Top Stories (2008) -
(386 items)
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| Jun 5, 2008 |
What A Parent Will Do For A Sick Child never thought I would be buying "pot" at my age, but that's what's so interesting about life -- you just never know what's around the corner, do you? There are no limits to what a parent will do for their sick child. On July 9, 2007, we made our first trip to the Medical Compassion Clinic in Toronto. |
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| Jun 4, 2008 |
Romancing The Bottle In some communities, the horrors associated with alcohol extend into every household. These include many Canadian native reserves, where booze has generated nothing short of a liquid holocaust. Even the staggering fatality statistics don't include the legions of victims who never take a sip: children born with fetal alcohol syndrome, abused spouses of alcoholics, the prey of drunk drivers. In Mexico, this week, one of those drunks fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into a group of bike racers -- a horrific scene captured by a local photographer. There but for the grace of God. Oh wait, sorry -- scratch all that. I just read last week's column by Barbara Kay on the subject of marijuana policy, and it turns out I've gotten it precisely wrong. |
| Jun 4, 2008 |
No Hope In Fighting Dope The war on drugs has been fought. We lost. So what now? For starters, we should admit defeat and legalize marijuana. |
| Jun 3, 2008 |
Legalizing Marijuana Would Cripple the Profits of the Violent Drug Lords When any law is regarded with complete and utter contempt by a significant part of the public, then it demeans all laws and erodes respect for the system. Such is the case with the marijuana law. |
| May 31, 2008 |
Suing Abbotsford Police A wheelchair-bound man is suing the Abbotsford Police department for an alleged assault and negligent treatment he suffered in police cells after his home was subject to a drug bust in November. [Any facade of being public servants who serve and protect quickly vanishes in instances such as this] |
| May 29, 2008 |
ON:
'I Just Want The Same Access As Tobacco Users' And now Mr. Barth has become the latest marijuana user to file a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, after being prevented from smoking outside an Ottawa comedy club after a May 7 performance. Absolute Comedy management told the couple that liquor licence rules prevented them from lighting up on the front patio near cigarette smokers. They left "embarrassed and humiliated," according to Mr. Barth's complaint, which claims the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is violating the provincial Human Rights Code -- specifically, his ability to use marijuana in designated smoking areas. Marijuana helps his appetite, prevents anxiety attacks and allows him to walk without "jangled nerves," Mr. Barth said. Health Canada's Marijuana Medical Access regulations allow for Mr. Barth and his wife to use marijuana. But the provincial Liquor Licence Act prohibits the possession or consumption of controlled substances on an establishment's premises. |
| May 28, 2008 |
BC Bud Can't Boost Economy Many of these issues may disappear if marijuana is legalized. However, there are better and more sustainable ways to invest in a town's employment ( boosting agriculture and tourism, investing in post-secondary education, encouraging small business, creating options for youth ) than to turn a blind eye to its underground economy. |
| May 28, 2008 |
NK:
Medicinal Pot User Gets House Arrest A Rothesay man who says he was growing marijuana for medicinal purposes has been sentenced to house arrest. ...Tonning sent the strong message to people who claim their drug use is for medicinal purposes. In Roberts' case, he says the pot helps alleviate the pain of his gastrointestinal illness. <strong>"If it's going to be used for medicinal purposes, the clear reality is you have to get a doctor's certificate to use it," Tonning said. </strong> [Effectively. this judge is saying you do not need Health Canada's permission.. just a doctor's recommendation] |
| May 28, 2008 |
Don't Call It Reefer Madness Prohibition failed because its imposition through a transiently ascendant wave of religious asceticism was inconsistent with democracy and a society in which alcohol generally played a benign role. And because alcohol in moderation is culturally aligned with enhanced fellowship and animated human interaction, it is therefore a communal as well as an individual good. Conversely, the purpose of marijuana is the alteration of consciousness, an end achieved by a process that thrives in solitude and mental torpor. |
| May 27, 2008 |
Study Shows Marihuana Use Not A Threat Augustana sociology professor Geraint B. Osborne is of the opinion that people who use marihuana are no more a criminal threat to society than are alcohol and cigarette users. |
| May 27, 2008 |
Enough Is Enough Is Enough I was very interested last week to see a new crime fighting tool against marijuana grow ops has been developed that will let police know where extra electricity is being directed, even if it is being stolen. That will take a lot of these 'gardens' out of circulation, which is where most of us would like to see gang criminals - out of circulation. |
| May 27, 2008 |
NF:
Program Offers Parent Plan To Drug Proof Children Mr. Newman is a master trainer from 'Focus on the Family Canada'. He was in Springdale to teach a group of community leaders to present a program called 'How to Drug Proof Your Kids'. The program began in Australia and has been in Canada since 2002. He provided the sessions at the Springdale Pentecostal Church the week after the church hosted over 250 youth for a weekend celebration of God's love. [The religious right spread their tentacles a bit further] |
| May 27, 2008 |
ON: Church Of The Universe Founder Released Pending Appeal Church of the Universe founder Michael Baldasaro has been sprung from prison pending an appeal of his pot-trafficking conviction. But the Ontario Court of Appeal forbade the hemp-hatted clergyman from returning to his church's Barton Street East headquarters or communicating with its co-founder Walter Tucker. |
| May 26, 2008 |
Search And Detention At Sea, But Keeping A Balance When a high-school principal in Sarnia, Ont., turned his school over to the police for a good portion of the day to let a drug-sniffing dog roam, he sent a terrible message to his students about what a democracy should permit the state to do in pursuit of its goals...Drug trafficking is not a trivial crime, but the presence of drugs poses no immediate danger. Guns do. |
| May 25, 2008 |
Weed, Grass, Green, Roach New Brunswick's licence plate police wouldn't let a woman get a plate spelling her maiden name -- Weed -- because it could be perceived as a reference to Marijuana. |
| May 23, 2008 |
Barbara Kay vs. Mary Jane Ms. Kay has assembled a file of evidence -- of varying quality -- on some dangers that cannabis may legitimately pose. Having presented it, she thus "respectfully ask[s] the Post to reconsider its editorial stance on the legalization of pot." Our stance was, and is, that as terrible as you can possibly make marijuana sound by the use of anecdote and by cherry-picking the scientific literature, you cannot make a credible argument that its public health and other social effects are as bad as those of alcohol and tobacco. |
| May 23, 2008 |
Canada's Laws Going To Pot They fought the law and the ... law lost. In fact, Canada's petty, nanny-state prohibition on simple marijuana possession has been repeatedly revealed as either non-existent or as murky as well --used bong water. Except, you'd never know it as the charges continue to be laid and judicial resources go up in smoke. |
| May 21, 2008 |
BC:
Compassion Club Seeks Expansion NANAIMO I A group that provides marijuana to sick people hopes to expand into a storefront location in downtown Nanaimo within a few weeks. |
| May 21, 2008 |
B.C. Town's Cash Crop UP In Smoke, Along With Economy "A few years ago, you couldn't sell a house in Likely for $80,000," said Rob Hood, a longtime Likely resident and president of the local chamber of commerce. Then along came the pot growers and things started looking up in Likely. Properties left vacant as work dried up were suddenly all bought up, and many locals found themselves employed.....Now, since the various raids, many properties around town are, once again, sitting vacant and unkempt. ...."We're trying to develop all that stuff," he said, adding, only half-joking, "we have to now that the No. 1 crop is gone." |
| May 21, 2008 |
Meaford Couple To Challenge Pot Law A Meaford man and woman will fight drug charges - laid one month before he received licences to possess and grow marijuana for medicinal purposes - by arguing Canada's marijuana possession law is unconstitutional. |