Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 6:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
OTTAWA — The military may strictly forbid marijuana use by its soldiers, but the federal government has decided to pay for medical cannabis for some veterans.
Veterans Affairs has reversed a previous ban, now saying it “may provide payment in relation to the associated costs of medically required marijuana to clients who have qualified.”
Payments can be made only to veterans licensed by Health Canada to possess medical marijuana, and who buy government-certified cannabis produced on contract by a firm in Flin Flon, Manitoba.
The policy change was approved last October, but is only now being communicated to veterans who require the product for pain management and other severe medical conditions.
About eight veterans licensed by Health Canada are having their medical marijuana bills picked up by taxpayers, said Janice Summerby, spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs.
Wow, a large North American country with legal medical marijuana coast to coast, extending their government-paid Universal Health Care coverage to pay for marijuana! How are the Canadians dealing with the inevitable socialism and teenage heroin addiction that’s sure to result?
Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Ted Kindos, of Gator Ted’s Tap and Grill, has filed a federal court application asking that people permitted by Ottawa to use marijuana for health reasons remain subject to provincial laws. He wants the court to declare he doesn’t have to serve such users when doing so would violate the Ontario Liquor Licence Act, putting him at risk of losing his business. The act says he can’t serve anyone possessing a banned substance.
“You can’t put somebody above the liquor licence act – that’s ridiculous,” Kindos said yesterday of an Ontario Human Rights Commission ruling against him last year, saying a disabled person has a right to be served even if doing so breaks provincial laws.
Last month, Ontario Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin sought to clarify rules on prescribed marijuana use, asking federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq for a meeting on the issue. Four years ago, customer Steve Gibson was smoking a joint outside Gator Ted’s when Kindos asked him to move from the doorway.
Gibson, who smokes to control pain, complained to the rights commission that Kindos discriminated against him as a disabled person.
The commission said Kindos must pay Gibson $2,000, and post signs in Gator Ted’s and on his website saying, “We accommodate authorized marijuana users.” He was set to comply when he learned of the liquor act prohibitions.
Once again, Kindos just doesn’t like marijuana and is looking for any way to avoid compliance with the Human Rights Commission’s order. Medical marijuana is not a “banned substance” for the Health Canada-approved user, so I don’t even see how the provincial liquor law makes any difference at all, even ignoring the fact that Canadian federal law supersedes Ontario provincial law.
Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 2:59 pm | By: Radical Russ
[I'm stealing this post from MrSpof because I just gotta give my dos centavos on this one. -- "R"R]
The family of a woman who used marijuana to ease the pain of a spinal injury had their house raided and ransacked by RCMP last week after the police received an anonymous tip about a “smell” emanating from the home. Although the authorities found only a few marijuana plants, they have condemned the home and placed the children in foster care under family child protection services.
On Thursday, February 19, Kim MacNearney, a human resources manager for the government of the North West Territories (NWT), her husband Craig and their two boys (age 1 and 3), were shocked when the RCMP burst into their Yellowknife home without a search warrant, knocked holes in walls, sliced open new baby mattresses, and took both children away.
MacNearney says she had previously visited her doctor about legal medical cannabis use regarding a spinal injury and the Health Canada program, but the doctor refused to discuss it with her.
After trashing their house, police then called the Fire Marshal who arrived and condemned their home as a grow-op for their small personal medical closet garden.
When people blithely say, “Oh, nobody goes to prison for marijuana”, like our former Drug Czar John Walters, I point them to cases like this. Â Imagine body armored black booted police, knocking down your door, setting off flash-bang grenades, zip-tying you and your spouse and children in your own home, and holding automatic assault rifles to your head while they go about destroying your home and property, all because of your house plants. Â Whether you spend a day in jail or not, whether you are arrested or charged with any crime or not, your life is forever changed.
The tactics during these raids include destroying personal property and even killing family pets in order to terrorize and intimidate the citizens being raided. Â They might be tactics to consider if you are raiding Scarface’s cocaine-and-firearms-laden Miami estate, but we’re talking about a young family with toddlers; a teenaged government clerk, for Pete’s sake!
This prohibition even intimidates the doctors who have the perfectly legal option of recommending government-supplied medicinal cannabis all across the country. Â Canada has ten times the population of my home state of Oregon, yet Oregon has ten times as many registered medical marijuana patients… and we don’t even have government-backed universal health care like Canada! Â People here actually have to pay doctors out of their own pocket to become patients! Â If only Mrs. MacNearney’s doctor had helped become a registered Canadian patient, we wouldn’t be writing this commentary today.
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 5:12 pm | By: Radical Russ
Compassion clubs and other medical marijuana distributors should have restrictions on them lifted, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled on Monday.
To the delight of a packed courtroom in Vancouver, Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg said federal regulations that limit people’s access to medicinal cannabis are “constitutionally invalid” and gave the government a year to amend the rules.
The current rules under the federal medical marijuana program limit a supplier from providing marijuana to more than one patient and restrict growers from sharing a common space.
Koenigsberg found [grower Mathew] Beren guilty on two drug-related charges Monday but granted him an absolute discharge because he grew marijuana exclusively for the Vancouver Island Compassion Society.
It’s one of the most frustrating things about medical marijuana: we worked hard to convince the people that sick, disabled, and sense-threatened citizens should not go to jail for using marijuana as medicine. Â But because the law still considers most marijuana users criminals, the people fear the diversion of medical marijuana into “criminal” marijuana, so most medical marijuana states place severe restrictions on medical marijuana distribution and possession and growing and selling.
PATIENT: I’m desperately sick! Â Can I please use marijuana?
PEOPLE: Sure, we’re down with that.
PATIENT: Great! Â Where can I buy some?
PEOPLE: Oh, we can’t let you buy any. Â If we let people sell marijuana, why, some teenager might get high!
PATIENT: But I can’t grow it and I don’t know anybody who has it!
PEOPLE: I guess that’s your problem.
PATIENT: But I’ll die without marijuana!
PEOPLE: Well, at least no teenagers will get high.
PATIENT: Are you kidding? Â Teenagers can get weed better than I can!
Until marijuana is legal for healthy people, there will always be problems getting marijuana to sick people.
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Today we visit with Philippe Lucas from the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. He fills us in on their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Health Canada medical marijuana program, and explans the history of Ottawa’s reluctance to get involved with medical marijuana.
Aaron Smith from the Marijuana Policy Project joins us from Fresno, California. He’s promoting a screening of the documentary “Waiting to Inhale” near Fresno in an effort to educate the public and policymakers. Fresno is considering how to adopt the state-mandated ID card system for medical marijuana patients.
The screening is free and hill be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno at 2672 E. Alluvial Ave., Clovis, CA. The date is next Monday, July 7th, at 7pm, and following the screening is a panel discussion.
Also, you get to hear my spiced-up rendition of my ode to the DEA’s 35th birthday today.
So, it’s Canada Day, eh? Enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash!
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 7:10 am | By: Radical Russ
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?
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Canada now pays for veterans’ medical marijuana
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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