Prince of Pot Returns From U.S. on Tuesday OTTAWA - Marc and Jodie Emery, Canada's royal couple of marijuana, plan to take their drug-reform fight global after Marc returns home from the U.S. a free man. Soon after Marc walks across the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit into Windsor, Ont., on Tuesday afternoon, Jodie said the couple will fly to Ireland and Spain on sponsored speaking gigs. Jodie has waited more than four years for her husband, once the largest supplier of marijuana seeds to the U. S., to finish his sentence for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. [continues 219 words]
In Politics: Ground Shifting Rapidly on Pot Prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U.S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U.S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 252 words]
Ontario Safety Council Wants Crackdown on Convenience Stores Selling Drug Paraphernalia Toronto - The provincial government should crack down on convenience stores that sell bongs, drug pipes, pill grinders and similar items, the Ontario Safety League (OSL) says. Brian Patterson, president and CEO for the OSL, said an undercover operation this spring in convenience stores in Toronto and Barrie that carried drug paraphernalia found staff were routinely willing to sell to 17-year-old mystery shoppers. The bongs and pipes can be used to smoke pot and crack, while the pill grinders allow people to abuse prescription narcotics. [continues 195 words]
The Project Blackrock drug raid was no doubt well-intended, but ultimately counterproductive. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like prescription narcotics, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. [continues 79 words]
It's a classic story from the war on drugs: Police forces team up, gather intelligence and strike fast and hard in the small hours, armouring up to batter down doors and arrest drug dealers in the chaos of noise and tear-gas smoke. This is a scene repeated almost daily across the continent, as police services carry out the seemingly never-ending battle against narcotics, and it happened here Wednesday. What set Project Blackrock apart, however, was not the tactics used but the drugs being seized. While some of the suspects arrested in Wednesday's sweep were charged with cocaine-related offences, much of the trafficking targeted by city police (with OPP and CKL teams joining in) involved drugs that, in a better world, would legally only be available by prescription to people who need them. [continues 337 words]
Recent local conversation about a methadone clinic moving into the old Shoppers Drug Mart building downtown suggests the need to pause and explore some of the reasons and research behind why PCCHU supports a collaborative Made-in-Peterborough drug strategy that embraces harm reduction alongside our prevention, treatment and enforcement efforts. The term "harm reduction" refers to evidence-based strategies such as providing clean needles, methadone treatment or Naloxone. It's fully understandable why some people may view harm reduction as counterproductive and controversial. After all, aren't we just enabling "those people" to continue using harmful drugs that are often illegal? But strong, conclusive research and many decades of practical experience have taught us that harm reduction efforts work to reduce the harms and associated costs of substance misuse. [continues 503 words]
That wasted, skeletal junkie you're picturing? The heroin abuser who sucks away at our city's social services like a decaying vampire? That isn't what methadone clients look like. Not for the most part, anyway. You could be sitting beside one of them right now. A co-worker. A friend. A family member. "Methadone" summons up old, stereotypical ideas of drug addiction. However, a good majority of people undergoing methadone treatment are ordinary folks who've become addicted to a drug far more prevalent than heroin: prescription opiates. Ocycontin. Dilaudid. Percocet. These little pills, easily obtained legally and illegally, are a growing, horrible problem in Canada, Peterborough included. [continues 339 words]
Clinic Owner Says Former Shoppers Site Will Be Full-Fledged Medical Centre, With Its Methadone Services Only a Part of What It Offers The methadone clinic is moving into the former Shoppers Drug Mart building downtown won't take up the whole space, says the doctor in charge. Dr. Clement Sun says the idea is to create a large medical building with services for the general public such as a pharmacy, walk-in clinic or a radiology lab. It's going to be your everyday medical building, Sun said - except that it will also have a methadone clinic. [continues 382 words]
Hoffman is just the latest celebrity to die because of addiction Celebrities are public figures who generally work hard to maintain a private life, but death tends to slam all the public doors shut. It's strictly a private affair for the friends and family left behind. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a hugely successful actor, and as such, was public property - for better or worse. Thanks to his work, a large audience of followers developed feelings of attachment and ownership about him. Double that for New York City, where people could see him on stage at the theatre or stand next to him in the grocery store. Now, since death belongs to the private realm, that's left a lot of people on the public side wondering what to do with their emotions. They tweet condolences. They write letters. They bring flowers and gifts to a makeshift shrine outside the building where Hoffman lived. [continues 527 words]
MP Sends Flier to Constituents Slamming Trudeau's Plan to Legalize Pot OTTAWA - The Tories are trying to smoke out some details about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's promise to legalize marijuana if his party forms government. Conservative MP John Williamson has sent constituents in his New Brunswick riding a flyer that slams Trudeau's policy, saying the "Liberals plan to sell marijuana in N.B. stores." "I'm trying to take Trudeau's argument to its logical conclusion," Williamson said Monday. "If the point is not to make marijuana available in stores, what's the point of legalizing it?" [continues 189 words]
