marijuana

By Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star

The omnibus crime bill is a freight train of unintended consequences. Here are some examples:

By increasing the penalties for the production of marijuana, many small-time growers — people who are unlikely to take a bigger risk — will get out of the game.

The unintended consequence?

When the small fry leave, the field becomes bigger and more profitable for the hard-core growers, the professional gangs who know how to protect themselves, and who are thus in a position to reap big financial rewards when the price of pot rises.

The bad guys get richer?

I’d say that’s an unintended consequence. Read more »

By ROBERT MATAS, Globe and Mail

Geoff Plant has felt for years that the prohibition of marijuana is wrong. Now that the former B.C. attorney-general is out of government, he has decided it's time to push for the legalization of the drug.

“I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it,” Mr. Plant said.

Last week, Mr. Plant joined three former NDP attorneys-general to support a campaign against federal legislation that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor, non-violent marijuana-related offences. Read more »

BY ROBERT KOOPMANS, DAILY NEWS

A Kamloops medical marijuana activist says he will challenge Canada’s drug laws as unconstitutional after being charged with trafficking.

Carl Anderson was charged by the federal Crown last week with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The charges stem from a Kamloops police search of Anderson’s Tranquille storefront. Drug officers searched the store Nov. 1, seizing several boxes of items, including growing and dried marijuana.

Anderson is scheduled to appear in provincial court to face the charges Feb. 20. A federal Crown prosecutor from Vancouver is expected to appear here to handle the file. Read more »

By Jeremy Deutsch - Kamloops This Week

A recent letter signed by four former B.C. attorneys general calling for the legalization of cannabis appears to have support from both sides of the political spectrum in Kamloops.

Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger said he respects and supports the decision by Premier Christy Clark to leave the issue up to the federal government, but personally agrees with the letter.

He compared the fight against marijuana to the battle Americans waged against alcohol in the 1920s.

It’s a battle he believes the country is losing. Read more »

By: Dale Smith, Xtra News

Conservative Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin is taking a stand against the Harper government by opposing Bill C-10, the omnibus crime bill.

A lawyer before Brian Mulroney appointed him to the Senate in 1993, Nolin has studied drug policy for more than a decade. His criticism of C-10 stems largely from his belief that the prohibition of marijuana in this country needs to end. He has declined to give press interviews on the matter, but he has outlined his position on several occasions, most recently in a December 16 speech on C-10 at the bill’s second reading in the Senate. (The complete text of the speech is included in the original article). Nolin focused on the plight of medical marijuana users, who have remained in a legal grey zone since 1997 when the Supreme Court struck down some parts of The Controlled Drug and Substances Act (CDSA). Read more »

BY MIKE RAPTIS AND IAN AUSTIN, THE PROVINCE

Four former B.C. attorneys-general have added their authoritative voices to the call for the decriminalization of marijuana.

Former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, along with Geoff Plant, Colin Gabelmann and Graeme Bowbrick, added their experience as the province’s top legal authority to legalization.

“As former B.C. attorneys-general, we are fully aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago,” write the four, who collectively served as attorneys general from 1991 to 2005, a critical period of time when public perception of pot smoking changed dramatically.

“The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight. Read more »

Sean Leslie, CKNW

Premier Christy Clark is rebuffing a call from a group of former B.C Attorneys-General to support the legalization of marijuana.

That call comes in a letter to both Clark and NDP leader Adrian Dix from Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant.

"I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government,” Clark said today. “It’s in their sole role, sole sphere of responsibility. So as a Premier I respect that former Attorneys-General have taken this stand, people who are outside of politics, but as a Premier I’m going to leave this to the federal government."

Clark did not answer when asked if she has smoked pot. Read more »

Terrace Standard

SKEENA BULKLEY VALLEY NDP MP Nathan Cullen continues his campaign to be leader of his party by saying marijuana should be decriminalized.

“Prohibition clearly has not achieved its goals and it’s time our laws stopped criminalizing people whom society does not see as criminals,” said Cullen in response to a questionnaire from NDP members who want marijuana to be legalized.

He also favoured increasing access to marijuana for medicinal use.

Cullen also backed InSite, a supervised drug injection site in Vancouver, saying it reduces crime, saves lives and reduces drug dependence. Read more »

By: Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Media reports that some pot growers will face harsher mandatory-minimum sentences than child rapists under the Conservative government's new crime bill were enough to catch the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

A request by The Canadian Press for cabinet records on the controversial omnibus crime legislation turned up a single document — much of it blacked out under a broad, discretionary exemption in the Access to Information Act.

The Oct. 11, 2011, "memorandum for the prime minister" says its purpose was to inform Harper about the controversial sentencing provisions "in light of recent criticism in the media." Read more »

BY EVAN WOOD AND DAVID BRATZER, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

The front lines of the War on Drugs in British Columbia are not for the faint of heart. As an internal medicine specialist and a police officer who has spent much of his career at the forefront of anti-drug enforcement efforts, we’ve witnessed the bloody aftermath of shootings, stabbings and other violent confrontations that are common in B.C.’s drug trade. Read more »