Canada’s Cannabis Journal since 2010
(Image By Mark Lehtimaki) Patients Fight to Keep Control of their Health, Plants and Cookies “My doctors told me I’d never walk again, never talk again. Marijuana is the difference maker,” Davey said. For the first time ever, a judge has heard arguments in the Federal Court of Canada between patients and the government on […]
On March 20th, 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments for and against medical cannabis derivative products becoming legally available to authorized patients. The courtroom was filled with supporters while many others watched in the overflow rooms and on the CPAC live stream. The entire proceeding was recorded and is available to view online […]
By Ted Smith This year marks 18 years of gathering at City Hall in Victoria B.C. on April 20 to smoke copious amounts of cannabis. With an expected crowd of 2,000, it is one of the largest annual protests held in the provincial capital. Many wonder how it got so big. The beginning of meeting […]
(image: animalnewyork) By Judith Stamps Here is one of my favourite fantasies. It is some time in the future. The war on drugs is defunct, and cannabis is legal. We are in the midst of a cultural renaissance. The film industry is on fire, producing new ‘post prohibition movies’ every year. Literary fiction on cannabis […]
By Owen Smith In April 2012, our argument for extracts had been successful in the BC Supreme Court, effectively legalizing medicinal cannabis extracts for federally licensed patients, and eventually their caregivers, in British Columbia. However, the judge ruled that my trial should proceed regardless of the constitutional victory because “society’s interests in having the charges […]
By Ted Smith When Owen Smith was arrested for baking cookies over 5 years ago, there was no doubt in my mind that history was being made. Since that fateful day, when he walked out of the apartment with no handcuffs and his head held high, Owen has been a modern hero. At the press […]
By Owen Smith Two years after I had been arrested and charged in the act of making cookies, lozenges, gel caps, and massage oils with cannabis infused vegetable oils, we would begin the trial that would hear the constitutional challenge that was recently before the Supreme Court of Canada. After Ted Smith testified, Gayle Quin, Gina Herman […]
Thomas Szasz’s Iconoclastic Views on Cannabis and Everything Else We Like Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) was a psychiatrist and academic known for his libertarian views: the right to freedom of choice arising from the principle of self-ownership. No government, he wrote, is going to be dedicated to freedom. It is the nature of government to […]
The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (V-CBC) is the beating heart of the Extract Trial. With thousands of active members, the discreet downtown Victoria dispensary founded by Ted Smith has served medical cannabis patients since 1996. The club barely skipped a beat after I was arrested and has since expanded and improved upon their product line. […]
By Ted Smith Since moving to Victoria to be a cannabis activist in 1995, I have endeavored to pressure the city council into supporting the use of cannabis as medicine in all sorts of ways. This constant interaction has yielded many rewards, along with a few disappointments, helping to establish Victoria as one of the […]