Ted Smith A huge wave of relief swept across the country this morning as a federal court judge handed down a ruling protecting patient gardens. In 2014, a new medical cannabis program, the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, was enacted by Health Canada, replacing the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations which had allowed patients to grow […]
Author: Ted Smith
Meeting Last Chance To Save Safe Inhalation Rooms
Ted Smith On Monday Feb 22, 2016, the City of Victoria will be hosting a town hall meeting to give citizens an opportunity to meet with municipal politicians to discuss the new medical cannabis bylaws. With as many as 34 dispensaries openly operating in Victoria, the city is attempting to follow the lead of Vancouver […]
Beware Sharks, Snakes and Pot-Bellied Pigs
Ted Smith For cannabis enthusiasts the current era is full of excitement and uncertainty. As the veil of prohibition is lifted around the world, new opportunities to work in the industry as an employee or entrepreneur offer an exciting future for many. However, with all of this glorious wealth to be made come a few […]
How The World’s Oldest Compassion Club Started In A Van
Ted Smith This month the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club is celebrating 20 years of publicly providing cannabis products to patients. There is a lot to celebrate. While the recent victories of the club have been well documented, the early history is not so well known. When I moved to Victoria in September 1995 to start […]
Updates, Warnings and Suggestions # 47
Ted Smith On Jan 31, 2016, the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with a potluck party to follow its Annual General Meeting. The organization has come a long way since those days, two decades ago, during which I was supplying cannabis products by delivering to patients from the van in […]
20 Years Of Serving Cannabis Products To Patients
Ted Smith This Jan marks 20 years since I first started to deliver cannabis products to people suffering from serious medical problems from the van in which I lived, handing out pamphlets around Victoria with a pager number. Twenty years later, the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club is the oldest medical cannabis dispensary in the entire […]
5 Reasons Why Cannabis Activists In Canada Will Be Upset In 2016
Ted Smith Last week I posted a blog highlighting many developments that I expect will make 2016 the best year ever for cannabis activism. However, we do not live in a perfect world, and after being called an optimist by the editor, Judith Stamps, I felt it was necessary to expose my darker thoughts about […]
5 Reasons Why Cannabis Should Thrive in Canada In 2016
While no one can doubt that 2015 was the best year ever for cannabis in Canada, the next year looks to be even more promising for those who believe in the herb. Predicting the future is a tricky game, but after working in this industry for over 20 years I have had plenty of time […]
2015: Canadian Cannabis Advocates Celebrate Historic Year
Ted Smith The year 2015 will be remembered as the year cannabis prohibition was dealt deadly blows in Canada. With a huge victory at the Supreme Court of Canada for cannabis extracts, municipal governments preparing to license storefront dispensaries and a new federal government intent upon legalizing the herb, the future has never looked so […]
Police Raid Plans: Are You Prepared?
Ted Smith Anyone working in the illegal cannabis industry needs to be prepared to get arrested at any moment. A recent rash of police raids on medical cannabis dispensaries across Canada have shown that some organizations are much more prepared than others to deal with the consequences. Since the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club survived 4 […]