G-420 Protest Planned for Saturday June 26 - Dundas Square to Queens Park South
Saturday, June 26 members of the Toronto Cannabis Community will be hosting the G-420 parade in downtown Toronto. The protest will start at 12pm at Dundas Square and parade will depart at 2pm to Queens Park South, via Yonge and Wellesley Streets. Organizers are adamant that nobody attend the protest wearing masks, asserting that anyone who does so will be assumed to be an undercover police officer/agent provocateur.
“The G-20 is an absolute waste of money, where very little is ever actually accomplished. A cursory glance at the security setup shows that protesters will be neither seen nor heard” said Jacob Hunter, G-420 organizer, “We are here to bring our message to the people of Toronto, that the drug war, despite $1 Trillion dollars spent, has actually increased drug availability, while enriching ever more violent organized criminals” Read more »
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 »
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”
On Tuesday, California state legislators will take historic votes on legalizing, regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana. A group of cops and judges who previously sent people to jail for marijuana offenses is supporting the legalization bill.
Sacramento, CA -- A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who fought in the failed "war on drugs" is cheering this Tuesday's upcoming marijuana legalization votes in the California Assembly's Public Safety and Health committees as a sign of increasing public frustration with the harms caused by prohibition and the widespread desire for a new approach.
Judge Jim Gray, who retired last year from the California Superior Court in Orange County and is a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) said, "The mere fact that there will be votes in the Assembly to regulate and control the sale and distribution of marijuana would have been unthinkable even one year ago. And if the bill doesn't pass this year, it will soon. Or, the bill will be irrelevant because the voters will have passed the measure to regulate and tax marijuana that will be on the ballot this November."
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.
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 »
Today the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime released a report calling for the decriminalization of casual and addict drug use and personal cannabis production. After a preface regurgitating the same tired and defunct arguments against repealing prohibition, the Report itself provides significant evidence that a law-enforcement based approach to drugs has failed. The Beyond Prohibition Foundation hopes that this report represents a fundamental and progressive shift in the official position of the international organization and a step away from the failed “War on Drugs” paradigm. Read more »
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
By. Jacob Hunter, Policy Director, Beyond Prohibition Foundation
By. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Groups opposing the bill claim it is more harmful then helpful
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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