BC Business magazine said recently that it now is in second place ahead of the forest sector and behind construction.
Forest Minister Rich Coleman reacted to the announcement by saying, “There’s nothing a ministry can do to change a marketplace.”
BC Business places the provincial marijuana industry at $7.5-billion with a labour force of over 250,000.
Eric Nash of Valley-based cannabis company, Island Harvest, reacted to the news by saying, “More than 156,000 people in British Columbia use marijuana for health purposes. Thousands of unemployed B.C. forest workers could become gainfully employed in the well-established cannabis industry.”
Island Harvest has been distributing and selling medical marijuana to customers for the past six years under federal licensing from Ottawa.
Wendy Little, his partner in Island Harvest, added, “Provincially licensed operations in B.C. have been supplying marijuana to thousands of people for over 10 years now. It’s time to integrate cannabis sensibly into our economy.”
Legally-licenced growers, Little and Nash have called upon the B.C. government to implement provincial policy and declare the cannabis production sector a renewable and sustainable health based industry to create employment and economic growth.
The economics of marijuana and hemp are likely to be the deciding factors in overturning adult marijuana prohibition in North America. With farmers needing a cash crop, drivers needing biodiesel fuels, people needing affordable medicines, the world needing sustainable food and ecologically-friendly fiber crops, and governments straining to balance budgets, the prohibition of cannabis will soon become a money-losing proposition, even compared to the profits some industries make from prohibition.
It’s Wednesday, May 14th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville.
Don’t forget to call your Congress and tell them to support HR5842 & HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and to legalize personal possession of marijuana. The number is 202-224-3121.
If you have a product that you would like to market to the cannabis community, you can advertise on the Daily Audio Stash. Your ad will be focused on exactly the customer base you’re seeking out; the thousands of responsible cannabis consumers who download and listen to this show. Our listeners are educated consumers who want to support the businesses that support the growing truth about cannabis, and we deliver the advertising freedom you won’t find on radio, TV, or print ads. To advertise on the Daily Audio Stash, send us an email at stash @ norml.org.
Wednesday is Cannabis Science day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re joined as always by Dr. Mitch Earleywine from the State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Mitch is here to talk about the latest quack science report making the rounds courtesy of the Drug Czar – the idea that heavy marijuana use leads to teen depression.
Cannabis Karri brings us our musical break this hempday humpday with some Hawaiian hip-hop from a group called Amphibeus Tungs… voted by the staff of the Daily Audio Stash our favorite new band name. Their song is a relaxing beach number called “Smoke that Feelen” – ah, pakalolo and a white sand beach…
Then we’re speaking with Dr. Melanie Dreher, a researcher at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Dreher led one of the most definitive studies on the effects of cannabis smoking on pregnant women and their children. We’ll ask her about American courts in the news lately that have convicted new mothers of child abuse when their babies test positive for marijuana.
Don’t forget that it’s not too late to enter our latest “Pass the Stash” contest. You could win a free DVD from Suburban Noize Records’ rappers Kingspade. Stay tuned for details later in the podcast
Welcome to the show, load up your George W. Bong and sit back with your favorite strain… This is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
Middle class relaxing with marijuana
A variety of middle-class people are making a conscious but careful choice to use marijuana to enhance their leisure activities, a University of Alberta study shows.
A qualitative study of 41 Canadians surveyed in 2005-06 by U of A researchers showed that there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ marijuana user, but that people of all ages are selectively lighting up the drug as a way to enhance activities ranging from watching television and playing sports to having sex, painting or writing.
The study was published recently in the journal Substance Use and Misuse.
The focus was on adult users who were employed, ranging in age from 21 to 61, including 25 men and 16 women from Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland whose use of the drug ranged from daily to once or twice a year. They were predominantly middle class and worked in the retail and service industries, in communications, as white-collar employees, or as health-care and social workers. As well, 68 per cent of the users held post-secondary degrees, while another 11 survey participants had earned their high school diplomas.
