Current Affairs (2007) -
Chronological (432 items)
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| Aug 11, 2007 |
Pot Grower: Cops' Crop Price Is Way Too High A local pot grower thinks the RCMP was high as a kite in assessing the value of some weed they seized in a recent drug bust in Stewiacke. Comments made by police in a recent newspaper article indicating that 170 plants taken in a late-July operation had a value of $200,000 are "craziness," according to the grower, who contacted The Chronicle Herald to say there isn't that much money in marijuana. |
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| Aug 11, 2007 |
For a Pot Smoker in Pain, No Help Is on the Way Alison Myrden looks ready for battle. Two long braids are tucked under her black cargo cap, while sunshine hits her sparkling nose stud and glints off of her fierce amber eyes. She's passionate, ready to fight for her fellow multiple sclerosis sufferers. A few weeks ago, though, Ms. Myrden's lustre was lessened after she was denied a summer student - one of five hired to give companionship to MS sufferers - by the Burlington chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. The reason they gave her? The university students could be harmed by the marijuana she continually uses to control the savage pain in her face and help her walk. |
| Aug 21, 2007 |
Clement To Doctors: Talk Straight On Drug Dangers Federal Health Minister Tony Clement delivered a tough, anti-drug message to doctors on Monday, saying young people need straight talk about the dangers of illicit drugs, including marijuana. "The messages young people have received during the past several years have been confusing and conflicting to say the least," Clement told the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association ( CMA ) in Vancouver. |
| Aug 23, 2007 |
Time To Just Say 'No' To Cannabis I know a guy who does a lot of weed. It's not a happy story. He started smoking dope in high school. After university, his friends began working hard and building their careers. He smoked dope instead. His friends got married and had kids. So did he. But he couldn't ever keep a job for long. He had lengthy spells of unemployment. His family was always broke, because he inhaled every cent they had. Eventually his fed-up wife threw him out. Today, well into middle age, he's scraping by somewhere, living in some basement. "Wente's own allergy to complexity leads her frequently to the same conclusion," explained Jim Hoggan in his blog http://www.desmogblog.com/and-margaret-wente-facts-make-me-itchy <br><br> National Speakers Bureau profile states, "Margaret Wente's thoughts about current events and issues often provoke heated debate through her columns in the Globe and Mail." http://www.nsb.com/speakerbio.asp?name=Margaret+Wente <br><br> Tyrone Nicholas posted on his now defunct blog dedicated to her: "But I know of no one else who works so hard on smearing all non-white peoples with a broad brush, who will invent social problems where none exist, who will scurry to find any possible racial angle to a story. And indeed this is why Margaret Wente provokes such fury in me, for I am everything she despises." http://wentewatch.blogspot.com/ <br><br> Bryan Birtles wrote: And, in a style eerily reminiscent of Emily Murphy's racist ravings against the Chinese, Wente goes on to claim that the new super weed is causing absolute reefer madness amongst "certain ethnic minorities," mentioning native reservations. http://vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6705 <br><br> Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams says in a News Release, "Her paternalistic and condescending attitude serves only to further ignite the passion of our people at home and abroad." http://www.pcparty.nf.net/200501061.htm <br><br> Wikipedia publishes, "Wente was briefly managing editor at the same paper (Globe and Mail) but was forced to relinquish the post after a staff revolt." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wente |
| Aug 24, 2007 |
ON:
Church Leaders Go To Court Over Confiscated Pot The spiritual leaders of a church that uses marijuana as its sacrament are seeking a court order for the return of several pounds of pot and other items seized from their Barton Street headquarters during an RCMP raid. Church of the Universe ministers Walter Tucker, 74, and Michael Baldasaro, 58, were charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking after the Mounties executed a search warrant on May 15, 2000. The raid came after a sting operation in which undercover police officers pretended to join the church and began to buy the sacrament. However, all charges against the pair were ultimately withdrawn by a federal drug prosecutor on Dec. 15, 2005. |
| Aug 25, 2007 |
ON:
Police Will Be Out in Force at Hempfes The Cannabis Festival Runs Through Sunday in Ophir A police traffic checkpoint aims to smoke out any possible problems during Hempfest. The ninth annual cannabis festival runs through Sunday in Ophir about 30 kilometres north of Bruce Mines. Ontario Provincial Police started checking vehicles on Poplar Dale Road Thursday afternoon. Motorists will be stopped through the weekend. |
| Aug 25, 2007 |
BC:
Pot Raids Extinguish a Million Joints A police crackdown on Vancouver Island marijuana grow-operations has already destroyed the equivalent of a million joints, and is on pace to beat last year's haul. A team of RCMP, municipal police, and Canadian Forces officers has found about 10,000 plants in the past four days, said Cpl. Greg Cox, spokesman for the RCMP's Island District. ...Generally, a single mature plant can be harvested, processed and used to make between 500 and 1,000 joints. [What a waste of number crunching time - what a waste of resources that could be used to rid the Island of <a href="http://www.island.net/~cclt/invasive.htm" target="blank">truly invasive plants</a> ] |
| Aug 25, 2007 |
Is It Or Isn't It? The Pot Pendulum Swings Again Just As Canadians Are Embracing Pot As Never Before, the Government Plans a New War on Drugs. the Move Is Fitting, Given This Country's Ambivalent Relationship With Weed Over the Decades ...For a lot of Canadians, the debate is over: They like pot, they smoke it. |
