Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
By Judith Stamps Here we are in the season of Home Canning, Harvest festivals, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the dreaded Federal Election, a festival of sorts that we add once every four years. It isn’t an enjoyable festival, though, and it is hardly an ancient tradition. On some days it is so tedious, so juvenile, and […]
By Judith Stamps ONE FACT, TWO RULES, AND A DEFINTION FACT: inequality in wealth and power is increasing in our world. The richest one percent of adults own over 40% of the world’s wealth (land, buildings, food, resources, machinery, weapons, technology, and cash), a figure that, according to Credit Swisse, will rise to over 50% […]
The Obstacle Course and the Manifesto By Judith Stamps I find it helpful, from the emotional standpoint, to think of federal elections as bizarre forms of public sport, multi-dimensional games of chance, perhaps, with parameters that were they not legal, would count as borderline insane. This image never fails to cheer me up. On other […]
Political Movements in Canada, and Why It Is So Difficult to Judge the Leaders By Judith Stamps To borrow a phrase from Harper, let’s be clear. From Confederation onward, ruling parties in Canada have dealt inadequately with First Nations, racism, and child poverty. Since the 1980s they have, in addition, dealt inadequately with affordable […]
Thinking About the Federal Election: Blog One: Conservative and Liberal Parties in Canada By Judith Stamps THE CONSERVATIVES. In 1993, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, then under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, suffered a severe collapse, finding itself with 2 seats in Parliament, 10 short of official party status. The decade that followed […]
Cannabis, Addiction, and Other related Matters: Catching Up With Some Recent Literature By Judith Stamps We are, I believe, in the midst of a renaissance in cannabis literature. In today’s blog I focus on three books published in 2014: High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and […]
By Judith Stamps Last Thursday, August 6, 2015, the leaders of Canada’s four major political parties participated in a debate hosted by MacLean’s Magazine. Canada has just entered its 42nd federal election campaign; the election is set for Monday, October 19. It’s an important election for the cannabis community; patients hope for a better deal […]
Cannabis and the Problems of Modernity: Thoughts on fragmentation in Cannabis Culture By Judith Stamps 1. Under the Best Circumstances, Communication is Difficult. If you had lived in a pre-20th century rural community, or small town, you, your spouse, your friends, and your workmates would have shared a history, and a common culture. You would […]
A Prologue to Reasonable Regulations for Cannabis, If Such Things Can Exist By Judith Stamps On Sunday, July 19, 2015, Conscious Living Network, a volunteer-based society in Vancouver BC, hosted its first Cannabis Conference. The panel on cannabis policy was mildly polarized: activist Marc Emery expressed the view that there should be no regulations for […]
Allowing Home Gardens Must Be Foundational To Any Future Cannabis Regulation Policy By Judith Stamps The title you’ve just read is the conclusion to today’s blog. To arrive at it, I followed this series of thoughts. 1. PROPERTY: In the early modern era—17th and early 18th centuries—political theorists asked themselves this question: If […]