I don't know all that much about Canada's new medical marijuana laws but it seems clear we are headed for a disaster of at least minor proportions. Set to kick in on April 1 (what wonderful timing), the new laws give the boot to existing, lawful, personal medical-marijuana grow operations and authorizations to possess. As of that date, the Health Canada web site says: "... the only legal access to marijuana for medical purposes will be through licensed producers under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, even if you have an authorization to possess, or a licence to produce that has a later date." [continues 411 words]
Like Most of B.C.: Push to Force Pot Legalization Vote Fails to Gain Traction in Cowichan Valley Small town stigmas and closet cannabis smokers are what Sensible BC's Kirk Tousaw points to as reasons for a very slim number of local folks signing on to the legalize pot petition. The Sensible B.C. campaign to spark the decriminalization of marijuana in B.C. recently went up in smoke after falling short of its goal. Pot activists got 210,000 signatures or about two-thirds of the 300,000 (10% of voters in all 85 B.C. ridings) needed for their initiative petition to trigger a referendum. [continues 246 words]
Wants referendum: Local party members endorse petition aimed at decriminalizing pot The executive of the Cowichan Valley NDP Constituency Association is standing behind the de-criminalizing possession of pot campaign. And that includes its president, Rob Douglas. "There is a growing gap between government policy and public opinion on the issue of marijuana de-criminalization," said Douglas in a press release. "Clearly big changes are needed, and the reforms being called for by the Sensible BC initiative appear to be a step in the right direction." [continues 236 words]
Pot Legalization: No Harm in Adding Ideas to What's Available Saturdays in City Square On the one hand you've got to respect the Duncan Farmers Market's right to determine who takes part in its weekly smorgasbord in city square. If market organizers felt the Sensible B.C. campaign was too political to fit the market's mandate, or that it might detract from the regular vendors, then they were within their rights to just say no. On the other hand, what's the big deal? [continues 204 words]
Former NDP leadership candidate Dana Larsen appears to have a thoughtful, well-considered plan to force the powers-that-be to reconsider their stance on marijuana. It is matched by his rationale as to why this potential policy shift is a good idea. Let's hope these two simple facts can coincide in such a way that we can finally get one of our country's more ridiculous laws off the books. Legal marijuana is not a panacea for all that ails our society. It is not going to cure cancer, halt global warming or make us all just get along. [continues 235 words]
Call off B.C.'s police from busting folks with pot for personal use, then lobby Ottawa to legalize and tax marijuana. That's basically the three-year, two-step plan being pitched by decriminalization advocate Dana Larsen who's visiting the Cowichan Library Monday at 6 p.m., then Mill Bay's Kerry Park Recreation Centre Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pivotal to Larsen's push - called Sensible BC - is the province's Sensible Policing Act. It could order all B.C. cops to stop spending time or resources searching, seizing or arresting anyone for simple cannabis possession, explained the director of Vancouver's Medical Cannabis Dispensary. [continues 286 words]
Start the conversation: Experts say it's a good thing if you are talking about substance abuse with your teens RCMP Corporal Scott Hilderley's drug prevention tip for parents may surprise you in its simplicity. "The best method of drug prevention is a family, sitting around a table, having dinner and talking together," he says. Hilderley should know. A police officer of 26 years, he's spent 14 years working in drug prevention. And Hilderley highlighted the paramount importance of family connection in preventing substance abuse during a a panel event hosted by the Cowichan District Parent Advisory Council on Tuesday evening. [continues 671 words]
Opposition forces seem poised to make a push for reform in Canada's marijuana laws. But no one's expecting the federal government to respond any time soon. The federal Liberals recently adopted cannabis legalization as an official party policy, while that, or decriminalization, has the support of most federal NDP leadership candidates. But former Cowichan Tory hopeful John Kory doubted dope would be legalized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's current Conservative government. "That's what opposition does: they raise these issues and they get debated," he said. [continues 484 words]
Daryl (Corky) Fontana's epiphany began while looking down the barrel of a lawman's gun in the snow-covered wilds of Washington State. The Duncan homeboy's April 2010 bust, with three others hauling marijuana into the states, started a year-long emotional thaw in jail he said turned his life around. "A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders when I was arrested," he told the News Leader Pictorial in his first interview about his ordeal. "I'm so sorry for the hurt I caused those around me," said the father of three, "but I have no regrets." [continues 1085 words]
Compassionate parenting and proactive counseling about youth drug abuse -- including getting high on cold medicine -- is urged by a local youth clinician. Reg Fleming, of Vancouver Island Health Authority's Discovery Youth and Family Substance-Use Services, was concerned but not surprised about a recent spike in stoned teens reporting to Cowichan District Hospital's ER after using non-prescription cold syrups and pills. Over-the-counter remedies -- from Chloracetin 2, Tylenol and Benylin to Vicks NyQuil and Robitussin -- could contain liver-toxifying acetamenophen and/or dextromethorphan (DXM) that can harm breathing, said the CDH's Dr. Valorie Cunningham. [continues 518 words]
