Michigan Fiddles While the West Burns One. What a waste of the state Legislature's time. SB660 was passed by the Michigan Senate last week to much posturing and politicking by our lawmakers, and a fair amount of grousing by marijuana legalization activists. I'm not sure why any of them bothered. Senate Bill 660 says that if the federal government ever reschedules marijuana, then Michigan will allow the Canadian corporation Prairie Plant Systems (PPS) to run 16 marijuana grows in the state to produce what they consider certified "pharmaceutical grade" marijuana that would be sold in drug stores. [continues 1016 words]
Local municipal officials are welcoming proposed changes in federal legislation surrounding the production of medical marijuana. Both the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Union of B.C. Municipalities have raised concerns about illegal grow-ops being converted to medical grow operations, said Victoria Coun. Chris Coleman, who sits on the federal group's board. The proposed changes - Health Canada plans to take itself out of the production and distribution of the substance and open up the commercial market to companies that meet "strict security requirements" - appear to address that concern. Production of the substance would no longer be allowed in private homes. [continues 468 words]
The federal government has ignited a great debate with its recently announced plans to overhaul the 13-year-old medical marijuana program because it is far too popular. The numbers and the burgeoning size of the legal pot market are so staggering Ottawa is trying to slow it down and at the same time eliminate home growing. If registration continues apace, Health Canada estimates that by 2014, more than 50,000 people will be authorized to legally possess pot for their ills. [continues 669 words]
Re: MDs Refuse To Sign Medical Marijuana Form, Oct. 31. It is sad that physicians have been made the reluctant gatekeepers for legal cannabis by Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Program (MMAP). Despite a decade of operation, Health Canada's program continues to obstruct access to Canadians who rely on this medicine and, as a result, it continues to be found constitutionally defective by our courts. Meanwhile, medical cannabis dispensaries (a.k.a. "compassion centres") are filling the void. This year, the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD) was founded in order to formalize the best practices and to ensure that high-quality patient care is available nation-wide. For over 15 years, community-based medical cannabis dispensaries have been providing more than 30,000 Canadians with safe access to medical cannabis products at almost no cost to the taxpayer. CAMCD believes the Canadian Medical Association is right to be concerned about physician liability around prescribing cannabis, but its concern over lack of research misses the point. What the CMA must acknowledge is that the antiquated policies that inhibit research, while needlessly criminalizing physicians and patients alike, are what truly need to be re-examined." [continues 99 words]
Lalanya Blue McGraw believes cannabis is slowing her cancer while easing her pain. She's not alone. In B.C., thousands have turned to the drug for relief, despite murky scientific evidence Living with incurable cancer, after a third relapse of Hodgkin's lymphoma, 39-year-old Lalanya Blue McGraw credits the daily use of medical marijuana for allowing her to make the most of what may be borrowed time. "I've been considered terminal for a long time. The cancer is still there, even after all the chemo and two bone marrow transplants. When it gets worse, I can go into a clinical trial with a chemo drug that has not yet been approved in Canada. But until then, I have defied the odds," says the Vancouver resident, a former jazz singer whose voice has been affected by the disease. [continues 1915 words]
A change in policy at the Department of Veterans Affairs means local disability pensioner Bruce Webb may get the cost of his medical marijuana covered. "This is an amazing thing that I didn't think I would live long enough to see," said Webb, who has severe/chronic neuropathic pain. "After all this time, screaming and singing, it's approved. It's amazing isn't it?" A letter that came this week from Veterans' Affairs said the cost of Health Canada medical marijuana may be covered if it is proved to be needed to treat Webb's pension condition. [continues 237 words]
Since the current incarnation of Canada's medical marijuana program was established, doctors have been forced by Health Canada to act as sentinels for a product whose complexities, methods of delivery and side effects they have little firsthand information. It's a situation that leaves many physicians hesitant to sign their names to the documents required for patients to access government pot. "Our No. 1 complaint is that patients can't find a doctor who will endorse their MMAD application," says Eric Nash of Duncan's Island Harvest. [continues 519 words]
When Victoria's Tim Wilkins realized his Health Canada licence to possess medical cannabis was set to expire last year, he diligently filled out the eight-page renewal form, paid $65 to obtain his physician's signature and submitted the package to Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Division in Ottawa on August 22-13 weeks before it was due. "I'd dealt with [MMAD] for a few years, so I knew how long it could take," says Wilkins, who declined to let Monday publish his real last name, fearing the stigma still attached to medical cannabis use. On November 27 Wilkins' new license arrived-five weeks after the promised eight-week processing period had passed-and three days after the old one had already expired. [continues 3327 words]