The study also found that the participants considered themselves responsible users of the drug, defined by moderate use in an appropriate social setting and not allowing it to cause harm to others.
The findings should open the way for further scientific exploration into widespread use of marijuana, and government policies should move towards decriminalization and eventual legalization of the drug, the study recommends.
The cannabis community is a minority group that spans all social, economic, religious, racial, and national boundaries. There is no “typical” marijuana user any more than there is a “typical” oxygen breather.
Less than 10 per cent of respondents believe other drugs—such as ecstasy, powder cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine and crystal meth—should be legalized.
In July 2002, Canada became the first nation in the world to regulate the consumption of cannabis for medical reasons. In the 2004 federal election, the Marijuana party—which seeks the outright legalization of the substance—received 0.3 per cent of the popular vote.
In November 2004, the Canadian federal government—headed at the time by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin—re-introduced a controversial bill that sought “alternate penalty frameworks” for the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The bill, which would have allowed any person caught with 15 grams of the drug or less to face fines instead of criminal charges, was never put to a vote in the House of Commons.
Earlier this month, Debbie Stultz-Giffin—a member of Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana—urged the current administration to abandon its proposal to authorize a mandatory six-month prison sentence for marijuana growers, adding, “With the federal government talking about pulling exemption holders grow permits and forcing us to buy our marijuana from the government, it’s going to put a lot of medical marijuana patients in a precarious situation.”
I believe we are close to reaching the tipping point where a majority of North Americans favor the legalization, or at least decriminalization, or marijuana. It looks like Canada is there already, and I know we’re close to that here on the West Coast. Soon, as more stalwart drug warriors are swept out of Congress and statehouses in the upcoming election, I believe that younger, more liberal officials will take their place. As our representatives begin to match the population that has come of age with legal medical marijuana and a more relaxed cultural attitude toward cannabis, I believe that we will see the end of adult marijuana prohibition in my lifetime.
TheStar.com | GTA | Eatery won’t fight pot smoker
A Burlington businessman brought to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after he told a medical marijuana user not to light up in front of his family restaurant has given up fighting the complaint because he couldn’t afford the legal fees.
“The financial burden, the burden on me and on my family was too much,” Ted Kindos, owner of Gator Ted’s Tap and Grill, said yesterday after reaching a settlement.
Kindos said his lawyer told him it could cost up to $60,000 to continue fighting the complaint; it was scheduled for eight days of hearings at the Human Rights Tribunal beginning yesterday. Kindos said he has already spent $20,000.
Steve Gibson, a long-time customer, complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 2005 after Kindos told him to leave the premises for smoking marijuana in the doorway of the restaurant at Burlington Heights Plaza.
“The principle I was fighting for was to be able to have quality of life and to be able to go out without being stuck at home because I need my medical marijuana,” said Gibson, adding he was pleased with the settlement.
Although the commission’s lawyers do not represent the complainants, their positions are often similar, said commission spokesperson Jeff Poirier.
“For the commission, this case is about being treated the same as the other smokers. This is a smoker with a disability who uses medicinal marijuana that’s legally prescribed to him so he’s seeking access to the designated smoking area,” said Poirier.
Kindos said he originally refused to allow Gibson to smoke marijuana in the smoking room of the restaurant. Gibson then began smoking in front of the restaurant and patrons complained of the smell, said Kindos.
These cases are gaining ground in Canada and the twelve US medical marijuana states. If marijuana is to be treated the same as other medicines, then we have to address the question of how patients are to use their medicine outside of their home.
In many states, smoking anything in or near a public building is absolutely forbidden. But in this case, the restaurant made an allowance for tobacco smokers to be able to smoke in a designated area. So if patrons have a right to smoke tobacco for no medical purpose - indeed, to the detriment of their own health, and the health of others through secondhand smoke - then it is hard to understand banning a medical cannabis smoker in the same area.
