Ottawa's push to implement mandatory minimum sentences is potentially adding billions of dollars in costs to the criminal justice system without reducing crime or making the public safer, says a report released Monday by a British Columbia-based rights group. Instead, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association's report says longer prison sentences can actually make inmates more likely to re-offend while disproportionately affecting marginalized groups.

The report adds to criticism that has followed the shift to mandatory minimums. The Conservative government has doubled the number of offences that carry compulsory sentences in less than a decade as part of its tough-on-crime agenda.

[continues 170 words]

Jodie Emery, the wife of marijuana activist Marc Emery, officially filed her nomination papers Monday to run for the Liberals in Vancouver East - a move widely thought to put wind in Conservatives' sails as they attack leader Justin Trudeau for pushing marijuana legalization too hard.

Ms. Emery said she has never met or spoken with Mr. Trudeau, but members of the Vancouver East Federal Liberal Riding Association encouraged her to seek the nomination. Still, she understands why he would be nervous as the Conservatives try to connect his support for legalization with the slippery slope leading to the corruption of children.

[continues 355 words]

Wife of 'Prince of Pot' seeks candidacy in Vancouver East, but one Grit source warns 'it will not be smooth sailing' for her

A high-profile advocate for marijuana legalization has filed her papers to run as a Liberal in the next federal election, putting the spotlight on an issue that the Conservatives have used to attack Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Jodie Emery filed her nomination papers Monday in Vancouver East, a riding the NDP has held since 1997. Ms. Emery is a prominent marijuana legalization advocate, along with her husband, Marc Emery, known as the "Prince of Pot," who returned to Canada last month after serving an American jail sentence for selling marijuana seeds.

[continues 555 words]

Man Pleads Guilty to Growing Marijuana, but Says His Health Canada Licence Was Up for Renewal

A Port Alberni man plead guilty Monday to illegally growing marijuana in his home, but says he's hoping for a lenient sentence because his legal licence to grow the substance was up for renewal at the time.

"I'm not a drug dealer," Randall Fox told the Alberni Valley Times Monday after entering guilty pleas on three charges in Port Alberni Supreme Court.

"I don't think I should be punished as hard... because Health Canada dropped the ball."

[continues 469 words]

River's Edge resident Lehann Wallace said she'll "stop at nothing" to protect her neighbourhood from a medical marijuana operation proposed for land adjacent to the quaint Nanoose Bay suburb.

"We are going to do whatever it takes to stop it," Wallace told a crowd of more than 100 people Tuesday night, including fellow disgruntled neighbours, regional district officials and the CEO of Wildflower Marijuana Inc., the Vancouver-based company causing all the commotion.

Wildflower Marijuana is proposing to build a 68,000 square foot medical marijuana production facility on ALR land that was formerly Paradise Acres Ranch, a 125-acre property that comes with a three-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,077 square-foot home. Wildflower CEO William MacLean declined to comment on weather the company has officially purchased the land, or if the deal is contingent on Health Canada's licence approval. Wildflower is also reportedly looking to open a similar facility south of Nanaimo.

[continues 611 words]

Dear Editor,

Canadian doctors report that all smoke is harmful, and that smoking one joint is equivalent to ten cigarettes.

True to form, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair accuses the Conservative government of attempting to recruit doctors "in their ideological crusade against marijuana."

Mr. Mulcair cannot even face the scientific facts of physicians who see the devastation of drug and alcohol abuse, or that the doctors can think and speak for themselves.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau also disregards the CMA's warnings, and wants Canada to be a test case for the effect on Canadian children of legalizing cannabis.

The physicians in the CMA can tell them: all smoke is harmful, especially for children.

Cherryl Katnich, Maple Ridge

[end]

What happened to North America's boldest drug policy experiment?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, drug policy pulsed at the heart of Vancouver's municipal politics. In 2002, Larry Campbell, the former RCMP officer turned chief coroner, carried his newly adopted COPE party into city hall by campaigning on a harm reduction platform. These ideas -- clean needle distribution, supervised injection sites, and methadone -- were presented as pragmatic solutions to the harms associated with drug use.

Campbell rode a wave that was already building throughout the '90s. In 1993, over 200 Vancouverites died of illicit drug overdose. With high overdose, HIV, and Hepatitis C rates, it was clear that the city needed a new way to deal with its drug problems. After much campaigning by activists, academics, and public health officials, council approved an 85-page document called A Framework For Action: A Four-Pillar Approach to Vancouver's Drug Problems. Those four pillars, approved in 2001, included 36 recommendations for a more progressive drug policy -- including the recommendation that lead to Insite. It was the most bold and progressive drug policy of any city in North America.

[continues 1493 words]

A storefront in southeast Vancouver is the third marijuana dispensary busted by police in less than three months.

Today (September 2) officers executed a search warrant against Budzilla located at 2267 Kingsway.

According to a Vancouver Police Department media release, authorities had received numerous complaints regarding how the business was conducting operations.

"The products comprised of dry marijuana and THC-infused edibles, including candy and cookies," it states. "The appearance and packaging of many of these items could be potentially very appealing to children."

[continues 443 words]

Concern Raised by Nanaimo Was That the City's Industrial Tax Base Could Potentially Have Been at Risk

The City of Nanaimo welcomes a recent decision by the B.C. government to exclude medical marijuana from being eligible for farm classification for property tax and assessment purposes, the city's Mayor John Ruttan says.

However, officials at city hall say they do not intend undo an earlier zoning change from last year that withdrew medical marijuana production as an acceptable use under the city's 'I4' industrial zones in Duke Point, adding instead that they will consider zoning changes for the area on a case-by-case basis.

