A new Canadian study suggests smoking marijuana while pregnant is an effective way to combat morning sickness, though researchers note the findings are far from conclusive. Almost all of the B.C. women surveyed at the University of Victoria and University of British Columbia said smoking marijuana helped curb the nausea of pregnancy. The study's authors say the research points to at least the possibility of an effective treatment for a problem medical science has been largely unsuccessful in tackling. [continues 416 words]
The Vancouver Island Compassion Society doesn't restrict its activities to providing medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses. The non-profit organization held its first annual winter coat drive to help keep the homeless population safe from the cold weather. The society's membership of more than 500 who use medicinal marijuana for various illnesses participated in the winter coat drive. "We always seem to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to cold weather... so we decided in November to start collecting for this winter drive," said Phillipe Lucas, the society's director. [continues 201 words]
DrugSense www.DrugSense.org and its major projects, the Media Awareness Project www.mapinc.org and Drug Policy Central www.drugpolicycentral.com, were well represented at The 2005 International Drug Policy Reform Conference http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/dpa2005/ held November 10th through 12th at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach, California. Philippe Lucas, Director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society http://thevics.com and Canadians for Safe Access http://safeaccess.ca, both out of Victoria, British Columbia, moderated a panel titled, "O Cannabis: Cutting-Edge Research in Canada" [continues 566 words]
Some people might be shocked at the idea of pregnant women smoking marijuana to deal with nausea. But a U.K.-based medical publication, Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, has taken the idea seriously and published a study by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. The Victoria-based society, which provides medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses, recently completed the study, which examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. The study argues that marijuana is an effective method to deal with nausea and vomiting with pregnant women. [continues 428 words]
Some people might be shocked at the idea of pregnant women smoking marijuana to deal with the nausea that comes with pregnancy. But a UK-based medical publication, Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, has taken the idea seriously and published a study conducted by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society on the topic. The Victoria-based society, which provides medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses, recently completed the study that examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. The study argues that marijuana is an effective method to deal with nausea and vomiting with pregnant women. [continues 440 words]
92% of Pregnant Users Surveyed Report Relief The controversial use of medicinal marijuana as a weapon against pregnancy-induced morning sickness has been given a boost in a B.C. study to be published by a British journal. While women are traditionally told to avoid drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, one researcher from each of the Vancouver Island and B.C. Compassion Societies and the University of B.C. and the University of Victoria looked to see if pregnant therapeutic users of medical marijuana reported relief from their nausea and vomiting. [continues 208 words]
Here's How It Works The legal avenues for growing pot legally in B.C. are more convoluted than a corn maze. People with licenses issued by Health Canada to use marijuana for its medicinal benefits not only deal with municipal bylaws and Health Canada regulations, but they have to surrender their personal information to police so they won't get busted. And all this red tape is driving people with legal permits to obtain their marijuana illegally through Compassion Clubs, said the founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, Philippe Lucas. [continues 227 words]
Philippe Lucas, head of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, will be in at the Western Communities court house tomorrow and Friday for a preliminary trial into a RCMP raid on the compassion society's grow-op in Sooke. Lucas plans to use the case to springboard a constitutional challenge to the right to life and freedom in higher courts over the lack of access to medicinal marijuana in Canada. After the Terry Parker case in January 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered the Canadian government to distribute pot, said Lucas. [continues 53 words]
SAANICH - Whenever police bust grow ops, they give a dollar estimate of the amount they seized - street estimates that are often met with skepticism on the street. So last week when Saanich police announced they seized 11 kilograms of pot and equated that to 55,000 joints, enough to last a single user 75 years, Saanich News approached a pot-smoking expert. That is ridiculous," said Philippe Lucas, head of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society and Canadians for Safe Access, societies which supply medicinal marijuana to those with a doctor's recommendation. [continues 229 words]
