British Columbians woke up Wednesday in a corridor of two U.S. states where marijuana is legal - and advocates say B.C. is in line to be next. Oregon residents voted to legalize pot Tuesday, making the state the third in the U.S. to allow the drug's recreational use. And voters in the District of Columbia approved a ballot measure legalizing possession of marijuana by adults. Barring an attempt by Congress to block the move, the nation's capital will join the company of Colorado and Washington state, where voters approved the recreational use of pot two years ago. [continues 444 words]
Citizen Marc Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 Starring: Marc Emery Directed by: Roger Evan Larry and Sandra Tomc Running time: 92 minutes 'Prince of Pot' Emery Perturbs Documentary Makes It Very Easy to Dislike Marijuana Advocate, Who Film Suggests Touted Legalization for Political Gain Marc Emery wants to be seen as a modern-day David slaying the government Goliath. He wants to be seen as the king of the underdogs, the indefatigable force of justice, and a guy who is so honest and straightforward, it's impossible not to like him. [continues 564 words]
Richmond and Delta Lead Charge Against Facilities Metro Vancouver directors will back a B. C.- wide ban against medical marijuana production on agricultural land, saying the concrete bunkers will swallow up the region's valuable farmland. Friday's decision, led by directors in the farming communities of Richmond and Delta, comes in response to the B. C. government's latest proposed bylaw standards on medical marijuana production facilities in the Agricultural Land Reserve. The B. C. government has stipulated that medical pot facilities will not be allowed to claim farm-tax status, but have a constitutional right to be on agricultural land. [continues 343 words]
New Film on Legalization Advocate Marc Emery Is, Like the Man Himself, Not Without Its Controversy It's fitting that a documentary on a figure as controversial as self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery should be subject to some controversy itself. At its core, Citizen Marc wrestles not only with the topic of Emery's legal troubles - the pot activist recently served four years in a U.S. prison for "conspiracy to manufacture marijuana" - but also takes on the complexity of the man himself, who has arguably been the single most significant figure in the fight for marijuana legalization in recent history. [continues 492 words]
A B.C. man is one step closer to reclaiming some of the money seized from him by border officers at the Vancouver International Airport almost four years ago, following a recent decision by the Federal Court of Appeal. On Jan. 5, 2011, Robert Bo Da Huang was scheduled to fly out of Vancouver International Airport to Hong Kong. In the departures area, he was approached by a Canada Border Services Agency officer. Huang admitted to the officer that he was carrying more than $10,000 in cash and he had not reported that fact. [continues 287 words]
The producer of a documentary about marijuana laws has shared the proceeds from the film's Kelowna premiere with families struggling to pay for medical cannabis. Adam Scorgie presented Kyla Williams, her mother Courtney Williams and grandfather Chris Nuessler with a cheque for $3,500 from the proceeds of the premiere of The Culture High. The 2 1/2-year-old Summerland girl suffers from a severe seizure disorder, but has shown a dramatic improvement since the initiation a few months ago of treatment with cannabis oil. [continues 237 words]
VANCOUVER - Gamblers flocked into four Vancouver-area casinos over a recent three-month period hauling bags of $20 bills that added up to millions of dollars in suspicious transactions, according to information provided by the provincial Finance Ministry in response to a freedom of information request from the CBC. The Edgewater Casino in the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver alone reported $5,242,090 in unusual transactions from March 20 to June 21. CBC reported that $2.5 million in suspicious transactions occurred at New Westminster's Starlight Casino, while $24 million was flagged at Richmond's River Rock Casino. [continues 449 words]
Survey Finds Reductions in Some Risky Behaviours Over the Last Decade, While Mental Health Concerns Grow Fewer Vancouver teens are drinking and doing drugs than they were a decade ago, shows a survey of over 2,000 local students. The percentage of Vancouver youth who have tried alcohol decreased from 45% to 33%, while those who have tried marijuana dropped 7% in the last decade, says a McCreary Centre Society survey of adolescent health. In collaboration with the provincial government and the public health system, the centre has conducted the survey every five years since 1992 - polling over 130,000 Grade 7 to 12 students across the province. [continues 186 words]
I don't feel bad that there is bad "heroin" out there (actually the police confirm it is fentanyl.) Most addicts choose that life and take the risk of having a bad dose. I have been working on the new Powell Street overpass and have to watch out for needles and anything else that may harm me from these people. A few less addicts will not hurt this world. I would like to come home to my family and not have to decontaminate myself before I walk in the door just because I had a job to do. These addicts chose this and they get what they get - just like me with my actual job! Shane Smith, Chilliwack [end]
Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Alcohol prohibition was a dismal failure. We have not fared any better with marijuana prohibition. This has now been acknowledged by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. It is regrettable, but not surprising, that the current government has chosen to reject the CAMH position. There is no question that alcohol is far more harmful that marijuana. Consider the following: Alcohol can, and does, cause serious health problems. Alcohol has a devastating impact on innocent third parties. Drinking and driving kills people. That is not open to debate. Estimates will vary, but the annual toll in Canada is somewhere in the thousands, and in the U.S., it is in the tens of thousands. Most of us have first-hand experience of the way in which alcohol impacts our ability to drive, either through personal experience or having seen others. [continues 614 words]
