Top Stories (2007) -
(432 items)
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| Feb 13, 2007 |
Giving Up Cannabis Saved Me, Says Margaret Trudeau Quitting cannabis has been an important part of her recovery from mental illness, Margaret Trudeau said Monday at a news conference in Vancouver for the Canadian Mental Health conference. [How timely for her public announcement that will make it much easier for son Justin's political aspirations. Also a perspective of one academic: She makes an unfortunately common error in terms of her understanding of causality. Maybe the increased cannabis use was a symptom of impending mental crises necessitating hospitalization instead of the cause of that hospitalization.] |
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| Feb 12, 2007 |
BC 'Exports' Marijuana Expertise Worldwide A different kind of brain drain is under way in B.C. as marijuana growers share their billions of dollars worth of skills with a worldwide audience. "We think they're exporting their expertise," said Supt. Paul Nadeau, director of the RCMP's national drug branch. "We've heard of it on an international scale." ....Sgt. Urquhart was reluctant to expand on the nature of the connections and the organization involved. But when Supt. Nadeau was asked who in B.C. is exporting their skills, his answer was simple -- "Everybody." [After possibly watching the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame_Canada" target="_blank">South Park (1999) movie</a> again, US officials were inspired to deny the existence of the internet and other factors, and directly blame Canadians once again for their woes] |
| Feb 11, 2007 |
Grow-Ops 'Subsidized' Canada's Crown mortgage corporation is "subsidizing" marijuana grow-ops with millions of dollars each year, some MPs say. Tory MP Patrick Brown said the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. paid out $50-$80 million in insurance claims related to criminal activity last year -- including pot-growing operations disguised as family homes. He says policies must be adopted so insurance payouts covering criminals don't drive up premiums for honest home-buyers. [More prohibition related costs] |
| Feb 9, 2007 |
New Program Aimed At Classroom Stoners "Every school in Vancouver, and I would say in the province, is struggling with a significant number of kids coming to school stoned," said Art Steinmann, the school board's project coordinator for SACY, or School-Age Children and Youth Substance Abuse Prevention. "It could be that any large high school of say 1,000 or 1,200 kids could easily have anywhere from 15 to 20 kids that would have shown up for part of the day under the influence." |
| Feb 7, 2007 |
Marijuana Party To Contest Byelection Saskatchewan Marijuana Party Leader Nathan Holowaty plans to run in the March 5 provincial byelection in Martensville. The other declared candidates are Nancy Heppner of the Sask. Party, New Democrat John Tzupa and Liberal Nathan Friesen. Candidates have until Feb. 17 to file nomination papers. |
| Feb 5, 2007 |
Weeding Out The Competition By Regulating The Drug Trade, Canada Could Cut Down On Law Enforcement, Protect Its Citizens And Make A Little Bit Of Extra Cash On The Side As Well Because of crimes that are related to the drug trade--most notably the killing of the four police officers in Mayerthorpe two years ago--many have been pushing for increased punishment for drug-related crimes recently. While a tactic such as increased jail time would theoretically make criminals think twice before becoming involved in the trade, there's no statistical evidence that supports this claim. The fact remains that it's just too profitable an industry to be deterred by harsher punishment. Instead we need to end this failed experiment called prohibition and regulate most, if not all, drugs. |
| Feb 4, 2007 |
Premier No Fan Of Pot Motion PREMIER Gary Doer says he is not a fan of the idea of decriminalizing marijuana. A resolution up for debate at the NDP's weekend convention called for small amounts of the drug to be decriminalized. The issue is within federal jurisdiction so the resolution specifically calls for the provincial government to push for the decriminalization. |
| Feb 2, 2007 |
Weedless Wednesday May Go Up In Smoke The Halton Youth Action Alliance ( HYAA ) is working to get the title of the annual quit smoking day -- Weedless Wednesday -- changed for 2008. The group believes the title is misinterpreted by youth and is drawing attention to marijuana. |
| Feb 1, 2007 |
The Relevance Of Pot Politics Huddled in the dimly-lit basement of a bar in downtown Saskatoon, a small group of marijuana activists joke about their political future.... "We are going to run as many candidates as we can," says Nathan Holowaty, leader of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party. "If there are candidates who want to run in every riding, we will run candidates in every riding." |
| Jan 31, 2007 |
Police Say Smoking Pot Endangered Kids NWT: Four people have been charged with endangering children after police say they were found smoking pot in the same room as five kids.... The adults were released after giving statements to RCMP, and promising they would have no contact with the children until the charges have been dealt with in court. Until that time, the children will remain in the hands of Health and Social Services, said Dreilich. When it comes to the irrationality surrounding parents using illegal substances, we get the best perspective by looking at whether using legal substances would have the same outcome in any family situation. If not, then allowing prohibition related, not drug related problems to tear families apart in Canada, will eventually be as common as it is in the US, and just as detrimental. |
| Jan 30, 2007 |
