To The Editor: Regarding the story where the RCMP says the public has helped them take 23,000 plants out of circulation, 'J' Division RCMP Staff Sgt. Gary Cameron is an ill-informed ideologist cop! 'If' marijuana is harmful, then why is this non-toxic medicinal herb improving and extending the lives of thousands of chronically ill Canadians who are legally licensed by Health Canada to use it for medicinal reasons? I am one of them since March 2000, and let me tell you that if it wouldn't have been of marijuana, I would have died some time ago. There are millions of marijuana users in Canada, so why aren't our hospitals filled with marijuana users if it's harmful? How many died because of marijuana? And the social problems caused by marijuana are to be blamed on its prohibition! Sgt. Gary Cameron should educate himself about the dozens of medicinal benefits of marijuana instead of propagating such garbage. Marc Paquette, Hawkesbury, Ont. [end]
RCMP says public has helped them take 23,000 plants out of circulation The public is increasingly tipping off the RCMP about marijuana grow-operations and one Mountie thinks part of the reason for that can be traced to Moncton. In summer of 2004 police simultaneously raided 14 houses in Moncton and arrested 18 people. All the homes were found to house large marijuana grow-ops and were linked to organized crime. Police confiscated 5,000 plants worth more than $10 million and more arrests were made in Hamilton, Ont., at an operation connected to the one in Moncton. [continues 708 words]
RCMP seizures of marijuana plants are up this year, and the force attributes that to an increase in the number of grow operations and a spike in the number of tips from the public. The RCMP's New Brunswick division reported Thursday that the force has seized more than 23,000 marijuana plants over the past few months. That represents a 53 per cent increase in seizures over the same period in 2009, a news release stated. RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Gary Cameron said there are a couple of factors that account for the spike in pot plant seizures. [continues 281 words]
Notes used by Fredericton police officers to solidify their application for a search warrant, which led to the arrest of Kevin Mark Sexton on drug and firearms charges, must surrender their data to the man's lawyer. Sexton, who remains in jail pending the start of his trial Oct. 13, is charged with 17 offences under the Criminal Code of Canada and the Controlled Drug and Substances Act. The 25-year-old of 260 Wetmore Rd. in Southwood Park was arrested by police after $200,000 in drugs, four handguns, other prohibited weapons and an estimated $70,000 Canadian and U.S. currency were found in his home. [continues 353 words]
Bud: Following Arrest, Hamptonian Was Granted Permit To Grow Marijuana For Medical Use SUSSEX - A 49-year-old Hampton man who's now legally permitted to produce home-grown marijuana for medicinal purposes wasn't in the same position when police raided his trailer on June 12, 2008. Last week in Sussex provincial court, Garth Adrian Shaw was convicted of producing marijuana on his property. While the evidence of drugs found in his possession were not disputed by Shaw or his lawyer Joel Hanson, they argued that police didn't properly execute their search warrant and therefore the evidence should be tossed out. [continues 210 words]
SUSSEX - Calls from people stumbling across marijuana grow operations is ramping up, police say. Sgt. Bruce Reid of the Sussex RCMP said the weather this summer has been particularly conducive to outdoor growing operations, and the success of the season for illegal horticulturalists is becoming more evident with the high number of people letting police know about their discoveries while out and about. "District 3 RCMP has begun to receive reports of marijuana finds from citizens enjoying the nice weather and who have been out hiking in local areas and riding their ATV on the many trails," he said. [continues 176 words]
It was like watching a kid's party game, with children staggering around with blindfolds on trying to pin the tail on the donkey. Or maybe it was the adult version, except everybody's drunk and they're using daggers. I was watching a video of Stockwell Day, Treasury Board minister, making a presentation to the media on Canada's Economic Action Plan. He was asked why, "during a time of declining crime rates he wanted to blow nine billion dollars on prisons." He was asked if that didn't send a confusing message to Canadians about the government's role as deficit fighter. [continues 660 words]
Re: Medical marijuana Bruce Webb, whose letter about medical marijuana was published in the Aug. 2 edition of The Daily Gleaner, demonstrates a common flaw in his argument - inadequate perspective. Allowing state control is the very mechanism that got us into the genocide that is prohibition in the first place. Everyone has an endocannabinoid system, meaning everyone is wired to accept the more than dozen active compounds in cannabis. Therefore it can only function as medicine, but not for everyone. The medical profession has been under relentless pressure to withhold cannabis from the public. Placing faith in doctors is a crapshoot in this country. The system is terminally flawed. That's its fail-safe. Work the rest out if you can. Bruce Codere Fox Creek, Alta. [end]
Scanning coverage of Conrad Black's release from prison on bail, I was amused (sort of) by a reporter's describing Mr. Black as a "one-time conservative." This assessment was based on Mr. Black's taking up the cause of prison and drug-law reform during his incarceration, and says more about the writer's superficial, stereotyped perceptions of "conservatism" than about Mr. Black's politics. Perspectives broadened, mind focused by circumstances, Mr. Black lobbed withering and well-deserved broadsides from behind bars at the United States justice system, which he accurately describes as "putrefied," "'a carceral state' that imprisons eight to 12 times more people per capita than the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan..." [continues 717 words]
Hainesville Man Had Prescription but No Licence In what could be a first in New Brunswick, a Hainesville man is fighting a drug possession charge on the basis of a medical certificate. Todd Terrance LeClair was charged with possessing marijuana after a police search of his residence Oct. 19. But LeClair is arguing he's been allowed to possess the narcotic after receiving a doctor's prescription on March 1, 2009. On trial for the possession charge Friday, LeClair said he'd received his medical marijuana licence on Jan. 13. [continues 571 words]
