Local Marijuana Advocates React To The Announce Of Now Pot Laws Next Spring It's the most wonderful time, literally, of the year for marijuana users across Canada. This year's 4/20 (April 20) is extra special for marijuana users across country since federal Health Minister Jane Philpott announced earlier in the day that the federal government plans to begin marijuana legalization by next spring. "I think it's about time," said Brent Bekter, owner and operator of Watch Tower Glass at 420 High St. "I think if they do it with etiquette and intelligence, it should work out for everyone." [continues 339 words]
Some Prince Albert city councillors are balking at a suggestion that legalized pot could help reduce binge drinking in the city. The city released it's "alcohol strategy" this week, a culmination of years of work to document and offer ways to combat problems with underage and binge drinking. However, some are taken aback by the report's suggestion that legalized pot could help curb chronic alcohol abuse. "I personally have concerns," Coun. Rick Orr said. "I think it's another one of the items that we have to deal with from a community addictions point of view." [continues 455 words]
In a province that has led Canada since 2010 in the rate of HIV infections and in a city where researchers describe intravenous drug use as an "epidemic," the call by Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Chief Felix Thomas to investigate the value of establishing a safe injection site is a highly sensible idea. It's time to put to rest the knee-jerk, anti-science attitude of the former federal Conservative government, which ignored credible data on the lives saved and harm reduced by Vancouver's Insite facility, and seriously explore whether Saskatoon might benefit from a similar service. [continues 359 words]
Some Prince Albert city councillors are balking at a suggestion that legalized pot could help reduce binge drinking in the city. The city released its "alcohol strategy" this week, a culmination of years of work to document and offer ways to combat problems with underage and binge drinking. However, some are taken aback by the report's suggestion that legalized pot could help curb chronic alcohol abuse. "I personally have concerns," Coun. Rick Orr said. "I think it's another one of the items that we have to deal with from a community addictions point of view." [continues 456 words]
Trudeau promised to make marijuana legal. Where's that at? Instead of "Hump Day" on April 20, thousands of Canadians will celebrate "Hemp Day" through the annual 4/20 protest against pot prohibition. With the Trudeau Liberals committed to legalizing cannabis, spirits should be high. But the fact remains that unless you're a licensed medical user, if you possess or share marijuana at the protest, you're breaking the law. Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief who's the government's point man on the file as parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, made that crystal clear in a recent CBC interview. [continues 1689 words]
Saskatoon Tribal Council wants to study establishing a location in city The chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council wants to investigate the merits of a safe injection site in the city. "We haven't determined whether or not there should be one here yet. My standpoint is we need to look at the facts and the data and make an informed decision," Felix Thomas said. The new Liberal federal government appears more friendly to the concept than its Conservative predecessor - last month, Health Canada granted a four-year exemption from federal drug laws for Vancouver's Insite. [continues 585 words]
New Zealand's retention of the Union Jack in its flag's corner was a decision taken by that country's population (in a referendum) and not by a prime minister and his cohorts. The original flag's emblem stood for the kind of government and laws that had evolved over hundreds of years, which New Zealand, upon creation, espoused and followed. Cultural matters concern people. Referendums ask the people's opinion. In Canada, legalizing marijuana use - in spite of its damaging effect on the undeveloped brains of children and youths (as experienced in Colorado and recently reported in newspapers) - is the kind of decision that needs a referendum. Marijuana can affect the present population and future generations. Already, classrooms have children seriously affected by drug use. A referendum asking all Canadians whether they agree or not with such a cultural change should occur. Christine Berriman, Regina [end]
The farce continues: We had a compassion club in Saskatoon, much like those in many other Canadian cities. In it, sick people helped sick people find relief from a variety of problems through the use of marijuana. Now what do we have? The same people who cannot shut down or even reduce the underground illegal sales of marijuana are treating those compassionate people as if they are major criminals. My heart goes out to Jamie Hagel (I am not a drug trafficker, March 16) and the other defendants in the Saskatoon Compassion Club case. There is no need to proceed with these prosecutions. Recently the SP ran a story about the only man imprisoned for violating the ignorant homosexuality laws. Who is going to be proud of enforcing the ignorant marijuana laws that are in their final days on our law books? [continues 115 words]
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan has added naloxone and buprenorphine to its methadone treatment guidelines. It's a recognition of alternate drugs that are used to cope with opioid dependency, associate registrar Bryan Salte said. The college introduced a new, more thorough 102-page set of guidelines last year based on Alberta's model. The guidelines help physicians who prescribe methadone - and now the new drugs - to patients with opioid addictions. They spell out how to write prescriptions, assess potential patients and determine proper dosage as well as when to let patients take doses home and when to halt treatment. [continues 64 words]
Addiction worker charged after raid on dispensary Jamie Hagel knows drugs can ruin lives. She's worked in the area of addictions for more than a decade and helped set up harm reduction programs in Saskatoon's inner city. She never knew Crohn's disease would take her down a path that would result in police charging her with trafficking marijuana. "I am not a drug trafficker, nor am I a threat to this community," Hagel said in an interview. She was one of four people arrested during a police raid on the Saskatchewan Compassion Club last October. Last week, she pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime. [continues 336 words]
