illnesses. The use of medical marijuana (medical cannabis) as a medicine has not been rigorously tested due to several restrictions. But there is some evidence to suggest cannabis can reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasm. [continues 417 words]
Employees jeer drug squad, SWAT team Police raided one of the city's busiest pot shops on Tuesday, hauling away five clerks in handcuffs while a handful of demonstrators jeered. It's the second time the Cannabis Culture dispensary on Bank Street near Gladstone Avenue has been raided. The illegal shop closed for a day last March after police arrested five clerks for drug trafficking and hauled away the dried weed, cannabis concentrates and oils on sale. On Tuesday, drug squad officers in balaclavas, the SWAT team and uniformed officers arrived at the shop not long after it opened at 10 a.m. [continues 379 words]
Grow Up Expo features Jodie Emery as speaker at convention focused on impending legalization of marijuana next July Jodie Emery laughs when reminded of her last visit to Niagara Falls seven years ago. It started with a trip to MP Rob Nicholson's office on St. Paul Avenue for a protest. It ended waiting for two members of her group to be released from the Niagara Regional Police station on Morrison Street after they were arrested. Emery and several pro-marijuana advocates were hoping to speak with Nicholson, Canada's justice minister at the time, about the extradition of her husband Marc, who was facing five years in a U.S. federal prison for selling mail-order pot seeds across the border. [continues 744 words]
