Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
On Cannabis and Alcohol: The Way I See It It is common to see social media posts stating that alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis; that the industry targets youth with kiddie drinks; and that it is the real ‘gateway drug’. There is truth here. Alcohol, if not generally dangerous, is more deadly than cannabis. […]
Ever wonder why, despite the heroic efforts of a few doctors, Health Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, provincial medical associations, and local health authorities, are still miles away from accepting cannabis as a medicine? Here’s a brief history that sheds a little light on ignorance, 21st Century Style. The Golden Age Although cannabis is an […]
Legalization of cannabis in Canada represents a move neither to accept the herb as part of normal life, nor to accept its consumers as normal people. It is, rather, an attempted trade deal; it attempts to trade legalization for the extinguishing of cannabis culture: the medical, intellectual and spiritual dimensions of the cannabis experience. Bill […]
(The Questionnaire is only available until January 20th. Have your say right away!) By Ted Smith and Clea Maclean Health Canada is seeking your feedback on the Proposed Approach to the Regulation of Cannabis. This consultation builds on the extensive consultations conducted by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation. The consultation is guided by […]
Russell Barth At 10:30 on the morning of October 3rd, 2017, Cannabis Culture on Bank Street in Ottawa was raided – again – by the brave and heroic Ottawa Police Service as part of a set of four busts across the city that day. Having eliminated every other crime in Ottawa – solved every murder, […]
Judith Stamps Anyone with an eye on the Canadian federal political scene will have noticed that some of our provinces have begun to choke on the prospect of putting together a retail scheme for cannabis. Mewling like kittens, Saskatchewanians, for example, have begun to beg the feds to put off legalizing for an extra year. […]
Historical Rambles on Cannabis It is instructive to re-visit the role that news sensationalism has played in demonizing cannabis. I paid the topic a visit this week. Sensationalism, we will recall, is the conscious use of exaggeration, manipulative language, dramatic photos, lies, and fabrications, the news equivalent, we might say, of using explosives. Some of […]
THE NEW WAR ON EDIBLES, or HEY, HAVEN’T WE DONE THIS ALREADY? There was much to celebrate last fall when on September 8, 2016, the Victoria, BC City Council decided, by a vote one-short of unanimous, to grant licenses to the city’s cannabis dispensaries. One of the best-liked features of this decision was the Council’s […]
(article previously posted at InsidetheJar) Travis Lane Part five in a series on the task force report. Arbitrary limits are a bit funny, scaled taxation has never been seen before, and production controls are unlikely to be effectively implemented with the looming threat of a powerful black market. It seems doubtful that these recommendations would […]
It is difficult to write a cheery note in the midst of raids on dispensaries, relentless arrests (some 60,000 at last count), and the stress imposed on Canadian patients, trying to find sympathetic doctors, just too few and too far between. It is hard to feel uplifted when newfangled racketeers, who charge patients three to […]