Quebec Police today conducted raids every medical marijuana dispensary in Quebec. Confirmation of police raids from Montreal Compassion Centre, the oldest dispensary in Quebec, as well as the other 2 clubs, Montreal Compassion Club and Quebec (City) Compassion Centre. This followed last months police raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in Toronto and Guelph. Legitimate Dispensaries in Canada use the same strict protocols to ensure only legitimate medical marijuana users access their services.
"These are sick and dying people, patients, whose only relief is from medical marijuana. Why on earth would Quebec police act so callously?" said Jacob Hunter, Policy Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, "Courts have ruled these patients have a right to access medical marijuana, a right Health Canada ignores for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. These Dispensaries serve the thousands of patients unable to access Health Canada's byzantine system, and most importantly, the courts have acknowledged this fact" Read more »
As one of the country's foremost marijuana legalization activists, Dana Larsen knows the score when it comes to pot laws in Canada.
He's been involved in the marijuana debate in various capacities: as a politician, an entrepreneur, and as editor of the alternative magazine, Cannabis Culture, alongside Canada's 'prince of pot,' Marc Emery. His most recent project has been the publication of a parody called Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone, a sequel to which will be released in the near future.
By. Jacob Hunter, Policy Director, Beyond Prohibition Foundation
Last Tuesday, Stephen Harper and Google launched “Talk Canada” an online town hall in which Canadians were asked to submit questions to the Prime Minister. Much to the Prime Minister's chagrin, the questions which dominated the voting demanded the legalization of marijuana.
“According to recent polls, marijuana legalization has almost double the support of the current Conservative government”, said Jacob Hunter, Policy Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, “Despite this, the Conservative government is pushing for mandatory minimum sentences of 6 months for growing a single marijuana plant; it should be no wonder Canadians are frustrated”
By Matthew Burrows, Georgia Straight
About one-third of the 24 cultivators contracted to grow medicinal marijuana exclusively for the B.C. Compassion Club Society will be affected if the minority Conservative government’s Bill C-15 becomes law. The bill is seeking mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.
Jacob Hunter, policy director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, told the Georgia Straight by phone that as a result of Senate amendments, growers who own homes can cultivate up to 200 plants and not face a mandatory minimum. “If they are renting, however, and even if they are a medicinal grower, one plant is a nine-month mandatory minimum,” he said.
Jeet-Kei Leung, communications coordinator at the society’s Commercial Drive cannabis dispensary, told the Straight “there are a dozen different ways in which this is bad news.”
Leung dismissed the Conservatives for being “stuck in the 1950s”. However, he didn’t spare the federal Liberals, who have almost unanimously followed the governing party through three readings of Bill C-15 in the House of Commons. If the House approves Senate amendments, only royal assent separates the bill from becoming law.
Groups opposing the bill claim it is more harmful then helpful
By. Britt Carlsen
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - For the first time in Canadian history, if passed, Bill C-15 proposes to apply a mandatory minimum sentence for a wide range of drug offences, even growing a single marijuana plant. Jacob Hunter of Beyond Prohibition Foundation believes that this will cause more harm than good. Hunter says we'll see more violent drug markets fueled by higher profit and characterized by a greater participation of organized crime if the bill is passed. He added that more hardened criminals will use the mandatory minimums to justify large scale grow operations.
So what is Hunter's group proposing? He says his groups aim is a regulated, taxed and legal marketplace for cannabis. Hunter believes that prohibition is causing more dangerous effects to our society than marijuana ever could and he's not the only one. When asked about what he thought of the proposed Bill C-15 Vancouver's so-called Prince of Pot, Mark Emery, said anything that puts people in jail for drugs is going to fill prisons.
Adults that use marijuana daily face no brain damage or neuro-chemical changes a study from McGill University suggests. Researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre gave daily doses of an extremely potent and highly concentrated synthetic cannabinoid agonist. Cannabis is a weak semi-agonist, meaning the study used something dramatically more powerful than natural cannabis. Despite this, adult rats in the study showed no ill effects, even after 20 days of daily exposure to this extremely potent chemical.
