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Calgary woman fights seizure of her son by American officials

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sat, 05/08/2010 - 11:00pm
Canadian Press
 
CALGARY - A Calgary woman is spearheading a Mother’s Day Rally to bring attention to her fight to be reunited with her 12-year-old son.
 
Lisa Kirkman says that in 2008, her son Noah was visiting his stepfather in Oregon when he was taken into the custody of the Department of Human Services because he was in the United States without a legal guardian.
 
She says the boy is still in a foster home nearly two years later and she is not allowed to visit him or even have supervised phone conversations.
 
Kirkman has said she thinks U.S. justice officials might be hung up on the fact she has edited marijuana-related magazines and has a criminal record for growing medical marijuana for her husband.

Calgarians rally to back mother's attempt to get her son back

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sat, 05/08/2010 - 11:00pm
By: Pete Curtis, Lisa Grant and Ryan Vanderwal 660News
 
A Mother's Day rally is planned for 2pm in front of the Harry Hays building for a Calgary mother, whose 12-year-old son is being held in foster care in Oregon.
 
When Lisa Kirkman travelled to Oregon in the summer of 2008, she was planning to bring her son Noah back home following a visit with his stepfather.
 
However, local authorities seized Noah claiming he was abandoned by his mother.
 
The special needs youngster was picked up when local police stopped him for not wearing a helmet while riding his bike.

Mom longs for son's return

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 05/07/2010 - 11:00pm
By Michael Platt, Calgary Sun
 
If you’re a mom today, eating soggy cereal and blackened toast in bed, count yourself lucky.
 
Lisa Kirkman would trade everything she owns to be in your place, her son Noah serving up a Mother’s Day breakfast made with love and good intentions, if not exactly digestible food.
 
“I’d trade anything to get the awful smelling perfume he’d probably give to me, or the burnt waffles he’d serve to me in bed for Mother’s Day,” says Lisa.
 
“I’d trade anything I have — I can barely even think about it, it gets me so upset.”

Energy firm allegedly promoted by Rahim Jaffer named

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 04/27/2010 - 7:43pm
Daniel Leblanc Ottawa, Globe and Mail
 
The company that former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer is alleged to have promoted to the government in his wife’s parliamentary office last year is a U.S.-Canadian firm that is developing technology to reduce mercury emissions in coal plants, sources say.
 
The office of Environment Minister Jim Prentice forwarded documents Tuesday to a parliamentary committee that is looking into allegations of unregistered lobbying by Mr. Jaffer and Patrick Glémaud, the co-owners of Green Power Generation.
 
The new documents relate to Mr. Prentice’s statement last Friday that Mr. Jaffer had discussions with one of his ministerial aides, Scott Wenger, on behalf of an unspecified company last year. Read more »

Medical Marijuana and the Law

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 10:32am
Diane E. Hoffmann, J.D., and Ellen Weber, J.D.
 
The U.S. legal landscape surrounding "medical marijuana" is complex and rapidly changing. Fourteen states — California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Maine, Hawaii, Colorado, Nevada, Vermont, Montana, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Michigan, and most recently, New Jersey — have passed laws eliminating criminal penalties for using marijuana for medical purposes, and at least a dozen others are considering such legislation.1 Medical experts have also taken a fresh look at the evidence regarding the therapeutic use of marijuana,2,3 and the American Medical Association (AMA) recently adopted a resolution urging review of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, noting it would support rescheduling if doing so would facilitate research and development of cannabinoid-based medicine. Criticizing the patchwork of state laws as inadequate to establish clinical standards for marijuana use, the AMA has joined the Institute of Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and patient advocates in calling for changes in federal drug-enforcement policies to establish evidence-based practices in this area.

Harper asked to intervene in bizarre international custody case

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 04/15/2010 - 12:11pm
Dawn Walton, Globe and Mail
 
For nearly two years, 12-year-old Noah Kirkman has been shuffled through Oregon foster homes as his family in Calgary fights through the U.S. court system to bring the youngster back to Canada.
 
Now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been asked to intervene in the bizarre international custody case, and federal Liberals are slamming Ottawa for not doing enough to protect the young Canadian citizen.
 
“I’m hoping that the Canadian government will step in at this point and just say, ‘Give us this child back. He’s Canadian and we can handle it thank you very much,’ ” said Lisa Kirkman, Noah’s mother.

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 9:50am
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By JOHN TIERNEY, New York Times
 
As a retired clinical psychologist, Clark Martin was well acquainted with traditional treatments for depression, but his own case seemed untreatable as he struggled through chemotherapy and other grueling regimens for kidney cancer. Counseling seemed futile to him. So did the antidepressant pills he tried.
 
Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms.

Feature: The Clock is Ticking on Canadian "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery's Extradition

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 04/09/2010 - 4:03pm
from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #627, 4/9/10
 
Canadian "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery's battle to avoid being extradited to the US to serve a five-year federal prison sentence for selling pot seeds over the Internet continues as the clock ticks down toward May 10 -- the date by which Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is to decide whether to okay his extradition or not. Emery and his supporters are fighting to the bitter end, and they're picking up some significant support along the way.

Battle over foster child hits court

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 6:26pm
By MICHAEL PLATT, Calgary Sun

Noah Kirkman turned 12 nearly two weeks ago.

The last time he slept in his own bed, back home in Calgary, he was ten.

If it started as a holiday, the boy’s trip to Oregon, it’s now become a two-year-long nightmare, rife with red tape.

And the strange case of Noah Kirkman is on the verge of becoming an international incident.

On Friday, a judge in Oregon will determine what to do with the Canadian child seized by the State of Oregon and placed in foster care, despite having a mother and family in Calgary desperate to get him back.

“We’re hoping the judge will back out of his position, but there’s also a chance he will say ‘screw you,’” said Lisa Kirkman, Noah’s 34-year-old mother.

Read more »

California dreaming of pot tax bonanza

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 1:42pm

Diane Francis, Financial Post

'Vansterdam" was front and centre during the Winter Olympics and its downtown streets were full of revellers who partied even though the liquor stores were closed much of the time.

That's because pot was everywhere, and several foreign commentators remarked on its popularity. This is nothing new. Marijuana has been essentially decriminalized in the Lower Mainland and the annual export crop has been bigger than forestry for a decade.

Trafficking for export is still illegal in Canada, but it appears as though one of the biggest markets, California, is likely to legalize cannabis in the Nov. 2 elections.

Read more »
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