Too quick, many of the provinces say. There just isn't time to put in place a way to distribute legalized marijuana, and all the rules and schemes needed. Oh no, the police say, the timelines are tight, and they're worried that they won't be ready for policing in the brave new world of legal pot. Okay folks, let's stop talking like slackers. This doesn't have to drag on for years. The legalization of marijuana has been debated in Canadian politics since the 1970s and studied by task forces and committees for decades. It has been official government policy for two years. There are still 10 months before it is slated to be legal in July. Sure, there are significant details to work out - but this is not Mission: Impossible. [continues 620 words]
In Jennifer O'Brien's article Half of voters say tear up pot rap sheets, poll finds, Paul Whitehead seems to get lit up about pardoning marijuana possession convictions carte blanche. He needs to come off his high horse thinking that all possessions convictions will be systematically pardoned. I will agree that the situation he poses is quite hazy and not all possession charges are the same. The article is very blunt in addressing his concern, stating that those charged with possession might be able to apply for pardon. [continues 68 words]
Maybe our friends in the state Legislature are tired of being ridiculed. Maybe they're tired of being mocked for their work habits, the fact that nothing ever seems to get done in Harrisburg, or the partisan bickering that seems to gum up everything in the state Capitol. This week they took serious actions to provide relief to groups that have been calling out for help for years. On Thursday the House joined the Senate in passing a measure that would make Pennsylvania the 24th state in the nation to allow use of medical marijuana. [continues 670 words]
There is a wise old adage which reads, "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it." That message certainly applies to the proposed initiatives on the ballot later this year to legalize the use of recreational marijuana in California. Voters in California passed Proposition 215 almost 20 years ago, and only recently has this state established a viable method for making this product available for those who have a legitimate medical need. Recreational use, however, is an entirely different matter. [continues 586 words]
Is the Zonker community inclined to overindulge in the product it champions - namely, marijuana? Seems so. That could explain the yawning gaps in Zonker logic - the apparent burnt spots in the medial temporal lobes from the pothead community's misfiring synapses. The Zonker community takes its name from Zonker Harris, the cannabis-addled character in the Doonesbury comic strip. Talking up marijuana, Zonker's namesakes illogically say that since alcohol is legal, marijuana should be too. Alcohol fuels crime, domestic abuse, deteriorating health, bankruptcy and highway carnage, to name just a few. So, heck, why not legalize marijuana along with it? [continues 1278 words]
A day after Winnipeg police told him to shut down, the owner of the city's first medical marijuana dispensary says he wants to meet with the mayor. But Glenn Price vows he will keep doing what he says is the right thing, dishing out prescription marijuana to Winnipeggers in need, no matter what legal repercussions may be in store for him. Price said police came to his Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters shop on Main Street on Tuesday and forced him to shut down his operation, which he said provides services to more than 225 patients. [continues 352 words]
THE Harper government is quickly becoming its own satire of the mouldy propaganda that portrayed marijuana as the road to mental illness, crime and unemployment. Health Minister Rona Ambrose, for example, said last week she was shocked and "outraged" after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled medical-marijuana users can consume the product in a variety of ways, not just through smoking. Of course it was ridiculous for the government to take this matter all the way to the top court when common sense made the answer obvious. Why, for God's sake, would the state insist on smoking only, when less harmful methods, such as baked goods and other products, are available? [continues 512 words]
Glass Bong Maker Doesn't Have to Disguise the Purpose of His Functional Art Anymore For Jared Betty, the glass pipe has gone from being half empty to half full. Recreational pot in Washington has been a boon for the glass artist specializing in pipes. "The terminology before the legalization was you couldn't say 'bong,'" said Betty, 38, owner of J-Red Glass. "All my pipes had to be labeled 'For Tobacco Use Only.' And I could only sell under the tobacco use only category or I faced criminal charges for selling marijuana paraphernalia. Now I can say it because that is what it's for anyway." [continues 725 words]
Businesses Say Government Guidance Has Made Things Worse DENVER--Two months after the U.S. government tried to smooth the way for sellers of legalized marijuana to get banking services, many pot entrepreneurs still can't open a basic checking account. The Treasury Department and Justice Department in February issued guidance that was meant to reassure banks that they wouldn't run afoul of federal law--under which marijuana remains illegal--by working with pot businesses in states that have legalized the drug. [continues 782 words]
IT'S LOOKING less and less like a bill regulating small amounts of marijuana will be going up in smoke. City Council's Committee on Law and Government passed a bill yesterday that could end mandatory custodial arrests for possession of a small amount of pot. The subject has garnered interest from people who say Philadelphia wastes countless hours arresting and processing smalltime offenders when the city's law enforcers have bigger fish to fry. Aaron Fleming, a Temple University student, testified before the committee that he was held for more than 14 hours for a first-time offense of marijuana possession after being stopped on campus by police. [continues 248 words]
