jon ferry

Let's tax marijuana to death like tobacco

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 4:49pm
in
By Jon Ferry, The Province
 
If you're at all interested in the ongoing debate over pot legalization, look south right now to cash-starved California.
 
It's smoking hot there, with arguments being marshalled for and against Proposition 19, which would allow people 21 and over to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use -- and let local governments regulate and tax commercial production of it.
 
Cannabis Culture chief Jodie Emery, wife of Prince of Pot Marc Emery, told me Thursday the proposed legislation is contentious, even among California growers. Some fear passage of the initiative, on the Nov. 2 California statewide ballot, will cut into their profits or even drive them out of business.
 
"The price of marijuana is going to drop drastically if it's available in a legal market and people are allowed to buy it and grow it themselves legally," noted Emery, whose husband is in a federal prison in Seattle awaiting sentencing on seed-selling charges.

Jacob responds to Jon Ferry on David Nutt firings

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:29am
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Mr Ferry,
While I strongly disagree with you about the latitude which should be afforded scientists in the policy process, I do understand your position.

That being said, why do you not come out strongly when the RCMP (Or, as it was last week, the OPP) issue press releases with unsubstantiated and alarmist statements about the danger of marijuana cultivation facilities?

Last week, the OPP Commissioner issued a press release that have a number of "scare-points" which directly contradict both the scientific evidence and national police statistics. That same police commissioner has repeatedly asked for larger budgets. This press release was issued by the OPP, not by a police union. Public money being used to lobby.

RE Jon Ferry, Province Aug 7

Submitted by Kirk Tousaw on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 7:54am
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Jon:

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.

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