medical
Jail not sought for Manitoba pot advocate
WINNIPEG — Manitoba justice officials are not seeking a jail sentence against a medical-marijuana crusader found guilty of trafficking pot to clients across Canada.
Grant Krieger said he feared he would die behind bars after jurors found him guilty during his high-profile Queen's Bench trial last fall. But the Calgary resident returned to Winnipeg for sentencing Wednesday, and learned the Crown agrees he can remain free in the community under a conditional sentence.
The judge has reserved her decision until next month.
UN watchdog takes aim at Canada's medical marijuana program
By Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service Published: Montreal Gazette
UNITED NATIONS — Justice Minister Robert Nicholson said Wednesday the government’s medical marijuana regulations are under review after the UN’s drugs watchdog warned Canada needs to tighten up the system.
The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said Canada is operating outside international treaty rules aimed at minimizing the risk criminals will get hold of cannabis grown under the program.
“The whole question of medical marijuana is being looked at by the minister of health with respect to the options that she has,” said Nicholson, whose ministry serves as the umbrella agency for the government’s anti-drug efforts.
Northumberland residents help create nation's first medical marijuana expo
By Bill Tremblay, The IndependantBRIGHTON -- A group of east Northumberland residents will help run Canada's first medical marijuana expo.
Medicinal Awareness (MA), a lobby group for medicinal marijuana, will operate the vapour lounge at the 'Treating Yourself Expo' at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from July 16-18. MA is primarily based in Brighton and Trent Hills.
"Our responsibility will be to teach other med patients how to use the various vapourizers," MA member Al Graham said.
A vapourizer allows its user to inhale vapour from marijuana instead of smoke.
No busts for this grow-op
By Some local residents are turning to an old-fashioned remedy to treat medical problems, such as severe pain.
That remedy is medical marijuana and it’s grown in the area — legally.
Jane and John Doe (not real names for security reasons) have a government licence to grow medical marijuana.
Jane says they completed a 15-page application and had a criminal record check before the licence for production was issued.
Medical marijuana prescriptions being stymied, advocates say
By Jeremy Warren, The StarPhoenixBiased policies against medical marijuana by Saskatchewan's governing body of medical practitioners are deterring doctors from granting prescriptions, say medicinal pot proponents.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan's policy doesn't prohibit doctors from prescribing marijuana, but the policy states the college is uncertain of the risks and benefits because evidence of marijuana's advantages is lacking.
"(The college) appears to be deterring doctors, or at least giving them an excuse to deny prescriptions," said Daniel Johnson, Saskatchewan director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
An EndProhibition Personal Account: Robert Ling
The following is a personal account from one of our End Prohibition members in Ontario. He is one of thousands of Canadians who suffer from a malady that can be alleviated by the use of cannabis (marijuana). Although 4000 people in Canada are exempted from criminal sanctions for their choice in medication, many tens of thousands more have been unable to access this respite from the drug war.
In this account Robert relates his experiences with his illness, his medicinal use of cannabis, and the bureaucratic labyrinth of the Canadian Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR). He is one of many thousands of Canadians who use cannabis safely and should not fear criminal penalty for this personal health decision.
NDP MP Libby Davies Calls for Public Consultations Before Changing MMAR
February 4, 2010 Hon. Leona Aglukkaq
Minister of Health
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Aglukkaq,
Nunavut man facing pot charges launches Charter case over medical marijuana club
By Bob Weber, Canadian PressIQALUIT, Nunavut — He calls himself a healer, not a dealer.
And despite spending last weekend in jail on drug charges, Ed DeVries is not about to shut what is almost certainly the most northerly - and perhaps the most popular - medical marijuana club in Canada.
"I couldn't stop this if I wanted to," says DeVries, a 52-year-old grandfather of four now facing four drug-related charges in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
He may be right.
The Qikiqtani Compassion Club, he says, distributes marijuana to 543 members, almost all of them in Iqaluit.
Medical marijuana user in fear of law
By Craig Pearson, The Windsor Star"Sarah" puts her lips to the vapour-filled bag, inhaling medicine and worry in one intoxicating breath.
The 52-year-old Windsor woman, who did not want her real name used, is a Health Canada-approved medical marijuana user. Or, at least, she used to be.
Right now she lives in limbo, largely shutting herself in at home alone with a federal medical marijuana card that expired at the beginning of December, with no explanation why her renewed exemption hasn't arrived. And with fears about the law.
Iqaluit pot activist released from custody
By. CBC NewsIqaluit marijuana activist Ed Devries was released from police custody Monday after RCMP raided two local residences late last week.
Devries, 51, a self-described healer and founder of the Qikiqtaaluk Compassion Society, was arrested after RCMP found 0.9 kilograms of marijuana and $7,200 in cash in a search of his home and the Iqaluit marijuana club on Friday afternoon.
He was charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.
Devries's release from custody, which came with a number of conditions, drew applause from about 40 supporters at the Nunavut Court of Justice on Monday afternoon.
