A beating death in Seattle, a grow rip in Chilliwack, and at least nine homes in Surrey 24 times more likely to catch fire are putting the heat on federally licensed growers of marijuana. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis first raised the alarm with city council last year, telling local elected officials the federal government won't release the locations of what he believes are dangerous dwellings. Surrey's Electrical Fire Safety Initiative (EFSI), the city's grow-op detection team, has found nine medically licensed marijuana home plantations in the city. Four had to be shut down permanently because of serious electrical safety problems and the remainder were temporarily closed while electrical issues were fixed. [continues 319 words]
Legislative Panel OKs 8 Dispensaries, Registration and a State ID Card AUGUSTA -- A legislative committee on Thursday reached unanimous, bipartisan accord on implementing Maine's citizen initiative that expanded the rights of medical marijuana users. Marijuana advocates who brought the initiative before voters last November were satisfied, but unenthusiastic, about the final product. "It's livable," said Jonathan Leavitt, executive director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative, about the legislation, L.D. 1811, which received the support of the nine present members of the Health and Human Services committee. [continues 531 words]
California's cities can't afford to wait for the state to fix the medical marijuana mess. The plan in the works in Sacramento is a reasonable local solution to a no-win situation. The proposal outlined last week at a City Hall hearing would cap the number of marijuana dispensaries at 12; keep them away from schools, parks and neighborhoods; and charge fees to cover the cost of regulation. Sacramento and other cities find themselves in this predicament because the compassion that voters showed in 1996 by approving the medical use of marijuana has been completely corrupted. [continues 462 words]
The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a man who argued his rights were violated by a police helicopter taking aerial photos of a marijuana grow-op. Piotr Kwiatkowski was arrested in July 2005 after an RCMP chopper doing a routine search on Vancouver Island took some photos using a digital camera with a zoom telephoto lens. The Mountie using the camera could see plants with a distinctive green colour through the translucent walls of the greenhouses on the rural property near Courtenay. He could also see, from one angle, a marijuana plant through an open door. [continues 155 words]
Don't Park Your Life 'At the End of a Marijuana Cigarette,' Ignatieff Tells Mount Pearl Students After encouraging O'Donel High students to vote and help create a better country, it was Michael Ignatieff's reply to a young man's question about legalizing marijuana that drew the loudest and longest applause. "If I had to tell you as a parent or as someone who has spent his whole life working with young people, the last darn thing I want you to be doing is smoking marijuana," the federal Liberal leader said. [continues 691 words]
Marijuana activist Marc Emery's battle to avoid going to a U.S. prison got a boost this week in the House of Commons. Three MPs -- Libby Davies of the New Democratic Party, Ujjal Dosanjh of the Liberals and Scott Reid of the Conservatives -- presented a petition signed by more than 12,000 Canadians asking Justice Minister Rob Nicholson not to sign extradition papers that would send Emery south to serve a five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds online in 2005. [continues 97 words]
FORT COLLINS (AP)- New medical marijuana dispensaries in Fort Collins will need operate in areas more than 1,000 feet from schools. The Fort Collins City Council approved the requirement Tuesday night under a new ordinance governing dispensaries. The ordinance also creates a licensing process that includes criminal background checks. The new rules restricting the locations where the dispensaries can operate means that all but one of the city's existing dispensaries would have to move or close. The City Council plans to discuss at another meeting whether to grandfather in existing locations. Dispensary owners told city officials they would sue if they are not grandfathered in. Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com [end]
Re: MPs Ask Justice Minister To Not Sign Pot Activist's U.S. Extradition Papers, March 17. It's encouraging to read there is an effort to stop Justice Minister Rob Nicholson from signing extradition papers that would send Marc Emery to the United States for the purported crime of selling cannabis seeds. Millions of North Americans are against the prohibition of cannabis. Mr. Emery should be celebrated, not caged. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
In light of the Rahim Jaffer case and in light of the Harper government's proposed legislation that would allow police to randomly check any driver for alcohol consumption, how about if we randomly check sitting MPs for drugs? Since Rahim's wife is a sitting MP and he was charged with cocaine possession, (later dropped) what's wrong with making sure our MPs are all on the up and up? If it's OK to randomly check citizens, it should be OK to check all of these guys? Alan Kobley (Everyone should be equal in the eyes of he law.) [end]
Marc Emery knew what he was doing and knew what he'd pay for breaking the law in the U.S. Our extradition treaty with the Americans is clear. The three MPs working on his behalf are quoted as saying his extradition would be unfair. The unjust, or undue or oppressive actions of the country he is being extradited to, which is what they are using as their reasoning, was meant for things like the death penalty. We don't have it, they do in many U.S. states. [continues 57 words]
I'm writing about "Grad season early for D. A. R. E. kids." Common sense tells us that the D A R E program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. D ARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs - not less. Common sense tells us the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not. Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's prohibited. [continues 92 words]
When word got out through the media about a potential new needle exchange on Princess Avenue, a funny thing happened. All the voices of the activists for harm-reduction services got drowned out by a handful of neighbours. Their outcry totally dominated public discussion. Over and over through the media, they asked: How could the health authority break its promise by considering a site so close to schools and families? But where was the other side of the argument? Where were the demonstrators who marched in the street on the anniversary of the closure of the Cormorant Street needle exchange? Where was the mayor? Where was the police chief? [continues 486 words]
The Conservatives preach a zero-tolerance policy for drug use and plan to impose mandatory jail time for people who grow even one marijuana plant in a rented dwelling, but when the husband of an MP gets caught drunk driving and in possession of cocaine, he gets to plead down to "reckless driving." One law for them, another law for the "little people." Maybe now more Canadians will realize what a bunch of brazen hypocrites these so-called "conservatives" really are. Russell Barth, Ottawa. (The case has a lot of people shaking their heads.) [end]
