There will be a lot of smiling and nodding and happy faces at the news that federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is taking aim at marijuana growers who are hiding behind current laws to operate illegal drug businesses. Nobody wants illegal grow-ops in their neighbourhoods or in their communities. We all pay for the electricity they steal. We all pay for the service costs they dodge by not paying taxes on their enterprising activities. Nobody wants the dangers associated with living next door to such operations. There is always the very real risk that their colleagues in crime will bring violence to their "place of business" - which can easily spill onto the streets as they "protect their interests, or into nearby homes through "mistaken identity" or even into local shopping malls, as they engage in open battle with one another. [continues 173 words]
There will be a lot of smiling and nodding and happy faces at the news that federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq is taking aim at marijuana growers who are hiding behind current laws to operate illegal drug businesses. Nobody wants illegal grow ops in their neighbourhoods or in their communities. We all pay for the electricity they steal. We all pay for the service costs they dodge by not paying taxes on their enterprising activities. Nobody wants the dangers associated with living next door to such operations. There is always the very real risk that their colleagues in crime will bring violence to their "place of business"-which can easily spill onto the streets as they "protect their interests" or into nearby homes through "mistaken identity" or even into local shopping malls as they engage in open battle with one another. [continues 173 words]
Changes To Health Canada Regulations Will Move Legal Pot Growing Into Specific Zones A medical marijuana dispensary in Maple Ridge passes on information about how to use pot to help manage medical conditions. Michael Joinson, founder and president of The Always Growing Green Society (TAGGS) medical marijuana dispensary in Maple Ridge, said the society provides their members with a wide-range of information about cannabis and he doesn't think Health Canada's proposed changes to pot dispensing rules will allow those who use it for health reasons to get the right kind of information. [continues 319 words]
In the U.S. elections in November, Colorado and Washington State both passed ballot initiatives that could fundamentally and forever change the way the United States deals with the regulation of marijuana. What exactly did they do? Residents of both states voted to effectively decriminalize the production, possession and consumption of the substance, and regulate it in a manner very similar to the way they currently regulate alcohol. In the words of the Colorado state constitutional amendment, "in the interest of the efficient use of law enforcement resources, enhancing revenue for public purposes, and individual freedom, the people of the State of Colorado find and declare that the use of marijuana should be legal for persons 21 years of age or older, and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol." [continues 726 words]
'We're still out $3,700 in expenses. So there is still no Christmas for my family' A mother threatened with having her children taken away because her husband has medical marijuana plants believes the Ministry of Child and Family Development has quietly offered her an olive branch by paying the cost of air testing in her home. Angela Ferguson said Wednesday she spoke with the company that did the testing and was told she didn't have to pay the $1,000 bill because the ministry had. [continues 553 words]
A shift in federal policy governing medical marijuana users will have an up side and down side, says a Kamloops lawyer. Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq announced in B.C. on Sunday that Ottawa plans to end a Health Canada program allowing people with health conditions to grow pot in their own homes. Aglukkaq said the current regulations have left the system open to abuse, causing great concern among law enforcement, fire officials and municipalities dealing with illegal grow-ops. By March 2014, only companies with strict security requirements will be licensed to grow and sell marijuana. [continues 269 words]
We can grow some drugs locally and fair-trade drugs can supply the rest. Following the principles of the 100-mile diet, medical marijuana is best grown close to home to reduce transportation costs and support local growers. Kamloops' city council is sensibly looking at zoning of industrial land for marijuana crops and the federal government wants to reduce small grow ops in favour of larger facilities. However, it's not practical to grow drugs such as coca and poppies close to home. And practicality aside, many of these growers could benefit from fair trade and legalization. [continues 423 words]
A gap between policy and practice has made the Edmonton Remand Centre ineffective in controlling illegal drug use among its inmate population, a provincial court judge has found. Judge Janet Dixon criticized the remand centre in her fatality inquiry report into the death of inmate John Pierre Boily, 49, who died from a methadone overdose on March 19, 2009. Methadone is a synthetic drug commonly used in the treatment of heroin addicts, though it was not prescribed to Boily. Boily had been in continuous custody in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton on various minor charges for more than a year when he died. Hours before his death, Boily told another inmate he'd taken a "couple of lines" of methadone and felt sick. Correctional officers checked on Boily in his cell four times between 6 and 9 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., he was found unresponsive. He was declared dead at the Royal Alexandra Hospital roughly an hour later. [continues 302 words]
Prescription-Use Marijuana To Be Produced Commercially The federal government is poised to eliminate licensed medical marijuana grow-ops in homes, recognizing long-standing safety concerns and connections to the illegal drug trade. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced this week Health Canada is getting out of the growing business and will phase in a new system of strictly regulated commercial producers. "We have heard real concerns from law enforcement, fire officials and municipalities about how people are hiding behind these rules to conduct illegal activity, and putting the health and safety of Canadians at risk,"Aglukkaq said in a statement. "These changes will make it far more difficult for people to game the system." [continues 358 words]
