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Current Affairs 2006 - Medical (67 items)
| Dec 30, 2006 | Up In Smoke A man suspended from work after testing positive for pot has filed a human rights complaint, claiming his boss refused to let him see the company drug-testing policy. Stephen Shorten, 46, says he suffers from chronic pain and smokes a nightly joint - paired with ibuprofen - to ease the discomfort. His arms were broken after they got caught in a machine at the Layfield textile plant in April, and he only returned to full-time status in October...Over the nearly five years Shorten has worked at Layfield he said the company has turned a blind eye to recreational pot use, so long as staffers showed up for work sober.
But in November they beefed up the policy to no longer tolerate pot use of any kind, he said."They never told us of the change. I didn't find out until after all this happened," he told the Sun. ..Shorten doesn't see himself as having a disability, but "didn't expect the company I broke my arms for to be so eager to suspend" him.
[ If this man is denied justice, we are all denied justice...If human value not monetary value ruled, then The Layfield Group stock would plunge when the old policy was scrapped.
Another disturbing trend is the proliferation in US influenced workplace drug testing. The whole concept appears to be a cash cow and income for drug testing companies and their affiliates. It is also a brazen attempt at behaviour modification - steering people toward alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals without repercussions if not impaired, and away from any substance of choice. ] |
| Dec 29, 2006 | Compassion Club Raided, Names Taken Mark Russell, the founder of the Coombs chapter of the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada, who supplies marijuana to sick people who use it for pain relief, was raided by members of the Courtenay RCMP on Dec. 22 and now faces six counts of trafficking in a controlled substance
[ Anytime is a bad time for a club to be raided, but right before the holidays so that many people can suffer just a little bit more this Christmas, is beyond cruel. How do police sleep at night because 'just doing my job to enforce laws' doesn't cut it over moral and intellectual honesty.] |
| Dec 13, 2006 | Medicinal 'Weed' Helps The Ill: Doctor One day, when he was in a Jamaican hospital doing graduate research on chronic pain, Dr. Mark Ware noticed that some of his patients were coping with their pain much more easily than others.
Intrigued, he asked an old Rastafarian his secret.
"It's the herb, Doc," replied the man.
That's when the doctor found his vocation.
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| Nov 28, 2006 | Country Going To Pot Today, nearly half a century, legions of narc squads, and several hundred million anti-drug dollars later, pot is being sold by kids, to kids in schoolyards from Pangnirtung to P.E.I. I smell its sweet, sharp scent pretty much every time I walk past the park in the middle of town.
So much for the War on Drugs.
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| Nov 24, 2006 | Baby Boom Pot Smokers' Principles Up In Smoke Weekly, in this city and across Canada, marijuana grow house operations are busted; kids are arrested in parks as they smoke grass -- the war on "drugs" marches on. So lucrative is the business of selling marijuana that drug dealers kill each other to stay on top, often also killing or maiming innocent bystanders in the process.
And in the midst of all this, on any given Saturday night, the elite of this country -- including doctors, lawyers and journalists -- puff away on marijuana and sip red wine as they exchange pleasant conversation at dinner parties. Anything wrong with this picture?
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| Nov 23, 2006 | Medical Pot Users Fume Over Tories' Drug-Driving Regular medical marijuana users are being unfairly targeted by the Conservative government's new drug-driving legislation, which will increase penalties and make it easier for police to crack down on people who do drugs before getting behind the wheel, a national advocacy group warned yesterday.
"This law, we feel, would unfairly target marijuana users," said Russell Barth, a medical marijuana user and member of the National Capital Reformers. "Discriminating against us based on our medication . is much like discriminating against us based on the colour of our skin."
[ The Casnadian Cannabis Coalition, an umbrella organization for the cannabis community, issued a press release on this subject as well. ] |
| Nov 16, 2006 | Big Weed's Distancing Act ....The fact is, while Cannasat Therapeutics celebrates its successes making use of Health Canada's med marijuana program ( it's part owner of the company that holds the feds' sole growing contract ), folks using legally ambiguous compassion clubs live in fear....
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| Nov 14, 2006 | York Prof Gets Green Light On Lighting Up A York University criminology professor has been given the passing grade to smoke up in his own private ventilated room on campus.
According to a story published on York's website, MacLean said he needs to smoke marijuana at least every four hours to help treat a severe form of degenerative arthritis.
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| Nov 8, 2006 | Battle For Bud The government announced its decision to fund Prairie Plant Systems Inc. to grow cannabis inside an abandoned mine shaft mid-October.
"The frustration there is this is a company that really has not worked hard to meet the needs of the end users of this product," Lucas says in a recent interview.
While 1,400 Canadians are registered in the medical marijuana program, only 300 order marijuana through PPS.
According to Lucas, the government has spent more than $8 million on the PPS production facility.
"Now if we divide that over 300 people, we can see what we're growing in Flin Flon, Manitoba is the world's most expensive bud," he says.
But PPS president Brent Zettl says public outcry from medical marijuana advocates is a thin disguise for ulterior motives.
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| Nov 4, 2006 | She's Hardly a Pothead A survey commissioned by Cannasat found 80% of Canadians believe the sick should have access to marijuana with a prescription.