On a day-to-day basis, the Vancouver Island Compassion Club remains a quasi-legal purveyor of medical marijuana, producing and providing pot to people in pain. But these days, club founder Phillipe Lucas is spending more time studying the drug than selling it. Lucas recently announced that Health Canada has granted unconditional approval" for a study looking at the effects of smoked cannabis and chronic pain" that will operate from the society's downtown headquarters. It's the first high-THC smoked cannabis study in North America and we're the first compassion club in North America, maybe the world, to be involved in this kind of study," Lucas said. It's part of our longstanding research agenda." [continues 378 words]
Mik Mann doesn't worry about the local RCMP drug squad breaking his door down and raiding the marijuana grow operation in his basement. In fact, he welcomes the police. Mann, the Alberni-Qualicum candidate for the B.C. Marijuana Party, says he once had police stop by his Port Alberni home on another matter and he took them downstairs and gave them the full tour, showing officers the vegetative growth and cloning room, the budding room and the drying cupboard - complete with harvested marijuana buds hanging from the racks. [continues 626 words]
Medical Marijuana Patients Offended By RCMP Drug-Awareness Campaign Medical marijuana patients and some B.C. drug educators are angry the RCMP continues to demonize their medicine and is distributing misleading material that paints the drug as illegal and dangerous. For medical patients suffering from a variety of illnesses, they say, marijuana not only is legal, but also it is exceedingly safe. "How would you like to be using marijuana to counter the nausea of chemotherapy and your kid comes home from school saying the local Mountie says you should be turned in?" fumed Judith Renaud, executive-director of Educators for a Sensible Drug Policy. [continues 841 words]
Big Businesses Have Sprung Up Around the Fuzzy Legal Boundaries of Marijuana Cultivation in Canada. Are Some Crossing The Line? Part Two of an Exclusive Vancouver Sun Investigation by Ian Mulgrew. Dr. Paul Hornby, the grey-haired, ponytailed scientist who leads Advanced Nutrient's research and development team, admits he's paranoid. 'I dream of the day when I can do this work without fear of the door being kicked in,' he confided. 'Marijuana is a herb -- a very, very useful herb. But the freedom to do research with no risk is just a dream.' [continues 4212 words]
Will a New Marijuana Mist Become the Aspirin of the Twenty-First Century? Philippe Lucas is apologizing for the quality of his cannabis. He is director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, which dispenses medicinal marijuana from behind an old storefront in Victoria. "This used to be a school of Chinese medicine," he says. "Can you feel the healing vibe?" Not at first. Apart from a comfy, well-worn couch in the waiting area, and a batik with yin-yang dolphins that you brush aside to enter the dispensing office, the place feels like a regular medical clinic. It reflects Lucas's personality: lean, clean-cut, and intense - there's nothing of the spacey stoner about him. If there's a "healing vibe," it emanates from the staff: the receptionist dressed in a fuzzy old sweater welcomes clients with "Hello, beautiful!" and "Can you use a hug?" Then she hugs. [continues 4609 words]
On the face of it, Phillippe Lucas, and Ted Smith, share common cause. They are both passionate in their belief in medical marijuana, to the extent that both have faced criminal prosecution in pursuit of their convictions. Why, then, do they barely talk to each other? Times Colonist staff writer Richard Watts examined the lives and styles of both men and found the two crusaders separated by a yawning philosophical gulf. Ted Smith stopped cutting his hair when he was 15, while Philippe Lucas looks like he just came from the barber. [continues 1718 words]
Three Decades After LeDain, A New Survey Confirms That The 'War' On Marijuana Is Unwinnable 1. The use of marijuana is increasing in popularity among all age groups of the population, and particularly among the young; 2. This increase indicates that the attempt to suppress, or even to control, its use is failing and will continue to fail -- that people are not deterred by the criminal law prohibition against its use. - -- From the LeDain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Canada, 1972 [continues 781 words]
Never mind the name. Marijuana will be the order of the day for area residents Nov. 15. International Medical Marijuana Day, being celebrated for a seventh year in the City of Victoria, is a creation of Cannabis Buyer's Club co-founder Ted Smith of Victoria. He is an oft-criminally charged advocate for better access to marijuana within Canada for chronically ill patients, as well as the legalization of pot in general. In previous court decisions, including one of Smith's, judges threw cases out because it could not be proven Health Canada was adhering to its own pledge to supply marijuana to people who qualified for it. Since the government's grower in Flin Flon, Man. has started sending out its supply, the rules have changed, said Smith. [continues 115 words]
Lack of government supply of medical marijuana at the time led a provincial court judge to shelve 2-1/2-year-old pot trafficking charges against a Victoria marijuana advocate. But the stay of proceedings issued by Judge L.F. Chaperon in the trial of Cannabis Buyer's Club founder Leon "Ted" Smith and Colby Budda on Sept. 7 doesn't change the laws on selling pot in general, says Victoria police Insp. Grant Smith. "My fear here is others will use this ruling with the false belief that they will be able to open storefronts to sell marijuana in a similar fashion," Smith said Thursday. "I can say in all honesty if they do so they will be receiving attention from the police." [continues 654 words]
