Current Affairs (2007) -
Chronological (432 items)
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| Sep 2, 2007 |
Retired Prescott Police Officer Faces Drug-Trafficking A retired officer with the Prescott police force was one of nine people charged this week in connection with drug trafficking in the border town. Bruce Perrin, 58, was arrested on Aug. 29. He is the second current or former police officer from the Seaway Valley to face drug charges this year. |
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| Sep 3, 2007 |
The Unfairness Of The Forfeiture Law ...But in a justice system that revolves around presumed innocence, civil forfeiture changes the rules. It enables the Crown to take suspected criminals to a civil court when the evidence is not strong enough to hold up in a criminal one. There, the Crown doesn't need to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; it needs only to establish its case on a balance of probabilities. Even before it achieves that minimal standard, the province is able to freeze property until the court date, potentially bankrupting individuals before demonstrating that the assets it has seized were ill-gotten. |
| Sep 4, 2007 |
BC:
Sea King Helps Nab Grow Operations The Canadian Forces participation in the annual RCMP marijuana-eradication program - called Operation SABOT within the military - involves the provision of CF helicopters as observation platforms and transportation for RCMP teams hunting for grow sites. |
| Sep 6, 2007 |
Teens Smoke More Pot Than Cigarettes, Report Says After alcohol, cannabis was the most commonly used illegal substance among youth. Cannabis use is reported by 17 per cent of students in grades 7 to 9, about 29 per cent of 15- to 17-year-olds, and almost half of 18- to 19-year-olds, the substance abuse centre report said. Pot smoking, in fact, now exceeds the rate of cigarette smoking among youth, the study found. |
| Sep 7, 2007 |
Time To Address Medical Marijuana, Onley Says TORONTO -- He didn't say it outright, but one day after being sworn in as Ontario's 28th Lieutenant-Governor, David Onley all but endorsed medicinal marijuana use by the chronically ill. |
| Sep 8, 2007 |
It's For Tobacco, Really (Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge) In every quadrant of our city, one can find shops where brightly coloured bongs line the shelves and a wide selection of pipes sit in glass cases. The stores have names like Grass Roots, Hemporium and Bongs and Such, just in case you still don't get the idea. Known to some as "head shops," such businesses have been sprouting like, well, weeds all over booming Calgary. You can find them in Forest Lawn, in the northeast industrial area and in the tony shopping districts of Kensington and 17th Avenue S.W. |
| Sep 11, 2007 |
New Dosage Limits for Medical Marijuana But Where's The Science? New evidence-based guidelines are urgently needed to help doctors negotiate Canada's hazy medical marijuana landscape, particularly in light of Health Canada's efforts to impose new dose limits, say the nation's leading cannabis researcher and doctors who have been queried about their marijuana authorizations. |
| Sep 11, 2007 |
B.C. Man Taking Pot Message To Ottawa Neil Magnuson is skating across Canada to raise awareness about the prohibition of cannabis and stopped in Moose Jaw on the weekend. Magnuson started in Vancouver in July. He is making his way across the country to Ottawa. In Ottawa, Magnuson will be speaking on Remembrance Day about his cause. On his way, he will be stopping in different towns to talk to the people about cannabis. |
| Sep 12, 2007 |
Senior Officer Charged In Arrest, Strip Search EDMONTON - A city police officer has been charged with unlawful exercise of authority for arresting and strip searching the son of lawyer Tom Engel after evidence of the alleged crime -- a marijuana cigarette -- was thrown away. |
| Sep 12, 2007 |
BC:
Just 300 Grow Ops To Go A marijuana grow busting program is being hailed as a tremendous success, with a 65 per cent drop in home plantations expected this year. The remainder will be wiped out this fall. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis received B.C. Hydro records in January 2007 indicating the location of 1,000 homes with extraordinary power consumption - considered a "signature" for marijuana grow operations. |
| Sep 12, 2007 |
NS:
Judge Reins In Accused In Marijuana Case Ricky Logan Simpson, who is defending himself, sighed and shook his head when Justice Felix Cacchione intervened for about the 12th time Tuesday to prevent him from questioning one of four RCMP officers during the second day of his trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. |
| Sep 12, 2007 |
Marijuana-smoking Troops Banned From Afghanistan OTTAWA - Some 250 soldiers who tested positive for drugs were not allowed to serve in Afghanistan, the Canadian Forces confirmed yesterday. |
| Sep 13, 2007 |
Drug Ads Could Trigger Tokers Do anti-pot ads just make folks want to spark up? Health Minister Tony Clement better find out before he launches that no-nonsense anti-drug campaign he's been threatening...More than that, students in their study reported that the pot spots actually made them more likely to spliff up....The feds can't say they weren't warned. |
| Sep 13, 2007 |
Soldier Claims Entrapment In Drug Trafficking Case OROMOCTO, N.B. - A soldier who sold a small quantity of marijuana to an undercover officer was convicted Wednesday of drug trafficking, prompting his lawyer to introduce a motion claiming abuse of process. |
| Sep 14, 2007 |
'Not A Case Of Turning A Blind Eye': Lawyer FIVE Chinese immigrants should be given the benefit of the doubt and cleared of charges they knowingly participated in a massive marijuana grow operation, their lawyer argued Thursday....All five testified in their own defence and told court they didn't realize the crop they were working on was marijuana. Some believed it was fruit or vegetable, while one man thought it was "Chinese medicinal herbs". |
| Sep 14, 2007 |
NS:
Marijuana Court Case Turns Into Constitutional Concern However, Ricky Logan Simpson, 57, told the jury hearing his Nova Scotia Supreme Court trial on three drug charges that he should not be considered a criminal because the laws forbidding the possession, growing and distribution of marijuana are unconstitutional. |
| Sep 17, 2007 |
AB:
'Prince of Pot' Gets White Hat Canada's "Prince of Pot" has joined the ranks of singer Dolly Parton, Prince Philip and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean. Arriving at the Calgary airport for a two-day visit Saturday, Canada's best-known marijuana activist, Marc Emery, was white-hatted by the Calgary Airport's official White Hat Volunteers. |
| Sep 17, 2007 |
AG Increases Use of Forfeiture Powers to Seize Assets The Ministry of the Attorney General has increased its use of sweeping provincial civil forfeiture powers in the past year to seize assets, including people's homes, even if criminal proceedings have been stayed or withdrawn because of Charter violations. ...A report issued recently by the attorney general's office stated that $3.6 million in property has been seized in the past four years in 170 proceedings. Nearly $1 million has been distributed to crime victims and more than $900,000 transferred to municipal police forces. [More US-style war on civil liberties] |
| Sep 17, 2007 |
Regulating Hydroponics Start Of Slippery Slope But lost amid all the good news is another initiative the City of Surrey is proposing - a registration system for hydroponic equipment. ...What happens to the information collected? Do the police and fire department make a quick visit to make sure only tomatoes are being grown? Do you have to undergo a criminal record check to grow vegetables? |
| Sep 24, 2007 |
Marijuana and the Munchies Whether or not you've ever tried marijuana, whether or not you've inhaled, you have your own cannabis infrastructure, a grid of nerve receptors that changes your experience of pain, sleep and appetite. We all make our own natural cannabinoids, marijuana-like chemical compounds...Looking for an anti-munchies drug, researchers found the synthetic compound rimonabant, a cannabinoid blocker. ( It switches off the same neural network that our own cannabinoids and marijuana turn on. ) So long as you stay on it, the drug reduces appetite, blood sugar, waist size and weight ( by about five per cent ), while it raises HDL ( "good" ) cholesterol. |