You know what they say: Candy's dandy. And liquor's quicker. But a combination of pot, hash and whisky - well, it's fast on its way to an LCBO near you. Liquormen's Ol' Dirty Canadian Whisky, which is promoted by the Trailer Park Boys, suggests you should mix its booze with a "six-paper joint." It also suggests it's the right booze to drink early in the morning. "Let's face it, some days you're going to wake up and start drinking before 10 a.m.," it says, under its recipe section of the website. [continues 676 words]
You know what they say: Candy's dandy. And liquor's quicker. But a combination of pot, hash and whisky - well, it's fast on its way to an LCBO near you. Liquormen's Ol' Dirty Canadian Whisky, which is promoted by the Trailer Park Boys, suggests you should mix its booze with a "six-paper joint." It also suggests it's the right booze to drink early in the morning. "Let's face it, some days you're going to wake up and start drinking before 10 a.m.," it says, under its recipe section of the website. [continues 483 words]
Grits stalling creating new problems for marijuana Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize pot isn't exactly giving his government the euphoric high they'd hoped for. Turns out it's way tougher to do than they anticipated. To speed things up, they've announced a traditional Liberal solution: Recycle old cabinet ministers and appoint a task force. On Thursday, they announced former Attorney General Anne McLellan will lead them into the Weedland. Trudeau has pledged to legalize marijuana in 2017. This dud of an announcement appears to be simply stalling. Their waffling is making life difficult for cops who end up in a Catch-22. It's still illegal to sell pot for anything other than medicinal reasons. [continues 438 words]
Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize pot isn't exactly giving his government the euphoric high they'd hoped for. Turns out it's way tougher to do than they anticipated. To speed things up, they've announced a traditional Liberal solution: Recycle old cabinet ministers and appoint a task force. On Thursday, they announced former Attorney General Anne McLellan will lead them into the Weedland. Trudeau has pledged to legalize marijuana in 2017. This dud of an announcement appears to be simply stalling. Their waffling is making life difficult for cops who end up in a Catch-22. It's still illegal to sell pot for anything other than medicinal reasons. [continues 439 words]
Grits Stalling Creating New Problems for Marijuana Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize pot isn't exactly giving his government the euphoric high they'd hoped for. Turns out it's way tougher to do than they anticipated. To speed things up, they've announced a traditional Liberal solution: Recycle old cabinet ministers and appoint a task force. On Thursday, they announced former Attorney General Anne McLellan will lead them into the Weedland. Trudeau has pledged to legalize marijuana in 2017. This dud of an announcement appears to be simply stalling. Their waffling is making life difficult for cops who end up in a Catch-22. It's still illegal to sell pot for anything other than medicinal reasons. [continues 439 words]
Liberal Stalling Creating New Problems for Marijuana Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize pot isn't exactly giving his government the euphoric high they'd hoped for. Turns out it's way tougher to do than they anticipated. To speed things up, they've announced a traditional Liberal solution: Recycle old cabinet ministers and appoint a task force. On Thursday, they announced former Attorney General Anne McLellan will lead them into the Weedland. Trudeau has pledged to legalize marijuana in 2017. This dud of an announcement appears to be simply stalling. Their waffling is making life difficult for cops who end up in a Catch22. It's still illegal to sell pot for anything other than medicinal reasons. [continues 439 words]
Liberal Stalling Creating New Problems for Marijuana Justin Trudeau's pledge to legalize pot isn't exactly giving his government the euphoric high they'd hoped for. Turns out it's way tougher to do than they anticipated. To speed things up, they've announced a traditional Liberal solution: Recycle old cabinet ministers and appoint a task force. On Thursday, they announced former Attorney General Anne McLellan will lead them into the Weedland. Trudeau has pledged to legalize marijuana in 2017. This dud of an announcement appears to be simply stalling. Their waffling is making life difficult for cops who end up in a Catch 22. It's still illegal to sell pot for anything other than medicinal reasons. [continues 439 words]
Don't think of the legalization of marijuana as a progressive step forward. Think of it as the nationalization of what now is a privately run industry. Make no mistake: This is a state takeover of a privately run business. Premier Kathleen Wynne mused Monday about the possibility of having the LCBO sell pot from its retail outlets. "It makes sense to me that the liquor distribution mechanism that we have in place - the LCBO - is very well suited to putting in place the social responsibility aspects that would need to be in place," Wynne told reporters. [continues 550 words]
UN Report Says Toronto and Ottawa Are Little More Than Drug Pushers Good morning, and welcome to crack central. Yep, Toronto and Ottawa are the crack capitals of the world, according to a UN report on the international drug trade. It slams Ottawa and Toronto for their free crackpipe programs, and says the cities are contravening international drug trafficking control treaties by providing drug paraphernalia to addicts. "The distribution of drug paraphernalia, including crackpipes, to drug users in Ottawa and Toronto, as well as the presence of drug injection sites, is also in violation of the international drug control treaties, to which Canada is a party," says a report by the UN's influential International Narcotics Control Board, released in Vienna on Wednesday. [continues 584 words]