The only consideration would be a moral judgment that smoking cannabis is wrong, which seemed to be the situation here. Kindos alleged that the patrons of his restaurant didn’t want their children exposed to the smell of cannabis. There is no health risk associated with children smelling marijuana, but there is the risk that witnessing a harmless man smoking marijuana without any negative consequences will open the minds of those children and make them harder to fool with drug war reefer madness.
Money not well spent: Fraser
Sheila Fraser, the federal Auditor-General, yesterday released her latest report on Ottawa’s management of its programs and spending. As in the past, the Auditor-General found many areas in which government spending was excessive or lacked proper oversight.
The federal government is charging too much for passports, doesn’t know what to charge for medical marijuana and may not be charging enough for some other fees it collects.
Yesterday’s report indicated Ottawa collected $1.9-billion in fees on everything from issuing passports to granting licences to manufacture drugs. The money represents a small fraction of the more than $200-billion collected every year in taxes and duties.
[T]he auditors discovered Health Canada is probably undercharging Canadians who are allowed to buy marijuana for medical purposes. Health Canada charges $5 for a gram of dried marijuana or $20 for a packet of 30 marijuana seeds. Some “compassion” clubs, which try to assist those who need marijuana to ease chronic pain, charge twice as much for similar amounts.
Health Canada plans to recalculate its charge.
There’s just one problem with this analysis: the marijuana being supplied by Health Canada is of very poor quality compared to that which is sold in the compassion clubs. It is only worth half of what the quality marijuana is worth.
Health Canada maintains a monopoly supply on government medical marijuana. The herb is grown 500 feet below the earth in an abandoned zinc and copper mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba. I’ve spoken with Philippe Lucas from the Vancouver Island Compassion Society about this issue, and he tells me that not only is the Flin Flon weed quite schwaggy, but also there are concerns about its safety after being grown where so many harsh mining chemicals had been used.
Health Canada needs to open up the production of marijuana to the many excellent independent growers in Canada. British Columbia itself could probably manufacture enough high-quality marijuana to supply the whole country.
But here is where the prohibition rub comes in. Because there is a lucrative black market both in Canada and the US for high-quality marijuana, the price of marijuana is artificially inflated by prohibition risk. BC growers want to divert their strains to the top dollar buyers, not to some government that will fix the price and create many bureaucratic headaches.
And the government must either grow poor quality weed that can remain low cost and out of competition with “BC Bud”, or raise quality and prices to match the black market. Government can’t charge less for good medicine, else people will purchase it and resell it on the black market for the margin.
Come on now. $5, $10, $15 for a gram for a weed? $20 to $50 for a packet of seeds? Can you name any other consumer agricultural product that demands such exorbitant pricing (yes: tobacco, due to high taxes and saffron, which grows in few places during a short season and must be harvested by hand by picking the individual stigma off the flower)? What do you think marijuana would cost if it were completely legal and farmers could grow acres of it outdoors?
Just catching up on some of the reports from the March this weekend:
Close to 500 protesters took to the streets [of Calgary, Alberta, Canada] Saturday in favour of marijuana’s medicinal use and making it more accessible to those suffering debilitating pain.
Amid the incense aromas and reggae beats, several hundred Austinites rallied at the Capitol on Saturday for the legalization of marijuana for personal and medical use.
“These guys are easy compared to the anarchists,” said Sgt. Voepel of the Portland Police Department, “they’re on time, and they’re orderly.”
According to the Sarge, the only rabble rousers during the march were two drunkards who were pestering people but were unconnected to the peaceful pro-pot gatherers. No pot smokers were spotted.
With the smell of ganja in the air Sunday, people rallied to show their support for the legalization of marijuana at the 420 marijuana march, a peaceful protest aimed at showcasing the need to abolish marijuana prohibition.
With similar demonstrations in Toronto and Hamilton that same day, marijuana enthusiasts marched down Victoria Avenue and down Clifton Hill to Queen Victoria Park with their protest signs and flags held high … all while lighting up a joint in the process.
One of the supporters at the rally was Derek Pedro, who is a legalized user of marijuana. Suffering from migraine headaches, muscle spasms and joint pain, Pedro said marijuana has helped reduce his suffering.
