ROCHFORT BRIDGE, Alta. (CP) - His voice tight with grim self-control, Alberta's commanding RCMP officer groped for a way Thursday to describe a catastrophic drug raid that left four young officers lying dead in a quonset hut. "I'm told you have to go back to about 1885 in RCMP history and the Northwest Rebellion to have a loss of this magnitude," said assistant commissioner Bill Sweeney. "It's devastating. We're all in terrible shock and mourning." The peace of this gently rolling farm country near the hamlet of Rochfort Bridge in northwestern Alberta was shattered Thursday morning in the tragic culmination of an investigation into stolen property and a marijuana grow-op. [continues 1989 words]
TORONTO -- A marijuana protest turned nasty Saturday when at least two people were detained during scuffles with city police on a park lawn near the provincial legislature. The dustup started after police -- accompanied by municipal bylaw officers and parks officials -- shut down the Canabian Day festival, a pro-pot rally when Toronto organizers failed to produce the necessary permits and insurance. "The major issue is the fact that we couldn't get any insurance," said organizer Marko Ivancicevic. "Basically, the last two years we've tried to get the (event) insurance but they keep denying us because it is a marijuana-based event." [continues 449 words]
Saskatoon - One of Canada's best-known marijuana activists was sentenced Thursday to three months in jail after pleading guilty to trafficking when he passed a joint to a supporter last March. Marc Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, was charged with trafficking after he spoke at a political rally at the University of Saskatchewan in March. Mr. Emery's lawyer said the sentence is too strict for simply passing one joint to one person. "I do have an issue with the length of the sentence," said Leanne Johnson. "Three months is a bit of overkill, perhaps, for passing one joint to one person." [continues 74 words]
OTTAWA (CP) -- Police with reasonable suspicions have the power to detain people temporarily but can't go on "fishing expeditions" in their pockets for evidence, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday. It was the first time the high court had examined an everyday police practice that many law officers and prosecutors take for granted. The decision upholds a ruling by a trial judge in Winnipeg, who acquitted Phillip Henry Mann of trafficking after police stopped him on the street in relation to a nearby break-and-enter and found almost an ounce of pot in his sweatshirt pouch. [continues 209 words]
VANCOUVER (CP) - A clinic providing free heroin to Vancouver addicts will be recruiting 158 people for a study to see if prescribing the drug can improve their lives. Jim Boothroyd, project spokesman for the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, or NAOMI project, said Wednesday the clinic also now has an official site on the Downtown Eastside. But Boothroyd said the project has a long way to go before the volunteers are recruited and the clinic opens its doors. City approval has been received, but the study still needs Health Canada's blessing. Government security standards must also be met. [continues 435 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Health Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in pharmacies, a move that could rapidly boost the number of registered medical users. Officials are organizing a pilot project in British Columbia, modelled on a year-old program in the Netherlands, that would allow medical users to buy marijuana at their local drugstore. Currently, there are 78 medical users in Canada permitted to buy Health Canada marijuana, which is grown in Flin Flon, Man. The 30-gram bags of dried buds, sold for $150 each, now are sent by courier directly to patients or to their doctors. [continues 690 words]
EDMUNSTON, N.B. - Belinda Stronach says she's smoked pot, but still won't decriminalize it. The federal Conservative leadership candidate admitted to reporters in New Brunswick Sunday that she's smoked up before - back in her highschool days. But Stronach says she's against decriminalizing marijuana because there are too many unanswered questions about the drug. Stronach says she's concerned for public safety because it is still not known what smoking pot does to your health. She also says until there is a better way to test for the drug, especially if someone is driving high, then penalties for pot should not be reduced. Stronach stressed that Canadians must seriously consider what decriminalizing pot might do to economic relations with the U.S. She says Canadians need to ask themselves if they are prepared to be stopped and searched for drugs at the border more frequently. [end]
Ottawa -- A federal law that bans possession of small amounts of marijuana does not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says Canada's top court. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 6-3 Tuesday that a law imposing criminal penalties -- including potential jail time -- for possessing even tiny amounts of pot is constitutional. In a separate judgment, the court also upheld by 9-0 federal law prohibiting possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. A key question was whether Parliament has the constitutional right to punish marijuana possession, given the lack of proven serious harms from its use. Another was whether federal law violates the charter by imposing criminal penalties, including potential jail time, for possession of small amounts of pot. [continues 339 words]