A pair of multi-year studies from the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS and UBC found that homelessness and childhood abuse are linked to intravenous drug use in youth. Two separate studies set out to determine why some young people begin to inject heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, or opioids while others do not. They were funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the U. S. National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of a larger initiative looking at various stages of a drug user's life story and the outcomes of addiction. [continues 437 words]
Licensed users, police and politicians are greeting proposed changes to the federal government's problem-plagued medical marijuana program with a dose of skepticism and hope. If approved, Health Canada's Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations would create a "licensing scheme for the commercial production and distribution" of medical marijuana. Under the new system, the federal department would no longer produce or distribute medical marijuana. Production would instead be done at commercially licensed facilities, stripping patients of the ability to grow their own marijuana. It would also put the onus on physicians to prescribe the still illegal narcotic. [continues 565 words]
Ed the Sock (created and voiced by Steven Kerzner) hosts the syndicated show I Hate Hollywood on Mondays at 10:30 p.m. on CHCH television in Hamilton. He will play host to Futurecon, the New Year's Eve charity science fiction convention held Dec. 30 through Jan. 1 at the Holiday Inn in Markham, Ont. - - What happened to the war on drugs? The war on drugs was lost before it started. You should never go into a war that you can't win. When you fight a country, you know exactly where it is, right? When you're fighting a drug war, you don't know where everybody is. They're all over the place. You can't spread your forces out like that. You learn that playing Stratego! People coulda played a board game and woulda figured out that the war on drugs wasn't going to work! [continues 763 words]
I take great exception to Mr. Swadden's claim of harassment by the community concerning his medical marijuana store. Let's get the facts straight. This marijuana store was licenced and opened in Nanaimo close proximity to schools with no information on safety or operating restrictions given to the public. Since it's opening we have had trespassing, thefts, break and enter and used condoms and syringes left in the street where children and pets can access these contaminants. Medical marijuana should be regulated by pharmacies, pain clinics and the medical profession. It should be distributed near medical facilities where they belong. There doesn't appear to be any attempt by Mr. Swadden to work with the public and he may claim there is no connection between the increase in criminal activity, but the old saying goes where there is smoke, there's fire. J.D. Spencer Nanaimo [end]
One of the most overt examples of government intrusion into the homes of its citizens is when the state threatens to take away kids from their parents. There are times when it's appropriate for social workers to apprehend children: when kids are denied the essentials of life, are physically abused or are living in a situation where their lives are in imminent danger. The incident that happened in Kamloops on Nov. 28, in contrast - when it's alleged social workers threatened the apprehension of a family's kids - can only be described as an abuse of power. [continues 258 words]
There will be a lot of smiling and nodding and happy faces at the news that federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq is taking aim at marijuana growers who are hiding behind current laws to operate illegal drug businesses. Nobody wants illegal grow ops in their neighbourhoods or in their communities. We all pay for the electricity they steal. We all pay for the service costs they dodge by not paying taxes on their enterprising activities. Nobody wants the dangers associated with living next door to such operations. There is always the very real risk that their colleagues in crime will bring violence to their "place of business" - which can easily spill onto the streets as they "protect their interests" or into nearby homes through "mistaken identity" or even into local shopping malls as they engage in open battle with one another. [continues 173 words]
HMCS Ottawa Plays Key Role In International Enforcement Operation Local singer-songwriter Vince Vaccaro wrote his hit Costa Rica to illustrate a tired man yearning for a fresh start along the shorelines of the picturesque Central American country. "Can I lose my name, be someone new, and I'll throw my troubles into the wild blue," Vaccaro sings. For the crew aboard a Costa Rican fishing vessel last month, the lyrics couldn't have resonated more, as the HMCS Ottawa emerged out of the rain and fog of the Pacific Ocean. [continues 313 words]
Deb Sharkey had lived in her Brocklehurst duplex for about a dozen years when things began to go downhill. On the other side of the duplex, her neighbours, also longtime residents, installed vents in their windows. Soon, a noxious smell was floating through the neighbourhood several days each month - "the most strongest skunk you've ever imagined," Sharkey said. Sharkey, whose former partner was an RCMP officer, knew the signs and called Kamloops Mounties to have the grow-op next door investigated. [continues 526 words]
There will be a lot of smiling and nodding and happy faces at the news that federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is taking aim at marijuana growers who are hiding behind current laws to operate illegal drug businesses. Nobody wants illegal grow-ops in their neighbourhoods or their communities. We all pay for the electricity they steal. We all pay for the service costs they dodge by not paying taxes on their enterprising activities. Nobody wants the dangers associated with living next door to such operations. There is always the very real risk that their colleagues in crime will bring violence to their "place of business" - which can easily spill onto the streets as they "protect their interests" or into nearby homes through "mistaken identity" or even into local shopping malls as they engage in open battle with one another. [continues 170 words]
Thank goodness for common sense. Stephen Harper's Conservative government is finally privatizing marijuana production. Cannabis entrepreneurs have long been irked by unfair government competition. How are private-sector dealers supposed to operate in the marketplace if their customers have access to what federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq justly calls taxpayer-subsidized weed? Aglukkaq's surprise announcement on Sunday claims the privatization move will affect only the 26,000 people in Canada who use marijuana for so-called medical purposes. But astute Harper watchers will recognize that, once again, this far-sighted prime minister has identified a booming new Canadian resource industry that - in time - could rival the oilsands. [continues 520 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]
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