“I need to get high to feel medicated,” Pedro said. “But everywhere I go I feel like I need to hide myself to smoke. I feel the public doesn’t understand that there are positives to marijuana use. Prohibition gives it a bad name.”
Alison Myrden, who represents the group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a non-profit educational group whose mandate is to lower incidents of death, disease, crime and addiction through ending prohibition, has suffered from symptoms of chronic Multiple Sclerosis. The symptoms include extreme facial pain and the need to walk with a cane.
Myrden said marijuana helps get her through the pain and has reduced the number of painkillers she takes each day.
“Prohibition doesn’t work,” Myrden said. “If it was legalized, people wouldn’t be looking at the streets to find it. Something has to be done to change the laws. In my perfect world, all drugs should be legal.”
There is a sentence that will scare your average person: all drugs should be legal. To most people, that conjures up a society gone berserk, with trippin’ space cadets, zombie junkies, thievin’ tweakers, and utter chaos in the streets. We can’t legalize drugs, they protest, because that would encourage people to do drugs!
I’ve got news for them: drugs require no encouragement. People are doing drugs, even though they are illegal. The chaos in the streets is already here and most of it is a direct result of the prohibition, not the drugs. It’s funny to me how the drug warriors see prohibition (the lack of laws controlling drugs) as a method of control and they see regulation (taxes and laws to control drugs) as a recipe for disaster.
Out drug war is based on the wrong metrics, and those are (a) how many people are using drugs and (b) how much drugs are they using? Both measures are irrelevant. If half of all North Americans lit up joint every day for the next month, would that be bad? By the drug war metrics, yes.
But what would the results be from that massive smoke-in? Are there fewer crimes? Less drunk driving? Fewer prescriptions for toxic pharmaceuticals? A reduction in violence? A windfall for snack manufacturers? See, it’s not how many people or how much drugs that we should worry about, it’s the harm that does or does not result from the drugs.
And with marijuana, most people know that there is little societal harm, if any, from the responsible adult use of marijuana. Even those who think marijuana is harmful believe that harm is pretty much reserved for the marijuana user, and rarely believe that it’s causing more harm than alcohol or nicotine.
“It’s an injustice. This should never have happened,” Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay said as he left Regina’s Court of Queen’s Bench to serve a six-year sentence. The 52-year-old Regina man, who conceived of and managed the operation, has already filed an appeal.
Chester Fernand Girard — the Ontario gardener who provided know-how, seeds and seed money to grow the 6,000 plants — was equally defiant. “It’s industrial hemp. It’s the only thing that can save the planet,” the 59-year-old shouted. With credit for the equivalent of six months of pre-trial custody, his sentence was reduced to 5 1/2 years
Robert Stanley Agecoutay, Lawrence’s 49-year-old brother and follower, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years after also receiving six months’ credit for pre-trial custody.
In February, a jury convicted the trio of unlawfully producing marijuana and possession of the drug for the purpose of trafficking. Three other men were acquitted.
[Justice Frank] Gerein soundly rejected Lawrence’s testimony that they were growing the plants on sovereign First Nations land (immune from Canada’s drug laws), at the request of the Creator, to make medicine for their people.
“When I weigh everything, I have absolutely no doubt that the accused were engaged in the production of a very large amount of marijuana for the express purpose of obtaining a large sum of money,” the judge said in his 28-page decision. All three have previous convictions for drug crimes.
Girard’s lawyer Drew Hitchcock hopes the case sparks some thought on “reasonable drug policy.
“The judge and the lawyers have to work with the law that Parliament gives, but I don’t see how arresting guys who are sitting on the ground praying to the Creator with a SWAT team (making arrests) is really a sane drug policy.”
