Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
A lawyer’s view on new mandatory minimum sentences By Kirk Tousaw In Nov. 2012, the Harper Conservative government ushered in new mandatory sentencing legislation for certain Controlled Drugs and Substances Act offences. Despite criticism from outside and inside government, and clear evidence that such sentences are harmful to the criminal justice system and society, the […]
Halifax club strives to recover from Integrated Drug Unit bust By Jess James In 1998, a small group of friends started a buyers’ group in order to make their cannabis consumption affordable. Black market prices had shot to a whopping ten bucks a gram on the streets. Heavy hitters who were plagued with poverty […]
Feds’ New Cell Phone Spying Device Raising Privacy Concerns By Clarence Walker Blocked by a Supreme Court decision from using GPS tracking devices without a warrant, federal investigators and other law enforcement agencies are turning to a new, more powerful and more threatening technology in their bid to spy more freely on those they […]
Landmark year for cannabis reform In some ways, 2012 has been a year of dramatic, exciting change in drug policy, as the edifice of global drug prohibition appears to crumble before our eyes. In other ways it is still business as usual in the drug war. Marijuana prohibition is now mortally wounded, but there were […]
They came with big trucks, trailers, and even a food tent. They dominated the parking in front of the Cannabis Buyers’ Club in Victoria, and all down Johnson st. They came with lights and cameras and were looking for some action. The big screen had arrived and wanted to use the club as a location […]
Mitt Romney (mis)speaks out on medi- cal marijuana, the LA dispensary ban is repealed, and the feds keep on grinding away at medical marijuana providers with another conviction in Montana and a lengthy prison sentence in Michigan. And that’s just for starters. Let’s get to it: National On Monday, GOP presidential can- didate Mitt […]
Libby Davies came to Vancouver in 1969 after immigrating to Canada with her family in 1968. She was involved in grassroots community organizations from that time on in Vancouver, with a focus on the Downtown Eastside—she dropped out of university in 1973 to help found the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) with Bruce Erik- sen, […]
In this past summer issue of Cannabis Digest, I wrote about the closing of a compassion club that had been in exis- tence for 10 years in Halifax—the Hali- fax Buyers’ Club of Canada. The outlet spearheaded by John Cook has been forced to close up shop due to John’s ill health. Since then many […]
You can’t spend much time down at the Victoria Cannabis Buyers’ Club before a wonderful sound catches your ear—the sound of Gayle Quin laughing. It runs through everything, charging it with spirit—another kind of medicine. This is to say that Gayle rarely takes a breath without letting it laugh on the way out, and that […]