Puffs of marijuana smoke floated above Calgary City Hall Sunday while clouds of it ascended above the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, as part of 420 rallies held across the province and nationwide. While the pro-pot crowd in Calgary numbered in the dozens, the gathering in Edmonton was counted in the thousands. The peaceful assembly in the provincial capital - with blankets, bongo drums and spontaneous hacky sack games - looked more like a day at the folk festival instead of a protest rally, with police dotting the perimeter to make sure the communal pot-smoking event remained trouble-free. [continues 78 words]
Pot Affects Brain Development In Youth: Studies As the world watches the effects of the legalization of cannabis (also known as marijuana) south of the border in Colorado and Washington states, many Canadians are debating the future of our nation's most used illicit drug. Should it remain criminalized? Should options such as the ticketing proposal brought forth by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police be examined by lawmakers? What would outright legalization look like? Where does marijuana for medical purposes fit into the picture - if at all? [continues 571 words]
Commercial medical marijuana grow operations will be allowed in Calgary, as long as they meet Health Canada and city regulations. City councillors voted in favour Monday of amending a bylaw to allow commercial medical grow-ops to exist in industrial areas, after new rules came into effect April 1 barring patients from growing at home. Under new rules, patients will have doctor-prescribed marijuana couriered from a commercial facility. "What it allows is there will be more control so I support the private sector getting into this and the feds getting out of it," said Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart on the new rules. [continues 318 words]
On the outside, it may look like just a regular marijuana grow operation. But investigators with the province's police Green Team are coming across more grow ops with dangerous hash oil extraction labs, some of them discovered after deadly fires and explosions. Dwayne Karpo of the ALERT Green Team North explains that hash oil is the byproduct of a marijuana plant. The leaves and stems are soaked in butane gas or isopropyl alcohol to extract the potent cannabinoid-containing resin. [continues 448 words]
E-Cigarettes May Be Driving Spike In Hash Oil Production, Drug Team Says Another type of oil industry is booming in Alberta. Electronic cigarettes loaded with hash oil cartridges are becoming an increasingly popular way to get a more intense high without getting caught. "So many of these young kids nowadays are using these electronic cigarettes. It's odourless, colourless, it smells like bubble gum or cherry, and here they are getting high," said Sgt. Dwayne Karpo of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team's Green Team North on Tuesday. [continues 303 words]
'Gatekeepers'. Federal reforms spark new rules for province's physicians Patients and experts fear prospective Alberta medicinal marijuana users will have an impossible time acquiring a prescription as new rules turn physicians into the "gatekeepers" of the drug. The concerns stem from new regulations implemented by Health Canada April 1, which have put the onus on doctors across the country to determine who can turn to commercial growers to treat their ailments with cannabis. Previously Health Canada had to approve applications to access the drug. [continues 277 words]
Federal reforms spark new rules for province's physicians Patients and experts fear prospective Alberta medicinal-marijuana users will have an impossible time acquiring a prescription as new rules turn physicians into the "gatekeepers" of the drug. The concerns stem from new regulations implemented by Health Canada on April 1, which have put the onus on doctors across the country to determine who can turn to commercial growers to treat their ailments with cannabis. Previously Health Canada had to approve applications to access the drug. [continues 321 words]
Commercial marijuana growing operations have been recategorized in the land-use bylaw of Rocky View County (RVC). A new bylaw adopted by the county council now defines the cultivation of marijuana as a commercial operation and is no longer included as a crop under the RVC's horticulture and agricultural rules. Production facilities are limited to land that is commercially zoned, and the operations must be located at least 400 metres from a residence, residential land, or school. There are 24 industrial or business areas in the county where commercial operations are currently permitted, but some may be too close to homes or schools to allow marijuana operations. Landowners, though, can apply for zoning re-designation for any parcel of land in RVC to accommodate the facilities. It would need to go through a rezoning process that includes public hearings. [continues 180 words]
A Medicine Hat owner of a marijuana paraphernalia store and regional director of an organization looking to reform laws surrounding the drug are voicing their concern of Canada's new medicinal pot laws. Keith Fagin, prairies director for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Canada (NORML), says there are some good things about the new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). "The good thing is they're expanding from one commercial supplier over the last 10 years to multiple commercial suppliers," said Fagin. [continues 330 words]
Every child should have what is needed for a healthy, happy life, even if that requires changing the laws. That's the case for Mia Wilkinson, an eight-year-old Airdrie girl who has suffered from debilitating seizures her whole life. Left in a wheelchair, unable to speak, drugged with a cocktail of harmful pharmaceuticals that didn't even control her daily seizures, Mia's mom, Sarah, and doctor were at the end of their rope. Instead of giving up, Sarah became a relentless researcher and advocate for her child. [continues 348 words]
