New Health Canada Website Leads To American Equivalents. Questions are being raised after Health Canada's new anti-drug website for youth included links to a similar campaign being run in the US. Health Canada says it had no choice but to link to several American sources on its new youth anti-drug website as no applicable Canadian sources existed. However, others see it as the government moving Canadian policy more in line with its southern neighbour. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced the new "youth component" of the government's National Anti-Drug Strategy on Dec. 15. The campaign centers on a website hosted by Health Canada called not4me.ca, which includes links to a campaign run by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, as well as interactive graphics from MSNBC and the University of Utah. [continues 752 words]
Conflicting Studies on Marijuana Use Suggest the Water Is Still Murky Another flood of contradictory marijuana studies have left potheads wondering if they should clear their bong water. A January study in the European Respiratory Journal claims that smoking one joint a day for 10 years provides the same cancer risk as smoking 20 cigarettes a day, leading to worldwide headlines claiming that marijuana is more dangerous than cigarettes. The study also found that smoking one joint a day makes the user 5.7 times more at risk for developing lung cancer than non-smokers, even after adjusting for tobacco use. [continues 294 words]
Harper's Fear of Drugs Blinds Him to Proliferation of Legal Drug Cultures In a recent speech announcing $64 million for a new federal anti-drug campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that the main reason Canada deals with illegal drugs is a "drug culture" that has existed "since the 1960s" that "often romanticized" drug use. This drug culture makes it "cool" and "acceptable" to take drugs, and this is why there are widespread addiction problems, since addicts are coerced into destructive lifestyles. Harper underscored his argument by mentioning that his son is "listening to my Beatles records and asking me what all these lyrics mean." [continues 643 words]
Judge Acquits Man, Federal Health Minister Plans New Anti-Drug Plans Rolling a joint might require the removal of stems and seeds, but the legal limbo in which pot smokers in Canada find themselves is far from clear-cut. On July 13, an Ontario Court judge in Toronto acquitted Clifford Long, who was charged with possession of 3.5 grams of marijuana. The court held that Canada's marijuana possession laws are unconstitutional. Justice Howard Borenstein cited a seven-year-old Ontario Court of Appeal case, which also described the possession law as unconstitutional, due to its ambiguity on medical marijuana. [continues 368 words]