For a while it looked like we were poised to become Amsterdam West: cafes with patrons openly enjoying joints alongside lattes, activists toking up outside police stations with impunity, and government plans to make marijuana available to the chronically ill. But while that pipedream has apparently gone up in smoke, the ongoing debate over the sweet leaf's place in Canadian society -- whether for medicine or for pleasure -- promises to grow more heated in the coming year. With the federal government courting decriminalization -- still a thorny issue among the ruling Liberals themselves -- Canadians have found reason to voice their opinions on the contentious topic. [continues 1291 words]
VICTORIA -- Veteran B.C. journalist Hubert Beyer has died. He was 68. Beyer suffered a heart attack last week at his home in Port Alberni and died Saturday at Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital. It was his second major heart attack. He had undergone quadruple-bypass surgery in 1990. Beyer started his journalism career 40 years ago in Winnipeg and joined the Victoria Daily Colonist in 1969. For the past 20 years, he had been writing a weekly column on provincial politics that was published in dozens of weekly newspapers across B.C. His is survived by his wife, Eleonore. [end]
OTTAWA (CP) - People seeking access to medical marijuana now need the recommendation of one medical specialist, not two, under revised rules announced Monday by Health Canada. Under the new rules, which take effect immediately, it is legal for designated growers to receive payment. Designated growers are authorized to grow marijuana at the request of a patient entitled to use it. However, it will remain illegal for a grower to supply more than one patient, and for more than three licensed growers to cultivate plants together. The revisions respond to an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in October that struck down several provisions of the existing law as unconstitutional. [end]
Akwesasne Mohawk Territory (CP) -- The chase is on as twin 150-horsepower engines split the late-night stillness in smugglers paradise. An RCMP zodiac takes off down the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall, Ont. Reaching 80 kilometres an hour, it skips over a frigid surface that glitters like cut glass. Two Mounties and a local police officer race without running lights to catch a boat as it speeds into the darkness. "Over there," shouts RCMP Sgt. Gilles Tougas above the roar. He points north toward a swath of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. [continues 940 words]
MONTREAL (CP) - Canada and other members of the Organization of American States must reject the trend to legalize drugs in order to better fight drug abuse, trafficking and organized crime, Mexico's attorney general warned Monday. But Canada's Solicitor General Wayne Easter insisted the federal government's plans to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana aren't contrary to Canada's participation in an international drug abuse control commission meeting this week in Montreal. Easter was responding to an opening address by Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mexico's attorney general and outgoing chairman of the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. [continues 290 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says he believes there's still time to pass his controversial bill to decriminalize marijuana. Cauchon acknowledged time is tight, but downplayed reports that Parliament will prorogue next week, killing the bill. "People expect that the House will close next week. We don't know yet about that so I'm working on a daily basis in order to make sure that we're going to go as fast as we can." The legislation would reduce the punishment for simple possession of pot to a fine rather than a criminal record, while boosting penalties for growers. Cauchon's comments came as British lawmakers voted to downgrade marijuana's status in their country. The reclassification places pot on par with steroids, rather than hard drugs. [end]
SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) - The owners of a Saint John cafe where patrons are encouraged to smoke pot and sip coffee are now offering over-the-counter sales of medicinal marijuana. Jim and Lynn Wood, founders of the Cannabis Cafe, announced Tuesday they have decided to sell high-grade marijuana from their store to people who need pot to ease their pain. "This will be Canada's first over-the-counter cannabis cafe," said Jim Wood. "Bascially, we're just trying to help people." [continues 503 words]
OTTAWA - The Health Canada marijuana that's getting bad reviews from some patients was not tested by users and could be improved, says the grower. "The individuals who tried this product are the first humans ever to use it," Brent Zettl of Saskatoon's Prairie Plant Systems said Thursday. "This is a very early-stage product. . . . We haven't hit the mark yet on this medicine." Zettl, whose company grows government marijuana on contract in Flin Flon, Man., was responding to complaints this week from patients who called the dope weak, disgusting and not fit for human consumption. [continues 527 words]
