When asked about doobies during his VanCity whistle stop, the NDP leader didn't bring up legalization, but Toronto candidates assure that it's party policy Thomas Mulcair has promised to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana "the minute we form government." He made the announcement during a campaign stop in Vancouver on August 20. But the NDP brain trust is not going to dirty its hands with the weedy subject of outright marijuana legalization, which the Liberals have pledged. [continues 680 words]
Another 420 is around the corner, and T.O.'s profile as a hotbed of weed culture continues to grow, but prohibition keeps us from putting up plaques at historic sites Denver doesn't have one. And pot is legal there. Ditto Portlandia. The Toronto Hash Mob's ninth annual 420 marijuana legalization rally, slated for Yonge-Dundas Square on Monday, April 20, has made T.O. the epicentre of cannabis culture activism in North America. Cannabis culture thrives in the big smoke - and always has - despite a harsh political environment. We have a largely forgotten and fascinating cannabis history, though prohibition prevents the erection of historical markers to mark its sites. [continues 1068 words]
Author of Marijuana Smoker's Guidebook (Green Candy Press) and host of The Mernahuana Zone webcast, Tuesdays at Vapor Central. @mernahuana The younger stoners jokingly refer to me as the Lady Gaga of Ganja for my cannabis costumes at our 4/20 smoke-outs. But my style is more David Bowie. Outlandish clothes help hide my physical shortcomings - in my case my crooked spine. Sometimes I view my body as broken. Chronic pain has me measuring my suffering on a scale of one to 10 every day. It's a way to help me understand a body riddled with hidden health issues: scoliosis, arthritis, fibromyalgia. [continues 240 words]
Medpot Mountie Cpl. Ron Francis's Battle to Smoke Out RCMP's PTSD Denial Ends in Suicide Just a few weeks ago I was teaching RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis how to vaporize his medical marijuana. He promised to check back in, but we never had another virtual session. He was found dead in his Kingsclear First Nation, New Brunswick, home on Monday, October 6, apparently a suicide. Tossed aside by RCMP brass because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and publicly bullied by Conservative parliamentarians for marijuana medicating, Francis emailed long after the media had lost interest in a "pot-smoking Mountie." [continues 798 words]
I Should Be in the Government's Med Pot Program, but the Courts Aren't So Sure. I felt the agony of defeat Friday, February 1, when the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned an Ontario Superior court ruling in my case. The earlier ruling eliminated the federal government med pot program that was not allowing access to the program to sick people who could not get a doctor to sign the required papers. But the feds won their appeal last week, and prohibition continues for people with medical problems. And now they're going to have to figure out some way to get green. [continues 306 words]
I've Become My Own Worst Nightmare, A Medpot Horror Story NOW writer and med pot activist Matt Mernagh, who suffers from fibromyalgia, scoliosis and arthritic pain, was arrested August 16 with 37 plants and charged with possession of marijuana, possession for the purposes of trafficking and production of marijuana. The trial date has not been set. The following is an account of his 13 days in the Don Jail. After years of reporting on drug war horror stories, I've finally become one myself. Busted, evicted from my apartment and missing my ferrets, I'm now an unwilling resident of the Don Jail. And the worst part of all is that the government has taken away my medicine. [continues 1282 words]
All that's missing is cast of Weeds at Compassion Centre's second club The paint is fresh, the ceilings are high and the empathy is tangible in this renovated old mansion in the gay village, where the Toronto Compassion Centre opened its second branch on Tuesday, July 22. "[We've managed] a synergy between a sterile clinic environment and a homey feeling - exactly what you'd find in an alternative health clinic," says Chad Cooke, membership director of the centre, which facilitates access to med pot for 3,000 users, many of them with HIV and AIDS. [continues 238 words]
Goodies Handed Out At Annual Bud Bash Barely Enough To Cut A Buzz When I pictured what high times pot orgy the Toronto Cannabis Cup would look like, I imagined tables and tables piled high with sweet toke. But five strains only? And no info available on any of them? The fifth annual competition, held at a College Street venue (kept hush-hush out of respect for the owners last month), saw some 200 mostly out-of-town weed warriors shell out $250 each to rate the best bud this country has to offer. "Ontario has the best pot. It's right here in this room!" High Times editor Dan Skye hollers. [continues 469 words]
Toke-In Has More Takers Than Earth Day Rally Amazing pot smog hangs hazily in the sunny afternoon during Toronto Hash Mob's second successful smoke-out on Sunday, April 20, better known as 4/20. By 4:20 pm, almost 2,000 stoners fill our makeshift auditorium behind College Park at 420 Yonge. They come to blaze. Standing three deep on steps leading onto a dry outdoor skating rink, enthusiasts wave their weed. Our message to Stephen Harper, "We Got High! We Got High! We Got High!" Here we are a block away from police headquarters, and no one is arrested. Uniformed Toronto police officers just pretend our peaceful act of civil disobedience isn't happening. [continues 367 words]
My original quest to speak with Konstantin amongst cannabis community contacts turned up all the wrong leads. His lawyer hooked me up. Yet cannabis aficionados drool over his creation of a plant he called God Bud-a High Times Cannabis Cup winner, featured in Time Magazine that packs a couch lock punch that med users love. In a legal world Konstantin would be credited like musicians, with with a five N album. Until his case cleared the courts, he couldn"t say, ""I created God Bud."' [continues 406 words]
