Jacob Hunter's blog
Canada's Federal Jail population set to rise 70 percent
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:46am
By. Kat LeeA city co-sponsored feasibility study lists three pieces of legislation the federal government wants passed, each one of which would result in more people headed for federal jail cells.
One piece of legislation calls for minimum sentences for serious drug cases, another would end the practice of lopping off two days for every day a person is sentenced if that person has been in jail since first arrested and another would impose mandatory jail time for fraud.
The new sentence requirements could boost the federal jail population by 70 per cent, the study suggests.
Victoria Police Censor Officers who Oppose Prohibition
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 1:04pm
WhyProhibition.ca is joining with LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) and the BCCLA (British Columbia Civil Liberties Association) in opposing the decision by Victoria Police to censor one of their officers. It's clear that police departments across Canada and the United States consistently speak out in favour of prohibition, including producing, in the case of the RCMP, bogus research to support prohibition.
Join with LEAP, the BCCLA and WhyProhibition.ca and demand the Victoria Police stop this selective censorship of their officers who choose to speak out against the failure of drug prohibition.
Sign the Petition: http://www.
Provinces to spend $2.7B on prisons
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 11:25am
By. Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
OTTAWA–Provinces are spending $2.7 billion to expand or replace aging and overcrowded jails across Canada – with little public scrutiny, an Ottawa researcher says.
Justin Piché, a PhD candidate in sociology at Carleton University, obtained data through freedom of information requests, email and phone contact with each of the provinces and territories.
In all, Piché says at least 22 new "bigger and better" provincial-territorial prisons are at various stages of completion, some still in the planning or early tendering stages. If all are built, he says, they will increase the capacity of provincial adult jails by at least 5,788 beds.
Conservatives to ask top court to rule on Vancouver safe-injection site
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 3:52pm
By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
The federal government is appealing the recent ruling of the B.C. Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
B.C.'s appeal court, in a 2-1 decision last month, upheld the lower court ruling that dismissed the federal government appeal.
The appeal ruling allowed Insite, the first legal supervised injection site in North America, to continue operating on East Hastings in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Insite was served notice Tuesday that the Conservative federal government plans to appeal the B.C. Appeal Court ruling, which was handed down Jan. 15.
Help Free Marc Emery!
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 6:56am
What you can do: Call:
Sample script: "I am a voter and I am outraged at what the government is doing to Marc Emery. I urge you to NOT extradite Marc Emery to the USA. I and many others are deeply moved and angered by Marc Emery's imprisonment. Free Marc Emery!"
Get Involved! Help Defeat Prohibition
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 08/10/2009 - 9:31amWe need to get a lot of work done to legalize marijuana, here's some ways to help!
Howto: Volunteer Get active helping build activism in Canada!
Howto: Organize Protests: May 1, 2010 is the Global Marijuana March, and of course there is always 4/20 (April 20) and Cannabis Day, July 1. We need organizers working across Canada on these and other events.
Recruit new members: Send that link out over Facebook and Twitter, encourage your friends to sign up! WhyProhibition.ca will is the basis for a number of important campaigns, including a new BC referendum to legalize Marijuana. We need people to register so they can find out about upcoming protests, rallies, and laws.
Submitting Content: We need bloggers, researchers, newshawks, and activists to get posting! You can use the userblogs section to post blogs, news, upload files (especially pamphlets, we're looking to host as many drug policy pamphlets as we can find!)
Howto: Get involved in your community: One of the most important things you can do is get involved in your local community. Join other activist groups, volunteer at soup kitchens, march in local parades. When we get involved, not only do we reach out to potential allies, but we also represent the best of our community to people who may be unfamiliar with it. If you're unsure about a group, attend some meetings and see if they're amenable to drug policy reform.
Vote Online for Legalization of Marijuana in Canada
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:38am
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to ask the Internet what issue is most pressing to Canadians.
We have a chance to push marijuana legalization to the top of that list (It's currently #2 and #3). You don't have to be Canadian to participate, so please, wherever you're from, help us legalize marijuana in Canada.
Please, click here to vote for marijuana legalization! Let's make marijuana the #1 and #2 questions to Stephen Harper!
This is our chance to force this issue front and centre before the Prime Minister, so please, vote today.
NDP, Liberal, Conservative politicians petition to stop Marc Emery's extradition to the US
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:32am
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia StraightMembers of Parliament from three parties—Conservative, Liberal, and New Democrat—are poised to present petitions with thousands of signatures seeking to stop the extradition to the U.S. of Canada’s Prince of Pot, Marc Emery.
The politicians are Conservative MP Scott Reid of Ontario, Vancouver South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, and Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies, the Georgia Straight has learned.
“That’s correct,” Reid’s aide Mike Firth confirmed by phone from Ottawa. “We haven’t arranged a day yet. We’re still trying to get a day when the three of them will be available at the same time.”
Last summer, Emery entered into a plea bargain with American authorities that will likely see him thrown in a U.S. jail for at least five years for distributing marijuana seeds.
The petitions ask Conservative justice minister and attorney general Rob Nicholson not to sign the extradition papers of the Vancouver-based cannabis activist.
California Medical Marijuana Patients Regularly Arrested for Hash
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:22am
By Skip Jone, NewsReview.com
American puffers have always had to deal with the fact that law-enforcement officials traditionally make a distinction between marijuana in plant form and concentrated derivatives such as hash and kief. Now that California has legalized marijuana for medicinal use, that distinction continues to send innocent patients to jail for possession of hash and other concentrates, despite the fact that they are clearly authorized by Proposition 215, according to former state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
“Concentrated cannabis or hashish is included within the meaning of ‘marijuana’ as that term is used in the Compassionate Use Act of 1996,” Lockyer determined in a 2003 ruling.
Are You Cannabis Deficient?
Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:18am
by The Medicine HunterIn August 1990, researchers reported in the journal Nature the discovery of receptors in the brain that specifically accommodate the cannabinoids in pot. Cannabinoids bind to particular neurological sites in the brain, as though the brain was specifically designed to utilize this plant. Did nature toss cannabinoid receptors into the brain by random chance? Are cannabinoid receptors part of an intelligent design for deriving maximum benefit from cannabis? Is cannabis a divine elixir of sacred communion for which we are ideally suited? Actually, a more sober answer seems likely. When there are receptors in the brain for a particular type of compound, that compound is made in the brain. This is true of many important agents that work to transmit brain messages of all types. So a hunt began to find such a compound.
Free Marc Emery
