Current Affairs (2008) -
Chronological (386 items)
(All links open in new tab)
| Oct 25, 2008 |
Police Need Search Warrant For Marijuana Inspections A B.C. Supreme Court judge has upheld a provincial law that allows municipal inspection teams to investigate homes suspected of being marijuana-growing operations, but ruled that police cannot enter a residence without a warrant in a case involving a Hells Angels associate in Surrey. |
|---|---|
| Oct 27, 2008 |
Government's pot appeal up in smoke TORONTO - The federal government lost a court appeal Monday, paving the way for an end to its monopoly supplying medical marijuana to patients. Justice Department lawyers had sought to appeal a lower-court ruling that granted licensed producers the right to grow marijuana for more than one patient. But the three-judge panel said it was not persuaded by government lawyers who argued that allowing a grower to supply more than one patient would lead to an unregulated industry. In January, a federal court judge struck down the one-to-one ratio as unconstitutional and unnecessarily restrictive. The ruling was stayed pending Monday's appeal. Lawyer Alan Young, who represented medical marijuana users, said the ruling was a victory for "sick people." "It's time for Health Canada to recognize that medical marijuana is an established part of the regiment for a lot of patients," Young said outside court. "Instead of thwarting patient needs, they should be accommodating patient needs and hopefully this case will be a signal to them." Authorized users who cannot grow their own marijuana can designate a grower or access government-issued marijuana supplied by Prairie Plant Systems in Manitoba. But a group of 30 patients who challenged the regulations argued the government supply was weak and they should have the right to choose their source. They were lobbying to be lawfully able to purchase marijuana from Carasel Harvest Supply Corp., which, under the current regime, was not allowed to supply more than one patient with medical marijuana. |
| Oct 28, 2008 |
Appeal Court Acquits Woman Of Theft Of Electricity At Grow VANCOUVER -- Three B.C. Court of Appeal judges have overturned a woman's conviction for fraudulent theft of electricity at a Kamloops marijuana-growing operation. Although the evidence indicated that the accused, Rui Ping He, had sole control of the house at the time of a police raid, the court found she was not the owner of the house and the electrical bill was not in her name. The appeal court upheld He's convictions for pot cultivation and possession for the purpose of trafficking. |
| Oct 28, 2008 |
Drug Case Evidence Tossed It seemed a stroke of luck for Halifax Regional Police that a pair of officers responding to a car accident last year found a large quantity of drugs and a loaded handgun stashed in one of the damaged vehicles. But their luck changed Monday when a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled that the constables lied to Christopher Henderson in order to search his car because they knew they had no grounds for a warrant. |
| Oct 29, 2008 |
Judge Warns Cops To Get Warrants B.C.'s controversial Safety Standards Act -- aimed at smoking out dangerous grow-ops -- has survived a constitutional challenge. But police officers who tag along with municipal safety inspectors must bring along a search warrant before gaining access to a home, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled. |
| Oct 29, 2008 |
Stop Harassing Medical Pot Users On Monday, the Federal Court of Appeal refused to entertain a government challenge to January's Sfetkopoulos decision, in which Justice Barry Strayer of the federal court's trial division struck down the rule that a licenced grower of medical marijuana can only have one customer. "We're not persuaded [Justice Strayer] committed any error," said Justice John Evans on behalf of the three-member appeal panel, endorsing their colleague's ruling with unusual haste. |
| Nov 6, 2008 |
Drugged Daze In The Don I've Become My Own Worst Nightmare, A Medpot Horror Story NOW writer and med pot activist Matt Mernagh, who suffers from fibromyalgia, scoliosis and arthritic pain, was arrested August 16 with 37 plants and charged with possession of marijuana, possession for the purposes of trafficking and production of marijuana. The trial date has not been set. The following is an account of his 13 days in the Don Jail. |
| Nov 7, 2008 |
Store Dumps Hemp Stock Once the smoke cleared in the fight between the City and a hemp store, the owner got his licence. A Langley City employee hand delivered a business licence to Hempyz store late Thursday afternoon. Owner Randy Caine said once he and the City came to an agreement that he would not sell hemp products, City staff assisted him in reapplying, and the licence was quickly approved. |
