VANCOUVER - The Canadian Medical Association and the federal government apply a far more rigid standard to prescribing marijuana than other drugs, resulting in negative - or even deadly - consequences, say experts from the B.C. Centre for Excellent in HIV/AIDS.

Medical marijuana is held to a different standard than other prescription drugs despite research suggesting it has therapeutic benefits, say three experts from the centre in a commentary published Friday in the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association.

"When it comes to prescription marijuana, patients' needs should be considered above political considerations," Dr. Julio Montaner, one of the authors, said in a news release. "There could be great harm in ignoring the medical uses of marijuana."

[continues 313 words]

Be honest: Four years ago, could you have envisioned the Conservatives on the same side of the law as an industrial-scale marijuana grow-op?

But weird as it seems, that's the situation in Nanaimo, where medical-marijuana producer Tilray finds itself on the establishment side of the pot debate.

With $3.2 million in annual payroll, Tilray became one of the bigger employers in town when it opened in 2014. This spring, it announced plans to quadruple the size of its 65,000-square-foot Duke Point production facility, adding 275 jobs.

[continues 1390 words]

October in Vancouver: leaves changing colours, pumpkin displays and fireworks outlets setting up shop in vacant storefronts.

But this year, fireworks sellers are facing stiff competition from the city's burgeoning marijuana dispensaries, which have exploded in number - from just a dozen in 2013 to more than 100 today.

The rental situation is "absolutely dreadful," according to Raymond Greenwood, owner of Mr. Fireworks. As a 23-year-veteran of the industry and the man who helped bring the Symphony of Fire to Vancouver, Greenwood says he's frustrated by the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries that have snapped up retail storefronts - and driven up rents in the process. While unable to provide exact dollar amounts, Greenwood suggests that rents for shop fronts have nearly doubled, from around $4,000 per month to nearly $8,000. Greenwood believes cannabis businesses are operating illegally. "We have to purchase a business license, apply for a $250 permit, and get ourselves insured for $5 million because of the fire risk," he said. "But these places, what's happening?"

[continues 243 words]

Conservative Leader Talks Pot, Pipelines, the Niqab and Foreign Home Ownership

Suds, not buds. That's the preferred choice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper when it comes to booming new businesses springing up all around Vancouver.

The PM said he's impressed with the city's hopping new wave of micro-breweries.

"Nice to see their success," Harper said at the Red Truck Beer Company, where he taste-tested the local suds.

But all those marijuana shops illegally peddling B.C. bud? He's less impressed with that.

[continues 724 words]

Side effects: No rules require disclosure when they toke up during a trial

The B.C. Supreme Courthouse was abuzz - jurors getting high? Lawyers grabbing a toke? Judges mellowing out? Vancouver's downtown glass ziggurat of justice might look like an oversized greenhouse, but pot friendly?

Now that medical marijuana is the talk of the town, with dispensaries as popular as coffee shops and two mainstream political parties willing to let people spark up their bongs, the potential side-effects are becoming more obvious.

[continues 636 words]

Esquimalt will deny all applications for business licences for medical-marijuana dispensaries after a 6-1 council vote Monday.

Mayor Barb Desjardins said Tuesday the vote was based on the fact the dispensaries are illegal under federal law, and until that law changes, dispensaries looking to set up in the municipality will be referred to bylaw enforcement and Victoria police.

"Everyone felt if the federal law changed, then there would be that opportunity in the future, but with the current law the way it is, we need to follow it," Desjardins said.

[continues 439 words]

TORONTO - A number of Canada's medical marijuana growers are poised to release cannabis oils for authorized patients who don't want to smoke or vaporize the dried herb to relieve symptoms.

In July, Health Canada gave growers the green light to begin producing the plant-based extracts, which are expected to be approved for sale in the coming months.

About a dozen of the country's 25 medicinal pot producers have sought expanded licences to produce and market cannabis oils and/or fresh marijuana buds and leaves under the updated federal regulations. Among them are Ontario companies Tweed and Bedrocan Canada Inc., and Nanaimo's Tilray.

[continues 368 words]

While the Supreme Court's ruling this summer legalized use of extracts and derivatives of medical marijuana, Canadian consumers are still facing hurdles, causing some to look to American sources.

"It's a relief not to feel like a criminal," said Chris Nuessler, a retired RCMP officer and grandfather of Kyla Williams, the 3 1/2- year-old Summerland girl who has shown dramatic improvement from severe epilepsy since using cannabis oil.

In early 2014, when Kyla's doctors said they had exhausted all treatment options, her family turned to the then illegal cannabis oil.

[continues 469 words]

A licensed medical marijuana producer in B.C. is getting closer to selling marijuana extracts such as oils and liquid capsules, products traditionally in the realm of still-illegal dispensaries.

Nanaimo-based producer Tilray got a licence to produce cannabis oils from Health Canada in August. The federal regulator is letting licensed producers make - and eventually sell - fresh marijuana and cannabis oil as well as dried marijuana in light of a Supreme Court decision that patients have a right to these forms of the drug.

[continues 203 words]

I'm writing you in regard to medical marijuana use, the general decriminalization of it, and its possible eventual legalization.

In this letter, I will be quoting directly from Stephen Harper, as well as from Sensible BC, a sympathetic marijuana user's organization based in Vancouver.

I will firstly quote from Harper and Sensible BC volunteers, who did some thorough investigations in response to some of the Prime Minister's misleading allegations.

Harper: "Most Canadians (when) you actually ask them, do not want full legalization of marijuana."

[continues 332 words]

Canada's three major opposition parties agree: It's time to reform Canada's pot laws - though they all have their own take on how that ought to be done.

The federal Liberals were the first to make a declarative stance that Canada needs to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

"We don't think this war on drugs has worked," said Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Liberal candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country.

