U.S. President Barack Obama recently used the twilight of his tenure to again grant clemency to almost 60 non-violent drug offenders.

With those commutations, Obama has now reduced the sentences of 300 federal prisoners in order to secure their release, more than the last six presidents combined.

He has been more reluctant, however, in dishing out the full Monty, as in outright pardons of crimes committed, which is a powerful right granted to all U.S. presidents.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama has pardoned just 70 individuals during his almost eight years in the Oval Office, well below the number of pardons granted by the most recent presidents.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to legalize marijuana in last year's federal election and it's time he started answering questions on when and how.

Having Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott announce at the United Nations on April 20 -- or 4/20, otherwise known as Weed Day -- that Canada will introduce a law next spring was politically cute, but nothing more.

Back at home, the Liberals aren't dealing with an increasing number of questions about legalization.

In Toronto, Mayor John Tory is rightly worried about the sudden proliferation of unregulated marijuana dispensaries in anticipation of legalization, which are popping up all over the city, some close to schools.

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Alcohol consumption, gaming habits explored

AS the Trudeau government wrestles with keeping its promise to legalize marijuana use, a new poll shows one in five Manitobans indulges in pot smoking.

The Forum Research poll found Manitobans like booze and aren't into casino-style gambling, while a low percentage use pot.

The random sampling of 1,140 Manitoba residents found 76 per cent had consumed alcohol in the past year, 53 per cent had gambled and 18 per cent had used marijuana.

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By this time next year, weed will be well on its way to becoming a legal in Canada.

Next spring, the Trudeau government intends to introduce legislation that will effectively legalize the production, distribution and sale of marijuana and other cannabis products and eliminate penalties for possession. Precisely what that involves will depend on regulations that may take longer to put in place - whatever Ottawa decides will require Canadian provinces and municipalities to make changes of their own.

Right now, the status of weed sits in a sort of limbo as law enforcement agencies, governments and potential entrepreneurs watch and wait to see what precisely winds up being proposed by federal Health Minister Jane Philpott and parliamentary justice secretary Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief.

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ENTREPRENEURS planning retail marijuana operations will not yet get direction from city hall.

A civic committee Tuesday supported an administrative recommendation not to prepare a report examining how retail marijuana operators can be regulated - despite a November directive from council to do so.

The proposal had been a suggestion from Coun. Ross Eadie, who said the city should be proactive in regulating where sellers can operate in anticipation of the federal government either legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana.

Eadie said without regulations in place, marijuana retailers would be able to set up adjacent to schools - which he opposes.

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The Great Remembrance Day Bust, as it became known in peer folklore, began with two long-haired gun-wielding undercover Toronto drug cops busting down the door and charging up the stairs, followed by six uniformed officers.

It was 2 a.m. I was still in college, and had just returned from my part-time job on the sports desk at Canadian Press.

I was making Kraft dinner, and was standing in the kitchen wearing nothing but undershorts and a Fly United T-shirt depicting two ducks copulating in mid-flight.

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POT advocates called for marijuana legalization at Wednesday's 4/20 festivities, but it could be the last time they have to.

A group of weed smokers clouded up downtown and gathered at the Manitoba legislature to celebrate the herb. The usual premise of 4/20 is to encourage politicians to look into either legalizing or decriminalizing the drug, but now that Justin Trudeau is prime minister, that could change.

Marijuana legalization and regulation was one of the Liberal government's big promises before the federal election last October. On Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Philpott told the United Nations legislation could be introduced as early as next spring in Canada.

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Police did not breach the rights of a Winnipeg man when they ignored his protests, burst into his home without a warrant and found a marijuana grow operation inside, a judge has ruled.

Edward Garbacz was seeking to have all of the evidence against him dismissed, claiming police had no right to enter his property in June 2013. But Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen ruled Monday that officers acted properly given the unique circumstances surrounding this case.

It all began with an anonymous 911 call that came into police around midnight. A man said his "neighbour was beating up his wife" and then quickly hung up after providing the address. No other details were given. The call was made from a payphone that was almost two kilometres away from the scene of the alleged crime.

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Policy Infrastructure Needs to Be in Place Before Full Legalization

Since Justin Trudeau's election there has been mounting pressure to see fulfilled his promise to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Although the criminalization of marijuana has had more negative consequences than benefits, we still need to be mindful of the various legislative implications that full legalization would have.

As it stands now, in Canada it is legal to purchase and consume marijuana with a prescription, but it remains illegal and a criminal offense to do so without the proper paperwork.

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It's difficult to understand why our prime minister continues to let anyone be criminally charged and convicted for possession of marijuana - a substance he thinks should be legal. A substance he has smoked.

As we learned years ago, Trudeau smoked marijuana in the time since being elected MP. Some Conservatives tried to make a big deal of it. But most Canadians gave the story a pass.

Back then, Trudeau and the Liberals voted with the Conservatives to set mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana possession. It was a terrible decision. But it was a Liberal caucus decision. And Trudeau was not leader yet. So Trudeau can again get a pass.

