Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
Judith Stamps Some authors weave their chronicles into geometric shapes, presenting history as a long, upward trudge toward progress, usually via reason, and science; or portraying it as the steady, moral and physical decline of humanity from a nobler past; or showing a never ending round, as Mark Twain liked to say, of ‘one damned […]
Jerry Golick For many Canadians and Americans, 2015 seemed to be a real banner year for cannabis legalization. Dispensaries were blooming, LPs were producing, and a new majority government in Ottawa promised to legalize the recreational use of cannabis during its mandate. In the USA, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington were all set to follow Colorado’s […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Owen Smith Medical cannabis patients may be celebrating this holiday season with festive infusions that relieve their pain and lift their spirits. It has been a successful year for the cannabis movement from our Supreme Court of Canada victory to the election of a government friendlier to the plant. The Hempology 101 Society and the […]
Ted Smith While there are many reasons to celebrate medical cannabis dispensaries getting licenses in Vancouver and Victoria, the new bylaws could be forcing the closure one of the most important components of a true compassion club. Without a safe place to consume their medicine, many patients would be forced to smoke outdoors or in […]
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 […]
(Photo via Warren Chan) Owen Smith After I finished high school there were just a few social groups that I remained in contact with: there were my soccer buddies and my weed smoking friends, two groups that overlapped. Part of this overlapping group were some of my closest friends. After a day of smoking cannabis […]
Ted Smith Proposed regulations for dispensaries drafted by staff for the Victoria city council suggest following the lead of Vancouver to prohibit cannabis edibles, but there is another option council may take. Instead of an outright ban of anything but basic oils infused with cannabis, the city could adopt regulations that follow the policies laid […]