Since the current incarnation of Canada's medical marijuana program was established, doctors have been forced by Health Canada to act as sentinel for a product whose complexities, methods of delivery and side effects they have little firsthand information-a situation that leaves many physicians hesitant to sign their names to the documents required for patients to access government pot. "Our number one complaint is that patients can't find a doctor who will endorse their MMAD application," says Eric Nash of Duncan's Island Harvest. [continues 558 words]
Registered Users Refuse To Pay For Government-Grown Cannabis They Say Is Low In Quality And Overpriced VICTORIA -- For all Jason Wilcox cares, Health Canada's debt collectors can follow him to the grave. Mr. Wilcox, a terminally ill medical marijuana user living in Victoria, owes the federal government more than $6,400 for cannabis he purchased through Health Canada's medical marijuana program last winter. But like many who subscribe to the federal program, Mr. Wilcox is neither able nor willing to pay for his government-grown pot. [continues 1373 words]
News that medical marijuana user and activist Grant Krieger has been sent to prison on a trafficking charge is no real surprise, but it is profoundly disappointing. Krieger has a marijuana licence for his multiple sclerosis (MS), and in March of this year the judge had ruled his sentence be delayed until details around access to his medicine behind bars was ironed out. But as of last week, Alberta's solicitor has general turned down the judge's earlier request that Krieger have access to marijuana while serving his sentence, even though he has legal permission to use pot as medicine. [continues 664 words]
Activists Call on Auditor General to Investigate 1,500 Per Cent Markup on Government Dope The days of health canada marking up medical marijuana to the tune of 1,500 per cent may be nearing an end. Or are they? Word from NDP health critic MP Libby Davies is that the office of Auditor General Sheila Fraser is "in the early stages of an audit of certain user fees" being charged medical pot users by Health Canada's Medical Marihuana Access Division. [continues 512 words]
Vancouver Island Compassion Society planning constitutional challenge in defence of pot bust To the prosecution, it's a simple case of production for the purposes of trafficking, involving two local men caught red-handed growing a crop of 900 marijuana plants on an acreage in East Sooke. To Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas, it's a constitutional challenge of Canada's medical marijuana laws. Lawyers were in court in Victoria this week arguing that the two men arrested in the May, 2004 raid, Mat Beren and Michael Swallow, were operating a marijuana research and cultivation facility on behalf of the society. [continues 221 words]
To the prosecution, it's a simple case of production for the purposes of trafficking, involving two local men caught red-handed growing a crop of 900 marijuana plants on an acreage in East Sooke. To Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas, it's a constitutional challenge of Canada's medical marijuana laws. Lawyers were in court in Victoria this week arguing that the two men arrested in the May 2004 raid, Mat Beren and Michael Swallow, were operating a marijuana research and cultivation facility on behalf of the society. [continues 221 words]
To the prosecution, it's a simple case of production for the purposes of trafficking, involving two local men caught red-handed growing a crop of 900 marijuana plants on an acreage in East Sooke. To Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas, it's a constitutional challenge to Canada's medical marijuana laws. Lawyers were in court in Victoria this week arguing that the two men arrested in the May, 2004 raid, Mat Beren and Michael Swallow, were operating a marijuana research and cultivation facility on behalf of the society. [continues 219 words]
Halifax March on Saturday One of Hundreds Worldwide Medical marijuana patients and advocates, cannabis consumers and freedom supporters, will rally in the Halifax North Commons from 1 to 4 p.m., May 5, to mark the annual Global Marijuana March as we join over 200 cities worldwide to seek changes to current cannabis laws. Last month Canadians learned about Health Canada gouging critically and chronically ill Canadians a whopping 1,500 per cent markup for medicinal marijuana. Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana Society (MUMM) is a registered non-profit organization that educates others about the safety of medical marijuana while advocating and lobbying for the rights of consumers, distributors and producers of medical marijuana. [continues 437 words]
Critics Complain Sickest Users Forced to Pay 'Criminal' Price OTTAWA-The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show. Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana when they cannot pay their government dope bills. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show Health Canada pays $328.75 per kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. It has a $10.3-million contract with Health Canada that expires Sept. 30, to grow standardized medical marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man. [continues 333 words]
OTTAWA - The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, documents show. Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. [continues 393 words]
OTTAWA -- The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show. Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. [continues 466 words]
OTTAWA - The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show. Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical-marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. [continues 168 words]
Canadians For Safe Access