UN Fires On Toronto, Ottawa For Being Little Better Than Drug Traffickers Good morning, and welcome to crack central. Yep, Toronto and Ottawa are the crack capitals of the world, according to a UN report on the international drug trade. It slams Ottawa and Toronto for their free crackpipe programs, and says the cities are contravening international drug trafficking control treaties by providing drug paraphernalia to addicts. "The distribution of drug paraphernalia, including crackpipes, to drug users in Ottawa and Toronto, as well as the presence of drug injection sites, is also in violation of the international drug control treaties, to which Canada is a party," says a report by the UN's influential International Narcotics Control Board released in Vienna on Wednesday. [continues 589 words]
Oh, my. It seems I touched a raw nerve in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago when I suggested they had a -- how shall I put it? -- okay, they've got a drug problem. TV and radio stations there picked up on it and took polls to see if readers agreed with my assessment. Most of those who called in said I was right. My e-mail filled up with comments -- both for and against my view. Truth be told, some people were very angry and thought I shouldn't be writing about their city. One person told me to "shut my yap and go back to Toronto." [continues 621 words]
Canada's capital city is a national disgrace. That's the only conclusion I can come to after visiting my son, who attends university in Ottawa. It used to be a joy to visit that city, with its great galleries, museums and lovely restaurants. But the place has gone downhill rapidly over the past three years. The city's downtown core is infested with crack addicts. At an intersection just a few blocks from Canada's beautiful Parliament buildings, I saw dozens of drug deals happening in broad daylight. I saw countless people sitting around smoking crack. [continues 639 words]
Must Be Tough Enough For Hardliners, Touchy-Feely For Red Tories -- To Distance Him From Harris To no one's great surprise, John Tory was duly nominated as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Don Valley West last night. He'll face off against Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. The party leader delivered an acceptance speech that touched on what is expected to be a central theme in the Tories' platform -- crime. Tory talked about the shooting death of Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate last month. Manners, 15, was gunned down inside the school and two 17-year-olds have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with his death. [continues 643 words]
Talk about supreme irony. News item 1. The government is poised to bring tough new laws outlawing the smoking of a legal product - tobacco. Item 2. Two weeks ago, thousands of people camped out on the lawn of the legislature and smoked an illegal product -- marijuana. And no one was arrested. Not just that, the government rakes in billions every year from the sale of another addictive product -- alcohol. Yet you don't see a tightening of licensing laws. If anything, it's the opposite. [continues 643 words]
So now we're supposed to feel how about Health Minister George Smitherman's revelations that for 10 years he was hooked on "party" drugs and he had a bit of a problem with booze? We're supposed to pat him on the back and tell him he's "courageous." Who does he think he's kidding? Cry me a river. A courageous person doesn't do drugs in the first place. A courageous politician tells voters BEFORE he runs for election that he's had a substance abuse problem. Then you let voters decide. You don't land yourself a plum job as health minister lecturing everyone about lifestyle -- and then tell us to do as I say and not as I do. [continues 580 words]
NIAGARA'S ISOLATED rural back roads, its booming greenhouse industry and its easy access to New York State make grow-ops easy to hide and highly lucrative, say local politicians. And the province's public safety minister says the boom in grow-ops is fuelling a trade in guns and hard drugs. "These grow-ops are being used as currency by the underworld," said Monte Kwinter in a telephone interview yesterday. "These grow-ops that are being produced in hydroponic situations are enhanced by chemicals, they become very, very toxic and they ship (cannabis) to the U.S. in exchange for guns and for harder drugs and for currencies so that they can fund underworld activities," he said. [continues 595 words]
It seems Liberal policy making, both federal and provincial, is largely driven by whatever way the wind is blowing on any particular day. Do the two levels of government ever actually talk to each other about how their policies will mesh? The evidence suggests they do not. Take the province-wide smoking ban, which Health Minister George Smitherman said yesterday is on its way and will be comprehensive. The feds, at the same time, are decriminalizing the possession of marijuana. So it's okay to smoke marijuana but not tobacco? How does that work? [continues 633 words]
ACcording To The Feds, Tobacco Is Bad But Marijuana Is Now Good? It was Health Minister Tony Clement who first pointed out the hypocrisy of recent suggestions by a federal justice committee that simple marijuana possession should be decriminalized and "safe" injection sites should be set up for drug users. This is, after all, the same federal government that pays millions of dollars every year for advertising campaigns discouraging young people from smoking tobacco. Doctors' groups will tell you that it's not the nicotine in tobacco that's so bad for you, it's the dirty method of delivering that drug to your body - - the smoke. The same holds for smoking dope. [continues 652 words]
