Laziness, not criminal intent, was likely behind a city police officer's decision to take home seized drugs, a judge ruled Tuesday. Provincial court Judge Jerry LeGrandeur said he had a reasonable doubt Const. Robert Cumming took home marijuana handed over to him by an undercover officer for his own personal use. LeGrandeur said Cumming's conduct in placing the contraband in his garbage bin in the alley behind his house before retrieving it hours later supported the suspended officer's story. [continues 466 words]
Brantford on list of 14 cities announced by the province Brantford is getting a government-run marijuana store after all. The city is on a list of 15 cities announced Tuesday by the government. The stores will sell marijuana for recreational use. Officials confirmed Tuesday that the city has been identified for the location of at least one cannabis retail store by next July, the same month the federal government plans to legalize cannabis. Brantford was not on a list announced in November of 14 cities chosen to host pot shops. [continues 855 words]
The B.C. government says revenue from legalized marijuana isn't going to create the financial windfall many expected once the province's thriving but illicit industry moves out of the shadows and is taxed like tobacco. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Carole James cautioned against expectations. "There will be revenue coming in after the first couple of years, but I don't see it as a big money-maker for British Columbia," James said at an editorial board meeting with The Vancouver Sun and The Province. [continues 444 words]
Ottawa must withdraw its plan to charge tax on medicinal marijuana or risk having an adverse effect on patients, a group of more than 50 doctors warned Monday as the federal government hashed out a pot-tax revenue-sharing agreement with the provinces and territories. The doctors, who describe themselves as a group of physicians who routinely prescribe marijuana to their patients, say applying a sales or excise tax to medicinal pot would impose a financial barrier for those who use the drug to manage their symptoms, compared to patients who take other medication. [continues 199 words]
More than 1,208 people have died from illicit drug overdoses in B.C. this year, the coroners service reported Monday. Victoria and Vancouver Island continue to be in the top townships and health areas for overdose deaths. The latest death toll in the overdose crisis includes statistics to the end of October 2017. November and December numbers will not be released until the new year. "These numbers show that this is still something on the rise," said Andy Watson of the B.C. Coroners Service. "We're cautiously optimistic [now] that we've seen two months with under 100 deaths, but November and December were the peaks of last year." [continues 431 words]
OTTAWA - Manitoba will push the federal government to transfer all of the sin taxes collected from recreational marijuana into provincial coffers, the Free Press has learned. "This is a federal policy, with a federal timeline, with provincial obligations and responsibilities," provincial Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said. On Sunday evening, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau hosted his colleagues from the provinces and territories for a working dinner before a lengthy meeting today examining everything from pension reform to equalization payments. It's the looming July 2018 deadline [continues 574 words]
Fighting back tears, Olympia Lynn Trypis stood in the rotunda of city hall and begged for better services for drug users, to save her life and the lives of her friends. "In the last two years I've lost three of my really close friends and I am tired of having to go to funerals and not celebrating more birthdays. These people were beautiful souls," said Trypis, 22, speaking to a crowd who had marched to city hall in memory of people lost to drug overdoses, or contaminated drugs. [continues 325 words]
It'll be months before London finds out if it gets the go-ahead and funding for supervised drug injection sites, but it appears key players already are walking in unison to support the sites, but restrict where they can locate. The area's medical officer of health, a key city planner and an advocate for the downtrodden all express some confidence there will be suitable sites sufficiently far from schools and other places frequented by children. "I completely understand why the city and stakeholders would want to limit where it goes," said Chris Mackie, the head of public health in London and Middlesex County. "I definitely think it will be possible to find one or two locations that will work." [continues 602 words]
Consumer advocacy group concerned marijuana treated differently than booze A consumer choice advocacy group has condemned the Manitoba government's plan to ban homegrown marijuana when it becomes legal in the country next year. David Clement, the North American affairs manager for the Consumer Choice Centre, an independent entity that aims to promote more choice and freedom for consumers, says the decision to ban the growing of pot in homes is "silly" questions why the ability Clement said the reason the CCC has spoken out is two-fold. [continues 366 words]
In October, marijuana industry heavy hitter Aurora Cannabis Inc. spent $3.85-million to acquire BC Northern Lights Enterprises Ltd., a Vancouver-based company that manufactures refrigerator-sized "grow boxes." The miniature nurseries, loaded up with high-powered lights, ventilation systems and hydroponics equipment, are designed to hold four to 18 marijuana plants and made specifically for the home-growing market. BCNL, which has been around for nearly two decades, has been selling boxes to medical-marijuana users since limited home growing became legal in 2001 for patients with government-approved growing licences. With the federal government legalizing recreational cannabis use this coming summer, BCNL's chief executive officer, Tarren Wolfe, is expecting an avalanche of new customers. "I believe [the number of home growers] is at least going to double when the doors open," he said. That could mean tens of thousands of new hobby horticulturalists looking for an easy way to cultivate. [continues 717 words]