Lawrence, the only one among the three to testify, always carries a multi-coloured sacred bundle holding ceremonial pipes into the prisoner’s dock. He identifies himself as Chief Ka-Nee-Ka-Neet, a hereditary, ancestral chief of the Anishinabe Nation of Turtle Island, encompassing all of North America. The elected chief of the Pasqua First Nation, Elaine Chicoose, has denounced the grow-op activities.
After the sentencing, Lawrence passed his eldest son the sacred bundle.
The Agecoutays’ use of culture and religion in their defence has drawn criticism from Pasqua’s chief and council, some elders, and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
Canadian and American governments say they recognize the sovereignty of the Native American tribes, but that sovereignty flies out the window when it comes to hemp. Lakota Sioux in the northern plains have been thwarted by the DEA when they try to grow hemp. Several First Nations people have used cannabis in a culturally significant way or for religious purposes. The Indians were growing hemp on this continent long before the first Europeans ever set foot here.
If a tribe can have a casino in a state with no gambling, why can’t a tribe have a marijuana farm?
And hundreds of those who believe Canadians should have the right to smoke up without fear of being charged took to the streets of Niagara Falls to draw attention to their cause.
“You need to legalize it,” said Marco Renda, one of the demonstrators who took part in what has come to be known as the annual Highway 420 Anti-Prohibition Rally.
“I have no problem with the government regulating it, just like they do alcohol.”
The rally, which was staged for the first time in Niagara Falls about five years ago, began around 3 p.m. on a grassy patch land on Victoria Avenue overlooking Highway 420.
The department served notice Monday it will soon invite firms to bid on a contract to cultivate and distribute medical marijuana, which is now being done in Flin Flon, Man., by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.
The winning firm will be expected to deliver a steady stream of government-approved dope to certified medical, users starting in the fall.
Dope? Why is the media allowed to get away with such flagrant anti-medical marijuana bias? If the story were about a government seeking a contract with an oxycodone supplier, would they talk about a “steady stream of government-approved hillbilly heroin”?
Ottawa has been a reluctant supplier of pot since a series of court rulings forced it into the medical marijuana business.
The marijuana program licenses certified medical users to grow their own pot, to have someone grow it for them or to buy it straight from Health Canada.
The department has paid Prairie Plant Systems more than $10 million to cultivate government-certified dope in a mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man.
There’s the “dope” again. And it should be noted that this mine shaft in Flin Flon is one of the most environmentally-polluted areas in all of Canada.
Ron Marzel, a Toronto lawyer who recently brought the matter before the Federal Court on behalf of a group of medical users, says he’s concerned about any monopoly on legal production and supply of the drug.
“The government’s just had such a horrible track record in terms of supplying medication to patients,” he said.
“There are many different strains of cannabis out there and the government’s position to date has been, ‘Well, we’re growing one strain and we’ve got one supplier and that’s it. Live with it.’
“The pharmacological evidence is that different ailments require, and different symptomology require, treatment with different strains. And the government hasn’t paid heed to that at all.”
Nope. To the government, a weed is a weed is a weed. They aren’t too thrilled about growing “dope”, much less worried about which particular strain of “dope” it is (and based on reports from my Canadian friends, it’s a pretty schwaggy strain). It’s as ridiculous and cruel as refusing to stock morphine, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen in the hospital, because you’ve got plenty of aspirin.
Monday & Tuesday, March 31 - April 1, 2008, Vancouver, BC, Canada.Rethinking Treatment: Recognizing and Responding to the Spectrum of Substance Use, at Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC. For more info & to register, see www.keepingthedooropen.com, or contact Dave Peterson at dave@devonknight.com or 604-677-2759.
Thursday, April 3, 2008, New York City, NY.Drop the Rock Coalition Meeting - Ending New York’s draconian Rockefeller drug laws, at the Correctional Association of New York, 2090 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., Suite 200 (@ 125 th Street), NYC. For more info, call Caitlin Dunklee at 212-254-5700 x339 or email cdunklee@correctionalassociation.org.
