Marc Emery is not the easiest person to defend -- in court or on the street. The self-styled Prince of Pot is not always likeable. In interviews he seems a trifle pompous and a little too self-righteous. In fact, sometimes he's every bit as self-righteous in his defense of marijuana as some of his detractors are in their demonization of him and his evil weed. And surely he's just a bit opportunistic. He knew that setting up a mail order business selling cannabis seeds to Americans as well as Canadians was an act that invited police attention -- particularly in the United States, which continues to fight on in the "War on Drugs." It is a war that puts almost as much emphasis on eradicating marijuana distribution as on cocaine and heroin trafficking. It is a war started by Richard Nixon in 1971 and one which continues unsuccessfully to this day. [continues 556 words]
There was another fatal shooting Saturday night and again on Monday. And as you read this, there may be a couple more in progress. That is the reality of life - and death - in Metro Vancouver today, and probably tomorrow. Since the beginning of 2009, there have been, at last count, 40 shootings in the Lower Mainland - 20 of them fatal. Vancouver residents are understandably uneasy, not to mention angry. And no, these shootings are not taking place in the Downtown East Side, Vancouver's shame and the place which houses the homeless, the addicts, the drunks, the mentally ill, the hopeless. [continues 553 words]
Sandra Bergen was introduced to crystal meth at the age of 13. She became an addict, stopped using for eight months and just before her 20th birthday, she went to a party and later took some meth. She had a heart attack, ended up in a coma for 11 days and nearly died. In both cases, the same acquaintance offered her the meth. That's the sad and bad part. Now 23, the young woman from Biggar, Sask., is clean and sober, runs a website to help others get off drugs and visits schools to speak to kids about the dangers of drugs. That's the good part. [continues 541 words]
National Marijuana Use Here Is Highest Among All Developed Countries. Dieu merci. Thank God for Quebec. They've gotten us anglos off the hook yet again. First, they obligingly claimed the highest rate of opposition in Canada to our country's mission in Afghanistan, thus letting the rest of us feel properly patriotic. Never mind that some 200 Royal 22nd Regiment (Van Doos) from CFB Valcartier just took off for the land of the poppy -- with 2,000 more to follow during the summer. In fact, by September, soldiers from Valcartier will have replaced the majority of our existing troops in Afghanistan. [continues 532 words]
Dieu merci. Thank God for Quebec. They've gotten us anglos off the hook yet again. First, they obligingly claimed the highest rate of opposition in Canada to our country's mission in Afghanistan, thus letting the rest of us feel properly patriotic. Never mind that some 200 Royal 22nd Regiment (Van Doos) from CFB Valcartier just took off for the land of the poppy -- with 2,000 more to follow during the summer. In fact, by September, soldiers from Valcartier will have replaced the majority of our existing troops in Afghanistan. [continues 532 words]
He curses me as I pass him without a glance, but he knows I have seen him. How can I not? He's sitting in front of the drugstore on a main street, dirty, smelly and obnoxious, with filthy ball cap set out in front of his jeaned legs. He's obviously been sleeping there all night under a dirty blanket on top of a filthy sleeping bag. And while the drugstore personnel safely do their business inside the store, he does his outside. [continues 635 words]
To the surprise of no one - with the possible exception of my neighbour who has, I think, been stoned since September 1966 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Monday that his government will not soften Canada's marijuana laws. Harper stated emphatically that the Conservatives will not promote the Liberal party's marijuana reform bill, which never quite got anywhere since the government fell. It may have just been me, but I got the impression that Steve dislikes the Liberals even more than he is unamused by pot. Perhaps if the Saskatchewan Party for the Humane Clubbing of Baby Skunks (I heard that their spokesman is the newly knighted Sir Tom Jones) had suggested the reform law, Steve might have been more amenable. [continues 626 words]
He stands on the busy sidewalk screaming in an agony that onlookers cannot understand. He is young - perhaps in his mid-20s. His contorted face is an unhealthy red, his hair is wild and he flails his arms as though warding off demons the rest of us cannot see. His intensity, his frenetic movements, and his Kurt Cobain screams are vaguely familiar. "Crystal meth," observes a woman two tables over on the cafe terrace, and some of us nod in recognition. None of us wants to look at him - it is too painful, too overwhelming. [continues 667 words]
Our mayor, our premier, the opposition, restaurant and casino owners, the non-smokers and the smokers-rights types, they're all locked in a battle to the death over who gets to smoke -- cigarettes that is -- and who doesn't. Glen Murray to date won't let himself be pinned down on a citywide ban, ditto Doer on a provincewide ban. Restaurants that have bars attached continue to allow smoking while bar owners have nightmares at the thought that someday soon their establishments might have to go cold turkey. [continues 696 words]
By LYN COCKBURN -- Winnipeg Sun Y - A - W - N and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Those are the sounds of anybody with an ounce of sense -- or marijuana -- reacting to the news that Prince Harry, 17, has fessed up to smoking some dope and downing some beer. The British tabloids would, of course, have us believe this is on par with the Brits having lost the Raj or Harry's Great Uncle Eddie having abdicated. [continues 1327 words]
Safe houses for drug addicts. Places where users can shoot up using sterile needles and clean water. That's what an editorial in the Aug. 21 edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal advocates. Using the mean streets of Vancouver -- where addicts shoot up in plain sight, often using dirty water from puddles -- as an example of the need, the journal proposes "safer" injection facilities where addicts would be offered primary health care and counselling to get them off drugs and off the street. [continues 714 words]
Stupid. Illogical. Childish. Bureaucratic. I trust I have made my feelings clear about Canada's new federal law on the medicinal use of pot. That's the bit of legislation which came into effect on Monday which permits certain ill people to legally grow and smoke pot. They are: those with a prognosis of death within 12 months; those who have such diseases as multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV/AIDS; and those with other serious conditions which have proved resistant to conventional treatments. [continues 713 words]
Oh for God's sake, legalize the stuff. I am much weary of the whole marijuana argument; it does nothing but promote time-wasting discussions at dinner when other more sensible things could be debated, like the merits of Canadian literature or whose butt is more attractive, that which belongs to Antonio Banderas as opposed to that which is attached to Russell Crowe or what might have happened if Hitler had not insisted on fighting the Second World War on three separate fronts. [continues 722 words]
Oh, for God's sake, legalize the stuff. I am weary of the whole marijuana argument. It does nothing but promote time-wasting discussions at dinner when other more sensible things could be debated. Marijuana is not heroin; neither is it cocaine. The point is that for all the energy we put into tracking down cannabis criminals, we could be using that same amount of time fighting against those who troll our schools seeking to hook kids on hard drugs. However, I hasten to say that this is not a column about legalizing anything but marijuana. [continues 537 words]
Fifteen years ago in Vancouver, the 40-something librarian at my local library confided to me that she regularly bought marijuana. It seems her husband whom I had mistaken for her father, so old did he look, was suffering from inoperable cancer. He was as his halting steps and frail body announced, dying. Indeed, he was soon bed ridden and six months later, he was dead. In the meantime, she bought pot for him. It was, I remember her saying, the only thing that gave him a real respite from the pain. The prescription drugs, she continued, gave some relief but not what he needed. If he got the amount of drugs he actually needed the dosage would kill him. [continues 579 words]
