drug war

By: Lara Fominoff, News 1130

SURREY (NEWS1130) - If you have a medical marijuana permit, grow your own plants and live in Surrey, you will soon have some new rules to follow.

Mayor Dianne Watts says it's all about public safety.  "They shouldn't be in residential areas, they need to be in other areas."

Until now, Watts says there were no rules on where people could grow their pot plants, or what safety precautions need to be taken.

"So you don't have the dispensaries, stand alone dispensaries, you don't have those, the production of medicinal marijuana within neighborhoods. There's got to be some criteria in terms of just fire safety issues." Read more »

BY FRANK LUBA, THE PROVINCE

Fifteen residents who had their properties incorrectly inspected under the District of Mission's controversial bylaw to control marijuana grow operations have received apologies and won't have to pay the onerous inspection 'fee'.

The 'fee', which critics call a fine, can be as high as $10,000.

Details of the situation are contained in a review of the Public Safety Inspection Team done by Mission's deputy chief administrative officer Paul Gipps that was presented to council Monday.

The review concentrated on 70 files that were "open" because the fines had not been paid. Read more »

BY MICHAEL SMYTH, THE PROVINCE

It’s amazing how the amount of electricity stolen by marijuana growers in B.C. is increasing faster than a hippie’s appetite after a double bong hit.

A new report cited by B.C. Hydro pegs the annual amount of power stolen by marijuana grow ops at an astonishing $109 million.

The report adds some new categories: “illegitimate” power use by marijuana growers who actually pay their bills, and the amount of money B.C. Hydro must spend on upgraded infrastructure to deliver all that power to thousands of grow ops.

Total damage to B.C. Hydro and its customers from marijuana grow ops: $154 million a year, the equivalent of a five-per-cent surcharge on your electricity bill. Read more »

BY DAN GARDNER, TIMES COLONIST

Earlier this month, a panel of eminent persons released a report calling on the world's governments to dramatically change how they deal with illicit drugs. "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," concluded the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

The commission's 19 members include former presidents of Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and former Canadian Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

But for those who know the history of the war on drugs, the most striking name on the list is that of Kofi Annan. Read more »

By NEIL BOWEN, The Observer

Despite confusion about which butt was his, a Windsor man caught with marijuana at the Grand Bend beach was fined $750 in Sarnia court.

Andreas G. Hapides, 35, pleaded guilty Tuesday to possession of two marijuana cigarette butts on May 24, 2010.

Hapides was found in a vehicle at the beach parking lot with another man, along with three alcoholic coolers at 4 a.m. Both had been drinking and the officer suggested they leave the vehicle.

As they exited an open cooler bottle was spotted. A search produced two butts along with a marijuana grinder.

Hapides' lengthy criminal record included drug offences.

"For once I am pleading guilty when none of it was mine . . . I just want to get this over with," Hapides said following his plea. Read more »

By Oakland Ross, The [Toronto] Star

She was 24 years old — and six months pregnant — when Canadian authorities sent her back to Mexico, one more number in a long line of failed Mexican refugee claimants.

She was seven months pregnant when she was kidnapped.

Two months later, and still a captive, she gave birth by caesarian section, as an autopsy would later show.

A month after that, she was dead — shot once through the head following a severe beating.

Call her Grise. The name is a pseudonym, used to protect the woman’s relatives both here and in Mexico, and the motives for her murder remain unclear, but the story is true. Read more »

By Evan Wood, Associate Professor of Medicine,  University of British Columbia

June 17th marks the forty-year anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of a global “war on drugs.” Last week, perhaps to mark the occasion, an unprecedented group of world leaders came together to release the landmark report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy to the United Nations Secretary General. The Commission, which includes former heads of state of a range of Latin American and European countries as well as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, represents the highest level group ever to come together to discuss what has traditionally been a taboo subject for politicians. Remarkably, rather than advocating for a reinvestment in the war on drugs approach—as heads of state have historically been known to do—the Commission is calling for a total “paradigm shift” in drug policy, including encouraging “experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs, such as cannabis, that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime.” Read more »

By: Chris Selley, National Post

Last week in Hartford, the Connecticut House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1014, an act concerning the penalty for certain non-violent drug offences. Assuming Governor Dan Malloy signs off, Connecticut will become the 14th American state to decriminalize marijuana. For a first offence, at least, getting caught with a half-ounce of pot will be no more life-altering than getting caught speeding. The bill passed 90-57, with 11 Republicans voting yes. It’d be nice to think some Canadian Conservative MPs were paying attention.

Not so long ago, Canada was going the same way. Two Liberal governments — one majority, one minority — tabled very similar legislation. And that made us super-cool. Got us on the cover of The Economist, it did, and cheesed off Uncle Sam to boot. When American ambassador Paul Cellucci warned of massive border delays, prime minister Paul Martin portentously replied that “Canada will make its own laws, pure and simple.”

Or, it won’t. The first bill was prorogued to death; the second expired concurrently with Mr. Martin’s lease at 24 Sussex Drive. Now the Conservatives plan a crackdown, with mandatory minimum sentences for small-scale pot growers. And unlike the Liberals, it seems they’ll follow through. It’s unnecessary, and not very conservative at all. Read more »

Agence France-Presse, Published: The Province

The global war on drugs has failed and decriminalizing narcotics such as marijuana could finally help weaken organized gangs, former world leaders said Thursday.

Arguing for a new approach to national and global drug control policies, the Global Commission on Drug Policy called for nations to "break the taboo on debate and reform."

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the members of the commission said in the report released in New York. Read more »

BY MINDELLE JACOBS, EDMONTON SUN

The timing couldn’t be more ironic.

The Harper Tories have just won a majority with plans to move full steam ahead with legislation that will mean tougher sentences for drug crimes, including the possession of a few pot plants.

Meanwhile, an international body, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, just released a report urging governments to abandon their futile, prohibitionist attitudes and have the courage to decriminalize and regulate drugs, especially pot.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” the commission declared. Read more »