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, April 3-5, 2008, Pacific Grove, CA.The Fifth Annual Clinical Conference On Cannabis Therapeutics: Re-Entering Mainstream Medicine. At the Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA. Hosted by Patients Out Of Time. For more info & to register, see www.medicalcannabis.com/
If you have events you’d like to hear featured on our NORML Daily Audio Stash Reformer’s Calendar, just send me an email with all of the relevant details. Set the subject line to “Events” and email it to stash@norml.org.
Plea deal for Canada’s Prince of Pot falls apart | Canada | Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada’s “Prince of Pot” believes the Canadian government wants to punish him by blocking a plea deal with U.S. authorities, who want him to face charges of selling marijuana seeds from his Vancouver store to American customers.
Canada refused to go along with Marc Emery’s deal with U.S. prosecutors to plead guilty in return for the United States dropping charges against two co-accused and allowing him to serve most of the sentence in a Canadian prison, the marijuana activist said on Friday.
The B.C. Marijuana Party founder said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is pursuing a get-tough policy on drug use and is upset by his long-running campaign for marijuana legalization.
“They want to make an example out of me,” Emery told CKNW radio in Vancouver. “They just don’t like me.”
Emery was arrested in 2005 at the request of U.S. officials for allegedly selling millions of dollars in seeds to U.S. buyers, mostly by mail-order, from the seed business he operated openly in Canada for years.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency statement in 2005 hailed Emery’s arrest as blow to the “marijuana legalization movement” and cited his financial support of pro-pot groups in Canada and the United States.
Emery is also charged with money laundering, but he says he can prove he declared all his earnings to Canadian tax officials and gave most of the profits to charities and political candidates.
He is scheduled to appear in a Vancouver court next month, with an extradition hearing likely to start late in the year.
The Marc Emery case shows just how crazy the international War on Marijuana has become. Emery was openly operating his seed business from a storefront in Vancouver, BC. The Canadian government could have shut him down and arrested him at any time; instead, Health Canada was actually recommending his business to their medical marijuana patients. Emery’s been paying federal and provincial taxes the whole time; the Canadian government certainly didn’t object to that.
But now the US DEA wants to make an example of him and demands extradition from Canada so he can face a potential life sentence under the mandatory minimums for being a drug kingpin. To the Americans authorities, every seed he ever sold is treated as a full-grown plant.
This was unacceptable to the Canadians, because under their laws, Emery would be facing a punishment far less severe. The Canadians rightfully saw turning Emery over to the Americans to be a cruel and unjust punishment.
So the Canadians and Americans negotiate this plea deal - Emery will accept a ten year sentence from the American courts, in exchange, Emery’s two co-defendents will be set free. Also, five years of the sentence will be suspended, and Emery will serve only the first 45 days in an American prison before spending the remainder of his five years in a much safer and more comfortable Canadian prison.
However, now that plea deal is denied, not because the Americans thought it was too lenient, but rather because the Americans were insisting that there be no early release from prison for Emery’s five year sentence. Canadian law forbids a judge from imposing such a guarantee, so Emery is in this strange situation where Canada can’t agree to the five year prison sentence they want and he volunteered to serve, and Canada may end up shipping him to the US for life in prison.
Did I mention that this is a guy who sells plant seeds for living?
The United States wants to extradite Marc Emery — who founded a political party and campaigned across Canada to legalize pot — on charges he illegally sold marijuana seeds from his Vancouver store to American buyers.
Emery tentatively agreed with U.S. prosecutors in January to plead guilty in return for the charges being dropped against two other defendants and he being allowed to spend the bulk of a 10-year sentence in Canada.
Canada must also approve the deal, but its prosecutors say a Canadian judge cannot be ordered to impose a U.S. prison sentence of no release for at least five years that is stricter than Canadian law requires.
“The Canadian government says that’s not legal in Canada … and so Justice Department in the United States says the deal is not possible because the Canadians are not playing ball so to speak,” Emery told reporters.
Emery was in court in Vancouver on Wednesday to set a date for his extradition trial, but a judge agreed to postpone the hearing until April 19 to allow his lawyers, U.S. and Canadian prosecutors to continue negotiating.