Re: "Pot laws need thorough overhaul," Sept. 13. The editorial implies that Victoria compassion clubs have been distributing cannabis "to users who are simply asked to sign a bit of paper saying they need it for medical purposes." As the founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS), I can assure you that this is simply not the case. Like many Canadian compassion societies, the VICS requires a physician's recommendation for the use of cannabis in order to proceed with registration and treatment. [continues 194 words]
Lack of government supply of medical marijuana at the time led a provincial court judge to shelve a two-and-a-half-year-old pot trafficking charge against a Victoria marijuana advocate. But the stay of proceedings issued by Judge L.F. Chaperon in the trial of Cannabis Buyer's Club founder Leon "Ted" Smith and Colby Budda on Sept. 7 doesn't change the laws on selling pot in general, said Victoria police Insp. Grant Smith. "My fear here is others will use this ruling with the false belief that they will be able to open storefronts to sell marijuana in a similar fashion," Insp. Smith said Thursday. "I can say in all honesty if they do so they will be receiving attention from the police." [continues 654 words]
Researcher Hopes Crackdowns Signal That the End of Cannabis Prohibition Is Nigh "I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." - - Martin Luther King For several months, Da Kine on Commercial Drive has been challenging prohibition by openly selling cannabis. Following a series of high-profile national news stories about the cafe, neighbours have felt compelled to defend the establishment, saying there are now fewer dealers on the street corners, and fewer pot smokers in the nearby park. But that did not stop Vancouver police from raiding the cafe on Thursday evening and arresting six people for selling pot. [continues 556 words]
Can signing a petition to free Emery change anything? As the world nears drug-war Armageddon, persecution of the cannabis culture is on the rise. Even in seemingly pot-tolerant Canada, where the nation's drug laws are thought by many to be utterly defunct, police jump to the strings of White House pot haters. Will signing a petition ( http://justice.juror.ca ) free Canadian pot activist Marc Emery change anything? Last week, Marc Emery, Canadian pot-movement mogul and leading activist, was convicted of trafficking ( http://www.cannabisculture.ca/articles/3598.html ) because someone saw him passing two joints. He was sentenced to three months in a Saskatchewan jail. The jails in that province are reputed to be some of the worst in the country. [continues 1258 words]
Re: Dosanjh should do the decent thing, Aug. 16. Health Canada has knowingly chosen to ignore the Ontario Court of Appeal decision that would allow medical-marijuana users to have an alternative supply of cannabis to the poor-quality, potentially dangerous Prairie Plant Systems product. Although the federal PPS-grown cannabis has been returned by nearly a third of users who have tried it due to its incredibly poor quality, Health Canada continues to support its indefensible near-monopoly on cannabis production and research by restricting almost all licensed growers other than PPS to supplying marijuana to only one licensed user. [continues 259 words]
Aggressive panhandling isn't a big problem downtown, a Victoria police officer and a advocate for medical marijuana said following a recent community forum on the issue. The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce held the forum to drum up support for two controversial private member's bills that target aggressive panhandlers and squeegee kids across the province. While a Victoria MLA and a representative of Vancouver's business community noted that panhandling affects business, Phillippe Lucas of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society and Const. Rick Anthony of the Victoria police had a different take. [continues 703 words]
Re: "Pot bust sends society reeling," (Sooke News Mirror, June 2), I am writing to express my appreciation to the RCMP for conducting this raid and (at least temporarily) shutting down this marijuana grow-op. While I have compassion for those that are truly suffering from medical disabilities and need to get the medical marijuana they require under the terms of the license that Health Canada has issued, I do not want to see the residents of the subdivision surrounding the "Vancouver Island Therapeutic Cannabis Research Institute" become victims of this facility.What the spokesman for Vancouver Island Compassion Society's Philippe Lucas fails to mention in your article is that the "facility" that was raided was a house located in a residential subdivision. [continues 241 words]
About 50 medicinal marijuana supporters gathered outside the Douglas Street office of a Crown prosecutor Thursday to protest a recent raid and seizure of "medicine" they say that was their only safe supply of pot. "This has not only forced 400 seriously ill patients back onto an unknown, potentially unsafe, black-market supply, it also has resulted in the loss of the safest and most standardized source of organic cannabis available in Canada," said Philippe Lucas, founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. [continues 460 words]
Ottawa - To potheads this past weekend, the Fill The Hill protest was game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs and election-night drama rolled into one giant spliff. Here were 2,000 kind souls from across our beautiful, great green nation toking on Parliament Hill. Lately, though, those attending pro-grass rallies might have begun to wonder if they are unofficial NDP conventions. Chances are the person passing that doobie sits on a riding executive - or is even a party candidate, like rally speaker Alison Myrden from Oakville. [continues 869 words]
