Current Affairs (2005) -
International (469 items)
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| Apr 22, 2005 |
Compassion Club Takes High Road Mark Russell doesn't think sick people should have to hang out in bars or back alleys in order to get their medication. He doesn't think they should have to deal with the criminal element in order to do so, either. |
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| Apr 22, 2005 |
Scuffle At Pro-marijuana Rally Results In Charges An RCMP officer escaped injury during a scuffle with a man arrested at a pro-marijuana rally outside Red Deer's city hall, say police. |
| Apr 24, 2005 |
For Pot Smokers, It's Always 4:20 A private security staffer drove his car across the grounds, in an apparent attempt at intimidation. It didn't work. "What's all the fuss," asked one MLA of the crowd. 4:20. "Well, better than nine-eleven," he said. [Well said] |
| Apr 24, 2005 |
PUB LTE: Tell Kids The Truth Why are we letting unqualified police officers teach our children about drugs? We should be encouraging our doctors instead to educate our young people about drugs. |
| Apr 25, 2005 |
Gone To Pot More than 500 people gathered there -- at the seat of government and lawful authority in Manitoba -- to listen to music, play a bit of Frisbee, giggle perhaps more than usual and get high on dope. ... And yet the police did nothing except mark time. Enforcement of the Criminal Code should not be arbitrary. Arbitrary enforcement brings the justice system into disrepute...The law should be made to reflect the current reality. It was not illegal on Wednesday. It cannot be illegal today and should not be illegal tomorrow. |
| Apr 26, 2005 |
Pot Charge Pains Mom A Kemptville woman who smokes five grams of pot a day for pain relief says she's facing a charge of growing the drug because of a simple misunderstanding. But Health Canada and police say the rules are clear: A licence to possess medical marijuana isn't permission to set up your own grow op. Licenced users need to apply for a special permit to grow their own. [Smothering legal pot use with red tape and bureaucracy ensures most people will stay outside the system] |
| Apr 26, 2005 |
We're Still Waiting For Raid Answers Basi, who has a reputation for membership recruitment with both the provincial and national Liberals, has also been charged with marijuana production and possession of pot for the purpose of trafficking. It's incredible -- a scandal in its own right -- that B.C. voters are being asked to give the Campbell Liberals another four years in office before knowing what might emerge from all this long after the polls have closed again. It's sad, too, that no one seems to care. [We would have known much more if the NDP were raided, but it was the Liberals, and the media just love the Liberals... so we will never know..] |
| Apr 26, 2005 |
Seymour Arm Residents Arrested In Massive Drug Raid A small army of RCMP officers -- about 100 in all -- swooped in on the town and searched several houses and other buildings in early October 2004. Police executed 28 search warrants involving 14 properties and 14 vehicles, all within a four-kilometre radius. More than 5,000 marijuana plants were seized. |
| Apr 26, 2005 |
Krieger Taking Cannabis Crusade To Supreme Court Calgary pot crusader Grant Krieger, challenging his conviction for possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, is taking the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. |
| Apr 26, 2005 |
Medicinal Marijuana Activist Brings Fight To Legalize Drugs to Sackville A former corrections officer and one of Canada's most outspoken medicinal marijuana activists says that calls for tougher drug sentencing following the recent slayings of the four RCMP officers in northern Alberta is not the answer. |
| Apr 29, 2005 |
Pot Growers Pay For New Program A 90-day Grow Op Public Safety pilot project that kicked in yesterday should give Abbotsford one of the most effective marijuana grow-op busting tools in Canada, said Mayor Mary Reeves. The $100,000 pilot project, designed in the past year and a half by the city's grow-op task force, will enforce the provincial Fire Services Act, the B.C. Building Code and the city's Controlled Substance Property Bylaw to gain entry into homes suspected to have dangerous activity. [First they targeted renters, now no one is exempt from intrusion..] |
| Apr 29, 2005 |
One-Mann Campaign For Marijuana Party If Michael Mann gets elected on May 17, he wants to serve as a watchdog on behalf of the people who elected him. ..The B.C. Marijuana Party candidate for the Alberni-Qualicum constituency says having an independent voice in the legislature to hold people to account is something that's sorely needed. |
| Apr 30, 2005 |
Cops May Face Rap Over Rights Breach After handcuffing the men, the officers searched the vehicle and seized cocaine, marijuana, a knife and cash. "Reading someone their rights has got to be the first thing they do," said Jenuth. "You see it on TV. It should be second nature." |
| May 1, 2005 |
Grow Ops -- An Inside Look So the question for all Canadians is, How would we have the law separate the Herbs from the Luus? How can organized-crime-driven grow operations be prevented while still allowing Canadians who choose to smoke marijuana--or need to smoke it for medical reasons--to provide for themselves and others without risking jail and a criminal record? In other words, how should the law draw the line between personal choice and those who would criminally exploit us? |
| May 1, 2005 |
Cops Find Kids Being Kept In Drug Houses [Are parents who grow legal crops indoors also guilty of exposing their kids to unsafe conditions.. if nothing else, this is just another reason why ALL drugs should be regulated] |
| May 1, 2005 |
Border Guards Awash In Sea Of Green B.C. drug smugglers are breaking the law -- and the bank -- when they sneak across the border. An increase in seizures is putting enormous strain on Washington county law enforcement and local officials say they've had enough. [Canada is responsible for 2% of US pot, so this is just another example of a lost cause...] |
| May 1, 2005 |
Interview With Dr Andrew Weil There are many reasons to recommend it as a medicine. It's got extremely low toxicity and it's useful for conditions that it manages well like muscle spasms, chronic pain and also lack of appetite that occurs in HIV infections and cancers. The downside of marijuana is that you know most doctors are not very comfortable recommending that patients smoke and the affects are variable from individual to individual. It just seems to me silly to deny ourselves the benefits of marijuana. It doesn't work for everyone but it works for some people. The real problem you are up against is that this is not a rational area of discussion. Marijuana becomes a powerful symbol of a lifestyle and it represents a lot of things that most cultures are afraid of and I think the resistance to legitimizing marijuana as a medicine, really stems from this irrational fear that if we do that we are chipping away at this whole superstructure of myths that has been built up of cannabis as a devil drug that has no redeeming qualities. |
| May 3, 2005 |
Indoor Gardening Expo Bears Some Bitter Fruit A rift centred on an upcoming local expo highlights the sensitivities surrounding the indoor gardening technique of hydroponics. One B.C. company that pitches itself as a medical marijuana leader said it is boycotting the fifth annual International Indoor Gardening Expo, which takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre |
| May 3, 2005 |
Marijuana Party Joins The Race Nelson-Creston Riding: Just Under The Wire, Philip McMillan Files Papers To Bring Total Names On The Ballot To Four |
| May 4, 2005 |
Pot Bust Tactic Challenged Police busted Marc-Boris St-Maurice for pot possession last year after taking out memberships in the pro-marijuana political party he founded and infiltrating its clubhouse, Cafe Marijane. [...making the streets safer...it would be funny if it weren't so pathetic what the cops won't do...] |