Jerry Golick For a while now we have been hearing lots of “doom and gloom” coming from Canada’s oil industry. The dramatic fall in the price of “black gold” is understandably troubling for many in the Alberta oil patch. Given the importance of oil to our economy, this is of course a dire concern for […]
Tag: legalization
8 Challenges to Opening a Cannabis Dispensary
Jamie Shaw (Article previously appeared at Canlio.com) I’ve been asked a few times to tackle a piece on how to start a medical cannabis dispensary. I finally agreed, then thought about it for a bit, and nope. Not gonna do it. Dispensaries are still illegal (to what level depends on where in North America you […]
Editors Note on Our Political Condition
Judith Stamp These days, Canadian cannabis activists, patients, and supporters alike, live uneasily. The new majority federal government has stated its intention to legalize cannabis, but it will take some time before this plan is finalized. This time gap leaves us in an in-between space. Of course, we recognize many kinds of in-between spaces. An […]
Thoughts on the Distinction Between Medical and Recreational Cannabis Use
Judith Stamps Last month in her article for Canlio, The Trouble With Defining Cannabis Use, Jamie Shaw walked us through some of the difficulties in deciding how to divide the medical uses of cannabis from the recreational. As we approach legalization, this distinction takes on new and urgent meanings. In the upcoming system, there should […]
Looking Back on Legalization from the Future
Jerry Golick, from the future… Dateline: April 20, 2018 4:00 PM It is an odd and bittersweet moment, though on the surface it seems perfectly normal. At the age of 66, I find myself in a most familiar place, that is, sitting in my favourite chair, about to engage in one of my most […]
Small is Beautiful: Spiritual Opportunities for a New Cannabis Industry
Judith Stamps If you’re into alternative economics, you may have come across E.F. Schumacher’s text: Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, first published in 1973 as an accessible paperback for a liberal era. It was republished in 1989 in the rocky years that saw the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl; glasnost and perestroika; the […]
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 […]
A Review of Dana Larsen’s Cannabis in Canada: The Illustrated History
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 […]
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 […]
Normalizing Cannabis Culture: A Few Cultural Hurdles
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 […]