More accurately, 93% of Canadians support medical marijuana. Period. Nothing about presciptions.
See: In a nationwide survey, anoverwhelming 93 per cent of Canadians indicated they accept the idea of people legally smoking marijuana for health reasons. Nearly three in four ( 70 per cent ) not only accept
the practice but also personally approve of the behaviour.
See: When asked if cannabis should be made legal for medical purposes, such as helping cancer patients control pain, an overwhelming 92% of respondents to the National Post poll answered in the affirmative. |
| Nov 2, 2006 | 93% Of Canadians Okay With Medicinal Pot Nearly Half Back Full Legalization; Support Is Highest In Quebec And B.C.
In a nationwide survey, an overwhelming 93 per cent of Canadians indicated they accept the idea of people legally smoking marijuana for health reasons.
Nearly three in four ( 70 per cent ) not only accept the practice but also personally approve of the behaviour.
[ Not much has changed in six years - (See: 2000 Survey ) - Support still runs in the 90+ percentile for medpot, and the government still does nothing ] |
| Nov 2, 2006 | It's OK to Puff Pot for Health, Survey Finds In a nationwide survey, an overwhelming 93 per cent of Canadians indicated they accept the idea of people legally smoking marijuana for health reasons. Nearly three in four ( 70 per cent ) not only accept the practice but also personally approve of the behaviour.
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| Oct 26, 2006 | Top court overturns pot activist's conviction An Alberta medical marijuana activist was deprived of his constitutional right to a jury trial when his trial judge instructed two sympathetic jurors to nonetheless find him guilty, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today.
READ RULING:
SUPREME COURT OF CANADA vs Grant W. Krieger
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| Oct 14, 2006 | What Are They Smoking? Legalization advocates arguing the cannabis issue are often greeted by complaints from the anti-drug set, and from jittery physicians, that the medical benefits and hazards of marijuana are too poorly researched to permit widespread use. This is a remarkable claim in many different ways. Where, for instance, was this shining precautionary principle when Vioxx was being handed out like Halloween candy to patients at risk of cardiac complications? A PubMed search for "marijuana" reveals more than 10,000 published, peer-reviewed articles on the subject; surely some of these discuss the effects and risks of pot?
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| Oct 13, 2006 | 'Poor' Pot From Only Legal Grow-Op Pot activists are blaming the federal Tories for wasting potential research dollars by extending a contract with Canada's only legal grow-op, just weeks after slashing funding for medicinal marijuana studies.
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| Oct 10, 2006 | Man Says Hemp Oil Cured His Cancer "The attention to this story is going across Canada and that means people will find out about this hemp oil and what it can do to save lives," Mr. Dwyer said Sunday.
He was referring to an essential oil a local man produces from the buds and leaves of the hemp plant.
Mr. Dwyer, a past president of the Maccan legion, and other executive members got into a spot of trouble with the Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of the Royal Canadian Legion because of the oil.
"I did research for over a year and a half, I spoke to at least 30 people with diseases like cancer and diabetes wounds who were cured by this oil, and I felt we had a duty to make sure people knew of this," he said. ...."It cured my sister's cancer and my wife's arthritis - she was taking medicine and was still in horrible pain for 13 years - this oil is amazing," said Mr. Dwyer, 51.
"My father, who is 82 years old, was given 48 hours to live because of his cancer and that was in June - I took him off all his medicines and gave him this oil and he's cured."
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| Oct 7, 2006 | Medicinal Pot Dispute Closes Legion Branch MACCAN, N.S. - Officials with the Royal Canadian Legion have shut down a Nova Scotia branch after members used the local hall to promote the use of locally produced marijuana oil for cancer patients.
The legion's Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command temporarily suspended the charter of the Maccan branch and ousted its executive.
Provincial command chairman Steve Wessel said the legion name, insignia and buildings cannot be used to promote the use of illegal substances.
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| Oct 5, 2006 | Column: Harper's No Sage Socrates believed that the unexamined life is not worth living, and last week's budget cuts by the Harper government to the Law Commission of Canada, the Court Challenges Program and the medical marijuana research fund show that this administration is committed to unexamined ignorance in governance. I may not be interested in having philosopher kings run this country, but it would be nice if those in power at least had the desire to develop public policy based on information, debate and analysis.
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| Oct 4, 2006 | Cannabis Users Confused
The medical marijuana issue has become even more confusing as a conservative budget cut of $7.5 million meets mixed response from concerned parties across the country.
A prominent AIDS organization condemned the cut as "impeding" timely access to appropriate care for its members, while the Canadian Cannabis Coalition ( the largest organization of its kind in the world ) points to the private research being done and says the cuts are essentially a non-issue.
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| Oct 4, 2006 | Output To Increase As Pot Deal Extended Health Canada has awarded Flin Flon's famous grow-op a one-year extension that calls for a significant jump in medicinal marijuana output.
The $2.1-million deal requires contractor Prairie Plant Systems to supply 1,712 lbs of pot throughout the year, up 85 per cent from the previous annual total.
Brent Zettl, Prairie's president and CEO, said his Saskatoon-based company will spend nearly $500,000 in upgrades to accommodate the increased production.
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