Top Stories (2007) -
(432 items)
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| 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. |
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| 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 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 |
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 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 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 |
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 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 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 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 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 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. |
| Aug 11, 2007 |
Potmobile Busted In Ferry Lineup WEST VANCOUVER -- It was a business venture worthy of famed '70s potheads Cheech and Chong: Police officers called to investigate a possible drunk driver discovered $60,000 worth of marijuana plants being grown inside a car. The 140 plants -- in two stages of growth -- were being farmed inside a Toyota RAV4. |
| Aug 10, 2007 |
ON:
Marijuana Mayhem Whether it's a new townhouse development, a run-down apartment complex or a luxury home in an up-scale neighbourhood, marijuana growing laboratories, ( or marijuana grow labs, as they've come to be called ), continue to appear at an alarming rate in Peel. ...Meanwhile, unlike marijuana labs, methamphetamine ( meth ) labs are new to Peel Police, with the first one ever in the Region being discovered in Mississauga last summer. However, experts believe there are more here. [They only have to look to the US to see that more meth labs appear when it becomes difficult to grow cannabis gardens. People will be longing for the days when they were only living beside plants.] |
| Aug 10, 2007 |
BC:
Pot Not a Police Priority, Deputy Chief Testifies at Trial Deputy Chief Bill Naughton said the society's Cormorant Street office of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society has not generated any complaints, adding marijuana ranks behind drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin in terms of Victoria police priorities. ....Also testifying yesterday in Victoria was Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, who chaired the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, which called in 2002 for the legalization of marijuana in Canada. Nolin told the court the regulations, as they currently exist, are an obstacle to Canadians who want access to medical marijuana. He said the rules ask doctors to be "gatekeepers" for access to legal marijuana. It's a role doctors don't want, and so Canadians are being denied access to a medical product. |
| Aug 9, 2007 |
Roach Burn (class action suit) The irony is too delicious. A lawyer named Roach, in this case Charles Roach, taking on the feds' reefer madness pot laws. Roach argues in a class action filed Tuesday ( August 7 ) in federal court that laws making possession of pot illegal have had no force or effect since July 2001. That's when the federal government was ordered to enact a constitutionally valid law. It still hasn't. Roach's suit asks for $25 million in compensation for persons prosecuted under pot laws. Maybe the threat of having to pay out millions in damages will finally light a fire under the feds' asses to stop with their anti-cannabis charade. We're happily holding our breath on this one. |
| Aug 9, 2007 |
ON:
Church Argues Marijuana A Sacrament CHURCH ARGUES MARIJUANA A SACRAMENT Parishioners Plan Charter Challenge, Say Current Policy Infringes On Their Religious Rights If some religions sip wine at the altar, others should be allowed to smoke pot. At least according to Rev. Edwin Pearson and Rev. Michel Ethier, two ordained ministers behind a proposed $25 million class action lawsuit challenging Canada's marijuana laws. |
| Aug 9, 2007 |
Why Is This Canadian Pot Dealer Campaigning for Ron Paul? He's Looking for a Pardon. Marc Emery agrees his campaign-organizing effort for some 2008 U.S. presidential candidates is a bit unorthodox. He's Canadian, his political base of operations is the B.C. Marijuana Party in Vancouver, and he can be arrested if he sets foot into America. |
| Aug 9, 2007 |
BC: Trial to Hear Testimony From Senator Who Backed Marijuana Legalization A Canadian senator who has called for the legalization of marijuana took the stand yesterday in the trial arising from a raid on the Vancouver Island Compassion Society's grow operation. Pierre Claude Nolin chaired the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, which unanimously called five years ago for legalization of the drug in Canada. The committee recommended the government license production and sale of marijuana, which would be available to any Canadian citizen over the age of 16. |
| Aug 8, 2007 |
Too Bad the Hippie Generation Has Turned Into a Bunch of Hypocrites Young intellectuals staged sit-ins and demonstrated against rules and structure during the '60s. Now firmly in positions of power, they have established human-rights tribunals and other kangaroo courts to stifle free speech and punish nonconformists. ... The generation that challenged and toppled the rigid status quo at universities now prohibits dissenting views on campus, and blatantly uses the education system for purposes of indoctrination. ... Those who once proudly questioned authority demand absolute acquiescence to radical feminism, affirmative action, climate-change paranoia, anti-Americanism and other tenets of political correctness. ... On top of it, this generation of supposed anti-materialists has accumulated more wealth than any previous generation and made it virtually impossible for anyone under 30 to even dream of owning their own home. |