VANCOUVER (CP) - A B.C. provincial court decriminalized possession of marijuana Monday. In a ruling, the court said "there is no offence known to law at this time for simple possession of marijuana." The decision follows similar rulings in Ontario, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia. It relies on an July 2000 decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal in which the judge declared the law prohibiting simple possession to be constitutionally invalid because it did not have an exemption for medical use. [continues 92 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Some of the first patients to smoke Health Canada's government-approved marijuana say it's "disgusting" and want their money back. "It's totally unsuitable for human consumption," said Jim Wakeford, 58, an AIDS patient in Gibsons, B.C. "It gave me a slight buzziness for about three to five minutes, and that was it. I got no other effect from it." Barrie Dalley, a 52-year-old Toronto man who uses marijuana to combat the nausea associated with AIDS, said the Health Canada dope actually made him sick to his stomach. [continues 1309 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - While police are aggressive about arresting people for drug crimes north of the border, Canada's court system treats marijuana and methamphetamine producers too leniently, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday. "What Canadian officials tell us is that they have laws on the books that could be used here, but that the Canadian system has developed the practice of not sentencing people to anything approaching serious time unless they commit a violent crime," John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy told The Associated Press. "So you can set up grows, you can ship drugs, you can be caught, and very little happens to you." [continues 724 words]
TORONTO -(CP)- An HIV-infected man who has been legally approved by Health Canada to smoke medicinal marijuana expressed relief Tuesday as he headed to his doctor to pick up the pot. "This is very important, I've been working for it for some time," said Jari Dvorak, who received a call on Monday saying the government-grown weed was ready. Dvorak, who says marijuana helps him combat nausea, is one of about 500 Canadians who have been legally approved to use the drug. [continues 197 words]
TORONTO (CP) - An HIV-infected man, who is among the first of about 500 Canadians legally approved for medicinal marijuana, took his first toke of government-grown weed after picking it up from his doctor Tuesday. "I'd give it a five on a scale from one to 10," said Jari Dvorak, who received a call Monday saying his two 30-gram bags of marijuana had been couriered and were ready to smoke. Despite the mediocre review, he said it was a significant day for medicinal marijuana users nationwide. [continues 395 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Four years after former health minister Allan Rock announced a major effort to assess the medical benefits of marijuana, not a single study has been completed and the whole research program is clouded with uncertainty. Advocates of medical marijuana say the government has wasted millions of dollars growing marijuana in a Flin Flon, Man., mine without making any of it available to patients who need it, or to scientists for research purposes. "Health Canada over four years has spent almost $10 million on its medical marijuana program and has yet to supply a single gram or seed to a single sick Canadian," Philippe Lucas of Canadians for Safe Access, said in an interview Tuesday. [continues 349 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - A top U.S. envoy will consult with several Canadian government departments as he helps co-ordinate a cross-border drug crackdown to follow Canada's controversial new marijuana law. U.S. deputy drug czar Barry Crane arrives in Ottawa on Tuesday, when he will reiterate American fears that more people might try carrying their stash across the border once Canada's pot-decriminalization bill passes. He will ask federal officials how they plan to stave off such an increase, then take his findings to the White House. [continues 410 words]
Appeal of a Teen's Pot Acquittal Should Be Rushed Through Courts, Judge Rules TORONTO (CP) - The appeal of a precedent-setting marijuana acquittal should be rushed through the justice system so the courts can have a clear answer on the drug's legality, a judge said Tuesday. An Ontario teenager's pot possession charges were thrown out of court on Jan. 2 when a judge ruled there was no legal basis to ban simple possession of the drug, since Ottawa failed to comply with a July 2000 order to create a new law dealing with marijuana. [continues 198 words]
TORONTO (CP) - As the grownups bickered about the consequences, Ottawa started making good Tuesday on its promise to ease the criminal repercussions of possessing marijuana - and the kids took it all in stride. Young people across Canada celebrated the move as medical experts and academics clashed over whether decriminalization would light a fire underneath adolescent consumption rates. "It probably will encourage it, but from what I've seen most people do it anyway," said James Copley, a 19-year-old college student who lives in the Montreal area. [continues 757 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - In a new twist on a weedy old political conundrum, Liberal leadership hopeful John Manley has turned the once-dreaded pot-smoking question on its ear. The finance minister and deputy prime minister, 53, is on record supporting decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, a measure the Liberal government has promised to introduce this spring. But until now, Manley hadn't spoken about his personal experience with the drug. The question of pot smoking by politicians has become standard fare in recent years. Responses have ranged from former U.S. president Bill Clinton's disingenuous, "yes, but I didn't inhale," to Heritage Minister Sheila Copps's rather more enthusiastic "absolutely." [continues 100 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]