Like many eight year olds, Airdrie's Mia Wilkinson likes chocolate, Lady Gaga and the cartoon Phineas and Ferb. But Mia is anything but average. The little girl has never walked, never attended school and just recently started saying "mom." According to her mother, Sarah, Mia had her first seizure when she was just 29 minutes old and was diagnosed with atypical Odahara syndrome. Also known as Early Infantile Epileptic Encephalopathy with Burst-Suppression (EIEE), Odahara is a progressive epileptic encephalopathy seen outwardly with tonic spasms and partial seizures. [continues 557 words]
Rocky View County has amended its land-use bylaw to restrict commercial medical marijuana grow operations, but the move isn't likely to settle lingering legal issues around the new industry. At least one local resident who has already applied to Health Canada for a licence under the new distribution regime said the new bylaw won't halt work to build a medical marijuana operation on his rural property west of Airdrie. "My solicitor says it's business as usual," said Stan Swiatek, whose company, Sundial Growers, has spent several months converting a decommissioned greenhouse on his land in anticipation of getting a Health Canada permit. [continues 569 words]
Alberta entrepreneurs say their product will be higher quality New hope has blossomed for home marijuana growers after a federal judge's ruling, but Alberta entrepreneurs believe there will still be a budding commercial market for the drug regardless of the court's ultimate verdict. A group of medicinal marijuana patients were granted an injunction Friday that will allow them to continue growing plants in their abodes pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge of federal reforms set to take effect April 1. [continues 301 words]
This story is Part 1 of 2 surrounding the issue of synthetic cannabinoids and their local availability A local store connected to the sale of a synthetic cannabinoid has fallen into a grey area of Canadian law. River City Cigars, located on Westpark Boulevard in Fort Saskatchewan, has been selling "Spirit 420," a "herbal incense" - the brand of which was connected with synthetic cannabinoids in a March 2013 investigation in Medicine Hat. "Cannabinoids originate from marijuana. These are synthetic cannabinoids that are basically made in a lab," said Bradley Mitchelmore, a clinical assistant professor with the University of Alberta's Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. [continues 1081 words]
Federal Reforms. Decision on Legal Challenge of Marijuana Laws Coming Friday If kitty litter and water won't destroy your medical marijuana, southern Alberta police appear willing to take the drugs off your hands, no questions asked. Federal reforms loom April 1 that will make illegal all home marijuana grow operations. In advance, Health Canada has suggested current patients still sitting on a stock of plants and buds turn to a mixture of kitty litter and water to properly dispose of their stashes. [continues 341 words]
Calgary police say they will show no mercy to unlicensed growers of medical marijuana once a new federal program shifts production to a smaller number of producers, but officers are not planning a sweeping crackdown. The approach is in contrast to the Vancouver Police Department's plans to be more lenient with businesses that sell medical pot to patients with required permits. In Calgary, police will face a daunting challenge to weed out illegal growers because they don't know how many there are. Some operators, licensed under current rules, tend plants for their own consumption in their homes, while others grow for clients. These licenses will no longer be valid April 1, when the new rules will forbid home-based medical pot production and require that commercial growers abide by strict health and safety conditions and introduce security measures, such as surveillance systems. [continues 649 words]
Burning need: Users dread rising costs, while cops worry for the safety of couriers Police and marijuana advocates are sparking up fears that an expected increase in mail-order weed could sprout new issues for ailing users - and new targets for opportunistic criminals. Health Canada is outlawing home marijuana grows for licensed medicinal users effective April 1 and it appears unlikely an approved commercial operation to fill in the gap in product will be up and running by then - - Calgary police expect to go before city council at some point in April to talk about proper zoning for such a facility. [continues 344 words]
Re: "Redford is a rare voice against looser pot laws," Rob Breakenridge, Opinion, March 11. What progress? Rob Breakenridge fails to acknowledge what, socially, is not likely to change - history dictates the rebellious nature as well as teenage angst will continue to push that segment of the population to engage in what all too often becomes a gateway drug. It is the escapism and the perceived unsanctioned activity that draws youth into the use of marijuana, and the proposed law is not likely to change that. [continues 72 words]
Re: "Perspective on pot," Letter, March 13. People who hang onto the belief that marijuana is a gateway drug should really make more of an effort to educate themselves instead of using the same old tired rhetoric. Julia Grzela, give us one science-based piece of evidence supporting your belief, or better yet, actually try it so that you have some basis from which to draw such unsupported conclusions. Wes Armitage, Calgary [end]
Rocky View County residents shared their feelings on a proposed land use amendment that would permit Licensed Medical Marijuana Facilities. Rocky View County (RVC) is proposing a change to its Land Use Bylaw (LUB) to only allow federally-regulated Licensed Medical Marijuana Facilities to be located in areas of the county that are zoned for commercial use. An open house was held at the county office March 5 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to inform residents about the proposed amendments, in advance of the public hearing March 25 when council will vote whether to approve the amendments. [continues 657 words]
Inside Alberta