| Nov 7, 2008 |
Charged Officer Faces Court The trial is scheduled to begin next week for a Peel Regional Police officer arrested in late 2005 over allegations he was attempting to traffic cocaine. Officials with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada ( PPSC ), the federal government organization responsible for prosecutions on behalf of the Attorney General of Canada, indicated that Cst. Sheldon Cook, 39, will appear in a Brampton courtroom Monday. |
| Nov 8, 2008 |
PUB LTE: Street Pot Often Crap Pot "The marijuana was originally thought to have been laced with a more noxious substance, but it turns out high levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, are to blame." Nonsense and balderdash! |
| Nov 10, 2008 |
Proceeds-Of-Crime-Law Challenge Could Cost Provinces Millions Eight provinces will gang up on a former Carleton University student in the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday as it considers whether provincial governments have the constitutional power to seize the proceeds of crime. Lawyers for Robin Chatterjee will argue that crime is a federal responsibility and therefore the Ontario government's 2001 law forcing the forfeiture of everything from houses to cash is outside provincial jurisdiction. |
| Nov 12, 2008 |
Grow-op Home Seizures Challenged Supreme Court Asked If Penalty Too Severe OTTAWA ( CNS ) - Judy Ann Craig, a former realtor with a golden touch for gardening, will try to convince the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday that being forced to forfeit her North Vancouver home for running a marijuana grow-op is extreme punishment for her crime. |
| Nov 12, 2008 |
Marijuana Activists' Son Shot The son of two of Nova Scotia's best-known marijuana activists was in serious condition in a Halifax hospital Tuesday after an early morning shooting at a home in Lower Sackville. Mike Patriquen, 25, is the son of Michael Patriquen, the founder of the provincial Marijuana party, which is no longer active, and Melanie Stephen. The couple are divorced. |
| Nov 13, 2008 |
Marijuana In Sport The use of pot by athletes does not need to be monitored any more closely than pot use by anyone else; in sports, there are much bigger drugs to smoke out. |
| Nov 13, 2008 |
Demand For Hemp Soaring, Firm Moves To Bigger Plant Not only is demand for hemp products skyrocketing -- Canadian hemp seed exports increased by 300 per cent and hemp oil exports by 85 per cent from 2006 to 2007 -- but one of the country's oldest and largest hemp food producers, Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils, is moving into a new state-of-the-art processing plant this week that will boost its production capacity by 500 per cent. |
| Nov 14, 2008 |
Cops Can Drug Test Const. Chris Baillargeon, who recently became a certified Drug Recognition Expert, is qualified to conduct a 12-step drug impairment evaluation that allows him to classify the type of drugs he identifies in an impaired driver....since the legislation was passed, he has conducted two tests in Chatham- Kent, both resulting in charges. He said the cases both involved individuals taking prescription drugs and have not yet appeared in court. [Just how much training is required to become an "expert"? |
| Nov 15, 2008 |
A Bright Green Spot in the Economy With Courts Striking Down the Government's Monopoly on Supplying Medical Marijuana, Private Growers ...Eric Nash can barely contain his excitement waiting to hear from Health Canada whether he can start growing marijuana for 250 patients. |
| Nov 15, 2008 |
Errors Quash Drugs Case A Quebec Court judge yesterday accused the Crown and police of using abusive tactics and placed a stay of proceedings on drug-trafficking charges against two people in a high-profile investigation. In doing so, Judge Gilles Garneau essentially tossed out the cases against Antal Babos, 42, and Sergio Piccirilli, 48, at the Laval courthouse yesterday. |
| Nov 15, 2008 |
Forget Facts, Common Sense Or Decency There's been quite a kerfuffle on the letters page recently on the legalization of marijuana. That we're still even debating this issue, some 70 years after weed's defacto criminalization, is astounding. Every reputable government study, independent study and report out there has stated, unequivocably and for decades, that pot is marginally harmful and shouldn't be a criminal matter. |
| Nov 17, 2008 |
Manitoba Releases National Hemp Strategy The Province of Manitoba has released a national hemp strategy that will seek to identify new opportunities for farmers, processors, researchers and exporters. "Manitoba's farmers and processors are at the leading edge of hemp production," Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives Minister Rosann Wowchuk ( said ) recently. |