Shortly after being elected about 2 1/2 years ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his cabinet that "Conservative values are Canadian values" and that the "Conservative party is Canada's party." You'd be hard pressed to see that in recent developments around social issues. Developments over same-sex marriage, safe injection sites, marijuana and most recently prostitution are moving towards progressive positions in the courts and in public opinion. The Conservatives, however, are fighting these developments. Harper's election platform in 2006 promised to revisit the legalization of same-sex marriage that was made legal under Prime Minister Paul Martin. A free vote in Parliament put an end to Harper's agenda, and today civil unions among same-sex partners remain a Canadian right. Canadian attitudes have long favoured this. [continues 437 words]
Uh-oh, does someone have some 'splainin' to do? Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay is hinting the Conservative government might consider modernizing Canada's marijuana laws when it comes to possession of small amounts of pot. He told QMI Agency so in an exclusive interview this week. "That doesn't mean decriminalizing or legalizing," he said, "but it does mean giving police options, for example, to issue fines in addition to any other sanctions, or as a substitute for other sanctions," the nation's top justice official said. So far, so good- except ... Except, the same Conservative government, in a widely aired radio attack ad, made political hay this fall out of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for promoting legalizing and taxing pot. Listen, and you can still hear the worried-sounding parent in the ad- a school bell ringing in the background- as she wonders about the Grit leader's judgment. [continues 228 words]
OTTAWA - As the year ends, Justice Minister Peter MacKay is strongly hinting that steps to modernize Canada's marijuana laws might be just around the corner. Fining pot smokers for possession of small amounts is one policy the government will likely consider. "That doesn't mean decriminalizing or legalizing, but it does mean giving police options, for example, to issue fines i n addition to any other sanctions, or as a substitute for other sanctions," MacKay told QMI Agency. "These are things that we are willing to look at in the new year, but there's been no decision taken." [continues 425 words]
Local Reaction to Federal Liberal Leader's Pledge to Legalize Marijuana in Canada A local marijuana advocate is optimistic about the federal Liberal party leader's suggestion to legalize cannabis, but says it's a promise politicians have made - and broken - before. Earlier this week Justin Trudeau, leader of the federal Liberal party, endorsed legalizing marijuana. That's one step up from the stance he took during a party policy convention in 2012, when he advocated for the decriminalization of marijuana. [continues 560 words]
Public Health Physicians of Canada Want Government to Reconsider Bill C-65 The Public Health Physicians of Canada are adding their support to a growing push toward supervised injection sites. The organization, which represents more than 200 public health, preventative medicine specialists and physicians in the country, called on the federal government on Thursday to reconsider proposed legislation, Bill C-65, that would make it "almost impossible" for public health agencies to offer supervised injection sites. Bill C-65 is an Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that experts say would put additional barriers towards opening more sites across Canada. [continues 170 words]
An apparent reluctance to outlaw the hallucinogenic herb salvia could mean we are learning something from expensive, wasteful and ineffective attempts at controlling soft drugs. Prohibition and the mockery the Roaring Twenties made of it are still the prime example, with marijuana laws a close second. Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive variety of salvia, a type of sage that is part of the mint family. It causes a short but intense hallucinogenic experience. There have been sporadic campaigns to add salvia to the federal Controlled Substances Act. Health Canada two years ago suggested the herb could be declared a Stage III drug under the act along with LSD and mescaline. That would be one stage lower than marijuana and one higher than steroids and most barbiturates. Stage III status would make it illegal to have, sell, cultivate or produce salvia divinorum. [continues 278 words]
It's on the street, it's dangerous and it's legal. It's called salvia divinorum, and comes in different strengths. There is "standardized" salvia and there is "extreme" salvia that says "horse killer" on the package. But there are many other forms. "It is called 'horse killer' because of its extraordinary power and deep trip," it says on the back of the package. Though packages say the product is for incense only, on the street people are smoking it like marijuana. [continues 647 words]
The weather may have been a little cool but it didn't keep people away from attending a pro-marijuana rally in Victoria Park in front of the courthouse on Saturday afternoon. For about five hours, an estimated 230 people came out to offer their support that pot should be legalized. It also included a 30-minute sidewalk march covering about a six-block radius. Peterborough was hardly alone. It was all part of similar events scheduled for across the country on the same day. [continues 338 words]
Real estate agents and their provincial association popped up twice in police stories in the past few days. Fortunately both were good news stories - or at least the realtors were on the right side of the law. On Wednesday, Ron Dorner, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association, talked to Examiner reporter Galen Eagle about a campaign to have the provincial government set up a registry of homes that have been used as drug production labs or marijuana grow-ops. It's a good idea. Homes used by gangs or cartels as drug factories usually come out in very rough shape. Grow-ops in particular are notorious for heat and humidity damage and residual mould. Future owners should know they need to take more than a surface look at what appears to be pristine drywall and paint, among other potential problems. [continues 309 words]
Proposed changes to Canada's medical marijuana laws are going to skyrocket the price of medicinal pot and drive licensed users to the criminal drug market, a local grower says. Health Canada, which oversees the medical marijuana program, plans to phase out licences for patients to grow marijuana in their homes amid complaints from law enforcement, fire officials, municipalities and physicians that the system is being abused and creates public health and safety risks. The ministry plans to have patients buy dried marijuana from licensed commercial producers. [continues 410 words]