| Aug 27, 2007 |
ON:
32 Drug Charges at Hempfest Ontario Provincial Police laid 32 drug charges and four weapons charges over the weekend during a RIDE stop set up during Hempfest 2007. OPP say most of the drug charges were for possession of marijuana. [Crushing the culture] |
| Aug 27, 2007 |
ON:
Judges Tosses Out Drug Charges Against Whitby Man WHITBY -- Durham police seriously breached the constitutional rights of a Whitby man during a drug investigation, a Superior Court judge said in tossing out charges against him Monday. Cops were acting solely on a hunch and denied Roland Liebregts the most basic of rights afforded to him under the Charter of Rights when they apprehended and questioned him near his Taunton Road home in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 2005, Justice Barry MacDougall said in his ruling. |
| Aug 27, 2007 |
Campaign Should Pass On Pot If the federal government is serious about starting a massive anti-drug campaign aimed at youth, it had best ensure the message makes sense. At this point, it doesn't. ...He made special mention of marijuana, reminding the doctors in attendance that pot today is more potent from any they might have smoked in their youth. That's where Clement's message is troubling. Lumping in pot use with harder drugs is a tenuous link at best, and to build a campaign around it risks sinking the whole message. |
| Aug 28, 2007 |
Drug Prohibition Doesn't Work Welcome to the new war on drugs, same as the old war, and courtesy of Canada's federal government. Like an old dog who can't learn new tricks, the Harper government seems bent on preserving the tired, utterly disproven message that drug prohibition works. Of course, it doesn't, despite Health Minister Tony Clement's speech last week to the Canadian Medical Association. |
| Aug 29, 2007 |
Mental Illness Medications Go To Pot The association between marijuana use and mental illness is tiny and one that definitely doesn't indicate a cause-and-effect relationship. The truth is that those more prone to mental illness are also more prone to using marijuana ( or alcohol, for that matter ) to take the edge off symptoms, which alone is enough to create a correlation. |
| Aug 29, 2007 |
Bowering In Favour Of Legalizing Pot The head of public health for the North wants to see radical reform in how Canada deals with psychoactive drugs. Dr. David Bowering told The Interior News last week that legalization of marijuana needs to be the subject of much more open and frank public discussion. Bowering is a member of the Health Officers Council of British Columbia ( HOC ) that, in October 2005, released a position paper calling for a public health approach to drug control. At the heart of the matter, Bowering said, is harm reduction. |
| Aug 30, 2007 |
MS Sufferers Look to Mary Jane for Relief Tremlett said that anecdotal evidence from people with MS suggests that marijuana is helpful, but clinical trials have not proven its effectiveness. She said there is a "potential mechanism", which could account for the positive responses. Tremlett explained that there are cannabinoid receptors found on pain pathways in the brain and spinal cord. It is believed that because pain is mediated through those pathways, cannabis is able to offer relief. |
| Aug 31, 2007 |
BC:
Marijuana Busts Set a Record Team Finds 19,000 Plants at 350 Sites in Nine-Day Campaign Island police say they've destroyed the largest amount of marijuana since they started a summer eradication program eight years ago. A combined team of RCMP, municipal police and Canadian Forces personnel found more than 19,000 plants at 350 sites during a nine-day campaign that ended this week. [Wow, the world is safer now ] |
| Aug 31, 2007 |
Realtor Accused of Growing Dope Woman and Husband Allegedly Ran Two Grows; One at Home, One in Suite RICHMOND - A Richmond real-estate agent has been charged with running marijuana grow-ops -- one at a home where five children were found. |
| Aug 31, 2007 |
ON:
OPP Says RIDE Check At Hempfest Was Legitimate Ontario Provincial Police say an impaired driving checkpoint outside Hempfest wasn't a ploy to search festival-goers for pot, and deny charges by organizers of the annual cannabis festival that police attempted to drive off attendees. ...Rob Waddell, organizer of Hempfest, pointed out this week that no impaired driving charges were laid, for drugs or alcohol. He also charged OPP went above and beyond their normal practice at RIDE checks by questioning passengers, checking for documentation and doing vehicle safety checks. Some who attended Hempfest described a military-style roadblock a short distance from the event, manned by as many as 20 police officers. |
| Sep 1, 2007 |
The Latest From Hemp - Brain Food, Indeed The question these days is what can't be made out of hemp? Clothing, lotions, beer and now this non-dairy "milk" from Manitoba Harvest, introduced earlier this year in original, vanilla and chocolate flavours. The Winnipeg-based company also produces hemp-seed oil, butter and protein powder. Derived from organic hemp seeds, the beverage is rich in essential fatty acids and is touted as a breakfast "brain food" that can be imbibed straight, on cereal or in morning coffee. |
| Sep 1, 2007 |
The Latest From Hemp - Brain Food, Indeed The story: The question these days is what can't be made out of hemp? Clothing, lotions, beer and now this non-dairy "milk" from Manitoba Harvest, introduced earlier this year in original, vanilla and chocolate flavours. The Winnipeg-based company also produces hemp-seed oil, butter and protein powder. Derived from organic hemp seeds, the beverage is rich in essential fatty acids and is touted as a breakfast "brain food" that can be imbibed straight, on cereal or in morning coffee. The source: Hemp Bliss can be purchased online from www.manitobaharvest.com. The site also contains recipes for dishes like hemp burgers, hemp pesto verde and hempy chicken casserole. |