Emery said he will fight extradition if a deal is not reached.
Emery has accused Canadian police of bowing to U.S. political demands by arresting him in 2005, since his activities were well-known and tolerated in Canada — where he even paid taxes on his seed sales.
It’s bad enough that the US anti-marijuana policies create huge injustice in our own country. What’s more troubling is that our superpower status has made it possible to overtly manipulate other governments into committing anti-marijuana injustices.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA - The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled a window contractor discriminated against an employee because his physical disability allowed him to smoke medical marijuana.
The company has been told to pay $500 for injury to the man’s dignity, feelings and self respect. Greg Wilson’s claim against Transparent Glazing Systems alleged he was fired after a superintendent’s letter sent to company management said Wilson’s medication seemed to impair his ability to do the job.
Wilson, who smokes [the herb] for migraine headaches and bulging back discs, denied the allegation at a hearing last May.
Company officials told the rights tribunal that Wilson was fired because he was disrespectful, verbally abusive and difficult to work with.
Mr. Wilson believed that the superintendent was referring to his marijuana use and, since he had a medical marijuana license, he was doing nothing illegal,” [tribunal member Diane] MacLean stated.
MacLean ruled the company discriminated against Wilson because of his physical disability.
“Mr Wilson also maintained, and I agree, that he was adversely treated because he was not given an opportunity to respond to allegations regarding drug use.”
She noted that Wilson denied during the hearing that [his medical marijuana use] had any impact on his job abilities.
“However, I accept that there was an insult to his dignity when TGS appeared to rely on the superintendent’s perception that Mr. Wilson was impaired due to his medication.”
What an amazing difference. Here on the West Coast, employers are fighting for the right to fire and not hire medical marijuana patients solely for being medical marijuana patients. Up in Canada, they’re punishing employers for not respecting medical marijuana patients.
P.S. Note the [brackets] within the quotes I take from media. I’m replacing “the drug” and “pot smoking” and other negative references to cannabis with “the herb” and “medical marijuana use”. Words are important. Every time average people hear “pot” and “drug”, we reinforce the negative stereotypes about the plant. A drug is a chemical manufactured out of raw materials. Sativex and cocaine and heroin are “drugs”. Marijuana and coca and poppies are plants. And “pot” is something you cook in. It’s a subtle thing, but try working it into your vocabulary. (And don’t think it doesn’t work… nobody wanted to eliminate “inheritance tax”, but plenty of people want to eliminate the “death tax”.)
P.P.S. If it weren’t too late, then I’d eliminate references to “marijuana”, too, it’s a Mexican slang term that was originally used to denigrate hemp so Americans would accept banning it for racist reasons. But we are NORML, and NORCL doesn’t sound as good. I think we’re stuck with “marijuana” like African-Americans are stuck with NAACP and UNCF.
Residents of the mountain town of Hailey, Idaho, will get to vote again soon on four new initiatives aimed at legalizing or reforming marijuana laws.Four new initiative petitions filed by an Idaho based pro-marijuana group have been certified, and scheduled to go on the May 27th primary election ballot in Hailey.The initiatives are identical to four other measures that were on the November 6th ballot. The initiatives for treating marijuana as the lowest law enforcement priority, the medical use of marijuana, and the legalization of hemp, passed by large majorities.The fourth initiative which would legalize marijuana for all adults was rejected.
Hailey city officials have said they plan to file a lawsuit in Fifth District Court seeking clarification on the three initiatives approved in November.The officials note that all three initiatives have possible conflicts with existing state and federal laws, which take precedence over local codes.
Good to see marijuana reform happening in one of the most conservative states – my homestate of Idaho! I played many gigs there with my band back in the longhaired club musician days. I can testify that there is a large pro-marijuana contingent in Hailey! The town has burst at the seams with growth. It’s just south of the glitzy ski resort town of Sun Valley, and many of the people who work the resorts, bars, and restaurants live in Hailey.
