Health officers back marijuana legalization in B.C.
By admin | December 22, 2011
Health officers back marijuana legalization in B.C.
Dr. John Carsley argues that it doesn’t make sense that, for teenagers, cannabis is more easily available than alcohol.
By Carlito Pablo
December 22, 2011
Public-health physicians have added their voice to calls to end marijuana prohibition.
The Health Officers’ Council of B.C. is endorsing a regulatory approach to cannabis control that is similar to the way government deals with tobacco and alcohol.
The association includes medical health officers in B.C. and Yukon like Dr. John Carsley of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. According to Carsley, the group agrees with the analysis of the Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of experts calling for alternative marijuana policies.
“We think that we have to look at other mechanisms to control its use,” Carsley told the Straight in a phone interview. “It certainly doesn’t make any sense that, for teenagers, cannabis is more easily available than alcohol. The position of Stop the Violence is congruent with our analysis about psychoactive drugs. And we support a regulatory approach based on public health principles that recognizes that people will use psychoactive substances, that blanket prohibition is not always the best solution, to making sure that the least amount of harm is done to people when they use psychoactive substances.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Controversial crime bill to cost Canadians $19 billion: study
By admin | December 9, 2011
Controversial crime bill to cost Canadians $19 billion: study
QUEBEC — It will cost Canadians some $19 billion to build prisons to put more offenders behind bars for longer periods of time as part of the federal government’s new tough-on-crime legislation, according to a report released Thursday.
The study, by the Quebec Institute for Socio-economic Research and Information (IRIS), also notes the provinces are expected to shoulder the majority of the extra costs associated with the legislation, which it estimates at $14 billion.
The left-leaning public policy research group says that, using “the most conservative estimates,” it pegs the costs of the plan to end the practice of judges handing offenders time credits — on a two-for-one basis, to compensate for time spent in pre-sentence custody — at $16.5 billion for the country as a whole, with the provinces footing $12.6 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
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Cannabis Digest
By admin | December 8, 2011
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Tell the Senate: Don’t rubber stamp the Crime Bill
By admin | December 8, 2011
Tell the Senate: Don’t rubber stamp the Crime Bill
follow link for petition
120,000 sent when i posted this
Tell the Senate: Don’t rubber stamp the Crime Bill
Update & New Action: Thursday Dec 8, 2011
On Monday, Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative MPs voted for the cruel Crime Bill. That night, the NDP, Liberal, Bloc and Green MPs stood together against the bill, and many of them were wearing “Safer, not meaner” buttons in solidarity with our campaign.
Now, the struggle for Canadian justice moves to the Senate. The Senate’s job is to provide a “sober second thought.” Senators are appointed for life, and free to make their own choices. They can review the evidence, change the bill, and force another vote.
Every day, opposition grows as Canadians learn more about the Crime Bill, but Prime Minister Harper is putting enormous pressure on Senators to rubber-stamp the bill quickly so it can pass before Christmas. There is only one thing that can balance the scales: a massive public outcry from Canadians like you, right now. Read the rest of this entry »
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Senate in no rush to pass omnibus crime bill
By admin | December 7, 2011
Senate in no rush to pass omnibus crime bill
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/ID=2174389998
When it comes to the Harper government’s omnibus crime legislation, the Senate’s sober second thought will carry over into the new year, calling into question the government’s previous claim that the bill is urgent and a top priority for the Conservatives.
In an interview with the CBC’s Julie Van Dusen on Wednesday, Government Senate leader Marjory LeBreton did not include C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, on her short list of legislation she expects the Senate to pass into law before Christmas.
“The commitment that the government made was to pass the crime bill within 100 sitting days,” LeBreton said. “It’s sometime in mid-March. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tories’ omnibus crime bill passes in the House of Commons
By admin | December 7, 2011
Tories’ omnibus crime bill passes in the House of Commons
By Tobi Cohen
OTTAWA — The opposition has called it misguided, at least two provinces have vowed not to pay for it and the Canadian Bar Association has done its darndest to get the Conservatives to listen to reason.
Still, the controversial omnibus crime bill cleared the Commons Monday evening, just 45 sitting days after it was first tabled.
The Safe Streets and Communities Act — a hodgepodge of nine justice bills, most of which were defeated in previous Parliaments when the Conservatives were in minority status — easily passed thanks to the government’s new majority in a vote of 157 to 127. Read the rest of this entry »
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Can you evict a legal pot-smoking tenant?
