VICTORIA -- Last week's column touched on crime rates around the province, which the B.C. government tracks by health region. If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in B.C. is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. Second worst is the vast Northern region, which includes roughly the top two thirds of the province. And the highest serious crime rates are in Vancouver Coastal, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, the North Shore and Sunshine Coast. [continues 440 words]
VICTORIA -- Last week's column touched on crime rates around the province, which the B.C. government tracks by health region. If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in B.C. is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. [continues 833 words]
If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in B.C. is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. Second worst is the vast Northern region, which includes roughly the top two thirds of the province. And the highest serious crime rates are in Vancouver Coastal, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, the North Shore and Sunshine Coast. [continues 507 words]
If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in B.C. is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. Second worst is the vast Northern region, which includes roughly the top two thirds of the province. And the highest serious crime rates are in Vancouver Coastal, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, the North Shore and Sunshine Coast. [continues 795 words]
Last week's column touched on crime rates around the province, which the BC government tracks by health region. If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in BC is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. [continues 827 words]
Group Embraces Decriminalizing Marijuana Laws The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is not your typical organization and its legal tutorials are not part of your typical seminar. But then again, Key West is not your typical city. NORML, a lobbying organization that advocates legalizing the responsible use of marijuana, is holding its 24th annual legal seminar at the Pier House Resort and Caribbean Spa in Key West next week. "Key West has been enjoyed as a place that values personal freedom," Keith Stroup said. [continues 383 words]
LAKE COUNTY -- Those using marijuana for medicinal purposes in Lake County may soon join almost 3,000 of their counterparts statewide who have access to county-issued identification cards to protect their legal rights under the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, and the more recent Senate Bill 420. The county Board of Supervisors will consider adopting an ordinance implementing the Medical Marijuana ID Card Program and establish dispensation fees. The Compassionate Use Act was passed in 1996 by 56 percent of California's voters, and protects patients with a recommendation from a medical doctor for any debilitating illness, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Some common ailments for which a doctor may prescribe medical marijuana include arthritis, cachexea, cancer, chronic pain, HIV or AIDS, epilepsy, migraine and multiple sclerosis. [continues 499 words]
The same way cannabis wins yet loses, the Santa Barbara City Council should lose their seats as well ["Stirring the Pot," Nov. 14]. Further, government's effort to perpetuate persecuting, prohibiting, and exterminating cannabis (a?k?a kaneh bosm/marijuana) is biblically fallible, since Christ God Our Father indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
A Citrus Heights man broke his neck early Friday after he allegedly tried to retrieve his confiscated marijuana from the Wheatland Police Department. "It appears he was coming back to break into the building and get it," Police Chief Dan Boone said of the suspect, Kenneth Oraga, 47, who could face burglary charges. Oraga was transported to a Placer County hospital with a broken neck. His condition was not available Friday night. According to Boone, Officer Marc White arrested Oraga on Nov. 12 on Highway 65 for allegedly driving under the influence. [continues 233 words]
Nelson Bascome yesterday backed an MP's call for a debate on marijuana. Health Minister Bascome, speaking as a drugs counsellor, said: "In other jurisdictions, especially in the western U.S. and Canada, debates have been able to formalize policy and with that being said, we would expect a debate in Bermuda to formalize [our position] and not continue to frustrate those advocates for or against." Earlier this week Dale Butler, who as Minister of Rehabilitation, would be expected to spearhead any debate, said he supports the idea, too, but that personally he is dead against decriminalization. [continues 361 words]