Dear editor Here is a letter a dealer would send in response to your recent pot bust article: "Dear police, thanks large for cutting down all those pot plants. Tearing out five to 10 per cent of the area's pot crop each year secures our continued funding like no other policy. Legalizing pot would cripple us, because everyone who wanted to could simply grow some in their yards, and that would put us right out of business. But your ongoing eradication efforts secure future customers coming to us for this oh-so-easy-to-grow medicinal herb. We simply cannot thank you enough, although we suspect you are pretty happy about your ever-increasing anti-pot budgets. You make money, we make money, there is lots of pot on the street, everyone is happy. Except the taxpayers, but who cares what those suckers think, right? Also, your propaganda in the news really helps us too. We can charge anywhere from $2,600 to $3,500 per pound for this simple weed, because of the perceived threat. Our customers ask us why pot is so expensive, and we tell them that the police are cracking down and we are facing big risks and so on. They have no choice but to accept it. Thanks large for that, too. [continues 71 words]
Dear editor Police say raves are dangerous, but when you point out that drug prohibition is the very thing that makes raves dangerous, they refuse to admit it. Luckily for them, reporters never mention this, and the public never thinks about it. Fear-mongering cops, soft-ball-tossing "journalists", and an easily-bamboozled public means that prohibition will continue unabated for a while yet. The stink of police balderdash in this country is getting simply unbearable. I am sick to death of cops - the hired help - acting like they know better than doctors and scientists. Russell Barth Nepean, Ont. [end]
Local Mounties continue to help local residents with their backyard weed problems. Thanks to RCMP helicopter surveillance, North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP uprooted 28 marijuana plants on Friday. The plants were discovered on four separate plots at a Castley Road residence. "Some of the plants were sizable and reaching maturity when police attended," Const. Markus Lueder said in an email. "Outdoor grow-ops are readily located by trained RCMP pilots and crew, even from significant altitudes," he added. Those areas are photographed from the air, and the information and location are passed to the local detachment for follow-up. Friday's bust marks the fourth grow-op shut down by local cops that has been reported in the past month. [end]
Is the fun worth the risk? That's what local police hope Cowichan youths are asking themselves before attending raves. Those risks are real - news of a 16-year-old girl gang-raped at a Pitt Meadows rave proves that. And don't forget to add remote locations, tons of strangers and drugs to the risk-list, too. "Date-rape drugs are in our community - I've personally seized them so I know they're here," Const. Markus Lueder of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP said. "Should kids here be concerned? They should be concerned, and parents should be concerned." [continues 715 words]
Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder wants you to take care if Mexico is potentially in your future. On Wednesday, after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade issued a warning about travel over land to Mexico, Crowder echoed that to her constituents through an open letter. "The areas adjacent to the United States' border have seen high levels of violence, theft and carjacking associated with the trafficking of drugs through the region, and tourists and other foreigners are often seen as an easy target," the letter states. [continues 79 words]
Help is coming for Cowichanians wishing to ford a swamp of government paperwork and legally obtain medical marijuana. A local group, represented by Mill Bay lawyer Kirk Tousaw, aims to open the storefront Medical Cannabis Access Centre in the Duncan Garage, possibly by month's end. The opening date is pending finalization of the centre's business plan, plus city permits and more. The idea, said social-justice advocate Tousaw, is to educate valley patients about their rights under Canada's federal medical-marijuana program. [continues 351 words]
You can call Rick Stewart a drug expert, but he's never used a single illegal substance. The retired Edmonton police officer, however, knows his substance stuff as the instructor of the spring DARE program happening at 12 valley schools. DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, focuses on marijuana, alcohol and tobacco - the three substances kids are most likely to be pressured into trying. "The core we look at is talking about the three main drugs," Stewart said of the program geared toward Grade 5 students. "But we use that as a stepping stone to making good decisions." [continues 430 words]
Central Island youth are doing more drugs, having more sex and are more likely to seriously consider suicide than their peers province-wide. The McCreary Centre Society's Adolescent Health Survey canvassed more than 29,000 Grades 7-12 students across B.C. in 2008. The survey, the results of which were recently released, paints a comprehensive picture of the physical and emotional health of B.C. youth, including risk and protective factors. The survey is administered every five years by public health nurses in 50 of the 60 school districts, including Cowichan. [continues 435 words]
Many mid-Island drug users are increasing their risk of infection with hepatitis C and HIV by sharing needles and pipes, according to a recent survey. The I-Track survey, a national, disease monitoring program implemented by the Public Health Agency of Canada, collected information from people on the central and North Island regions who inject drugs for the first time in the fall of 2008. Thirty-four Duncan users users were interviewed, along with 64 from Nanaimo and 26 from Port Alberni. [continues 332 words]
David Bratzer enforces the law, but he doesn't necessary agree with it when it comes to illegal drugs. "One of the sad things about the prohibition of drugs in our society is that despite more than four decades of heavy drug enforcement, we see today that drugs are cheaper, more available and more pure than ever before," said Bratzer, an active officer with the Victoria Police Department who sees the war on drugs as a failure. "Drug enforcement now dominates what police officers do, so every day in my job I find myself trying to manage the consequences of drug prohibition. [continues 297 words]
