Top Stories (2008) -
(386 items)
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| 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. |
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| 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 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 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 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 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 25, 2008 |
Fed Pot Policy Panned ORONTO -- It's a marijuana "monopoly" that deserves to go up in smoke, activists say. Lawyers representing a group of 30 medicinal marijuana users will be in court Monday to fight the federal government's bid to keep control of large-scale medicinal marijuana distribution in Canada. Activists say the government-issued pot is weak. |
| Oct 24, 2008 |
Appeal Filed In Holy Smoke Case Akka Annis and Paul DeFelice, the two of the Holy Smoke workers sentenced to jail earlier this month, have filed an appeal. |
| Oct 22, 2008 |
Wonderdrug? The medicinal use of Cannabis goes back around 4 000 years. In 1550 BC, the Ebers Papyrus ( Ancient Egypt ) described the medical uses of marijuana. The Ebers Papyrus is one of the oldest medical documents |
| Oct 22, 2008 |
Message Sent Provincial Court Judge Gives Paul Defelice One Year in Jail to Send a Message to Community About Drug Trafficking They argued they provided a necessary service to a town with a reputation for smoking pot, but the sentence handed out to the first of four men found guilty of selling marijuana from their downtown business showed the judge thought the community could do without it. |
| Oct 22, 2008 |
Cops To Keep Eye On Pot-Dealing Cafe Quebec City police warn they will closely monitor the activities of a cafe that plans to sell marijuana. The operators of Montreal's Compassion Club say they will open a second shop today in the provincial capital to respond to growing demand for "medicinal" marijuana. |
| Oct 10, 2008 |
Tory Ad Takes Potshot At NDP The radio ad stems from comments Layton made in 2003 to Pot TV, a now defunct Internet site. He called marijuana a "wonderful substance," that Canadians should be able to freely purchase or grow, and perhaps enjoy in their homes or in a cafe. |
| Oct 10, 2008 |
The War On Drugs Is A Mess The World Drug Report is crude propaganda. Journalists and politicians who take it at face value contribute to the manipulation of public opinion and the stifling of meaningful debate. And that is unacceptable at a time when Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying in the War on Drugs. |
| Oct 10, 2008 |
OPP Offer Warning About Marijuana Resin The Ontario Province Police Drug Enforcement Section is warning the public about the dangers of the production of marijuana resin following charges laid in connection an explosion at a duplex in Ingersoll. The production of marijuana resin is achieved by the soaking marijuana in an organic solvent. [This would not happen in a regulated market] |
| Oct 10, 2008 |
Intercepted Calls Talk Of 'Babies' And 'Cutting Stalks' As part Operation Jackpot - a covert investigation of a marijuana growing operation - officers recorded more than 77,000 intercepted conversations. |
| Oct 9, 2008 |
Drug-Related Convictions Quashed Due To Mountie's Fabrications Nova Scotia's Court of Appeal has quashed drug convictions against a dozen people because an RCMP officer fabricated evidence against them. In a decision released yesterday, the court says none of the convictions can stand because former Mountie Daniel Ryan sold drugs while lying under oath to justify search warrants for the premises of the 12 men who were convicted. |
| Oct 9, 2008 |
Laws Gone To Pot A report on marijuana written by a team of world experts suggests countries interested in more rational cannabis laws simply ignore drug treaties and go their own way. "Control regimes that criminalize users are intrusive on privacy, socially divisive and expensive. Thus, it is worth considering alternatives," says the Global Cannabis Commission Report presented in the British House of Lords last week. |
| Oct 7, 2008 |
Just Don't Call It Pot Today, Cannasat's stock is stuck at 20=A2, having barely budged since an initial pop - and equally prompt retreat - following its IPO. Even though the company has invested almost $10 million in research and is the only firm in Canada devoted to the development of cannabinoid drugs, it has, in recent months, been preoccupied with scrubbing its profile of any connections to marijuana. It has sold off its interests in cultivating and distributing medical pot. It has pumped up its board with distinguished members of the Canadian medical establishment, and dropped the word marijuana from its lexicon, instead describing its research in terms of specific molecules and chemical reactions in the brain. |
| Oct 7, 2008 |
Students Told Green Party Would Legalize Marijuana The legalization of marijuana, funding for education and the arts were among the issues raised by Fleming College students at an all-candidates debate yesterday. |
| Oct 5, 2008 |
No Shortage Of Illegal Pot Groomers VANCOUVER - There's green to be made clipping and trimming the green leaves in British Columbia's marijuana industry. The prospect of tax-free income is driving some people into temporary work as "clippers" for indoor and outdoor grow operations. |