A Brock University professor says Canada's provincial governments should consider distributing marijuana through public liquor stores as a way to change people's perspective on the drug following the federal Liberals' 2015 election promise to legalize it. Dan Malleck, an associate professor of health sciences, is among the panellists scheduled to speak at a symposium on marijuana legalization at the University of Saskatchewan this week. Malleck, who has studied the history of liquor control and drug prohibition, said provincial governments sold alcohol in the past not to perpetuate prohibition principles, but rather to normalize alcohol use for the public. [continues 418 words]
Lane Britnell says the Saskatoon police ruined $2,000 worth of his legally obtained marijuana extracts following a raid of they city's only medical marijuana dispensary. The former employee of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club says when police returned cannabis extracts that were seized from his home during raids last October, he found that most of the cannabis products were ruined. "I would say 80 per cent of it was destroyed or rendered unusable," Britnell said. His lawyer successfully applied to have a judge order police to return the cannabis seized from his home during the Oct. 29 raids, he said. [continues 330 words]
Employers may ask for drug tests Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has promised to legalize recreational marijuana use, but anyone thinking about sparking a joint before starting a new job could be in for a rude surprise, according to one legal expert. "In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is really going to change the landscape that much in terms of the law in the workplace," said Keir Vallance, who practised labour and employment law before joining the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law. [continues 327 words]
Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has promised to legalize recreational marijuana use, but anyone thinking about sparking a joint before starting a new job could be in for a rude surprise, according to one legal expert. "In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is really going to change the landscape that much in terms of the law in the workplace," said Keir Vallance, who practised labour and employment law before joining the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law. [continues 329 words]
Saskatoon's police chief says the Liberal government needs to clarify Canada's marijuana laws to combat serious misunderstandings about the legality of the drug. "The police aren't anti-marijuana," Chief Clive Weighill said. "But we are in a situation right now that is a very grey zone." Weighill said despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's election promise that pot will be legalized for personal use, smoking, growing and selling weed in Canada is still against the law. Weighill, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said the government needs to offer clarity to people - especially those who believe that because of the election promise, the drug is already legal. [continues 421 words]
Medical Marijuana Store Owner Says Users Suffer Without Access to Weed Pleas from the owner of Saskatoon's now-shuttered medical marijuana dispensary that he be allowed to operate in the grey area of the law fell on deaf ears at a council committee meeting. Mark Hauk, founder of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, closed the dispensary's doors after he was charged last fall with trafficking, production and possessing the proceeds of crime. He told council's planning committee on Monday that the closure means many people who relied on medical marijuana are now suffering. He asked that his business be allowed to operate despite the fact that it is presently considered illegal under federal law. [continues 355 words]
I wrote last week a column about marijuana that contained bad information. I had heard complaints from three different people that they could not find a doctor in Saskatoon to prescribe medical marijuana. I have since learned that maybe they weren't seeing the right doctors. Some doctors still will not write prescriptions for the once-forbidden herb, but plenty of others have come around. Saskatoon-based supplier CanniMed alone has filled prescriptions written by 290 Saskatchewan doctors, 136 of them in Saskatoon, at last count. This would not include doctors whose prescriptions are filled by other licensed suppliers, of which there are more than 20. So, medical marijuana is far from impossible to get here, as I incorrectly reported. [continues 606 words]
Re: Why is marijuana legal in Vancouver and not Saskatoon (Feb. 4). CanniMed has 290 prescribing physicians in Saskatchewan with 136 physicians in Saskatoon alone, who have authorized patients to access medical marijuana through the legal Health Canada sanctioned Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations system. More are becoming familiar with the value of cannabis as a medicine every day. General practitioners, family medicine specialists, oncologists, rheumatologists and hundreds of other doctors should be seen as the gateway to this valuable medicine. None of them prescribe medical advice through a Skype format. There is enough confusion within the medical marijuana program in Canada without columnists like Les MacPherson failing to do their research. Brent Zettl, president & CEO, CanniMed Ltd. [end]
Solicitor says storefront operations not permitted to dispense marijuana The owner of a Saskatoon marijuana dispensary has shuttered his storefront due to the financial burden associated with drug trafficking charges levelled against him, but he says he plans to continue helping people get medical marijuana licences through a newly founded organization. "All things put together, unfortunately we had to move from that spot," said Mark Hauk, owner of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club. Hauk closed the dispensary, which was located in the 200 block of Second Avenue North in Saskatoon, on Feb. 1. [continues 382 words]
Seamus John Neary, the ex-Huskie footballer caught with 9.5 kilograms of marijuana, intends to argue the sentencing rules for marijuana trafficking aren't constitutional. Neary was convicted in November of trafficking marijuana and possessing the proceeds of crime. On Friday in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench, his sentencing hearing was adjourned to May 31, when constitutional arguments will be heard. Under the law, trafficking-related charges where the amount of marijuana is more than three kilograms are not eligible for community-based jail sentences, or conditional sentence orders. [continues 93 words]
Inside Saskatchewan