Knock The Law Not The Cops For Making Pot What was James Breau thinking when he decided to run the Mid Island Compassion Club and distribute marijuana without a proper licence? Did he think the police wouldn't find out that he was supplying 85 people with highly priced weed? Despite the fact that a 2006 Maclean's Magazine poll concluded 93 per cent of Canadians support the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, it's still illegal to distribute the drug without a licence. |
| Jan 29, 2007 |
MP Wants War On Grow-Ops Karygiannis plans to press for mandatory minimum sentences that would work on ascale. More than three plants would net two years in jail, between 21-50 would garner a five-year sentence, 50-100 would get seven years and more than 100 would earn a 14-year lock-up, he suggested. He plans to introduce the plan as a motion that could be studied by a Parliamentary committee. [We can then build more prisons then schools... brilliant] |
| Jan 27, 2007 |
Police Raids Target Pot 'Clones,' Growing Gear Law enforcement's latest salvo against the seemingly endless number of indoor marijuana grow operations across the city involves the arrests this week of a group allegedly selling growing equipment, supplies and the "clones" used to reproduce the leafy, green crops. |
| Jan 25, 2007 |
PUB LTE: Sugar Kills, Marijuana Doesn't Says Writer There are many more dealers of legal drugs that cause harm to our children and our families every day. Maybe a few of these could use a bit of the same vigilante justice as an example to others.... So, if your forming a vigilante posse, keep in mind that the marijuana sold by the local dealer has never killed anyone, sugar in the form of chocolate bars and pop sold at the local gas station kill thousands of Canadians every year. |
| Jan 25, 2007 |
Living In Grow-Op Danger BC: As many as 30 per cent of the 150 grow operations inspected and shut down by the City of Abbotsford last year may have housed children living in dangerous conditions. "In many searches we've located hazardous equipment and chemicals in areas that children often pay around and in some cases, sleep," he said...."Parents and others who expose children to such risks need to know their behaviour is unacceptable, and there are consequences. [If parents can legally grow cannabis, then it is not hazardous. If parents grow hydroponic vegetables it is not hazardous. But if parents grow some unauthorized plants, it is hazardous. More proof the drug war is illogical.] |
| Jan 25, 2007 |
Safety Vs Privacy As Workers Smoke Pot In the construction industry, managers want competent and sober people doing the job for both quality of work and safety's sake. One site manager believed two of his workers in Toronto were smoking marijuana on their lunch breaks so he videotaped them in their pickup truck, accused them of smoking up and fired them. The case is before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. What is no longer before the board is the videotape. The labour board said the video is inadmissible as evidence. It violated the two alleged dopers' right to privacy. |
| Jan 25, 2007 |
Four Kids Seized In Grow Op Bust AB: Police arrested a pregnant mother and seized her four young children after a drug raid on a home in the northeast Calgary community of Temple. The search of the marijuana grow operation marks the third time children have been taken into custody since Alberta's Drug-endangered Children Act came into effect in November. Two of the children, who range in age from two to nine, were taken from the home on Templeton Circle N.E. The two older children were in school at the time of the raid, but were picked up later by Child and Family Services officials. [This trend of seizing children of people busted with illegal substances is deeply disturbing at many levels. While many parents have the gut feeling that this makes a bad situation much, much worse, there is no evidence or data they can look at to support or dispute that families are hurt far worse by the state mandated separation than any other factor. At the very least, can society not demand some accountability in this matter? We know from our history that removing children from their homes has gone on since the beginning, for very despicable reasons, usually racial in nature. Could that happen against a backdrop of voter disapproval? No, society as a whole is complicit in these crimes against humanity.] |
| Jan 24, 2007 |
Industrial Hemp Meeting Tomorrow Night Hemp producers and residents interested in the industrial cultivation of the plant are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting tomorrow night ( Jan. 25 ) at the 100 Mile House Lodge "Valley" Conference Room. Subjects for discussion are: a review of the 2006 hemp production; status of the hemp industry in Canada and plans for the 100 Mile House hemp industry. |
| Jan 24, 2007 |
Drug-Endangered Children Will Get Help AB: Twenty-five police officers from the Capital Region are being trained in a course on investigating drug-endangered children.... The program focused on how to deal with the children that police sometimes find living in the drug houses and marijuana grow operations they've raided. [The trend of removing children from homes will be monitored throughout the year as it violates logic, reason and basic human rights] |
| Jan 24, 2007 |
Family Sues Door-Busting Cops ON: Henry George McCool Sr. accuses Toronto Police of being negligent for barging into his home on Sept. 15, 2005 in search of his son, who did not live with his father at the time of the arrests, in a gang crackdown dubbed Project Flicker, a statement of claim filed yesterday said. The family wants $2.75 million in damages for the incident, which they say has left the mother and father coping with depression and their 8-year-old granddaughter with a "continuing fear and distrust" of police officers that has led to frequent nightmares. |