Lane Britnell says the Saskatoon police ruined $2,000 worth of his legally obtained marijuana extracts following a raid of they city's only medical marijuana dispensary. The former employee of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club says when police returned cannabis extracts that were seized from his home during raids last October, he found that most of the cannabis products were ruined. "I would say 80 per cent of it was destroyed or rendered unusable," Britnell said. His lawyer successfully applied to have a judge order police to return the cannabis seized from his home during the Oct. 29 raids, he said. [continues 330 words]
Employers may ask for drug tests Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has promised to legalize recreational marijuana use, but anyone thinking about sparking a joint before starting a new job could be in for a rude surprise, according to one legal expert. "In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is really going to change the landscape that much in terms of the law in the workplace," said Keir Vallance, who practised labour and employment law before joining the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law. [continues 327 words]
Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has promised to legalize recreational marijuana use, but anyone thinking about sparking a joint before starting a new job could be in for a rude surprise, according to one legal expert. "In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is really going to change the landscape that much in terms of the law in the workplace," said Keir Vallance, who practised labour and employment law before joining the University of Saskatchewan's College of Law. [continues 329 words]
Saskatoon's police chief says the Liberal government needs to clarify Canada's marijuana laws to combat serious misunderstandings about the legality of the drug. "The police aren't anti-marijuana," Chief Clive Weighill said. "But we are in a situation right now that is a very grey zone." Weighill said despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's election promise that pot will be legalized for personal use, smoking, growing and selling weed in Canada is still against the law. Weighill, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said the government needs to offer clarity to people - especially those who believe that because of the election promise, the drug is already legal. [continues 421 words]
Medical Marijuana Store Owner Says Users Suffer Without Access to Weed Pleas from the owner of Saskatoon's now-shuttered medical marijuana dispensary that he be allowed to operate in the grey area of the law fell on deaf ears at a council committee meeting. Mark Hauk, founder of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, closed the dispensary's doors after he was charged last fall with trafficking, production and possessing the proceeds of crime. He told council's planning committee on Monday that the closure means many people who relied on medical marijuana are now suffering. He asked that his business be allowed to operate despite the fact that it is presently considered illegal under federal law. [continues 355 words]
I wrote last week a column about marijuana that contained bad information. I had heard complaints from three different people that they could not find a doctor in Saskatoon to prescribe medical marijuana. I have since learned that maybe they weren't seeing the right doctors. Some doctors still will not write prescriptions for the once-forbidden herb, but plenty of others have come around. Saskatoon-based supplier CanniMed alone has filled prescriptions written by 290 Saskatchewan doctors, 136 of them in Saskatoon, at last count. This would not include doctors whose prescriptions are filled by other licensed suppliers, of which there are more than 20. So, medical marijuana is far from impossible to get here, as I incorrectly reported. [continues 606 words]
Re: Why is marijuana legal in Vancouver and not Saskatoon (Feb. 4). CanniMed has 290 prescribing physicians in Saskatchewan with 136 physicians in Saskatoon alone, who have authorized patients to access medical marijuana through the legal Health Canada sanctioned Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations system. More are becoming familiar with the value of cannabis as a medicine every day. General practitioners, family medicine specialists, oncologists, rheumatologists and hundreds of other doctors should be seen as the gateway to this valuable medicine. None of them prescribe medical advice through a Skype format. There is enough confusion within the medical marijuana program in Canada without columnists like Les MacPherson failing to do their research. Brent Zettl, president & CEO, CanniMed Ltd. [end]
Solicitor says storefront operations not permitted to dispense marijuana The owner of a Saskatoon marijuana dispensary has shuttered his storefront due to the financial burden associated with drug trafficking charges levelled against him, but he says he plans to continue helping people get medical marijuana licences through a newly founded organization. "All things put together, unfortunately we had to move from that spot," said Mark Hauk, owner of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club. Hauk closed the dispensary, which was located in the 200 block of Second Avenue North in Saskatoon, on Feb. 1. [continues 382 words]
Seamus John Neary, the ex-Huskie footballer caught with 9.5 kilograms of marijuana, intends to argue the sentencing rules for marijuana trafficking aren't constitutional. Neary was convicted in November of trafficking marijuana and possessing the proceeds of crime. On Friday in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench, his sentencing hearing was adjourned to May 31, when constitutional arguments will be heard. Under the law, trafficking-related charges where the amount of marijuana is more than three kilograms are not eligible for community-based jail sentences, or conditional sentence orders. [continues 93 words]
Canada is a country, right? Canadian law is supposed to apply equally, everywhere, to all of us, right? So why is marijuana openly for sale by retailers all over Vancouver and Victoria, while elsewhere in the country, people still are getting busted for a lousy joint? That's more like two different countries than one country. In Vancouver and Victoria, the retail business operates under the rubric of medical marijuana. Hardly anyone takes this medical aspect seriously. To buy a sack of weed, you need only present a prescription or facsimile thereof. It doesn't even have to be a prescription for medical marijuana. Show a prescription for anything - - an antibiotic for a sinus infection, an anti-inflammatory for a sprained ankle, ointment for a rash ... anything - and they will sell you a sack of weed. You can show them an old prescription pill bottle or even a picture on your iPhone of an old pill bottle and they will sell you a sack of weed. [continues 535 words]
