Safety Issues - Health Canada Not Keeping Tabs On Marijuana Growers Vancouver - Medical marijuana may be legal, but the way some approved Canadian growers are producing their pot isn't, say fire chiefs in the country's two most prolific weed-producing provinces. More than 3,400 production licences have been issued to grow medical marijuana across Canada, two-thirds of them in Ontario and British Columbia. Fire chiefs associations in those provinces say Health Canada's secretive permit process and refusal to bring in better regulations for growers put lives and health at risk. [continues 530 words]
VANCOUVER - The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that a window contractor discriminated against an employee because his physical disability allowed him to smoke medical marijuana. The company has been told to pay $500 for injury to the man's dignity, feelings and self-respect. Greg Wilson's claim against Transparent Glazing Systems alleged he was fired after a superintendent's letter sent to company management said Mr. Wilson's medication seemed to impair his ability to do the job. [continues 385 words]
VANCOUVER -- British Columbia's top police official wonders whether the courts want police to wait while criminals "lock and load" their weapons before officers move in to execute a search warrant. The frustrated reaction from Solicitor-General John Les followed a B.C. Supreme Court judgment throwing out evidence of a marijuana grow operation because the Charter rights of the accused were violated. "I really wonder, what do police have to do? They apparently knocked on the door, waited for several minutes," Mr. Les told reporters. "Are they supposed to wait longer to give people the opportunity to lock and load?" [continues 438 words]
Critics Call It Everything From Politically Opportunistic to a Threat to Civil Liberties. VANCOUVER -- Critics of the Conservative government's anti-drug plan are calling it everything from naive to politically opportunistic and a threat to the civil liberties of Canadians. A coalition of Vancouver health and social groups says prison terms and attempts to scare users straight won't solve Canada's illegal drug problem. "You just can't incarcerate your way out of this," former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen, a member of the Beyond Prohibition Coalition, said yesterday. "The United States locks down 2.3 million people every night." [continues 475 words]
Steve Kubby, Who Uses Medical Marijuana, Has Been Ordered Out of Canada VANCOUVER - The wife of a California man who uses marijuana to ease his cancer symptoms wept outside Federal Court Monday after pleading her family's case to prevent his deportation. "I need to ask the Canadian people for help, because I'm losing the battle against saving my husband's life," Michele Kubby cried. Kubby argued on behalf of her husband, Steve, who was too ill to attend the hearing. [continues 485 words]
Arrests Should Be A Lesson To Others, Drug Authority Says LYNDEN, Wash. - U.S. officials began Thursday to destroy a tunnel they say a criminal organization thought would be a "gold mine" to be used for smuggling drugs from B.C. to Washington state. A backhoe cut through the roadway above the tunnel near the Lynden border crossing, where cement barriers will be placed then buried with gravel. A concrete-like mixture will fill the rest of the tunnel that ends under a Lynden home. [continues 477 words]
LYNDEN, WASH. -- U.S. officials began destruction yesterday of a tunnel that they say a criminal organization thought would be a "gold mine" in the smuggling of drugs from British Columbia to Washington State. A backhoe cut through the roadway above the tunnel near the Lynden border crossing, south of Vancouver, where concrete barriers will be placed, then buried with gravel. A concrete-like mixture will fill the rest of the tunnel, which ends under a Lynden home. "It should demonstrate to others that might think of doing the same that we'll find out about it, like we did in this case, beforehand, and we will make sure we shut it down," said Rodney Benson, special agent in charge of the Seattle Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. [continues 437 words]
Demonstrators Say It's Degrading For City's Poorest Area To Be Used As Backdrop For Politicians VANCOUVER -- Gov.-Gen. Adrienne Clarkson toured Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside Tuesday amid howls of disapproval from protesters who accused her and local politicians of using the neighbourhood and its residents for political purposes. A couple of dozen demonstrators screamed their displeasure, but most of their anger was aimed at Clarkson's escorts, Mayor Larry Campbell and Coun. Jim Green. "The Downtown Eastside shouldn't be used as a backdrop for politicians," said anti-poverty activist Bill Cunningham. "It's degrading to see people come down here and walk all over us. The governor's visit is nothing but a symbolic gesture." [continues 624 words]
A Room For Just That Exists at The Legal Injection Facility But Is Not In Use VANCOUVER - A new support group for crack cocaine users wants the government to establish a safe-inhalation site to give crack users a spot to smoke up in safety without harassment from police. The smoking site would be inside a site established almost a year ago for injection drug users, the first and only spot of its kind in Canada. "I believe it makes the street safer," said Rob Morgan, spokesman for the Rock Users Group. [continues 632 words]
VANCOUVER (CP) - An American man claiming refugee status in Canada said Tuesday he is being persecuted because of his medical marijuana use. Steve Kubby told his refugee hearing he needs about 5.5 kilograms of marijuana a year to control symptoms of a rare adrenal cancer. The former California man has Health Canada permission to grow and use pot. Kubby said he would never get that permission in the United States. "I didn't want to live in a country that tells you what you can put in your mouth or what you can put in your medicine cabinet." [continues 326 words]