A recent World Health Organization report noted that Canada has the highest teen usage of marijuana, something that would likely go down if it were better regulated, Goldsmith-Jones said. "Right now, it's easier to get a hold of marijuana than cigarettes or alcohol for minors," she said. "We're trying to address that because we want to keep young people healthy. We think legalizing marijuana is the best way to keep it out of the hands of children and to keep the proceeds from funding criminal activities." Goldsmith-Jones said the exact model for how marijuana would be sold legally would be determined in consultation with the Canadian people. "We have to have a public debate. Right now, we have not been able to do that," she said The NDP's campaign is promising to decriminalize simple possession of the pot, but their plan stops short of full legalization. "(Decriminalization) is something we can do immediately and we don't have to work with the provinces to do it," said Carol! Baird Ellan, NDP candidate in Burnaby North-Seymour and a former judge. "Our view is no one should be criminalized for simple possession. They shouldn't have a criminal record. ... It's something where the penalty is unnecessary for those kinds of issues."

[continues 451 words]

High-Profile, Gang-Related Shootings Put the Focus on Safe Streets Surrey-Newton (Redrawn) Federal Election Results 2011

If there is one thing voters and vote-hunters in Surrey-Newton agree on, it is that crime eclipses all other issues in a community that is desperate to be known for something, anything, else.

Yet the Conservatives, who have sought to brand themselves the "tough on crime" party, are seen as the long shot to win in a riding that is likely to be a bellwether for which opposition party might have the best shot at replacing the governing Tories.

[continues 1072 words]

Based on drug charges from 2009

Pot activist Tim Felger has been convicted of two offences following his second trial for drug charges laid in Abbotsford in 2009.

Felger was sentenced Sept. 18 in B.C. Supreme Court on one charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of trafficking in marijuana.

Five other trafficking charges were stayed.

Felger was given credit for six months of jail time already served and will serve no further time. He has also been given a lifetime firearms ban.

[continues 241 words]

With medical marijuana dispensaries continuing to open in defiance of federal law, more B.C. communities have joined the call for local authority to regulate what are often little more than retail pot stores.

Lower Mainland communities found majority support at last week's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention to bypass legal wrangling over medical marijuana access, as a court challenge continues against the Conservative government's strict controls on growing and selling it legally.

Maple Ridge Coun. Corisa Bell said other cities are facing the same issues as Vancouver, where about 100 dispensaries have opened in a free-for all with street-level marketing to young people. Vancouver ignored instructions from federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose to use authorized sources of medical marijuana, and adopted a licensing system last spring to keep pot shops away from schools, community centres and each other.

[continues 241 words]

There's plenty of speculation about our upcoming federal election, much of it frankly negative.

Politics is tough, especially when you weigh up the leaders and realize that finding someone who reflects all your values is almost impossible.

When the haranguing and arguing gets me down, I simply flip on a U.S. news channel, and take a good look at what our friends to the south are dealing with. It's like they're trying to elect a new village idiot, with a surfeit of contenders - by comparison, the Canadian election is a Care Bear Countdown.

[continues 846 words]

Kelowna police chief insists city's drug problems no worse than in anywhere else in Canada

Despite Kelowna having the highest rate of drug violations per capita in Canada in 2014, RCMP say its drug problems are no worse than any other city's. "The more drug enforcement that a police force conducts, the higher the rate is going to be," said Supt. Nick Romanchuk of the Kelowna RCMP.

"I could flip the switch and have no drug enforcement and we'd have the lowest rate. I could reduce the stats easily, but that would be superficial."

[continues 312 words]

Kelowna police chief insists city's drug problems no worse than in anywhere else in Canada

Despite Kelowna having the highest rate of drug violations per capita in Canada in 2014, RCMP say its drug problems are no worse than any other city's. "The more drug enforcement that a police force conducts, the higher the rate is going to be," said Supt. Nick Romanchuk of the Kelowna RCMP.

"I could flip the switch and have no drug enforcement and we'd have the lowest rate. I could reduce the stats easily, but that would be superficial."

[continues 312 words]

In this centenary of the Great War, it is worth considering the lessons to be learned as we contemplate the current war on drugs.

One of the distinctive features of the First World War was that the military leaders constantly reinforced failure, simplistically believing that a larger and harder push would succeed where others had failed. Many lives were pointlessly lost in the process.

Fast-forward to our present war on drugs. Clearly, it has not been working, yet the federal government insists on reinforcing failure, rather than pausing to re-think its options. One would think that we might have learned the lesson of prohibition in the 1920s; it doesn't work. But as in the Great War, the rigid adherence to a failed strategy simply causes more harm and more deaths, to little purpose.

[continues 519 words]

With the 42nd federal election fast approaching, residents of Kimberley were given an opportunity to listen in on major election issues and the stances of all four candidates in the riding of Kootenay-Columbia on Wednesday as the Kimberley Chamber of Commerce hosted an all-candidates forum at Centre 64.

Bill Green (Green Party), Don Johnston (Liberal Party), Wayne Stetski (NDP) and incumbent David Wilks (Conservative Party of Canada) were all in attendance Wednesday night, fielding 13 questions in a forum moderated by Tom Ross.

[continues 1368 words]

Nanaimo Serves As Model for Cleaning Up Drug Houses

When Ladysmith officials reached the end of their rope on controlling nuisance properties this summer, they turned to Nanaimo for ideas. They weren't the first.

A number of B.C. cities have approached Nanaimo for advice on how to clean up drug houses and nuisance properties, thanks to a groundbreaking city bylaw developed nearly 10 years ago that is being held up as a model for other communities. Nanaimo city staff were getting overwhelmed with complaints about drug houses in various neighbourhoods and needed a unique solution.

[continues 675 words]