A flood of drug overdoses at Vancouver's supervised injection site is being blamed on fentanyl, a highly dangerous substance that looks like heroin and which is increasingly being sold on the streets. The flurry of nearly 40 incidents since Sunday is underscoring for health officials the need not only for controlled injection sites such as Insite, but also for outreach programs that can deliver naloxone to users, wherever they are. Naloxone is a rapidly acting antidote for opioid drug overdose that users and other volunteers are being trained to administer in a pilot program run by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). [continues 623 words]
At least 33 cases in three days reported at Insite as officials issue new warning A toxic batch of heroin has led to a record number of overdoses at Vancouver's safe-injection site. At least two overdoses were reported at Insite on Tuesday morning, following 15 on Monday and 16 on Sunday, said Vancouver Coastal Health spokesman Gavin Wilson. The 16 incidents Sunday set a record for the highest number of recorded overdoses in one day in the 11-year history of the Downtown Eastside facility. [continues 379 words]
Suspicion That Death of Woman Is Linked to Potent Heroin Hasn't Yet Been Confirmed There were 21 overdoses Sunday and Monday at Insite, the supervised drug-injection facility in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Gavin Wilson, a spokesman for Coastal Health, revealed the count Monday after the Vancouver police had issued an alert Sunday that indicated there had been about 12 overdoses and one death believed to be related to potent heroin. But the statement from cops also noted the exact cause of the woman's death had to be confirmed by the B.C. Coroners Service. [continues 397 words]
A 19-year-old man has been arrested after selling a bad batch of MDMA - - the powdered form of ecstasy - to two women who ended up in hospital, one on the verge of death. Saanich police were called Saturday about 3 a.m. by a neighbour in the 5000 block of Cordova Bay Road, near Haliburton Road, who said two women in their early 20s appeared to be under the influence of drugs, said Saanich police spokesman Sgt. Steve Eassie. One woman was partially clothed and in a state of delirium. [continues 492 words]
I recently lived in a large condo building in False Creek; it was a pleasant place apart from one factor - the frequent stench of second- hand marijuana smoke invading my living space through the windows. The consequences include opening our young child's bedroom to find her asleep in a room filled with someone else's drug smoke. Complaints to the building management are met with the answer that it is legal to smoke marijuana in your own home. Individuals who smoke drugs in condo buildings selfishly reduce the quality of life of those around them and endanger the health of children as they sleep. [continues 61 words]
The man who runs Vancouver's marijuana vending machines says Marc Emery's reign as the "Prince of Pot" is over. "'Prince of Pot,' you know what, that's a self-proclaimed title," said Chuck Varabioff, the director of the BC Pain Society. "There's room for other people in the industry who are going to stand up and go about it legally, peacefully, respectfully and try to get it legalized." Varabioff said Emery got what he deserved when he was sent to jail because he flaunted the way he was breaking the law. He also said Emery's comeback after being released from jail hasn't been successful. [continues 175 words]
With clever names like Peace of Mind, Girl Scout Cookies, Train Wreck and Tsunami, it's a good bet the marketers of legal marijuana finished high school. That's less certain for their younger customers. New research shows daily marijuana use before the age of 17 cuts your chances of graduating from high school or getting a college degree by 60 per cent. And that information is just the tip of the joint. Now that marijuana is legal for recreational use in Washington state and Colorado, and for medical purposes in 19 other states plus the District of Columbia, scientists are able to study the drug more closely. [continues 143 words]
Vancouver City Council voted Wednesday night to place restrictions on e-cigarette use. The electronic vapourizers are now subject to the same rules as tobacco cigarettes, which means they cannot be used in public places or within six feet of doors or windows, sold to minors or advertised in any way that could reasonably be seen by minors. The decision came after two days of debate at City Hall. On Tuesday, councillors heard from Vancouver Coastal Health experts, who raised concerns about the chemicals in e-cigarettes, potentially harmful effects of second-hand vapour, as well as voicing fears that electronic-cigarette use in public spaces will renormalize smoking. [continues 58 words]
Health. Uncertainty Over Possible Effects on Marijuana Users Pushes Vote Back Vancouver councillors are huffing and puffing over the proposal to ban e-cigarettes from wherever smoking is banned. Council was scheduled to vote Wednesday on the prohibition of e-cigarettes, devices that vaporize a solution that is inhaled and exhaled like typical tobacco cigarettes, but it did not make a decision before press time. The vote was delayed because council needed more information from staff about whether the ban would also apply to cannabis. [continues 253 words]
So much work and money have been put into two separate epic campaigns, it's hard not to think they will both eventually be successful. On one hand, a popular movement to relax prohibitive laws is chipping away at restrictions on the use of one relatively benign substance. On the other, monumental lawsuits and education campaigns have penalized the producers and shamed the users of a toxic product. Some time in the next several years, both movements will arrive at their destinations. Marijuana and tobacco will change places. [continues 597 words]
Inside British Columbia