OTTAWA (CP) - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says Canada's pot possession law is still valid, even though judges in three provinces have ruled to the contrary. In two separate rulings, provincial judges in Ontario and P.E.I. have tossed out simple possession charges, prompting Cauchon's department to stay all such charges in those provinces. Another ruling by a Nova Scotia judge Monday will likely lead to a similar stay while the decision is appealed. Still, Cauchon insisted: "The existing legislation is the law of the land and at Justice Canada we will keep enforcing that legislation." [continues 372 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Criminal charges for possessing small amounts of pot could be put on hold in provinces across the country following court rulings in Ontario and P.E.I., says a prominent legal expert. A provincial court judge in P.E.I. ruled this month that an Ontario court decision which prompted the adjournment of all simple possession charges in Ontario should be binding in other provinces as well. He was referring to the Parker case in Windsor, Ont. - now under appeal - which saw charges thrown out against a 16-year-old boy on the argument that the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act no longer effectively prohibits possession under 30 grams. It led the federal Justice Department to ask its Crown attorneys to seek an adjournment or stay of all simple possession charges in Ontario. [continues 650 words]
(CP) - The chief of Ottawa's medical marijuana program has been putting the brakes on a Health Canada proposal that would give needy patients direct access to government dope. A newly released document shows that Cindy Cripps-Prawak has been fighting a proposed policy shift that would deliver government-certified marijuana to chronically ill Canadians. Currently, Health Canada will provide its standardized marijuana only to accredited researchers, who would then dispense it to select patients in clinical trials. Patients not enrolled in such trials can seek federal authorization to possess marijuana to alleviate symptoms - but they have to get the stuff on their own from the street. They can also grow it from seeds or have someone else do it for them. [continues 842 words]
TORONTO -- A group of seriously ill people has won the latest battle in an ongoing war with Ottawa over a federal scheme to permit the use of medical marijuana that the patients say violates their constitutional rights. An Ontario judge agreed Thursday that the federal government's Medical Marijuana Access Regulations are unconstitutional because they prevent more deserving people from exemption than they permit. The ruling from Superior Court Justice Sidney Lederman is binding on lower courts and will likely wreak further havoc on the laws in Canada that make possession of marijuana illegal, said lawyer Alan Young. [continues 571 words]
WINDSOR, Ont. -- An Ontario Court judge threw out a marijuana charge against a 16-year-old boy Thursday in a decision lawyers say could soon spell the end of Canada's prohibition on possessing small amounts of pot. Justice Douglas Phillips dropped the charge after lawyer Brian McAllister argued in court that there is effectively no law in Canada prohibiting the possession of 30 grams of marijuana or less. McAllister warned that even though the ruling could be precedent-setting, anyone possessing small amounts of marijuana could still be charged. [continues 383 words]
A judge halted the drug-trafficking trial Thursday of two pot activists who were involved in a club that dispensed the drug for medical use. Marc-Boris Saint-Maurice, head of the Compassion Club, and Alexandre Neron were accused of possession of marijuana and trafficking the drug. Quebec court Judge Gilles Cadieux, who had postponed making a decision on the case about 10 times, said the absence of a legal source of marijuana takes away the right to life and liberty. [continues 83 words]
VANCOUVER (CP) - A group of people licensed by Health Canada to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes plans to sue a newspaper for publishing the street name of the home where the pot is being cultivated. Such information in the New Westminster NewsLeader creates a privacy and security risk for residents, said Michael Maniotis, director of the Merlin Project, which has organized five such marijuana factories in British Columbia. "It's going to cost the NewsLeader $1 million in court or $100,000 out of court to settle with us," Maniotis said. [continues 692 words]
