A New Brunswick-based medical marijuana producer in partnership with both the provincial government and the Trailer Park Boys has had a lawsuit against it expanded to include possible health effects. A class action was filed on March 3 against Health Canada-certified medical cannabis producer Organigram Inc. for containing unauthorized pesticides. Halifax-based injury lawyer Ray Wagner, who is representing the plaintiffs, told The Chronicle Herald the suit was originally economic in nature - essentially to return to clients the money they paid for the recalled product - but last month it was expanded to take into account the health impacts of using the tainted product. [continues 573 words]
New Brunswickers will buy their legal marijuana at a subsidiary of the province's liquor commission - and have sommelier-like staff to guide them. The province also announced Wednesday the stores will be more tightly controlled than liquor outlets, but home delivery will be available. "No one under the legal age will be allowed inside the premises. That will happen at the reception area, after which people will be able to enter the retail environment," NB Liquor president Brian Harriman told a news conference. [continues 539 words]
Grassroots harm-reduction initiative launched as those on the front lines lament provincial government's boardroom approach Health officials in New Brunswick are taking too long to address the serious and growing opioid problem in the province's two largest cities, say local harm-reduction activists who have launched a grassroots initiative in the face of what they describe as government inaction. It has been more than six months since the province's top doctor formed an advisory group to come up with solutions to address the issue, but the government's response so far has been lean compared with that of other Atlantic provinces and the rest of the country. [continues 996 words]
Province inks supply deals, including with pot producer in pesticides probe New Brunswick became the second province to start unveiling plans to sell recreational marijuana next year, when the federal government expects to lift nearly a century of prohibition on the product. The province announced on Friday that it has created a Crown corporation to oversee sales of recreational marijuana, and has signed agreements with two cannabis-producing companies to supply a portion of its retail network. However, the New Brunswick government stopped short of releasing specific details on how the product will be sold - such as the legal age for consumption and the number of retail sites that will be permitted. The new Crown corporation will not directly conduct retail sales but will work with other entities to operate the stores, the province said. [continues 665 words]
Province to create new Crown agency New Brunswick has set up a new Crown corporation that will oversee marijuana sales, but not actually retail the drug, when the federal government's planned legalization of recreational cannabis goes into effect next July Provincial Finance Minister Cathy Rogers and Health Minister Benoit Bourque made the announcement Friday in Moncton, adding that New Brunswick has already struck deals with two licensed medical marijuana companies to help supply its recreational market. However, the province has still left the door open to a possibly less- restrictive retail regime than the one proposed by Ontario, which is setting up a single, government-run retailer. [continues 554 words]
FREDERICTON - The legal age limit for recreational marijuana use in New Brunswick should be set at 19, a provincial working group recommended Wednesday in a report that also calls for sales to be handled by something similar to a Crown corporation. Health Minister Victor Boudreau said the province's Liberal government will consider the recommendation, but he said the actual age limit could be pushed higher. The New Brunswick Medical Society has already recommended the legal age should be at least 21. [continues 409 words]
Incentives, loans given to growing firms FREDERICTON * Marijuana ended the career of a New Brunswick premier in the 1980s, but as Canada nears legalized weed, it is taboo no more. In fact, the province now wants to be your marijuana supplier. New Brunswick's Liberal government, led by 34-year-old Brian Gallant, sees weed as green gold - an important creator of revenue and jobs in a province that badly needs both. It is giving producers financial incentives, has developed a community college program for cannabis technicians, and announced March 24 that marijuana is to be a pillar of its economic strategy. [continues 712 words]
It started beside a dumpster. Derek Riedle was hunched next to the garbage bin, tucked behind the back of an upscale Italian restaurant in Venice, Calif. Riedle had taken his wife, Terri, out to celebrate her birthday - and while she sat at the table enjoying a glass of wine, Riedle was in the back alley, taking hits of marijuana off his vape pen. "The inequities of cannabis, the prohibition, occurred to us numerous times over the years, but there was something about that night. I was really moved to do something about it," Riedle said. [continues 1097 words]
In a 'virtually unprecedented' move, New Brunswick government invests $4-million in medical-pot startup Zenabis Kevin Coft and his medical marijuana startup are benefiting in a big way as the New Brunswick government embraces the job opportunities this budding industry could bring to the province. On Aug. 23, the government invested $4-million in Zenabis, a company Mr. Coft launched to build a proposed medical marijuana facility in Atholville, N.B. The money comes in the form of a repayable loan, and Mr. Coft says it signals that Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal government is serious about supporting the sector. [continues 585 words]
A Liberal Senate forum held earlier this year signified the Trudeau government taking its first tentative steps down the road to legalization. Yet, many questions remain unanswered as the government contemplates a homegrown solution. Can I smoke it now? The government ultimately is the only body with the power to put laws on moratorium, but Karla O'Regan, a St. Thomas University criminology professor, said some police forces might already be inclined to turn a blind eye to marijuana possession related offences. [continues 855 words]
