Top Stories (2006) -
(313 items)
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| Mar 22, 2006 |
Hemps Future Bright Say Proponents Currently, there are roughly 300 acres of commercial hemp grown in Ontario produced by about 10 growers said Gordon Scheifele, president of the provincial organization. That's considerably less than the 8,000 to 10,000 acres produced annually in Manitoba but he says the progress on acceptance of the crop is right on target. |
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| Mar 21, 2006 |
Desperate For A Home, People Snap Up Grow-ops CALGARY - Calgary's red-hot real-estate market is so frenzied people are lining up for condemned houses that were used as drug operations. [Or maybe people don't believe all the hype about former grow ops being more unhealthy than homes that had regular indoor gardens] |
| Mar 20, 2006 |
PUB LTE: Don't Blame US Canadians should be incensed that the U.S. government is pointing fingers at us and other countries as the cause of its drug problems. The spread of disease, death, violence and organized crime is a consequence of prohibitionist drug policies that the U.S. government originally strong-armed other countries into adopting. <br> Gillian Maxwell <br> Chair, Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use |
| Mar 20, 2006 |
Canada's Growing Marijuana Problem "Cannabis is the biggest issue facing law enforcement now," says Inspector Paul Nadeau of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( RCMP ). [Too bad identify theft, break and enter and other crimes that citizens would consider the biggest problems for them aren't also where the police put their resources] |
| Mar 20, 2006 |
PUB LTE: Marijuana Not A Gateway To Harder Stuff The Czech Republic is the only nation in the world where adult citizens can legally use, possess and grow small quantities of marijuana. ( In the Netherlands, marijuana is quasi-legal -- not officially legal. ) The Czech overall drug arrest rate is one per 100,000 population. The United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population. The Czech robbery rate is two per 100,000 population. The United States' robbery rate is 145.9 per 100,000 population, according to the FBI. According to our drug war cheerleaders, tolerant marijuana laws cause people to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like meth and heroin. Obviously, this doesn't happen in the Czech Republic. Why not? |
| Mar 15, 2006 |
US Study Declares Canada Drug Haven While the American government's annual international narcotics review pegs the country as "primarily a drug consuming" one, Canada remains a significant producer of high-quality marijuana and a transit point for over-the-counter pharmaceuticals used in synthetic drugs. [The rest of the world should treat these US reports as nothing more than an a good laugh...] |
| Mar 11, 2006 |
Freedom And Pot As Don Martin noted in this newspaper yesterday, 600,000 Canadians are currently saddled with criminal convictions for their use of a relatively harmless substance -- a serious matter for anyone attempting to travel outside the country. [Since the early 90's we have heard that 600,000 Canadians have criminal convictions for pot. Today that number is really closer to 1.5 million] |
| Mar 10, 2006 |
PUB LTE: Seedy Situation SEEDY SITUATION Montreal -- I was a little confused reading Charlie McKenzie's article on the RCMP marijuana-seed bust and I wasn't even high at the time ( Dopey RCMP Math -- March 9 ). Was the point that the RCMP should stop wasting its time trying to determine how much marijuana a bag of seeds would yield? Or was the point that the RCMP should stop wasting its time pandering to U.S. drug hysteria? Haven't we all had enough of this silly prohibition, of clogging the court system and saddling people with criminal records? Weed is a wonderful, useful little plant. Our overworked police forces should be focusing on other things. MICHAEL ASHBY director, National Pardon Centre |
| Mar 10, 2006 |
Keep Marching, Pot Crusader Says Goodwin, owner of the Up In Smoke cafe, was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking. It's his latest run-in with Hamilton police, who he says have visited his business more than 300 times since he opened it in August 2004 on King Street East. [ Cannabis activists and consumers take another hit] |
| Mar 9, 2006 |
Dopey RCMP Math Following a 14-month investigation, RCMP officers recently uncovered a clandestine cyber cartel selling marijuana seeds via the Internet. Seven persons were subsequently charged with a variety of cannabis-related offences. Trumpeting this latest victory against the "scourge of marijuana" -- their term -- the Mounties claimed that the amount of seeds they seized would fill 500 greenhouses, each with 400 plants, representing 42 million joints on the street. |