By admin | December 6, 2011
Can you evict a legal pot-smoking tenant?
Young marijuana plants at a medical marijuana growing operation.
Ted S. Warren/AP
By Mark Weisleder | Fri Dec 02 2011
Several readers have asked whether you can evict a tenant who is smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes, or if you can refuse to rent to someone who tells you that they have a license to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.
A few B.C. court cases in B.C. shed some light on the issue. The short answer is that it depends. Bill Spelcham owned a condo which he rented to Ryan Buchanan who had a license to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. Spelcham visited the condo and noticed mould and mildew because of the high moisture in the unit. He evicted Buchanan in 2007, arguing that the marijuana growing damaged his unit, endangered the other tenants and placed him at significant risk.
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Vancouver Mayors Back Marijuana Legalization and Stop the Violence BC
By admin | December 2, 2011
Vancouver Mayors Back Marijuana Legalization and Stop the Violence BC
More voices join the rising voice of people that are sick and tired of the status quo. We no longer accept the old lies about marijuana. We can no longer afford to laugh and joke about pot use while at the same time incarcerating our friends and family while gangsters get rich. Our communities have become less and less safe over the years we’ve been trying to eradicate marijuana from our culture – it is not by coincidence. Stop the Violence BC is a huge step in the right direction – I encourage you to donate. http://stoptheviolencebc.org/
http://www.reeferlogic.com
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Mr. Harper’s marijuana pipe dream
By admin | December 2, 2011
Mr. Harper’s marijuana pipe dream
By: Editorial
Posted: 12/2/2011 1:00 AM
(DALE CUMMINGS)
Coincidental with word that a British Columbia seed company has won second place at the annual High Times Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands, comes news of a speech delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Vancouver defending Canada’s get-tough laws against the use of that drug.
The two countries could hardly have different approaches to how to deal with the problem of drugs. Both agree that drug use is a definite problem, just as the abuse of alcohol and tobacco is a problem. In Holland, however, the sale and use of marijuana and hashish are controlled and regulated — one does not need to go to the Mob to buy, for example, Hydra, the hashish that was crossbred between the strains Warlock and Haoma and brought the silver medal to Canada this week.
To even be able to discuss cannabis products in such terms is an indication of how far the industry has come from sordid exchanges in back alleys and dark streets in many civilized countries.
But not in Canada, as Mr. Harper made clear in Vancouver. Mr. Harper reaffirmed his government’s intention to stiffen penalties for dealing in marijuana and other drugs, defending it by saying: “Drugs are not bad because they are illegal. They are illegal because they are bad.”
They are, he said, “corrosive to society” and they “do terrible things to people.”
Mr. Harper is right on all those counts, but one could make the same argument about coffee, cinnamon doughnuts or whiskey. Anything can be bad, corrosive or terrible to people who take it without moderation. So while the prime minister may be right on what are essentially the small points, he continues to avoid the main point — that while drugs such as marijuana might be bad, making them illegal creates problems that are far worse.
Mr. Harper at least nodded at this truth when he said “I know (the drug trade) fuels a lot of criminal activity” but he is resolute in his intent to push through legislation that will fuel that activity even more fiercely, even though all the evidence indicates that tougher penalties don’t diminish either drug use or crime associated with it.
In fact, the regulation of marijuana would accomplish precisely what the prime minister says he wants to accomplish — reduce the social ills created by drug use, get rid of the criminal element and, not incidentally, funnel the billions of dollars now going to organized crime into government programs for the people. Those are not bad results for a simple act of common sense.
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It’s time to end the phoney war on drugs
By admin | December 2, 2011
It’s time to end the phoney war on drugs
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/time+phoney+drugs/5781100/story.html#ixzz1f8Ls0kq1
BY WILLIAM JOHNSON, CITIZEN SPECIAL NOVEMBER 29, 2011
We are supposedly engaged in a “war on drugs.” What war on drugs? It’s a war on people – the young, the uneducated and the aboriginals. A phoney war, because it provokes that which it proclaims to repress.
Take three countries with different approaches to recreational drugs: the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. The first two rely on a punitive approach. The Netherlands prefer harm reduction. As is notorious, Dutch citizens can openly enjoy cannabis in coffee shops.
So does the Netherlands swarm with drug-crazed zombies? Do the Dutch die in droves from overdose? Find the answer in World Drug Report 2011, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Read the rest of this entry »
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