Cannabis and the Liquor Store Question…or What to Think About Whilst Waiting to Find Out Who Will Govern BC In December of 2015 British Columbian cannabis buffs were confronted with a conundrum, a present, I fear, from Bad Santa, but then again, maybe not. BC has both government run and private liquor stores, normally competitors […]
Author: Judith Stamps
The New War On Cannabis Edibles
THE NEW WAR ON EDIBLES, or HEY, HAVEN’T WE DONE THIS ALREADY? There was much to celebrate last fall when on September 8, 2016, the Victoria, BC City Council decided, by a vote one-short of unanimous, to grant licenses to the city’s cannabis dispensaries. One of the best-liked features of this decision was the Council’s […]
Bill C-45, Teens, and the Demons of Prohibition
A 1972 report on cannabis first commissioned, and then rejected, by drug war hawk, Richard Nixon, was titled Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding. That sounds about right for Justin Trudeau’s Cannabis Act, Bill C-45, which might better be called, Cannabis: A Signal of Willful Ignorance. Why ignorance? To begin, its use of oppressive penalties is […]
Editors Note: Arrests and Liberal Legalization
It is difficult to write a cheery note in the midst of raids on dispensaries, relentless arrests (some 60,000 at last count), and the stress imposed on Canadian patients, trying to find sympathetic doctors, just too few and too far between. It is hard to feel uplifted when newfangled racketeers, who charge patients three to […]
Editorial: Thoughts For a New Year
2017 promises changes that border on the torrential, some good, far too many, bad. Astoundingly good is the promise of Cannabis legislation in Canada, or at least new steps in that direction. Not good is the Trudeau government’s demonstrated sympathy with Canada’s hyper regulated, hyper securitized Licensed Producers, set, if they get their way, to […]
A Rant for a Rant: Parsing Mr. Trudeau.
This weekend, a rattled, angry Trudeau attempted to defend his government’s legalization process. Like anyone with a murky agenda, he packed a lot of shaky assumptions into a few words, hoping, I suppose, to send a message that is simple and clear. But the message is tangled, and meaning, clear as mud. Here are his […]
Playing ‘What If.’ A Preface to Public Debates on Regulating Cannabis.
One day this month, the Canadian Task Force on legalizing and regulating cannabis will announce its proposed program. Meanwhile, on May 9th 2017, BC residents will face a provincial election. At issue for cannabis fans in BC is the fate of the local cannabis industry, a multi-billion dollar economy representing growers, processors, dispensary owners, and […]
Sweet, Pungent, and Aromatic: Noseworthy Canadian Reporting on Cannabis
Sweet, Pungent, and Aromatic: Noseworthy Canadian Reporting on Cannabis Normalizing cannabis consumption is a goal shared by cannabis fans around the world. It’s a challenging goal, however, not liable to be met quickly. One reason is Cannabis’ aromatic nature. After seven decades of miserable, damning press, people have learned to hate its bouquet, associating ‘the […]
Cannabis Health Radio: Victoria’s Newest Program in Public Education
WHO? Ian Jessop, and Corrie Yelland. Ian Jessop has been a radio journalist and political communications specialist since the early 1970s. A graduate of the Columbia School of Broadcasting, he was legislative reporter at CKNW in Vancouver in the 1980s; press secretary for Premier Van Der Zalm; and director of communications for the BC Liberal […]
Editors Note: Words for a Special Issue
Welcome to Issue Fifty of Cannabis Digest, a tribute to ten years of perseverance on the part of the CD team, and to the paper’s originator, Gayle Quin, who passed away peacefully on September 22, 2016. It should be seen as a tribute, too, to Gayle’s life partner, Ted Smith who, for fifty seasons, has […]