Now that odours from marijuana and compost are getting under control in Cedar, the Harmac Mill and biogas cogeneration plant will be reviewed. The Regional District of Nanaimo's Alec McPherson, who directs the Cedar area, says that he sees things improving in the near future, but things could still get better, which is why he plans to talk to company owners. The ICC Group's composting facility was recently handed a $1 million bill for odour abatement and are complying. Meanwhile marijuana odours from home growers are expected to subside after April 1, when legislation changes take medical marijuana growth out of homes and into large scale production. McPherson regularly receives complaints from residents over foul smells. [continues 146 words]
This afternoon, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George board of directors will pass or defeat a bylaw limiting new medical marijuana grow sites to big rural properties. Under the federal government's new Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulation effective April 1, production facilities licensed by Health Canada would be allowed in the same areas as other intensive agricultural uses and kept out of areas zoned as residential. Last month, board members passed the first two readings of a new bylaw to limit these grow operations to rural parcels of 16 hectares or larger on land zoned as M5 Agriculture Industry. [continues 784 words]
Philip Seymour Hoffman's Death Opens a Door on an Epidemic of Drug Abuse. The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman last week, apparently of a heroin overdose, says a lot about the epidemic of opiate abuse gripping the United States. That epidemic, which I've spent the last year researching for a forthcoming book, is rooted in a 20-year revolution in medicine that has resulted in far wider prescribing of opiates. Narcotic painkillers are now prescribed for chronic back and knee pain, fibromyalgia, headaches, arthritis and other ailments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consumption of these opioids has risen 300% since 1999, making them the most prescribed class of medicines in America. [continues 767 words]
3 Arrested After Discovery of Passage That Spanned 481 Feet Nogales has been the epicenter for cross-border drug tunnels for years. U.S. authorities have found 100 drug tunnels in that city since 1990, more than any other location along the 2,000-mile United States-Mexico border. But the tunnel found this week tops them all. At 481 feet, longer than 11 football fields, it is the longest ever discovered in Nogales, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. [continues 484 words]
Political Challenges Await Bills to Partially Decriminalize Pot MEXICO CITY - Lawmakers in Mexico introduced bills Thursday that would create marijuana dispensaries in the capital and increase the amount of the drug people across the country could carry for personal use. The proposals to Mexico City's Legislative Assembly and the federal legislature would amount to a partial decriminalization of marijuana, advocates said, not full legalization. The Mexico City bill would instruct police and judges to deprioritize the prosecution of marijuana violations under some circumstances. It would create "dissuasion commissions" to which some violators could be sent for administrative sanctions, in lieu of the traditional criminal court process. [continues 354 words]
MONTEVIDEO , ( Reuters) - The United States and Europe need a new strategy in the war on drugs and should look at alternatives such as the regulated sale of marijuana, says Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, whose country recently legalized the production and sale of cannabis. In an interview with Reuters yesterday, the 78-year-old former left-wing guerrilla said the world's biggest economies, which are the biggest markets for illegal narcotics, need to tackle drug trafficking using tools other than prohibition. [continues 138 words]
Publication Front and Center As Pot Movement Grows When staffers at the marijuana fan magazine High Times participated in an "Ask Me Anything " online forum at the website Reddit, they answered plenty of questions. But they danced around one that was the most frequently asked: Ever run into legal trouble? Founded in 1974 by renegade journalist and pot trafficker Tom Forcade, New York-based High Times is a cult publication with a loyal following and a steady base of advertisers who have always tinkered with the boundaries of legality and legitimacy. [continues 971 words]
The Thursday letter, "Medical marijuana sets bad precedent" echoes my feelings about legalizing medical marijuana. My husband's daughter is a heroin addict now on a drug to help her stay clean. She told me years ago marijuana was her gateway drug to heroin. She has ruined her life and is unable to work because of all her illnesses due to drug abuse. It all started with marijuana. RAELENE ANDERSON Jupiter [end]
Politicians are now dancing as fast as they can away from the newly licensed pot shops scheduled to open in their neighborhoods. And it's not pretty. Causing the most uproar is the "medical" marijuana emporium slated for the heart of Back Bay on Boylston Street not far from the Public Garden. The Back Bay Association, which represents some 400 businesses in the area, was totally blindsided by the process, never hearing a word about the potential location or the signed lease for the property entered into by Good Chemistry of Massachusetts, which won the license. [continues 327 words]
City Council to Receive Recommendations Only At a contentious meeting Tuesday night, with three members abstaining, the Las Vegas Planning Commission failed to send firm decisions on zoning issues regarding medical marijuana to the City Council. There were 14 separate votes, but the primary issue is what the distance separating medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivation and production sites need to be when it comes to schools, churches, day cares and residential areas. Local governments have the right to make them tougher than the state standards, but not less restrictive. [continues 525 words]