WORCESTER - Thousands of people gathered at a convention hall Saturday for the first-ever Harvest Cup, a friendly if spirited competition among home-growers of marijuana that doubled as a convention for the burgeoning cannabis industry and its consumers. The event, taking place this weekend at the DCU Center, came the same week that marijuana regulators began drafting rules for the scheduled July start of recreational sales in Massachusetts. Many participants Saturday were overheard debating various policies and what they will mean for the small-scale cultivators at the heart of the Harvest Cup once millions of dollars of investment funds pour into the state. [continues 683 words]
Ontario adolescents are drinking, smoking and using cannabis and other recreational drugs at the lowest rates since the late 1970s, suggests a biennial survey of Grade 7 to 12 students by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). But the 2017 survey released Thursday turned up a disturbing finding: almost one per cent of respondents in Grades 9 to 12 reported having taken illicit fentanyl in the previous year, raising a red flag given the opioid's involvement in hundreds of overdose deaths across the country. [continues 366 words]
The latest Corporate Research Associates (CRA) survey this week probably sent chills down the spines of finance ministers and premiers across Atlantic Canada. After returning home from Ottawa earlier in the week with a lucrative tax-sharing deal on the sale of legalized marijuana, visions of windfall revenues were quickly brought back to reality. The CRA survey suggests that approximately 20 per cent of Atlantic Canadians plan to purchase pot once marijuana becomes legal July 1. That is about the same percentage that uses pot today - illegally. [continues 415 words]
Colin Perkel writes the upcoming legalization of marijuana is unlikely to kill Canada's black market - right away, at least TORONTO - From texting a local dealer to dropping into a neighbourhood dispensary or ordering online, Canada's black market for recreational marijuana has seen significant changes in recent years and, no doubt, will see more as the country hurtles toward a new world of legalization next summer. What does seem clear, however, is that the illegal market is unlikely to disappear in a puff of smoke come legalization day. [continues 783 words]
TORONTO-Communities across Ontario cannot opt out of hosting a government-run pot shop if they are selected for a site, the provincial government said Friday after at least one town expressed resistance to having a cannabis retail location. If a community is selected to host one of the marijuana shops, it could delay hosting the store but cannot completely opt out of having it, said Ontario's Ministry of Finance. "As we roll out the next phase of stores, we will continue to engage with municipalities on an ongoing basis including with those municipalities who may not be ready for a store opening in July 2018," said Jessica Martin, spokesperson for Finance Minister Charles Sousa. [continues 347 words]
Health officials are disappointed that the province has set the legal age for marijuana consumption at 19 years. The consensus among provincial and national health organizations is that the minimum age should be 21, and some believe it should be even older, said Dr. Phil Tibbo, director of the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program and a psychiatry professor at Dalhousie University. "Regular cannabis use can actually have a significant impact on brain development up until about your mid-20s," he said in an interview Thursday. [continues 265 words]
LCBO advises city that Peterborough will have one of the first 40 marijuana stores to open in Ontario Peterborough will have a marijuana store by next summer, says the city CAO. Allan Seabrooke said the store will sell marijuana for recreational use. He said it will be open by July - the same month weed is going to be legalized in Canada. In an email to The Examiner, Seabrooke wrote that the store will be operated by a subsidiary of the LCBO and will sell only cannabis - not alcohol. [continues 309 words]
Unprecedented support shown for drug accused In an unprecedented show of support for an accused, some 80 people crowded into two Sydney courtrooms Friday to attend a bail hearing for a man charged with drug trafficking. The crowd left the Sydney Justice Centre cheering and clapping and drove away beeping their horns in showing their extreme pleasure with the decision to grant bail. Provincial court Judge Peter Ross allowed the release of Donald James Campbell, 38, who is charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, involving marijuana and hashish. He faces an additional drug charge of growing marijuana. [continues 528 words]
Smoke-free means smoke-free at Sault Area Hospital - whether that applies to tobacco fixes or toking up. Sault Area Hospital currently has a no-cigarette policy that encompasses its entire property, which will apply once recreational pot becomes legal in Canada next summer. "We have a no-smoking policy, so that would apply to smoking marijuana on our property," SAH president and CEO Ron Gagnon told The Sault Star. SAH's policy includes all buildings, parking lots, the Hub Trail running along the eastern edge of the hospital grounds, roads encircling the hospital leading to and from both Great Northern Road and Third Line and wooded and grass areas to the south and west of the emergency department and helipad. [continues 361 words]
Province backtracks on stand that municipalities cannot opt out of cannabis stores The Ontario government appeared to backtrack late Friday on an earlier statement that municipalities would be unable to opt out of hosting marijuana stores, raising more questions about the province's readiness for the expected pot legalization next summer. The issue came up earlier this week after a city of Richmond Hill committee unanimously endorsed a statement saying it was not willing to host one of the retail stores. [continues 486 words]