The Canadian government stands to make over $5 billion from taxes if marijuana is legalized but Fredericton dealers aren't too concerned with how it will affect their sales. One local pot dealer thinks the possible legalization will only affect the people who will have the money to buy government supplied marijuana, and that the taxing will help the province. Andrew Rankin* has been selling pot for the past few years. He said most of the people who buy pot need to have a higher income to afford higher quality weed. [continues 394 words]
The box came from Amsterdam. Casey Stone (pseudonym) and his three friends had waited weeks for the package to arrive. Finally, a Canada Post worker dropped off a brown box. It was addressed to one of Stone's friends and had just been flown in from the Dutch capital. Inside the box was a smaller box from a tea company. On top of it sat a letter from the tea company thanking the new customers for their patronage. They opened the box and pulled out a tea bag. Inside the bag was three grams of 3.4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, also known as Molly. [continues 1268 words]
Digital Publication Hopes to Capitalize on the Turning Tide of Public Opinion in Favour of Cannabis The world is warming up to recreational marijuana, and a southern New Brunswick startup is betting they're hungry for stories about it. On Monday morning, Saint John's Revolution Strategy is launching Civilized, an Internet publishing company targeting professionals who happen to enjoy marijuana. Founder and publisher Derek Riedle likens it to a high-end editorial destination for highbrow marijuana smokers, publishing stories and content not unlike cigar aficionado magazines, though with a broader lifestyle focus. [continues 601 words]
We'll concede Canada's Supreme Court justices are not medical experts. Ditto for most politicians. So the potential benefits of medical marijuana aren't the issue in the recent court ruling, it's a matter of what products should be available to users. The federal government sure gets itself tied up in knots over every instance of altered regulations for the drug. Health Minister Rona Ambrose, commenting upon the decision, said she was outraged. Reflecting the general outlook of the Conservative Party, she's concerned about increasing normalization of marijuana - also about judges making decisions on a substance whose medical value is still disputed. That suggests we need more research on marijuana and its purported health effects. Ambrose might want to tell us what the holdup is there. [continues 185 words]
On June 3, 2015, correctional officers in the medium security unit at Dorchester Penitentiary intercepted an inmate who was attempting to bring contraband into the institution. This seizure is the result of the combined efforts of correctional officers and security intelligence officers. The contraband seized includes 14.65 grams of Marijuana, 3.02 grams of tobacco and about 1.25 gram of hash oil. The total institutional value of this seizure is estimated at $1,890.00. The police have been notified and the institution is investigating. [continues 179 words]
Medpot Mountie Cpl. Ron Francis's Battle to Smoke Out RCMP's PTSD Denial Ends in Suicide Just a few weeks ago I was teaching RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis how to vaporize his medical marijuana. He promised to check back in, but we never had another virtual session. He was found dead in his Kingsclear First Nation, New Brunswick, home on Monday, October 6, apparently a suicide. Tossed aside by RCMP brass because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and publicly bullied by Conservative parliamentarians for marijuana medicating, Francis emailed long after the media had lost interest in a "pot-smoking Mountie." [continues 798 words]
Death of Mountie who smoked medicinal marijuana for PTSD highlights lack of strategy for dealing with trauma in first responders Ron Francis's family and friends filled a big white wooden church near the Saint John River on a sunny Friday - more than 250 people jammed into the pews and along the back and side walls for the RCMP corporal's funeral. Four days before, the 43-year-old police officer, a 22-year veteran of the RCMP and by all accounts a dedicated and courageous officer, killed himself in his home at Kingsclear First Nation, near Fredericton. [continues 812 words]
FREDERICTON - The death of RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis, who helped draw attention to post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency first responders, is a terrible loss that underscores the need to deal with the issue, the RCMP's commanding officer in New Brunswick said Tuesday. "It's unfortunate that this condition, if you will, took over and consumed him, but he didn't let go," assistant commissioner Roger Brown told a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Fredericton. "His goal was to try to make some sense of it himself and to bring an awareness to what this is all about." [continues 391 words]
The death of RCMP Corporal Ron Francis, who helped draw attention to post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency first responders, is a terrible loss that underscores the need to deal with the issue, the RCMP's commanding officer in New Brunswick said Tuesday. "It's unfortunate that this condition, if you will, took over and consumed him, but he didn't let go," assistant commissioner Roger Brown told a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Fredericton. "His goal was to try to make some sense of it himself and to bring an awareness to what this is all about." [continues 322 words]
The death of RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis, who helped draw attention to post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency first responders, is a terrible loss that underscores the need to deal with the issue, the RCMP's commanding officer in New Brunswick said Tuesday. "It's unfortunate that this condition, if you will, took over and consumed him, but he didn't let go," assistant commissioner Roger Brown told a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Fredericton. "His goal was to try to make some sense of it himself and to bring an awareness to what this is all about." [continues 394 words]
Inside New Brunswick