At around 1pm Thursday the West Shore RCMP executed a warrant at the Vancouver Island Therapeutic Cannabis Research Institute (VITCRI), a medicinal cannabis research and cultivation facility. VITCRI was a lab-style production and research facility designed to ensure a safe and standardized source of organic medicine for the 390 members of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (www.thevics.com), a long-standing Victoria non-profit compassion society. "This is devastating", stated Philippe Lucas, founder and Director of the VICS. "With Health Canada bumbling the production and distribution of cannabis, we've strived to ensure the safety and quality of the VICS product by testing it for cannabinoids, heavy metals, and biological impurities; with the execution of a single warrant all of our members have been thrown back into the vagaries and uncertainties of the black market." [continues 144 words]
An RCMP bust of an East Sooke marijuana grow-op has deprived almost 400 peopleof the medicinal pot they desperately need, according to the president of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. Phillippe Lucas said the Victoria-based society's 399 members, who are battling critical and chronic illnesses, are now forced to look to the black market for their marijuana. "It is an incredible shock to all of us," Lucas said of the Thursday afternoon bust. "It was the best and safest supply in Western Canada." [continues 593 words]
Last week's RCMP bust of an East Sooke marijuana grow-op has deprived almost 400 people from the medicinal pot they desperately need, according to the president of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. Phillippe Lucas said the Victoria-based society's 399 members, who are battling critical and chronic illnesses, are now forced to look to the black market for their marijuana. "It is an incredible shock to all of us," Lucas said of the Thursday afternoon bust. "It was the best and safest supply in Western Canada." [continues 625 words]
The seizure by Mounties of marijuana plants from an East Sooke home and outbuilding last week means 390 ill people will now have to rely on the black market for their supply, said Phillippe Lucas, president of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. On Thursday, West Shore RCMP officers acting on a search warrant raided a home and outbuilding in the 5000-block of Mount Matheson Road. They arrested two men, one of whom was a paid caretaker and the other a friend who stopped by, said Lucas. The two men face charges of growing and trafficking in marijuana. Their names have not been released. [continues 353 words]
They were kicked out of subsidized housing in Gordon Head for smoking medicinal marijuana and now they've lost in court - again. Eric and Marlene Young have fought their eviction through the court system for the last two years. The Youngs were living in the Beachwood Park apartments run by the Capital Regional Housing Corporation (CRHC) when they ran into complaints from the neighbours about the smell of marijuana. Eric has multiple sclerosis and is legally permitted to smoke marijuana to control his spasms. The drug also helps him sleep. He has an exemption from Health Canada that allows him to use marijuana and allows his wife to grow it for his use. However, the exemption did not protect the couple from being evicted over the pungent aroma produced by the burning weed. [continues 695 words]
Having first heard of Health Canada's proposal to explore the distribution of cannabis through pharmacies a few months ago, the media frenzy around this pilot-project has been a bit of a surprise to me. After continued complaints from the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) regarding the short-lived plan to have physicians act as suppliers of the Health Canada grown cannabis, the government had little choice but to turn to the pharmacies. Although it is encouraging to finally see pharmacists recognize the safety and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis, is this plan really in the best interest of Canada's 700 or so legal users, and the public at large who would be funding this expensive pilot program? [continues 847 words]
Medicinal marijuana might someday be coming to a drugstore near you. Health Canada is planning to start a pilot project where marijuana for medicinal use will be sold in select pharmacies. But not everyone is fond of the idea of drugstores getting into the medical marijuana business. Ted Smith, founder of the Victoria-based Cannabis Buyers' Club of Canada, says he doesn't anticipate Health Canada's pilot project will be a success. "Their program isn't going to work," he insists. [continues 856 words]
Having first heard of Health Canada's plan to explore the distribution of cannabis through pharmacies a few months ago, the media frenzy around this pilot project announced last week has been a bit of a surprise to me. Although it is encouraging to finally see pharmacists recognize the safety and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis, is this plan really in the best interest of Canada's 700 or so legal users, and the public at large who would be funding this expensive pilot program? [continues 664 words]