Justice minister considering the option of tickets for marijuana possession OTTAWA- The Conservative government is seriously considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would . . . allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 168 words]
Law enforcement around the country report that illegal marijuana growers are turning to solar panels to power indoor lights. New Mexico state police recently busted a marijuana operation around the Four Corners region that used solar panels to pump water, according to the Associated Press, and authorities in California have stepped up enforcement against solar panel thefts from vineyards that they believe were headed to illegal growers. On the North Coast, however, authorities say that solar-powered pot grows wouldn't make sense. [continues 1029 words]
It Would Be Wrong to Characterize a Legalization Movement As Being Led by 'Stoners.' After his state became one of two where marijuana legalization was approved by voters last week, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that "federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don't break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly." Hickenlooper's allusion to marijuana-induced munchies was amusing, but it had a sly, sinister subtext - namely, that the measure was brought about by nothing more than a ragtag army of stoners who just want the government to let them get high. Would Hickenlooper, a Democrat and Main Line native who opposed the initiative, have us believe that more than half of Colorado's electorate consists of inveterate potheads in the mold of Cheech and Chong? [continues 302 words]
It was news Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was not expecting. One year earlier, in September, 2012, he had supported a resolution at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria calling on the federal government to study the decriminalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. He did not expect it to go anywhere. He had, in the past, also supported resolutions calling on the federal government to provide financing for transit and social housing, and to reverse its decision on the Kitsilano Coast Guard station. All of those had met with stony silence. He had learned not to hold his breath. [continues 721 words]
A few thousand federal Liberals gathered in Ottawa over the weekend to gossip about leadership and try to come up with some innovative new policy ideas that might seize the public's imagination. None of their ideas was very innovative or even particularly new, but nonetheless, most of them were voted down. No republicanism here, thank you very much. One of the few ideas that did get the green light was the legalization of marijuana. This newspaper has repeatedly argued that prohibition is a hugely expensive, utterly failed policy. We're joined in this by such diverse voices as the Fraser Institute, The Economist, Time Magazine, former secretaries general of NATO and the UN, and our own Sen. Larry Campbell, among many, many others. [continues 147 words]
How many of your friends or colleagues at work like to "sneak out for a toke" during the day? At lunch or during a coffee break? Or friends who come over to watch a movie and always slip outside for a "tug on the pipe." Like many other people, I used to believe that grass isn't addictive. After observing the behaviour of some of my friends, I've changed my mind. Of course, my pot-smoking friends deny they are hooked on the weed. After all, they never miss work because they are too hungover. They don't go into withdrawal or even the mild shakes if they are deprived of their drug of choice. [continues 533 words]
Coincidental with word that a British Columbia seed company has won second place at the annual High Times Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands, comes news of a speech delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Vancouver defending Canada's get-tough laws against the use of that drug. The two countries could hardly have different approaches to how to deal with the problem of drugs. Both agree that drug use is a definite problem, just as the abuse of alcohol and tobacco is a problem. In Holland, however, the sale and use of marijuana and hashish are controlled and regulated -- one does not need to go to the Mob to buy, for example, Hydra, the hashish that was crossbred between the strains Warlock and Haoma and brought the silver medal to Canada this week. [continues 299 words]
Critics Smoking Mad at Notion of Giving Addicts Crack Pipe Kits Critics are deriding an Alberta Health Services outreach program that sees crack pipes distributed to the city's addicts. Run by the AHS Safeworks Van since November 2008, the program sees four-part kits -- made up of a pipe, mouthpiece, screens and cleaning rod -- given to users along with education and health care services. "I'm against it," said Art Sheeler, a longtime community activist in Forest Lawn. "You're not going to help (addicts) by giving them stuff to have their drugs with. [continues 466 words]
The drumbeat for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs grows louder by the day. Recent headlines in the Gazette proclaim: "Panel: Drug war failed; explore legalization" (June 2), "Cash spent in drug war called wasted" (June 9), "More reasons to end the drug war" (June 10). The latter, an editorial by the Orange County Register, cites the conclusions of several world leaders (whose wisdom or political agendas are not universally accepted) and the widely trumpeted results of Portugal's 2001 drug decriminalization. Readers should be wary of swallowing whole the opinions of the nabobs mentioned in the Register piece or assuming that the results of the Portuguese experiment would be duplicated in the huge and diverse United States: Tiny Portugal has a homogeneous population of about 10.7 million. [continues 270 words]
CHICAGO -- In about a dozen states, you can smoke a joint if you have cancer or HIV and meet certain conditions, like having a doctor's note. In California, you can light up if you have just about anything -- headaches, anxiety, epilepsy -- and a physician's okay. Illinois could join these states as legislators consider a bill that would allow patients to use marijuana as medicine so long as they have one of 14 conditions and illnesses, from cancer to Crohn's Disease. [continues 1323 words]