Hailey’s also famous for having been the home of Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, who bought up a lot of property in the small mountain town and renovated its downtown.
Matt Kruchak ,Canwest News ServiceSASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA - The scent of weed wafting from an open car window doesn’t give an officer the right to make an arrest and search a vehicle, according to a recent decision made by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.The ruling is centred around the case of a driver who was pulled over by an RCMP officer. His truck had a broken headlight.The officer approached the vehicle and said he could smell burnt marijuana from a metre away. The driver was immediately arrested for possession of marijuana based only on the smell of the burnt narcotic.The officer then searched the vehicle and found eight grams of marijuana and what he thought was a list of contacts, which led to the driver being charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.The case went to trial and the judge found the driver’s charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. The scent of marijuana created a suspicion it was smoked, but didn’t provide reasonable and probable grounds for an arrest or a search, the judge concluded before excluding the evidence. The driver was declared not guilty.
The lawyer who defended the driver said, “The smell alone can’t constitute the grounds, because the smell of burnt marijuana - as opposed to raw marijuana - gives an inference that the material is gone, it’s dissipated into the atmosphere. So how can you say you’re in possession of something that doesn’t exist?”
Nice to see a court decision in favor of a cannabis consumer, but I can think of a better way to avoid being arrested for the smell of freshly-burnt marijuana coming from your car window… don’t smoke marijuana in your car!
The California Supreme Court voted 5-2 on Jan. 24 to allow employers to fire employees who legally use medicinal marijuana.Gary Ross sued RagingWire Telecommunications Inc., his former employer, for wrongful termination and employment discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act after he was fired in September 2001 after testing positive for marijuana. Ross was terminated despite having informed his employer at the time of hire about his status as a legal marijuana user and provided documentation to prove it, according to an appellate court brief.The California Supreme Court upheld the Third Appellate Court’s 2005 decision that “because the possession and use of marijuana is illegal under federal law, a court has no legitimate authority to require an employer to accommodate an employee’s use of marijuana, even if it is for medicinal purposes and thus legal under California law.”Due to injuries sustained during his service in the U.S. Air Force, Ross has suffered from lower back pain and muscle spasms since January.
“All I am asking is to be a productive member of society,” Ross said in a press release. “I was not fired for poor work performance, but for an antiquated policy on medical marijuana.”
Do we really want to be a country where the titans of industry get to make medical decisions for their employees?A nation where people have to choose between non-toxic effective herbal remedies and gainful employment?And those of you who don’t smoke marijuana, remember the Neimoller Poem… first they came for the trade unionists… Who’s to say the next thing they test for are anti-depressant drugs, under the theory that you’re a potential danger because you’re mentally unstable?
Keith Stroup on MA marijuana conviction; Charles Thomas on Interfaith efforts to pass MN MedMJ; GOP reaction to Obama MedMJ comments; music by Mikey Dread.
Pot’s Effects On Driving Performance Contrast Alcohol’s, Study Says; Survey: One In Seven Public School Districts Drug Test Students; Hawaii: Legislature Approves Medical Marijuana Task Force Measure; Dale Geiringer on CA bills; Jesse Stout on RI bill.
UK Parliament to vote on stiffer pot penalties; Inhaled cannabis reduces neuropathic pain; Keith Stroup goes to trial Monday, will argue constitutionality of Mass. pot laws; interview with Douglas Hiatt, attorney for Tim Garon.
Hepatitis C Patient Denied Transplant Based on State and Doctor Approved Medi-Pot Use; New Study Indicates Cannabis-Associated Psychosis Risk Is Minimal; More Than 230 Cities, 35 Countries To Hold Marijuana Rallies This Weekend
Part 1 of Marijuana Law Reform 2007: State Legislative Reforms and Future Efforts panel at the NORML 2007 Conference. Panelists: Mikki Norris, Joshua Schimburg, Alison Holcomb, Esq., Keith Stroup, Esq., Jesse Stout, Ray Warren, Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D. Panel chair: Paul Armentano
