An Esquimalt woman says a local social housing organization is trying to evict her from her home of two-and-a-half years for using cannabis to treat her chronic conditions. Christina Goluch, who suffers from debilitating arthritis and lupus and has Health Canada permission to possess and use medical cannabis, says she is the target of a campaign by the site manager of the Greater Victoria Housing Society's Lions Lodge to rid the building of marijuana smokers, many of whom, says Goluch, are elderly and disabled and consume the drug to treat a variety of maladies. [continues 802 words]
What The Insite Decision Means For Victoria Back in 2006, then-Victoria mayor Alan Lowe kicked off his third term in office by noting in his inaugural address, "I believe there is increasing awareness and understanding about the benefits of establishing a safe consumption site in our City that is integrated with other social services, housing and medical care. With this in mind, the City will work closely with VIHA in the new year to seek an exemption under the Canada Health Act to allow us to establish a safe consumption site in Victoria." [continues 560 words]
Vic Pd Officer Steps Up To The Cannabis Convention Podium To Critique The War On Drugs Responding to a rash of gang-related shootings and under pressure to reassure the public that Lower Mainland streets are safe, British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell announced last week the hiring of 168 additional police officers, 10 new special prosecutors and the imposition of stiffer penalties for gun crimes fuelled by turf wars over the province's lucrative drug trade. This announcement, and the almost daily shoot-outs between young men in Greater Vancouver's suburbs, provided a fitting backdrop for Victoria's 10th annual Cannabis Convention at the University of Victoria last Sunday, an event where keynote speakers from a variety of backgrounds laid bare all that is wrong with current government policy toward psychoactive substances-namely, that prohibition causes more harm than good. [continues 1057 words]
The Canadian government's crumbling monopoly on the production and distribution of medical cannabis was dealt another blow Monday with a B.C. Supreme Court decision that effectively exonerated a grower who supplied the Vancouver Island Compassion Society with the good grass. The charges against Mathew Beren stemmed from a 2004 RCMP raid on a VICS facility in Sooke. The compassion society and its lawyer, Kirk Tousaw, argued that since the federal government was failing to provide citizens with a safe and secure supply of medicinal marijuana, compassion societies and their growers fulfilled a critical service. [continues 312 words]
Dozens of people gathered at the corner of Pandora and Vancouver on Monday evening to mark the demise of fixed-site needle-exchange services in Victoria after almost 20 years of continuous operation. The anger was palpable as speaker after speaker took the microphone and stood beside a symbolic coffin to decry the lack of leadership on the part of city and Vancouver Island Health Authority officials that resulted in a failure to secure a new location for the AIDS Vancouver Island-run service before the lease expired at its Cormorant Street location on May 31. [continues 262 words]
When Victoria's Tim Wilkins realized his Health Canada licence to possess medical cannabis was set to expire last year, he diligently filled out the eight-page renewal form, paid $65 to obtain his physician's signature and submitted the package to Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Division in Ottawa on August 22-13 weeks before it was due. "I'd dealt with [MMAD] for a few years, so I knew how long it could take," says Wilkins, who declined to let Monday publish his real last name, fearing the stigma still attached to medical cannabis use. On November 27 Wilkins' new license arrived-five weeks after the promised eight-week processing period had passed-and three days after the old one had already expired. [continues 3327 words]
Since the current incarnation of Canada's medical marijuana program was established, doctors have been forced by Health Canada to act as sentinel for a product whose complexities, methods of delivery and side effects they have little firsthand information-a situation that leaves many physicians hesitant to sign their names to the documents required for patients to access government pot. "Our number one complaint is that patients can't find a doctor who will endorse their MMAD application," says Eric Nash of Duncan's Island Harvest. [continues 558 words]
It is only thanks to favourable decisions by a handful of committed lawyers and sympathetic judges that Canada boasts even the anaemic national medical cannabis program it has today. The slow march toward establishing the rights of the sick to access therapeutic pot began in 1999 when a superior court judge recognized Ontario resident Jim Wakeford's right to grow and possess cannabis to treat symptoms of his HIV/AIDS without fear of legal recourse by the state. In response to that ruling, Health Canada declared it would henceforth allow clients meeting its vague criteria to receive an exemption to Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). [continues 375 words]
. Authorization to Possess (ATP): Grants licencee per-mission to possess an amount of marijuana consistent with the recommendations of the endorsing physician. . Personal-use Production Licence (PPL): A personal use production licence permits the holder to legally cultivate marijuana in an amount consistent with their medical needs and the terms of the licence. . Designated-person Production Licence (DPL): Permits a designated individual of the licence holder's choice to cultivate marijuana for the licence holder, consistent with their medical needs and the terms of the licence. [continues 240 words]
Lawyers for the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS) will be back in court in February to defend the organization's constitutional right to distribute medical cannabis, despite the death of the judge who was presiding over the now two-year-old trial. VICS defence lawyer Kirk Tousaw was informed by Madame Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg on Monday the case will continue next month from where it left off in November, before the fatal heart attack of Justice Robert Edwards. VICS executive director Philippe Lucas says that's good new for his group, which has spent $200,000 defending Mike Swallow and Mat Beren against charges stemming from a 2004 police raid on a grow operation the group managed at an East Sooke property. [continues 280 words]
A North Cowichan bylaw meant to put the kibosh on marijuana grow operations and drug laboratories in rental properties in the area will have a year of implementation before municipal staff take another look at its merits. The bylaw, which was implemented in February, requires landlords to inspect their properties once every six months to ensure they are not being used for illegal purposes. Councillor George Seymour said property owners told him the inspection visits were too costly to conduct, especially for landlords who do not live in the area. [continues 69 words]