Re: Medical marijuana I read with interest the story about the case in the Woodstock area of Todd Leclair standing trial for marijuana possession despite having been issued a prescription for the drug for medical use. Because New Brunswick is still stuck in the 1940s, the authorities will ruin this guy and violate his Charter rights and the law to do it. Of that I have no doubt. Canada's judiciary is systematically, fundamentally and irreparably corrupt. The fact that this judge is even hearing a case like this is proof of that. I will never set foot in that backwards province and will urge everyone I meet to avoid it. Russell Barth Ottawa, Ont. [end]
Re: Drug case in Woodstock Your readers may wish to note that cannabis, contrary to the story of July 27 by Bryan Tait, is anything but a narcotic. This misinformation clouds the perception of Earth's most versatile and useful plant. No other medicine approaches its capacity to maintain or restore health. The pharmaceutical industry (a direct extension of the petro-chemical industry) manufactures poisons by which to treat symptoms while failing to treat root causes. It's impossible to cure disease with poisons. We have been deceived, and I applaud anyone standing up against this horror. The number of people trapped by this modern-day inquisition boggles the mind, and it has no place in civilized society. Bruce Codere Fox Creek, Alta. [end]
SUSSEX - A provincial court judge ruled police went beyond their authority and therefore deemed evidence collected during a search of a couple's Apohaqui home inadmissible. As a result, federal Crown prosecutor Gerry McCracken dropped a charge of marijuana production that had been laid against Jason McGrath and Angela Bernard. The couple was represented by defence lawyer Peter White during a voir dire hearing in late May. At the time, White argued McGrath and Bernard's rights were violated when Sussex RCMP officer Const. Justin Helm searched their home looking for a grow operation. Helm had been asked by social worker Michelle Campbell to accompany her to ensure her safety during a home inspection in February. [continues 665 words]
Panel: Inquest rules inmate died of lethal cocktail of drugs MONCTON - A coroner's inquest has ruled that a lethal cocktail of prescription and illegal drugs caused the death of an inmate on remand in a Moncton detention centre. The jury at the three-day inquest labelled the death of Derrick Phillip Urwin as accidental in its findings, but recommended that further action be taken to eliminate the flow of illegal drugs into the province's correctional facilities. "We recommend that as contraband will always be a problem, that correctional staff persevere and continue to develop new ways to detect contraband," said Mark Powers, the juror who delivered the five-person panel's findings on Wednesday. [continues 472 words]
To The Editor: Regarding "Police target drug trafficking in schools" published June 15, if cannabis (marijuana) is the most frequent illegal drug used by high school students and it promotes organized crime, as Const. Chantal Farrah claims, it can only be because of the way it is made illicit. Teens smoking up in the middle of the day may very well be of the opinion that marijuana is harmless. Harm is not reflected in the way marijuana, and other substances, are legislated. [continues 139 words]
Friday's Arrests Part of Ongoing Operation Codiac Regional RCMP's Drug Section is targeting drug trafficking at local high schools in an attempt to keep students safe. "If we can get young people on the right track early, society benefits from that," says Const. Chantal Farrah. "We want to put them on the right path to be responsible adults in the future." Two officers from the drug squad arrested three Moncton High School students Friday at lunchtime as part of this ongoing operation. [continues 455 words]
SAINT JOHN - Medical ethicist and epidemiologist Tim Christie is at a loss to understand why government seems unwilling to redistribute resources that would see an additional 382 addicts receiving methadone to help them kick their habit. "It makes no sense at all. I don't know why they won't do it," he said. "I've engaged them in dialogue and they will not respond to reason and they won't respond to the evidence." Christie is one of the authors of a report that contends Ridgewood's addiction treatment model costs $2,845 per patient per year, compared to the uptown clinic's cost of $935 per patient per year. The uptown clinic is located at St. Joseph's Community Health Centre and has been open for nearly one year. [continues 976 words]
SAINT JOHN - The use of crack cocaine in the city appears to be on the rise in the city, says an AIDS Saint John official Executive director Julie Dingwell says the organization is passing out at least twice as many safe crack kits as it did two years ago. "I've always known we had a crack problem in Saint John, but it does seem definitely worse," Dingwell said. Two years ago, the group gave out 150 to 200 kits a month. Now, it's closer to 400, she said. [continues 358 words]
Warm Weather Draws Officials' Attention To Locating Local Grow-Ops New Brunswick Crime Stoppers is hoping to score some weed. This is the time of year when the weather gets nice and outdoor marijuana grow-ops pop up in wooded areas all over the province. Crime Stoppers is asking the public to keep their eyes open for suspicious activity in the woods and report it to police. Anyone who spots a grow-op is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) and could qualify for a cash reward up to $2,000. [continues 544 words]
Treatment | N.B. in Middle of Pack for Rate of Medical Pot Prescriptions New Brunswick has some of Canada's more medical marijuana-friendly physicians, and a national group says it expects even more provincial doctors to be writing these prescriptions in the year to come. The latest numbers from Health Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information suggest that about three per cent of New Brunswick's 1,447 physicians support the authorization for patients to have possession of marijuana for medical purposes. [continues 452 words]
Inside New Brunswick
