Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
Judith Stamps As we start to think about legalizing cannabis, it is useful to consider the mental and social barriers that are likely to keep 35% of Canadians hostile to it. Some hurdles are likely to remain for at least a generation, maybe even two. Here are four worth examining. 1. We lack confidence in […]
Judith Stamps On December 3 2015, The Arthritis Society, a Canadian national organization, hosted a roundtable discussion in Vancouver BC to identify priorities for medical cannabis research. In the past two years a number of Canadian organizations have held cannabis forums. Among these are The Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids; Liftcannabis.ca, which hosted […]
Judith Stamps In 2003 Anne McLellan, Canada’s then health Minister, announced the advent of government-provided medical cannabis to be grown in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Quoted in response, was Sgt. Glen Hayden of Edmonton, who said: “the government is putting the cart before the horse.” In March 2015, the Pennsylvania Medical Society published a white paper […]
Judith Stamps Last Tuesday evening, November 24 2015, I had the unique privilege of speaking at a forum on cannabis held at the Temple Emanu-El, the conservative Jewish synagogue in Victoria BC. The event was planned and hosted by the congregation’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Harry Brechner. On the panel with me were Dieter MacPherson, president […]
Judith Stamps Last Thursday evening, November 12th 2015, it was my privilege to attend a forum on the future of cannabis in Canada, planned and hosted by Lift, a web-based, independent communications hub established in 2013 by Tyler Sookochoff and directed by David Brown. The forum, held at UBC’s downtown campus at Robson Square, was […]
By Judith Stamps On November 3rd 2015 Ohioans rejected an initiative to legalize recreational cannabis. It was a bizarre initiative, backed by a cartel of investors who, had it passed, would have retained exclusive rights to cultivation, production and sale. It was a blueprint for a clan set to transform itself into a dominion. The […]
CANNABIS AND YOUTH: EXPLODING THE CATEGORIES Judith Stamps T’is the season of the goblin, and once again we find ourselves confronted with media-driven Halloween goody scares. It is presently—as I scribble—Saturday, October 31st, and parents and kids of all ages are being warned to watch out, because people out there will be putting ‘marijuana’ into […]
By Judith Stamps It is easy for activist movements to fracture along lines of race, gender, class, or culture, and equally easy for them to remain strangers to the mainstream social and economic environments that surround them. It is thus useful, occasionally, and especially on the eve of a federal election in Canada, to consider […]
By Judith Stamps To the Ladies: A Prologue to Any Useful Account of Women and Cannabis Activism Marc Emery created a few waves this week, prompting responses from women cannabis activists, and from a number of men as well. The context was a Facebook discussion on the April/May 2015 issue of Skunk Magazine, entitled Women […]
By Judith Stamps Prior to World War I the context for cannabis policy in the US was racial anxiety over Mexican immigrants. In the interwar years it was anxiety about the newly liberated black culture forming around the American jazz scene, with some spill-off onto Canada via our own prohibitionist, Emily Murphy. In the 1950s […]