HALIFAX - In an unusual legal case, a Nova Scotia judge ruled Tuesday that the rights of a man who uses marijuana to treat chronic pain would not be violated if he were sent to prison and cut off from his steady supply of the drug. Michael Patriquen, 49, of Halifax failed to convince the Supreme Court justice that she should delay sentencing him for drug trafficking so he could argue in a special hearing that his charter rights would be trampled if he were sent to a federal penitentiary and denied access to medicinal marijuana. [continues 716 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is considering relaxing Canada's marijuana laws to make possession punishable by a fine instead of a prison sentence, The Canadian Press has learned. But Cauchon's plans do not include making the drug legal, said highly placed sources in the Justice Department. While fines would be imposed for possession of marijuana, trafficking would continue to draw harsher punishments, the sources said. Cauchon might address the issue at a meeting of the Canadian Bar next month in London, Ont., they added. The report comes the same week that Britain announced it will virtually decriminalize cannabis to give police more time to fight the use of hard drugs. [continues 206 words]
OTTAWA - More than 80 opposition MPs from three parties are calling for reintroduction of a private member's bill in the Commons after it was defeated by what they say was a dirty government trick. Through a petition presented Thursday in the Commons, 81 Alliance, Bloc Quebecois and NDP members asked Commons Speaker Peter Milliken to revive Alliance MP Keith Martin's bill to decriminalize marijuana. The Liberals set a dangerous precedent when they passed a motion to refer the bill to a committee without Martin's permission last month, NDP MP Bill Blaikie said Thursday. [continues 334 words]
MONTREAL (CP) - Montreal will host the first World Forum on Drugs and Dependencies in September, drawing an expected 3,000 delegates from 50 countries and as many fields of expertise. The scope is wide and the problem pressing, organizers said Thursday. "More and more people are affected, both at home and abroad, and at a younger age," said Luc Chabot, co-ordinator of the Centres Jean Lapointe for Teenagers and executive director of the Forum, to be held at the convention centre Sept. 22 to 27. [continues 325 words]
OTTAWA (CP) - The first batch of federally approved medical marijuana is available for shipment, Health Canada said Friday. "Marijuana from Prairie Plant Systems will be made available to researchers and patients who have received licences to possess," a department official said. The department signed a contract last year with Prairie Plant Systems to grow pot in an abandoned mine in Flin Flon, Man., as part of a government policy to make the drug available to Canadians for medical purposes. The contract required that the first supply be ready by Jan. 1, 2002 with a minimum THC level - the active ingredient in the plant - of five per cent. [continues 128 words]
WINNIPEG -- A Winnipeg "compassion club" which promises to supply its members with marijuana for medical purposes is recruiting members in drug court. Two representatives of the newly formed Manitoba Compassion Club stood in front of the downtown Law Courts complex for three hours Wednesday and signed up three new members. Wednesday is the day provincial court drug cases are heard. The group's president, Chris Buors, says the new additions bring the club's membership to 11. There are more than 10 similar clubs across the country. [continues 57 words]
SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) - Health Canada has given a New Brunswick man who's facing a trial for drug charges permission to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. Greg Boyle said he received approval last week to grow 25 plants at home and to carry up to 150 grams of marijuana on his person. Boyle, who ran for the Confederation of Regions Party in the 1999 provincial election, applied to the federal government in January for permission to grow marijuana to help reduce chronic back pain. [continues 188 words]
Despite Ottawa's recent decision to allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, Canada is still well behind several European countries when it comes to reforming its drug laws. The Canadian law, which came into effect Monday, allows severely ill patients with a doctor's approval to apply to Health Canada to grow and use marijuana. Compared to the United States, which has taken a hard line in its war against drugs, the move by the federal government looks almost radical. [continues 534 words]
MONTREAL (CP) -- Canadians appeared evenly split about whether the federal government should move to legalize marijuana for personal use, suggests a new poll. The Leger Marketing survey indicated 46.8 per cent of Canadians questioned earlier this month were in favour of a law that would allow marijuana to be sold and used legally. Forty-seven per cent of respondents were opposed to such a measure, while 6.2 per cent either didn't know or refused to answer the question. [continues 538 words]
CALGARY (CP) - Medical marijuana crusader Grant Krieger was justified in breaking the law and selling pot to chronically ill people, a jury ruled Wednesday night. The one-man, 11-woman panel accepted defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli's argument his client was saving lives when he supplied marijuana to the sick. "It's fantastic, I feel great," Krieger said moments after the verdict was read. "I'm ready to start providing medicine for people who are ill. This is a major step forward." [continues 564 words]