[continues 349 words]

The introduction of medical-marijuana grow ops shows what happens when a large, distant bureaucracy gets its hands on something.

If you live near land in the Agricultural Land Reserve, as many Vancouver Islanders do, you may be among those belatedly discovering that an application for a legal grow op is in the Health Canada approval process.

And what's arriving on the farm isn't a crop of noxious weeds but a large, windowless cement and steel box, impounded by high fences, locked gates, security cameras and razor wire.

[continues 223 words]

Reefer Madness: Provincial Law Is Toothless When It Comes To Regulating Wild West Of Medical Marijuana

It is rare that a municipal councillor issues a war call over a development permit. But that's exactly what Sechelt's Chris Moore did in late July during a debate over a permit for Medma Cannabis Pharms Inc., one of three medical marijuana companies looking to set up in Sechelt.

As council discussed a variance to allow the two-storey, 433- square-metre production facility, Moore stated: "Frankly, I'll be extremely disappointed if this is not granted. In fact, it will be a war call for me."

[continues 1028 words]

I fear that yet too many people out there assume that because something is "legal" it is good, safe and in the best interests of the public. Legality is not nor ever has been necessarily equal to good.

Canadians are being bombarded with the current myth of the merits of medical marijuana when in fact the benefits and safety of this drug are far from having been conclusively proved. Nor has it been proved to be a safe recreational drug.

Canada and more than a dozen U.S. states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes but under federal law marijuana remains illegal. So is marijuana really medicine? Just because a few chemicals in marijuana have been developed into medications does not conclusively prove the drug is safe.

[continues 261 words]

A man who filed a human rights complaint after he was kicked out of his business for smoking pot too frequently has been awarded damages.

His former landlord was dinged for retaliating by preventing the man from entering the property and threatening legal action unless the tenant signed a liability waiver. According to the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal decision, Taylor Steele had been operating an electronics repair shop called WE Repair on West Broadway in Vancouver.

He's a medical marijuana user, and testified that he always carried pot on him, and frequently went outside the building to an alleyway - and later at his nearby parked car - to smoke.

[continues 146 words]

Steele said while he smokes pot to relieve pain from a car crash, he has never lit up indoors.

A Vancouver man evicted from his West Broadway apartment has failed to convince the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal his landlord discriminated against him because he used marijuana for pain relief.

Taylor Steele, 33, had filed a complaint against landlord Aishwarya Investments Ltd. and property manager Kerry Grant, alleging discrimination in tenancy based on a physical disability.

The complaint arose after Steele was given an eviction notice after several other tenants complained he was allegedly smoking marijuana in his apartment when he was not allowed to do so.

[continues 189 words]

Bruce Banman expects other cities will join in petitioning Health Canada

B.C. municipalities will vote next month on a resolution by the City of Abbotsford to petition Health Canada for the right to dictate where medical marijuana growing facilities are located across the province.

The resolution, which will go to the Union of B. C. Municipalities in late September, follows new Health Canada regulations that prohibit licensed medical marijuana users from growing pot in their homes. The federal government regulations now require all licensed medical marijuana users to mail-order their pot from government sanctioned, centralized facilities.

[continues 614 words]

Medical Marijuana Idea In Early Stages

The firm proposing a medical marijuana production facility in the Nanoose area outside of Nanaimo is committed to working with the public to address concerns surrounding the project, according to its CEO. However, a growing group of residents is opposed to the project.

Among them is Regional District of Nanaimo board chairman Joe Stanhope, who says complaints from residents about the project has convinced him to oppose it.

Vancouver-based Wildflower Marijuana Inc. has put forward an application for a facility in Nanoose Bay and also has plans for a second facility in the Yellow Point area. In total, the company is proposing approximately 150,000 square feet of facility space between the two locations.

[continues 343 words]

The last time Pat saw her granddaughter, the younger woman was in the agony of drug withdrawal, crawling around on the floor and begging for help.

"I tried every contact I had to try to get her into a treatment centre," said Pat, "but the best I could find was a place with a three-month wait list.

"She left my home and her children and has been lost to us ever since. Her mother still seeks her out on the streets, at Our Place and in the hospital and courts."

[continues 649 words]

The Regional District of Nanaimo has put out a response to residential opposition to a licence application for a new medical marijuana facility in the Nanoose area.

However, the regional government says its hands are effectively tied with regards to the project and is asking residents to address their questions and complaints to senior levels of government. A group of residents living close to the proposed facility plan on meeting Tuesday to prepare their next steps.

Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer Wildflower Marijuana Inc. has two applications for licences in the works with Health Canada, the federal agency that regulates medical marijuana production. One of the applications is for the facility in Nanoose, while another is for an operation in Yellow Point.

[continues 238 words]

Canada's public safety minister dodged questions about allowing police to issue tickets for simple marijuana possession, instead using the podium at the national police chiefs' conference Wednesday to slam Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's pot policy.

"Police chiefs oppose legalization, doctors oppose legalization, but Mr. Trudeau wants to legalize marijuana?" said Steven Blaney, speaking at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Victoria on Wednesday.

"We will continue to protect a safe environment for Canadians and especially for our youth."

[continues 159 words]

IN A 59-page decision, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has upheld a medicinal marijuana user's complaint against his landlord.

Taylor Steele alleged discrimination in tenancy based on a physical disability after Aishwarya Investments failed to accommodate his need to manage his pain with pot.

Steele was operating a company repairing video-game consoles and other electronic devices when he was evicted from a unit near the corner of West Broadway and Oak Street.

As a result of a 2002 motor-vehicle accident, he suffered muscle spasms and sharp shooting pains, according to the ruling by Norman Trerise.

[continues 287 words]