The task force that studied questions raised about regulated legal access to marijuana has a chapter on how medical marijuana use should be treated. It recommends maintaining the current, separate licensing system for possessing marijuana for medical purposes and for growing it, with some changes. It says the federal government should watch closely to ensure CBD-rich strains (as opposed to the high-inducing THC strains) of marijuana are available and reasonably affordable for patients, with regulations to give government teeth to ensure it is. [continues 214 words]
Big difference between healers and dealers, people at weekend event near Meaford hear This was not your ordinary cooking class. Barb Mahy was making her basic "canna chocolates," a simple mix of semi-sweet chocolate, coconut butter and a cannabis tincture mix with glycerine and water which she melted and poured into moulds. About a dozen people sat at tables and chairs to watch the demonstration Saturday upstairs in The Barn, a wellness co-operative in a refurbished barn along Highway 26 between Meaford and Thornbury. Along with 20 vendors and five practitioners, the co-op has an education mandate fulfilled with events like this. [continues 949 words]
Part 1 in an occasional letter series exploring marijuana use and legalization The federal government has indicated that it will introduce legislation in the spring 2017 session of the House of Commons making the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana legal in Canada, to take effect in 2018. What can we expect in this braver new world of marijuana legality? In the vernacular, it will be legal to grow "weed" in Whitbourne and to have a "toke" in the confines of your own domicile. [continues 198 words]
Replacement therapy distributed to drug users scared of dying from fentanyl overdose Yet more powerful drugs are being pushed in the alleyways of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Dr. Christy Sutherland, medical director for PHS Community Services Society, says they're fast-acting and drug users are desperate to try them. Suboxone and methadone - which Sutherland, along with a team of nurses and other physicians, has recently been distributing in alleyways and other sites in the neighbourhood - are proven treatments for opioid dependency. [continues 716 words]
Re "Task force recommends legalizing mail order, storefront pot sales" (Canadian Press, Dec. 13): The Liberals have consistently stated two guiding principles to justify their rush toward legalization of marijuana. The first was to protect young people and the second was to push organized crime out of the market. Unfortunately, these recommendations will do neither. In fact, as it applies to protecting our youth, these recommendations actually expose them to more risk. They have ignored the Canadian Medical Association recommendation of 25 years of age, they ignored the CMA's watered-down minimum of 21, and have decided on 18. So much for evidence-based decision making by this Liberal government. [continues 161 words]
The release of the federal task force report on the legalization of marijuana has given new meaning to enjoying a green Christmas. With the government indicating that it is moving full steam ahead with this initiative, is it not worth asking one more time: Why are we legalizing marijuana? The usual answer I receive is that alcohol is legal. I think about that analogy every time I visit the liquor store, especially on a Friday afternoon. Surprisingly, I am not filled with national pride as I watch the stressed-out office workers anxiously clutching their bottles; the students bragging how "wrecked" they are going to get that weekend; or the down-and-out person counting out change for a single can of beer. How many of us are imbibing as a form of self-medication in order to deal with stress and anxiety? Have we learned nothing from our growing awareness around mental illness and the temptation to use intoxicants to try to cope with an increasingly overwhelming world? No, I am not arguing for prohibition. I am simply asking the reason why we are adding another drug to the list of socially acceptable ways of getting impaired. As a nation, we seem to have lost sight of what problem we are trying to solve. [continues 611 words]
In an uncertain legal climate, vendors sell THC-infused goodies praised by the ailing There is more to weed than rolling a joint and smoking it. The various potions, potencies and procedures involved in preparing cannabis-infused wares and edibles might please any chemist, while the business aspect of it might make it seem like Christmas every day to many a manufacturer. This was demonstrated on a frosty Sunday evening as over 30 vendors set up stalls for a Green Market, "Nuit Verte," at a "secret location" to sell weed-infused products to more than 400 eager customers. [continues 423 words]
Experts divided on when youth should be able to smoke weed Experts are debating the age limit for buying marijuana, with one Edmonton group saying a legal age on par with alcohol could ease the crowding of prisons and remand centres. "There's a lot of people that are in remand, that are in provincial institutions, for minor drug offences," said Chris Hay, executive director of the John Howard Society, a non-profit advocating for prison reform. "I think this will definitely help to stave that off, or prevent that a little bit." [continues 230 words]
Editor: I have noted the attitude of the federal and provincial governments and also some local governments with respect to the fentanyl crisis and can only say that I am totally appalled by the lack of any real integrity with many of what I can only describe as advertisements in the media. The information seems to give the green light to drug users and encourages young people to participate by seeking to open more and more safe injection sites and also additional medical facilities to deal with drug use. The comments generally suggest no blame or shame in addition to the reference of recreational users. Such users are addicts regardless of any label you might want to put on them. [continues 398 words]
Re Pot-Purchasing Age Should Match Drinking Age, PM says (Dec. 16): Through my work as a lawyer and social worker, I am aware that large numbers of teens are already using alcohol and weed on a regular basis - - and both are "illegal." How can we possibly not expect that a "legal" consumer of marijuana at age 18 or 19 will not trickle weed down to friends, acquaintances or siblings, as is already the case with alcohol?! We may unwittingly make them "dealers" to their friends. Linda Perlis, Toronto [end]