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Says marijuana should be sold in stand-alone stores

IT has been a year since CEO John Stinson advised the board of Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, which had just hired him, that legalized pot was coming, and the Crown corporation better be prepared for it.

And now it's been a week since Stinson visited Denver to get the lowdown on Colorado's legalized marijuana high.

Which is how the CEO of our pot supplier-designate came to offer a one-on-one briefing about the surprise he got on the trip.

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Plans to file complaint regarding incident at Winnipeg airport

A NORTHERN Manitoba chief says he was accused of carrying marijuana Saturday at the Richardson International Airport when a security guard aggressively confronted him about a sacred medicine pouch he wears around his neck.

In a peculiar twist to the incident, the guard walked off in an apparent huff when two other security guards tried to intervene and calm the situation down, leaving Pukatawagan's Mathias Colomb Chief Arlen Dumas and his companions speechless at the security screening area where passengers must pass through metal detectors or scanners and have their belongings X-rayed for safety before boarding a flight.

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Users now allowed to raise pot for own consumption

WINNIPEG medical-marijuana patients hailed a federal court ruling that struck down "arbitrary and overbroad" legislation from the former Conservative government banning Canadian medical pot users from growing their own weed.

And the one company in Winnipeg with a federal licence to supply medical marijuana indicated the ruling won't affect it, at least not in the short term.

The city's most vocal advocate for medical-marijuana rights said even without knowing whether Ottawa will appeal the ruling, he couldn't contain his delight.

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Legal Weed Should Bring Mellow to the Masses, Turn Criminal Profits to Ash

AS counterintuitive as it sounds, legal marijuana will probably result in some Canadians getting a lot less high.

In the 1980s, marijuana tended to be about three per cent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the plant's primary psychoactive ingredient and the substance largely responsible for making marijuana users feel stoned.

These days, the average THC content of marijuana is more like 12 per cent, and samples seized by law-enforcement agencies have tested as high (sorry) as 24 per cent.

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MARIJUANA and fitness - common sense suggests one doesn't go well with the other. The stereotype of the lazy stoner who makes late-night pilgrimages for junk food doesn't mesh with someone who spends spare time lifting weights or goes on early morning jogs.

But some users who have taken a hit before lifting weights say there are benefits.

"Weed was a great help for me when I was just starting off weight training, running and cycling. For one, it really takes the edge of the soreness," says Martin, who doesn't want his last name published.

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Re: "Rolling in dough," Jan. 29.

It's true, since Colorado completely re-legalized cannabis (marijuana), treating it like the relatively safe God-given plant that it is, the state has reaped huge taxes. But Canada shouldn't cleanse itself from cannabis prohibition to profit, but rather to end one of North America's worst policy failures because it's the right thing to do. The Luciferous practice of caging humans for using what God indicates He created and says is good on literally the very first page of the Bible is vulgar for developed nations. The sooner the devil law ends, the sooner the sky will stop falling in.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

("Luciferous" means "enlightening.")

[end]

As Colorado has proven, re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana) makes money for governments, though at the expense of law enforcement agencies and their unions, which have been cannibalizing citizens, especially minorities, long enough.

It's easier to understand conservative's staunch support for cannabis prohibition when realizing how much they have invested in it and all the things they have invested in, which compete against the plant cannabis.

But don't just re-legalize the relatively safe, extremely popular God-given plant because it's a moneymaker; do it because it's the right thing to do. Forcing the government to regulate cannabis is better than forcing the black market to do it. The money changes hands either way.

By Stan White

[end]

That's because addiction is often an adaption to your environment.

If there is one thing I have learned over the last 20 years of working with homeless populations it's that the way we look at addiction is often wrong. Let me explain. When I was first starting my career as a chaplain, if you would have asked me what causes alcohol addiction I would have told you "it's very simple: alcohol causes alcohol addiction."

I don't think that anymore - not about alcohol, not about cocaine, not about prescription pills, not about any drug.

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He wanted to turn back time and find a way to undo the sins of his past.

But the Manitoba Court of Appeal has rejected a former Winnipeg man's bid to reopen his drug conviction - saying almost two decades is too long to have waited to make a move.

Curtis Fraser pleaded guilty in March 1991 to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. He received a federal penitentiary sentence, then moved to the United States following his release.

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Despite Conservative Opposition, Marijuana Legalization Agrees With the Party's Economic Principles

As a result of the recent federal election, the topic of legal and regulated marijuana has gone from a far-flung possibility to a nearly immediate reality for Canadians.

Legalization became a hot issue for Canadians the moment Justin Trudeau promised his Liberal government would work to do it "right away" if elected.

This declaration would be reiterated by Trudeau throughout his campaign, as the candidate adopted an unabashedly pro-legalization stance. Canada's Conservative party and its leader at the time - former prime minister Stephen Harper - were staunch in their opposition to legalizing marijuana, which led to much back-and-forth between Trudeau and Harper on the issue, Harper even going so far as to claim that marijuana is "infinitely worse" than tobacco.

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