Cannabis

Yesterday, June 3 2010, the 3 legitimate Compassion Clubs in Quebec were raided by police without warning or provocation. Compassion Clubs have been recognized by the courts for years as an essential component of the constitutional right to medicinal cannabis, yet only now under the Conservative government is their existence is under attack. Now, thousands of patients suffering from various serious conditions reliant on accessing relief through Compassion Clubs have been put at risk. They must choose between going without their necessary medication, or obtaining it from untrusted sources off the street.

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CSSDP

 

Already in 2010 several medical marijuana compassion clubs have been raided by police in Iqaluit, Guelph, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City. Staff have been given or threatened with criminal trafficking charges. Patients unfortunate enough to be inside at the time of the raids have been detained, questioned, and charged for attempting to access medicine that has been produced safely and responsibly. The clubs have had their contents confiscated, crippling their ability to conduct business, and more importantly denying patients safe and secure access to medication.

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BC Civil Liberties Association:

 

Quebec police shut down three medical cannabis dispensaries, also known as “compassion clubs” today, arresting all staff on site for trafficking. The Quebec closures follow a raid on a compassion club in Nunavut in February, in Toronto at the end of March, and in Guelph in May.

 

“These national raids have now sent thousands of Canadians to purchase their medicine on the street,” said Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. “The police by these actions have enriched organize crime, encouraged associated criminal activity, and shut down non-profit organizations dedicated to improving people’s health and wellness. By any standard these raids make no sense at all.”

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By: The Canadian Press

 

MONTREAL - Police have launched a major anti-pot dragnet in Quebec and say they plan to arrest 25 people for distributing marijuana.

 

They are conducting raids at five cannabis clubs — better known as compassion clubs — in Montreal and Quebec City.

 

The organizations supply marijuana, ostensibly as therapeutic treatment for people suffering from certain medical conditions.

 

A police spokesman says no organized crime gangs are linked to the operations, but they remain illegal nonetheless.

 

Canada has in fact allowed medical access to marijuana since 2001 but, police say, people who want permission to smoke it must go through Health Canada. Read more »

CBC News

 

Montreal police are in the process of raiding four clubs that provide marijuana for people who need it for medical purposes.

 

"They just walked in out of nowhere, showed us the paper and said, 'There's the warrant,'" said Maria Koklas, a volunteer at the Culture 420 compassion club in Lachine.

 

"There's about 15 to 20 cops in here walking around inside the dispensary taking all of our membership IDs, asking them for all their personal information, asking them for their criminal records and letting them know if they don't have criminal records they will be free to go."

 

Police are also carrying out operations at three compassion clubs on the Plateau Mont-Royal.

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By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun

 

Civil disobedience took it on the chin in a B.C. Court of Appeal judgment Wednesday that said such behaviour undermines the rule of law.

 

In a unanimous ruling that took aim at those advocating an end to the current criminal marijuana prohibition, the court said disagreeing with the law does not permit you to break it.

 

Nevertheless, the three-justice panel gave a break to the owners and an employee of the now-defunct-but-once-renowned Holy Smoke Culture Shop in Nelson, reducing the length of their sentences for trafficking pot and sparing them jail time.

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By Paul Cowley - Red Deer Advocate

 

Local supporters of Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot” will rally in front of City Hall on Saturday.

 

Marc Emery, 52, pleaded guilty in a Seattle courtroom on Monday to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and will receive a five-year prison sentence.

 

The owner of Vancouver’s Cannabis Culture store was extradited to the United States last week after being charged with shipping millions of marijuana seeds to customers south of the border.

 

Nicole Raffa, 26, said as a marijuana user she has been following Emery’s efforts to legalize cannabis for a number of years and believes he has been unfairly targeted.

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By Richard Gilbert , Daily Commercial News

 

The first drug testing program of its kind in Canada has evidence to support the claim that drinking or using illegal drugs on the job is not a major problem for unionized construction workers in British Columbia.

 

“The B.C. construction industry testing and treatment program is alive and well, and we have tested about 1,500 people,” said Construction Labour Relations Association (CLRA) president Clyde Scollan. “We have about 10 projects where testing has been done. So far, we are running at 3.4 per cent positive test results.

 

“The industry average for similar programs in different jurisdictions is 5 per cent or higher.”

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By. Kelowna Daily Courier

 

Pio says he wants police in B.C. to better understand medical marijuana

 

Don Pio is authorized to smoke marijuana, and he wants every sheriff and police officer in B.C. to leave him alone.

 

Six months after his arrest for carrying pot into the Kelowna Law Courts, the 35-year-old Kelowna man is suing the provincial sheriffs service and the RCMP. He claims authorities humiliated him and made him suffer by depriving him of his medicine.

 

Pio is allowed to light up to control his nausea, and he wants people in uniform to stop harassing him, he said.

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By: Douglas Quan, Canwest News Service

 

The weed may be fake, but the potential dangers are real.

 

That's the message health authorities in Canada and the United States are sending out about a herbal incense product that, when smoked, mimics some of the effects of marijuana.

 

Sold online and in head shops under brand names such as K2, Spice and Yucatan Fire, the packets of dried herbs (including white and blue water lily, dwarf skullcap and blue lotus) are infused with one or more synthetic cannabinoids - molecules that mirror the psychoactive properties in marijuana.

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