| Aug 27, 2008 | B.C.'s Crime Rate Hits 30-Year Low The reported crime rate in B.C. is at a 30-year low, according to statistics released Tuesday by the provincial government. ...By comparison, B.C.'s drug crime rates -- which have consistently been the highest in Canada since the 1980s -- increased in 2007, due largely to a spike in possession of cannabis offences.
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| Aug 25, 2008 | Toronto Lawyer Acquitted Of Drug Charges Veteran defence lawyer Edmund Schofield is free of drug trafficking charges after a federal prosecutor chose not to present evidence at the 74-year-old former FBI agent's trial.
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| Aug 24, 2008 | Police Stop 'Pretty Unusual' For Marijuana Exemptee Derek Pedro's first trip to Hempfest was a "nerve wracking" one.
He says Ontario Provincial Police asked him and Alison Myrden, both federal medical marijuana exemptees, to get out of their truck during a spot check Wednesday.
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| Aug 22, 2008 | BC: Workers To Face Drug Tests A new drug-and-alcohol policy that requires unionized construction workers in B.C. to be tested before being hired and after they've been involved in an accident likely won't withstand a legal or human-rights challenge, legal experts said yesterday.
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| Aug 20, 2008 | Is Society Benefiting From The War On Pot? By all accounts, Mike McCormick minded his own business and never hurt another soul.
He lived off the land, hunting, digging clams and cutting his own firewood. And he grew pot. Lots and lots of pot. In fact, when police stumbled across McCormick's shack in the woods behind his house, there were 243 plants growing inside it. ...Other than lawyers, who benefits from criminalizing pot smokers?
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| Aug 18, 2008 | Tories Aim To Force Inmates To Work In Jail "We'd like to see people being required to work if they are in jail. There are too many ways right now for people to avoid that," Mr. Day told CTV's Question Period.
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| Aug 17, 2008 | Here's The Secret Every Jury Needs To Know I've got a secret to tell you. It's about jurors. Jurors called for duty on criminal cases have a secret power.
It's a secret because in a trial neither the judge nor the lawyers are allowed to tell the jurors this power exists. But it does. It's called "jury nullification."
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| Aug 15, 2008 | AB: olice Say Marijuana Sold To Students At Pizza Parlour William Aberhart High School students could satisfy their munchies with Your Choice Pizza's $3.50 special that got you a slice of pepperoni or cheese pizza and some chips.
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| Aug 13, 2008 | Ruling Needed on Vehicle Searches: Judge With the Moncton judiciary split on the legality of a local Mountie's vehicle searches, Judge Irwin Lampert says it's time for New Brunswick's Court of Appeal to rule on the subject. ...He said if police are allowed to search people based on guesses or hunches, it "can too easily mask discriminatory conduct."
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| Aug 13, 2008 | Technical Breech' Of Pot Law Not Worth Prosecuting: Crown ederal Crown attorney Clayton Conlan withdrew all drug charges Tuesday against a Meaford man who says he uses marijuana medicinally and against the man's wife because prosecuting the charges "would not be in the public interest."
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| Aug 12, 2008 | Busted For Holy Smoke BRACEBRIDGE -- A man who claims he is an ordained minister was busted with almost half a kilo of pot yesterday during a traffic stop on Hwy. 11 near Bracebridge.
"Rev." Michel Nathier, 53, of the Church of the Universe, admitted he was smoking a joint when the OPP officer pulled him over but said he was committing a holy act.
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| Aug 11, 2008 | Loopholes Need To Be Plugged Provincial court Judge Peder Gulbransen threw out the case against David Razah Hood, who was stopped by police when he was driving in a suspicious manner past an alleged grow-op house they were staking out. Hood's car reeked of burnt marijuana, so police arrested him. The bags of starter pot plants were in the back seat. Hood was then charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
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| Aug 9, 2008 | Drug Trafficker Has Big Heart AMHERST - A drug trafficker who believes he's found the cure for cancer in marijuana wants his $2,000 fine to go to a good cause.
"Since I am paying this fine for the heinous crime of saving lives, I think I should have a say as to where the money goes," Rick Simpson said in a July 27 letter sent to officials at the Justice Centre in Amherst. Mr. Simpson made the letter public Friday.
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| Aug 7, 2008 | New Law Passes First Test In Saint John Courtroom SAINT JOHN - A 33-year-old Saint John man is the first in New Brunswick to be convicted for drug-impaired driving based on new investigative tools provided by federal legislation.
Ralph Daniel Craig, a Dilaudid addict, was subjected to new drug detection tests by police after rear-ending another vehicle and "failed miserably," Crown prosecutor Chris Titus told provincial court. Craig was "clearly impaired by drugs," Titus said.
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| Jul 31, 2008 | Outlaw Compassion Paul Spendlove, media relations officer for Health Canada, says no matter what benefits they may provide to the sick, "Compassion clubs are unregulated and have always operated outside Canadian laws. These clubs have no legal authority to provide access or to produce and distribute marijuana."
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| Jul 31, 2008 | AB: Police Chief Apologizes To Family For Botched Raid After nearly eight years, the longest running complaint against the Calgary Police Service has ended with a rare public apology from the chief to a family who was the victim of a botched drug raid.
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| Jul 29, 2008 | Restaurateur Goes to Court Over Human Rights Ruling o A Burlington restaurant owner is going to court to overturn a human rights complaint over his refusal to allow a patron with a medical marijuana licence to smoke on his property.
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| Jul 26, 2008 | The Politics Of Punishment A 2002 report commissioned by the Canadian Department of Justice on mandatory minimum jail sentences cautioned that the evidence is sparse about their deterrent effect and recognized that there are many counterproductive societal impacts.
Despite these realities, our government proposes to increase the number of crimes subject to mandatory minimum sentences, including a mandatory six months in jail for growing one marijuana plant.
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| Jul 24, 2008 | Rights Intact After Bust, Court Rules Winnipeg police didn't breach a man's charter rights when they went to check on his emotional well-being and found a marijuana grow operation inside his home.
Ryan Tereck tried to fight his drug conviction on the grounds police had no right busting into his home and seizing about 300 pot plans found inside. ...
The unusual case dates back to April 2005, when Tereck apparently told his psychiatrist in a letter he planned to shoot and kill himself.
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| Jul 19, 2008 | Getting Tough On The Taxpayer At issue is a new law that toughens mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related crimes. A proposed bill will do the same for anyone convicted of a long list of drug crimes, including those caught growing just one marijuana plant.
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