Saskatoon's drug trade helped boost property crimes in 2015, according to city police. Acting police chief Bernie Pannell said Tuesday that increases in crimes like break-and-enters, thefts over $5,000 and possession of stolen property in 2015 compared to 2014 can be linked to the drug trade. It's part of an ongoing trend of several years, Pannell added in an interview. "There's an awful lot of opportunistic theft that is occurring and we believe it's connected to our drug trade," Pannell said. "We're seeing it increasing." [continues 428 words]
Distribution of kits encouraged to help deal with opioid overdoses The College of Physicians and Surgeons council has given its blessing for doctors to prescribe naloxone to people other than the drug users who need it. "This could be parents; it could be other family members; it could be associates; it could be shelters or police detention," said addictions specialist Peter Butt. He's overseeing a pilot project to distribute naloxone kits and had asked the college for its support. "It's not unregulated in any way, but rather is part of an integrated approach to preventing opioid overdose deaths." [continues 168 words]
An addictions specialist wants Saskatchewan doctors to be able to prescribe naloxone to family and agencies close to the patients who need the life-saving drug. "In order to be in-line with the evidence and actually to be more effective in terms of treating opioid overdoses and preventing overdose deaths, we would like to be able to prescribe it to people associated with users in a more evidence-based and practical approach," Dr. Peter Butt said. He has asked the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan to support the idea, which the college will consider at its Friday meeting. This would allow doctors, and perhaps nurse practitioners, to prescribe with a clear conscience, Butt said. [continues 339 words]
Marijuana has been in the news ever since the Liberal government made promises to make "real changes" towards legalization of the controversial drug. Stated on the Liberal website, the official party position is that "Canada's current system of marijuana prohibition does not work." While recreational use of marijuana is still strictly prohibited, doctors have prescribed medical marijuana for some time. Recently, and contrary to federal law, medical marijuana dispensaries have been popping up across the country. This past summer, Vancouver was the first city in Canada to regulate medical dispensaries in the city, despite being technically illegal and drawing criticism from former health minister and interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose. [continues 917 words]
SPECIAL REPORT: This is Part I of a three-part series that will delve into one local man's usage of medical marijuana after he sustained serious injuries. It hasn't been an easy road for the husband and father of two over the past couple of years. He has battled a stigma, lost his job and had been popping all kinds of pills until he found medical marijuana. A Moose Jaw man is frustrated with what he claims is an outdated stigma against the medicine he uses - marijuana. [continues 725 words]
This is Part II of a three-part series that will delve into one local man's usage of medical marijuana after he sustained serious injuries. Part I, which was printed in the Jan. 18 edition of the Times-Herald, outlined the plethora of prescription drugs Chris Kuntz was taking before he tried medical marijuana. He has battled stigma and lost his job over the past couple of years, but claimed marijuana has him feeling as close to full health as he has in the past several months. [continues 744 words]
Re: Addiction myths debunked, Opinion, Dec. 29 While Michael Pond supports using one substance to get off another to escape alcoholism or drug addiction, it's worth mentioning how cannabis (marijuana) has historically been used to help people. The plant is not physically addictive, hasn't killed anyone in over 5,000 years of documented use and should be available to citizens trying to get off hard drug addiction and alcoholism. Further, re-legalizing the plant in itself will lower hard drug addiction rates to begin with. Dillon, Colorado [end]
Liberals Clamp Down on Cigarettes but Make It Easier to Smoke Pot Where there's smoke - there's a strange disconnect in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's thinking. Trudeau wants Health Minister Jane Philpott to make it one of her priorities to crack down even further on tobacco companies by mandating plain packaging for cigarettes, hoping to make smoking even less of an enticement for Canadians. Trudeau wants to legalize marijuana, which will make smoking it more of an enticement to those Canadians who may have been previously deterred by its illegal status. [continues 585 words]
The sudden death of Shauna Wolf on Dec. 27 while she was being held on remand at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre raises some troubling questions, starting with the fact that provincial policy still doesn't require justice officials to publicly disclose every such death as soon as practicable. Surely, there's nothing a government in a democratic society does on our behalf that's more serious or sensitive than to deprive people of their freedom. Whenever someone who is taken into custody then dies while in lock-up, the death should become public information as soon as the person's family is notified. [continues 351 words]
The Crown has dropped multiple charges against four Saskatoon residents who were arrested after a high-profile medical marijuana dispensary bust. On Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court, all charges relating to marijuana derivatives, such as oils, were withdrawn against Mark Phillip Hauk, Lane Anthony Britnell, Jaime Michelle Hagel and Carson Jocelyn Ramsay. Hauk, the owner of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club dispensary, and the three employees were arrested Oct. 29 after Saskatoon police raided the small shop in the 200 block of Second Avenue North. They are out on bail and still face four criminal charges relating to trafficking dried marijuana and possession of the proceeds of crime. [continues 353 words]
Inside Saskatchewan