| Mar 8, 2006 |
Up To 200 Acres To Be Seeded In Hemp By the end of the Industrial Hemp Steering Committee meeting March 6, the members had reached a conclusion on how to direct their efforts. "We are going to focus on grain for our first year; nutritional supplements, the oils and those types of things," Mayor Donna Barnett, the commmittee chair, said. [Hemp will be one of the most important crops in the post-oil world, and Canada is in a great position to be a leading producer] |
| Mar 3, 2006 |
AIDS Victim Gets His Marijuana Back A Regina Medical Marijuana User Has His Plants Back. Tom Shapiro was at police headquarters Thursday afternoon collecting the 21 marijuana plants that were seized by officers last month following a delay in the renewal of his licence to grow pot. Shapiro arrived at the station armed with a court order for police to return the property to him. [Why did a sick and suffering Canadian have to go through any legal repercussions in the first place? Where is the outrage?] |
| Mar 1, 2006 |
RCMP Close Montreal Marijuana Seed Vendor Although the Montreal-based company Heaven's Stairway has operated brazenly since 1998 and is currently listed on Quebec's business registry, the RCMP announced Tuesday it has shut it down. The RCMP described the large-scale bust as the first of its kind in Canada. Besides evoking Led Zeppelin's signature song for its name the company also sold seeds with quirky labels like Crippy Bud and Deep Blue Rush. [ By attacking the very source - seeds - they may merely be preparing for when the time comes for cannabis to be legal. With all other avenues effectively shut down, corporations like Monsanto will emerge as the main distributer of seeds. (Who is really ordering the raids on seeds??? ) ] |
| Mar 1, 2006 |
Mayor Meets Hemp Researchers The future is bright for those getting in on the ground level with Industrial hemp products....Surging costs are why there is a great deal of research being done on less costly materials, like the fibre board that can be made from hemp. |
| Feb 28, 2006 |
War On Drugs A Joke To Ex-Cop In Norm Stamper's world, the "drug store" is a place that is much different from what generally comes to mind. The 28-year police veteran of the San Diego police department and former Seattle police chief wants to see all street drugs legalized, firmly regulated and sold just like we sell alcohol today. |
| Feb 26, 2006 |
Region Dismisses Pot For Health Issue Niagara Compassion Society was looking for a homegrown solution to medical marijuana use when it appeared before the region's public health committee Tuesday. It didn't come. Committee members instead took pot shots at the idea of what some believed amounts to endorsing recreational drug use. |
| Feb 24, 2006 |
Conditional Discharge On Pot Charge May Be Appealed Crown prosecutors are expected to appeal a Supreme Court ruling this week that sent a young Kelowna woman home without a criminal record after pleading guilty to growing marijuana. On Tuesday, justice Alison Beames gave Nicole Kraubner a conditional discharge after she pleaded guilty to the charge. Police discovered the grow operation May 28, 2004. |
| Feb 24, 2006 |
Pot Can Make You Psychotic Heads up potheads. Cannabis use may lead to psychosis. At an SFU forum on cannabis, mental health and addiction, Professor David Ferguson from the University of Otago, New Zealand, told his audience pot is definitely not a harmless drug. |
| Feb 23, 2006 |
Pot Smell Justified Dwelling Search, Judges Say VANCOUVER -- The smell of marijuana coupled with a suspect speaking a foreign language can be sufficient grounds for police to enter a private home without a search warrant, the British Columbia Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision could expand the power of police to enter homes without warrants under certain conditions, such as an officer smelling marijuana in a dwelling. [Say good-bye to more of our rights] |
| Feb 23, 2006 |
Court Dismisses 'Compassion' Argument On Pot New Brunswick Court of Appeal rejected Thursday a Saint John woman's argument that she was running a "compassion club" for medicinal marijuana users. However, the province's high court will still consider Lynn Wood's appeal of her marijuana trafficking conviction, albeit on other grounds. Lynn Wood was convicted in February 2005 of trafficking marijuana, and was sentenced to a term of one year in prison. |