There's a massive cloud of cannabis confusion hovering around Marc Emery's extradition case now that the deal between the Prince of Pot and U.S. prosecutors has hit the skids. Under the now-defunct arrangement, Emery's two co-accused, Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey, would have gone free while he served five years in Canada on U.S. charges of shipping marijuana seeds stateside. Now, as Emery heads to another round of extradition hearings April 9, his lawyers will be armed with a new and startling precedent. [continues 352 words]
Weed Disciples Gasp As Marc Emery Cops to Five-Year Prison Deal Our prince of pot, Vancouver-based Marc Emery, puts it simply: "I'll be disappearing in 60 days." He's referring to his plea bargain with U.S. officials over charges arising from his online marijuana seed business, made public January 14. The tentative agreement would see him serving five years of a 10-year sentence, waiving his right to early release and selling his beloved magazine, Cannabis Culture. [continues 588 words]
City's Crackdown On Grow Ops Doesn't Protect Medical Pot Growers After three hours punching each other silly over issues like amending the fireworks bylaw, the licensing and standards committee is finally ready to hear my deputation September 11. I'm here on behalf of the Canadian Cannabis Society to speak to the final agenda item: how the city plans to police pot and divvy up the proceeds of grow op busts. At the start of the meeting, I hear chair Howard Moscoe say offhandedly that he's thankful no one is speaking on the proposed bylaw. [continues 476 words]
Internal audit reveals feds banking on legal limbo to obstruct medpot reforms. The feds' backward pot laws have been smoked out yet again - this time by a court decision two weeks ago declaring weed possession laws unconstitutional. This after a Toronto man busted with $45 of bud argued that the country's medical marijuana regulations are flawed. But don't expect the decision to make getting medical pot any easier. The ongoing legal confusion surrounding our pot laws is what's making our Medical Marihuana Access Program look like it's being administered by the Trailer Park Boys. [continues 318 words]
Activists Call on Auditor General to Investigate 1,500 Per Cent Markup on Government Dope The days of health canada marking up medical marijuana to the tune of 1,500 per cent may be nearing an end. Or are they? Word from NDP health critic MP Libby Davies is that the office of Auditor General Sheila Fraser is "in the early stages of an audit of certain user fees" being charged medical pot users by Health Canada's Medical Marihuana Access Division. [continues 512 words]
Marc Emery Gives Hardcore Puff Fest Much Needed Political Edge Seed seller Marc Emery fears he won't see Canada again if he's extradited to the U.S on drug charges. Thousands upon thousands of tokers are demonstrating the normalization of cannabis at the Saturday, May 5, Global Marijuana March and fest with some hardcore puffing. On the surface, the event may look like it lacks political muscle. Attendees have showed up on the north lawn of Queen's Park to spread blankets, fire up their favourite bong and openly inhale with their friends to the sounds of Ill Scarlet. [continues 417 words]
Madd chronic and I arrive for our first officially announced Out Yourself Smoke Out, a 420-joint circle at 4:20 pm on April 20. Founder of the Toronto Hash Mob (THM), Madd Chronic once dreamed of smoking at the centre of the universe, wherever that is. But we've settled on Dundas Square and have already notified police and square management that this is no festival, it's a protest. No sound system, no booths selling stuff, no permit needed. Madd Chronic howls when I tell him I identified my occupation as "coach" of the THM on the Toronto Police Service's notice of demonstration form. [continues 367 words]
I Usually Offer To Help Soldiers Fail Drug Tests - Not Pass Them I got some weird and crazy e-mail recently. Among the updates from war resisters groups and pot legalizers was a letter from the wife of a Canadian Forces soldier. The distraught woman was writing to ask my advice because her husband had failed his urine test and was being prevented from deploying to Afghanistan. Talk about a moral dilemma. Oddly, just this month, writing for Cannabis Culture, I urged service personnel not wanting to wage war to get stoned and flunk the Department of National Defence's recently resumed pee test. If any CF soldier doesn't want to deploy, I'm offering to puff pot in their face all day or send them peace cookies. No reason to go AWOL. [continues 524 words]
Re: Fire probe leads police to two more grow-ops, The Standard, Jan. 2. The marijuana grow-op bogeyman strikes again. It's hard to bring balance to an issue like indoor cannabis farming when there are few experts. Our police are creating anew reefer madness by focusing on those who produce and sell marijuana because everyone, at least three million Canadians, possess pot at some time or another. The law against possession remains, but enforcement prioritization has Toronto and Vancouver police shrug off customers using cannabis at BYOBud cafes. Yet Niagara residents still have weed worries as police will spend incredible resources for simple possession, creating an interesting discrepancy. [continues 183 words]
Did Narcs WHO Busted Pot Church Break the Law by Sparking Up? Did the Toronto Police narcs who swooped down on the Church of the Universe congregation in the Beaches, arresting 22 and laying 205 pot charges, actually inhale? That's a loaded question for those worried about lack of accountability when it comes to officers breaking the law during investigations. And if some of the arrestees are right, coppers did toke on-scene in the course of their reconnoitering. Not that cops - or anyone else - should take a hit for indulging in the pleasures of the bong. But did those narcs actually violate the terms of the Criminal Code governing their behaviour while they built their case against the reefer-worshipping Christians? [continues 705 words]