Whatever the legal age becomes in this country, governments should launch powerful, long-term public awareness campaigns to shatter the belief that marijuana is a safe high. When the recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in Canada in the next few years, how old should you have to be to join in the fun? This issue - the legal age for buying and consuming cannabis - is the biggest single challenge facing the federal Liberals as they rewrite the law on this popular, but potentially harmful, drug. [continues 471 words]
Marc Emery, the so-called Prince of Pot, remains defiant about flouting pot laws in Canada despite his arrest in Montreal on Friday. Emery was one of 10 people arrested when police raided the Cannabis Culture shops around town. Emery was released from detention Saturday. After his arraignment, he flew back to Toronto the same day. He is scheduled to appear in court in Montreal on Feb. 15. Although it has been reported he was slapped with three charges - drug trafficking, possession for trafficking, and conspiracy - Emery said he was only charged with two offences. [continues 199 words]
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" - - Robert Browning One thing the Trudeau government cannot be accused of is lack of reach. Its ambitions have carried it into endeavours the Harper government did not attempt to reach or had no interest in reaching. These range from climate change to a process of reconciliation with First Nations from Senate reform to a shift of some of the tax burden from middle-to high-income earners from the appointment of a gender-equal cabinet to increased consultation with the provinces and from overhaul of the electoral system to the legalization of marijuana. [continues 564 words]
Premier Rachel Notley says she wants to consult Albertans to help shape provincial legislation on legalized marijuana, including on the minimum age for users. A report from the federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation said a federal minimum age for purchase of marijuana should be set at 18, with the recommendation that individual provinces and territories be allowed to "harmonize" the minimum age with that of buying alcohol and tobacco. "It's a balancing act, obviously, because on one hand the objective of legalizing marijuana-for the most part - is to control it and to actually make it more safe," Notley told Postmedia. [continues 429 words]
The federal task on marijuana released a thorough report last week that proposes to end Canada's 93-year prohibition on legal pot production and consumption. Its 80 recommendations touched on the important considerations and concerns for a well-regulated system, and appeared to borrow from the experience of several U.S. states that are several years ahead of us. But the federal task force failed on one important point: the merger of the medical and recreational marijuana markets. Former Liberal minister Anne McLellan's task force devoted an entire chapter to the issue of medical access. It noted that the Canadian Medical Association and the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada do not believe that doctors should write prescriptions for access to marijuana. Their arguments are sound. [continues 538 words]
Alberta to conduct consultations before setting legal age to buy marijuana With cannabis legalization coming down the pipe in 2017, Premier Rachel Notley said input from Albertans will help set the minimum age to purchase marijuana. Notley weighed in on weed legalization following a report released by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation recommending a national minimum age of 18 to purchase marijuana. The report also said provinces and territories should be allowed to "harmonize" the minimum age for cannabis with their minimum age for purchasing alcohol and tobacco. [continues 457 words]
When the recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in Canada in the next few years, how old should you have to be to join in the fun? This issue - the legal age for buying and consuming cannabis - is the biggest single challenge facing the federal Liberals as they rewrite the law on this popular, but potentially harmful, drug. A federal task force this week provided 80 recommendations for opening up the market for recreational pot. Most of the suggestions, which include permitting storefront and mail-order sales as well as allowing individuals to buy or carry up to 30 grams for personal use, are both reasonable and workable. [continues 411 words]
The entrepreneurs behind Canada's two biggest chains of illegal marijuana dispensaries say they will continue to expand the number of their storefronts aggressively across the country while the federal and provincial governments take the next two years to fine-tune new laws to legalize the substance. A day after an independent panel provided Ottawa with a road map for ending the prohibition on recreational marijuana that could include dispensaries, MP Bill Blair, the government's point person on the issue, warned that, in the meantime, anyone selling marijuana outside the federal mail-order system is breaking the law and police could raid their stores. [continues 626 words]
Revenue will be reinvested into control measures Marijuana will not be the pot of Colombian gold at the end of the rainbow for the cash-strapped provincial treasury. That was the message at Queen's Park on Wednesday in the wake of a federal task force report on implementing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize recreational marijuana. Finance Minister Charles Sousa, who hopes to eliminate the province's $4.3-billion deficit in the 201718 budget, insisted the government is not expecting weed cash to be rolling in. [continues 336 words]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned to legalize pot in the 2015 election campaign. This federal task force report on the subject released this week offered no quick fix to the complex issues surrounding legalization, and the sensible recommendation that the Liberals proceed slowly. The 106-page report made more than 80 recommendations - including restricting pot sales to those 18 and older, banning sales near schools, banning pot advertising and branding (similar to tobacco products) and a new, proposed Cannabis Control Act to police illegal production and trafficking. [continues 278 words]
Inside Canada
