By Ted Smith As early hunter-gatherers began to unlock the secrets of civilization, they also began forming symbiotic relationships with the plants that provided the fundamental resources necessary for survival. Primary among these symbiotic plants is cannabis sativa, whose relationship with humankind is hundreds of thousands of years old. The seeds of the hemp plant […]
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Live Wired—Activate Your Mind
I was raised in some of the most socially and politically conservative parts of Canada. As a child and young adult, I was well educated in the harms associated with illicit drug use. I had no reason to believe that those lessons were based on bad information. I kept my distance from drugs and had […]
Three More Years of Hell for Emery
Marc Emery may be in prison, but the powers that put him there have not been able to silence his voice, despite obvious attempts to do so. Emery, the seed vending-activist who was extradited to the U.S. with the Conservative Canadian Government’s approval, has been incarcerated in the U.S. for one year this past May. […]
100 Mile Hemp House Plantation
By Diane Walsh In British Columbia, the word is now out, thanks to Bill Finley of Victoria’s Hemp & Company, where I got this magnificent lead on the story. Sanctioned by all three levels of government, the successful results from B.C.’s Caribou Region pilot plantation sites has allowed for two impressive scientific studies to be produced, which […]
Cannabis Kicks Cancer
By Amie Gravell Our bodies have cannabinoid receptors which can be activated in three ways by endocannabinoids: those produced by our bodies, synthetic cannabinoids, or plant cannabinoids, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), or cannabichromene (CBC). One effective way to activate our cannabinoid system—that most of us are familiar with—is by using cannabis, the plant […]
Health Canada Pulls the Plug on Growing
Health Health Canada appears ready to make things a lot worse for medical cannabis users. Proposed amendments to the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations will take away both legal options patients have to produce their own medicine. More drug companies will be granted authority to produce and distribute cannabis. Some of the amendments may improve a […]
Obama Changes Tune
By M. Allister Greene In the Presidential Election of 2008, many cannabis using, and canna-friendly, voters elected Barrack Obama on the train of hope and change. Some of these voters expected an over-night reform of laws, and assumed that legalization of cannabis was soon to follow. Obama who has never really denied his use of […]
The Con(servatives) After the Election
By Amie Gravell The Conservative party of Canada spent the maximum amount of money that regulations allow to win the May 2 election. Twenty-one million dollars, it seems, is the cost of a majority government. So what has Mr. Harper done with his majority? Well, in the two months since the election, the government has […]
Big Name Panel Calls Global Drug War a “Failure”
By Phillip Smith The global war on drugs is a failure and governments worldwide should shift from repressive, law-enforcement centered policies to new ways of legalizing and regulating drugs, especially marijuana, as a means of reducing harm to individuals and society, a high-profile group of world leaders said in a report issued in June. The […]
EDITORIAL: It’s all About Freedom
Andrew Brown Editor There is a power struggle going on in Canada, and most of the world for that matter, about the right to use cannabis. We have a conservative government that wishes to see all use made illegal, we have a majority of the population agreeing that “pot should be legalized,” and a court […]