Revenue likely to be in millions, not billions Legal marijuana must be carefully taxed and competitively priced or consumers will retreat to the black market, negating a core rationale for legalization, the parliamentary budget officer said Tuesday. Should the Liberals follow that advice it means recreational pot sales, initially at least, will generate only modest sales tax revenues - about $618 million a year - and not the cash cow some predicted. What's more, 60 per cent of that money will go to the provinces. [continues 462 words]
A dispute over the admissibility of police "opinions" at drugged-driving trials lands at the Supreme Court of Canada Thursday in a case spotlighting an emerging legal dilemma over the hazy science of marijuana impairment. With federal legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use expected next spring, the case of Carson Bingley of Ottawa could decide if, without a scientific standard, police officers' opinions about whether motorists were high while driving should be automatically accepted as expert evidence at trial. Unlike alcohol impairment, there is no legal blood-concentration driving limit for the active ingredients in marijuana and other drugs, nor is there an approved instrument for police to take readings that will be accepted in court. [continues 422 words]
OTTAWA - Illegal pot sales are turning into a high earner for governments. Don Briere's national chain of renegade retail shops remitted $688,449 in GST/HST collected from December to May on exploding sales of unlicensed marijuana, hashish and cannabis-laced edibles to relieve aches and pains. Briere remitted $286,452 more in federal payroll taxes and employer contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan for 2015. Then there's personal income tax, corporate tax, store property taxes, workers' compensation and more. [continues 450 words]
OTTAWA - Some criminal trial judges are questioning why people continue to be prosecuted for simple possession of marijuana while the Liberal government moves to legalize the narcotic, the country's most senior prosecutors told parliamentarians Thursday. The House of Commons justice committee heard one magistrate is even considering whether to continue with a simple possession case before the court given the Liberal's promise to turn pot consumption into a legal, regulated recreational activity. The federal government is spending upwards of $4 million a year prosecuting those caught with small, personal stashes of the drug, the committee was told. Tens of millions more is spent on police, jail and court costs. In 2014 alone, 22,000 people were charged with marijuana-related crimes. [continues 402 words]
Judge Points to Pending Legalization OTTAWA - Some judges are questioning why people continue to be prosecuted for simple possession of marijuana while the Liberal government moves to legalize the narcotic, the country's most senior prosecutors told parliamentarians Thursday. The House of Commons justice committee heard that one magistrate is even considering whether to continue with a simple-possession case before the court given the Liberals' promise to turn pot consumption into a legal, regulated recreational activity. In the meantime, the federal government is spending upward of $4 million a year prosecuting those caught with small, personal stashes of the drug, the committee was told. Tens of millions more is spent on police, jail and court costs. In 2014 alone, 22,000 people were charged with marijuana-related offences. [continues 307 words]
'The current approach is simply failing' OTTAWA * There will be no halt to prosecutions for minor marijuana offences, but the government will likely consider future amnesty for hundreds of thousands of Canadians already saddled with criminal records for simple possession, says the Liberal point man on pot. The comments by former Toronto police chief and MP Bill Blair came amid increasing calls for federal prosecutors to cease criminal cases against people charged with simple pot possession and minor trafficking, even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vows to legalize weed during his party's current four-year mandate. [continues 416 words]
OTTAWA - There will be no halt to prosecutions for minor marijuana offences, but the government will likely consider future amnesty for hundreds of thousands of Canadians already saddled with criminal records for simple possession, says the Liberal point man on pot. The comments by former Toronto police chief and MP Bill Blair came amid increasing calls for federal prosecutors to cease criminal cases against people charged with simple pot possession and minor trafficking, even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vows to legalize weed during his party's current four-year mandate. [continues 505 words]
By 1971, marijuana's scent hung over much of Canada. Some 1.5 million folks had taken at least one drag on a joint. Hundreds of thousands were regularly firing up, grooving to Three Dog Night and learning from the leaked Pentagon Papers that the U.S. administration had lied about the Vietnam War. Convictions for simple pot possession exploded: from 431 in 1967 to 5,399 in 1970 and 8,389 in 1971. More than half were against otherwise law-abiding baby boomers under 21 who would now carry criminal records along with their university degrees. [continues 685 words]
OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The question Friday before the Supreme Court of Canada, in its first foray into the medical marijuana debate, is whether the Health Canada regulation violated medical marijuana users' constitutional right to life, liberty and safety. [continues 341 words]
Current law says herb can only be smoked OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 311 words]
OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The question Friday before the Supreme Court of Canada, in its first foray into the medical marijuana debate, is whether the Health Canada regulation violated medical marijuana users' constitutional right to life, liberty and safety. [continues 104 words]
OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The question Friday before the Supreme Court of Canada, in its first foray into the medicalmarijuana debate, is whether the Health Canada regulation violated medical marijuana users' constitutional right to life, liberty and safety. [continues 312 words]
High Court to Decide Whether Medical Users Can Eat the Product OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 384 words]
Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The question Friday before the Supreme Court of Canada, in its first foray into the medical marijuana debate, is whether the Health Canada regulation violated medical marijuana users' constitutional right to life, liberty and safety. [continues 234 words]
To Decide Whether It Is Legal to Eat Foods Laced With Prescribed Cannabis Marijuana has been used medicinally and recreationally for thousands of years, including all of these topical and edible substances. Canada's high court contemplates Friday whether it is a constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with medical marijuana. Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 775 words]
A decades-old double homicide is the backdrop for the Supreme Court's first appeal of 2015. Following that, there will be legal clashes and rulings on assisted suicide, government anti-crime reforms, human smuggling and pot brownies, writes Ian MacLeod. Next week, two Quebecers wanted by police in the United States for the 1988 slayings of a New Hampshire lesbian couple will appeal to the high court to strike down federal extradition orders. Anthony Barnaby stood trial in the U.S. three times in 1989 and 1990 for the crime, but each trial ended in a hung jury. Murder charges were eventually dropped. [continues 1048 words]
A reasoned political debate about marijuana is almost as impossible as debating abortion laws or climate change. Still, some voices have more influence, and right now one of them is Justin Trudeau's. The Liberal leader wants marijuana legalized. This comes after his opinion "evolved" from the more moderate stand of decriminalization. This has flummoxed the federal Conservatives because Trudeau's position leans toward where more Canadians are and against the natural tendencies of a tough-on-crime government. Unless you're using it for medicinal reasons, marijuana is bad for you. Lethargy, short-term memory loss and the damaging effect on lungs if you smoke too much are among the more commonly agreed-upon effects. [continues 510 words]