Re "Tide is high on prevention" (Jan. 29): The number of grow ops and seizures itself reveals a problem that is out of control. Clandestine marijuana grow ops are a symptom of prohibition, not of marijuana use itself. If people want to get rid of the grow ops, Canada better start looking at the issue of marijuana seriously. Prohibition has seen a skyrocketing use of marijuana, proliferation of grow ops, and pot is easier to get in high schools than alcohol or tobacco. Prohibition is achieving the opposite of what it is purported to do. [continues 375 words]
Philippe Lucas of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society hopes 2004 bodes better for medicinal marijuana users than the past 12 months. Just as Lucas was making a list of the top five most grievous events for medicinal cannabis users in 2003, a Supreme Court challenge arguing that criminalizing pot is unconstitutional failed at the end of December. Lucas, the longtime Victoria advocate for medical cannabis, is getting a bit jaded about what he calls the "dysfunctional medical marijuana program" and says he wasn't surprised with the latest decision. [continues 480 words]
VANCOUVER -- The Supreme Court of Canada's decision to uphold the federal government's right to outlaw marijuana upset pot advocates who believed history's tide was on their side. "I was dreaming of a green Christmas, but they grinched out on us," said David Malmo-Levine of Vancouver, one of three Canadians who challenged the constitutionality of pot possession laws before the high court. "Their hearts are two sizes too small." Marijuana activists gathered at the Vancouver headquarters of Pot-TV, wrapping their sorrows in a thick blanket of pot smoke. [continues 421 words]
Trio Fail To Convince Justices That Law Is Unconstitutional The Supreme Court of Canada's decision yesterday to uphold the federal government's right to outlaw marijuana upset pot advocates, who believed history's tide was on their side. Vancouver pro-marijuana activist David Malmo-Levine said he was "totally bummed out" by the 6-3 ruling to uphold federal law making possession of small amounts of pot illegal. "I was dreaming of a green Christmas with a pot plant under every tree," Malmo-Levine, 32, one of three men spearheading the legal challenge, told The Province. [continues 736 words]
OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that possession of marijuana will remain a criminal offence until the government decides to change the law. The highest court has rejected the appeal of three B.C. men who argued it is unconstitutional to use the law to punish a harmless activity. The court ruled 6-3 that making marijuana possession a criminal offence does not violate Charter of Rights guarantees of liberty and security of person. Lawyers for the three B.C. marijuana users - David Malmo-Levine, Chris Clay and Victor Caine - had argued that the government has no right to tell people what they can put in their bodies. [continues 235 words]
It's been only four years since Philippe Lucas started the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS), and yet in that time laws and attitudes toward the provision of medical marijuana have undergone generations of change. "Back then ... we didn't know if we were going to get busted as soon as we opened the door or what," Lucas told a crowd of about three-dozen members at the society's recent annual birthday picnic. Since opening its doors on Oct. 1, 1999, the VICS has evolved from an outlaw organization under constant threat of police harassment to widely accepted purveyor of pot for people with chronic medical conditions. [continues 704 words]
Victoria's Two Medical Marijuana Outlets Carry On Despite Raids On a Friday afternoon, the Vancouver Island Compassion Society's downtown street-front office is lively, with half a dozen or so people taking a turn of a few minutes each in the back room with Robin, a wiry-looking man with glasses and hair in a pony tail. Potted plants, worn but comfortable seating, and a coffee table spread with magazines make the waiting area feel a lot like any other alternative health clinic. But after the clients have been served and shuffled out into the street, and after passing through the curtain for a tour, you're hit by a pungent, slightly skunky smell. [continues 867 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]
The president of the Yukon Medical Association (YMA) won't soon prescribe medicinal marijuana, even if federal courts have guaranteed that Health Canada will be a willing supplier. Advocates for the ready access to medicinal marijuana aren't pleased either with the last-minute decision made on July 9. Dr. Wayne MacNicol is the president of the YMA and an obstetrician-gynecologist at Whitehorse General Hospital. He has been provided with information from Health Canada on how he should go about prescribing marijuana to his patients. [continues 1769 words]
Victoria -- That Health Canada neglected to suggest alternatives forms of ingestion to smoking in their new cannabis manual is inexcusable (Health Canada Readies Release Of Dope Manual -- July 21). The B.C. Compassion Club Society and the Vancouver Island Compassion Society gave a joint (no pun intended) presentation to Health Canada's advisory committee last May. Club representatives explained the pros and cons of baked goods and tinctures and demonstrated the use of a vaporizer, a smokeless inhalation device. That medical associations claim ignorance is equally inexcusable. The research dossier on cannabis is more robust than that of many long-used drugs, including aspirin, acetaminophen, digitalis, codeine, morphine, penicillin, thyroxine, and vitamin B12. Cannabis has been safely used around the world for millennia. Cultures have cooked with it for generations. A pill containing the most active ingredient, THC, has been legally prescribed for more than a decade. [continues 66 words]