“The extremely potent chemical these researchers used produces an effect that would be impossible with natural cannabis”, said Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, “yet, it produced no ill-effects. Worse, the study was reported as suggesting cannabis use by adolescent humans might be dangerous. That kind of extrapolation is unscientific and fuels anti-cannabis reefer madness. We see the effects of this hysteria in Parliament, with the Conservative government trying to jail Canadians for growing even 1 marijuana plant.”
Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson claimed in the National Post Thursday that his Conservative government's mandatory minimum sentencing bills would make Canada safer. The same day the most comprehensive analysis of United States sentencing and arrest rates for drugs, which are among the highest in the world, was released. Its conclusion: that these harsh sentences have failed to decrease drug use or associated crime; often they have increased it.
“It's absolutely clear from international evidence that harsh laws do not decrease drug use or associated crime” said Jacob Hunter, Beyond Prohibition Foundation Policy Director, “The Minister of Justice has either consulted no evidence or he is intentionally misleading Canadians”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4th, 2009
Beyond Prohibition Foundation
Stephen Harper appeared at the National Arts Centre to preform a Beatles song with Yo Yo Ma last week. Harper, whose government has disregarded overwhelming evidence showing the prohibition of marijuana is an unmitigated failure, sang a song by the Beatles about getting high with his friends. This despite repeated statement by various Conservative ministers including the Prime Minister, that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana would send the wrong message to children.
"Stephen Harper is singing a song about an act, passing a joint, that would under C-15 qualify him for a 6 month Mandatory Minimum prison sentence for 'trafficking' marijuana" said Jacob Hunter of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation, "This Conservative government wants to throw people in jail for an act as simple as passing a joint, yet has no problem sending it's leader out to sing about it; the hypocrisy of this government is astounding" Read more »
Rahim Jaffer, the former Conservative caucus chair, was recently arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession. After 12 years as a Member of Parliament, Jaffer lost the last election in part for his attacks on the NDP Leader Jack Layton for his progressive stance on marijuana. Jaffer implied that Mr. Layton's comments were a threat to children and communities.
"Drunk driving is a serious offence, particularly when the driver is speeding through a village. Drunk driving risks peoples lives and has killed thousands of Canadians" said Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation. "Mr. Jaffer, if convicted, belongs in jail, not for his alleged possession of cocaine but for drunk driving. The Harper Conservative government has been obsessed with appearing tough on crime. I wonder if they will crusade as vehemently against Mr Jaffer as they have against the poor, the marginalized and the addicted?" Read more »
You are right that ad hominem attacks are not exactly the most convincing form of argumentation. That said, Health Canada deserves every bit of the scorn heaped on it by Mr. Emery. Its medical cannabis program is a nightmare of bureaucratic inefficiency and callousness, marked by hysterical and unfounded fears and an intentional refusal to make the program workable. I work for many medical cannabis users and the nightmare stories I hear on an almost daily basis cause me to agree, mostly, with Mr. Emery description of that particular government institution.
I have read the study, scientific jargon and all, and I must say that the conclusions actually reached do not fully match the headlines and descriptions used in the press. Of course, that is a common failing of journalism - call it the flip side of ad hominem - making sensational copy at the expense of actual facts. Read more »
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
by Jimmy Thomson and Devanne O'Brien
By. Jacob Hunter, Policy Director, Beyond Prohibition Foundation
By 
Groups opposing the bill claim it is more harmful then helpful
Beyond Prohibition Foundation Press Release
Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson claimed in the National Post Thursday that his Conservative government's mandatory minimum sentencing bills would make Canada safer. The same day the most comprehensive analysis of United States sentencing and arrest rates for drugs, which are among the highest in the world, was released. Its conclusion: that these harsh sentences have failed to decrease drug use or associated crime; often they have increased it.
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