cannabisnews.com: The Canadabis Catch





The Canadabis Catch
Posted by CN Staff on May 24, 2003 at 23:34:53 PT
By Matt Mernagh
Source: View Magazine 
Marijuana activists have been using the courts for close to a decade in an effort to have the laws against grass changed. Instead of lobbying the Canadian government in the traditional manner, a small group of lawyers and marijuana users have successfully argued the medicinal qualities of marijuana and have challenged the constitutionality of the marijuana laws.
Recent court victories have forced the federal government to introduce legislation that will be better for the casual pot smoker caught possessing weed. But those growing and trafficking in the herb should be warned that the penalties for doing so are going to be much harsher than the current ones. And more police resources will be used to target large scale operations. There’s a dramatic difference between legal and decriminalized weed. The police, sensing a revenue generating system, could become overly zealous in fining those caught carrying a small amount (under 15 grams) of marijuana. Decriminalization in Australia has resulted in more pot smokers getting ticketed than arrested under their old law. Failure to pay the fine results in a criminal conviction that could leave potheads with a criminal record.Already, activists such as Marc Emery, (publisher of Cannabis Culture, financial backer of the Marijuana Party, and Canada’s largest seller of marijuana seeds), are encouraging those ticketed to defend themselves without the aid of a lawyer in court. The goal is to once again tie up the court’s and police’s time. This strategy, used so effectively in British Columbia, has BC police giving up on arresting people for simple possession. But under the new legislation police might go after simple possessors more frequently because it will be as easy as writing a ticket. The only staunch opposition to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s plan to decriminalize marijuana has come from our southern neighbours who have a zero tolerance attitude towards any drugs, with the exception of booze and tobacco. American drug czar John Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, warned that the United States “will have to do more restrictive things at the border,” if Canada decriminalizes marijuana. Walters isn’t talking about pulling over more people crossing the border on a Friday night to search them for marijuana. His statement is a veiled threat that the Bush administration would slow down the flow of trade goods between our two nations. Allan Young, an Osgoode Hall law professor and marijuana activist, explains; “When U.S. government officials talk about increasing border patrols, what they’re really saying is, ‘We’re going to fuck with your trucking industry if you continue to go in this direction.’” Bruce Mirken of the U.S.–based Marijuana Policy Project -- http://www.mpp.org -- concurs with Young’s assessment of the situation. “This (U.S.) administration uses veiled threats all the time when dealing with foreign policy contrary to their beliefs.”Canada’s largest trading partner should be reminded that they’ve signed the North American Free Trade Agreement that outlines how quickly goods must travel at the border. The treaty also hinders the Bush administration in applying trade sanctions should the Liberals create a law that contravenes U.S. opinion. They would have to hire thousands of additional border guards to inspect every one of the approximately 8,000 trucks that cross the Ontario border daily to keep in accordance with NAFTA. Then there are the undefended regions between Canada and the U.S. Would the Bush administration go so far as to employ the military to keep marijuana out, such as they do at the U.S. / Mexico border?Contrary to popular belief, our efforts to decriminalize marijuana are not that revolutionary. Twelve states in the union have decriminalized laws on their books. Medicinal marijuana co-ops in California serve the needs of 15,000 ill people. That’s more people than all of Canada’s medicinal marijuana pharmacies combined. California residents voted in favour of a progressive medicinal marijuana law that saw compassion clubs flourish, but when the Bush administration came to power they stomped all over the state law by trying compassion club organizers in federal court. Federal judges have goose-stepped in line with the administration by refusing to allow a medicinal marijuana defense. They’ve gone so far as to refuse the admission of medicinal marijuana evidence by defense lawyers.Drug czar Walters has been exporting their extremist prohibitionist view by touring Canada on several occasions to admonish our pro-pot attitude. The decision is ours to make Walters says, but there are consequences should Canada adopt a marijuana policy that flies in the face of U.S. policy. “We have to be concerned about American citizens,” Walters told reporters. “When you make the penalties minimal, you get more drug use, you get more drug addiction, you get more drug production, you get more drug crime.” By Walters’ reasoning, the U.S., with their zero tolerance policy, should have the least amount of drug use and in Holland, where marijuana has been decriminalized for decades, there would be a higher rate of marijuana consumption. Not so — reports from the Centre for Drug Research at the University of Amsterdam show that lifetime cannabis use in Holland is at 15.6 per cent, whereas use in the U.S. is closer to 33 per cent. The American appetite for what some consider to be the best weed in the world has Canadian drug producers exporting approximately eight hundred tons of “BC Bud,” “Quebec Gold,” and “Winnipeg Wheelchair” a year. Canada’s hydroponically grown weed has surpassed Mexico’s and Columbia’s in terms of potency but represents only about two per cent of the amount consumed Stateside per year. Demand for Canadian weed has created a market where dealers are getting up to $5,000 U.S. (over $6700 Canadian) a pound, compared to the $3,000 Canadian a pound they get domestically. Source: View Magazine (Hamilton, CN ON)Author: Matt MernaghPublished: May 22, 2003Copyright: 2003 View MagazineContact editor viewmag.comWebsite: http://www.viewmag.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Cannabis Culture Magazinehttp://www.cannabisculture.com/Marketing Marijuana Mythologyhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/gardner.htmDon't Bully Canada, U.S. Toldhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16336.shtmlMarijuana Legal in Ontario http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16326.shtmlNo Laws Ban Possession of Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16321.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by afterburner on May 25, 2003 at 15:58:28 PT:
Thankfully the Canadian Constitution Is So New...
that the courts are still interpreting it. Thanks to former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau for repatriating the Canadian Constitution in 1982. OH CANADA! http://www.ualberta.ca/~bleeck/canada/canada1g.html The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been used to challenge Canada's archaic cannabis laws. The wheel of life turns 'round and 'round, and many times we get surprises.ego transcendence follows ego destruction, heart by heart, law by law, case by case, until there is no problem.
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Comment #5 posted by Big Trees on May 25, 2003 at 12:20:12 PT
Oh and one more thing brainless....
 "a small group of lawyers and marijuana users"Can you count? 150,000 users just in Canada maybe we all should come to your door and beat you over the head with our signs?
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Comment #4 posted by Big Trees on May 25, 2003 at 12:16:17 PT
Boo hoo....
Matt Mernagh your about as dence as they come...
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Comment #3 posted by Virgil on May 25, 2003 at 10:50:24 PT
On using the courts
We have no choice but to be in court dumbass. That is what happens when you are charged with a bogus crime. It is an arena where enlightenment meets entrenchment. We have learned many things from the courts.The first thing is that the strategy of those that would take our rights is to expect silence. This means having unbelievable harsh penalties for something where there is no victim in order to get a submissive guilty plea. We have seen Congress have to introduce a bill to allow truth to be presented in court and that the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me to an implied ficticious god is another myth in the world of world domination and oppression. The Constitution talks about a trial by jury, but juries just get in the way, so now we have a corporate government that streamlines things with a conformist judge that would not regard ignoring the 9th or 10th Amendmendment as a breach of the Constitution. It is an expansion of with A-bombs and horseshoes close is good enough, but now you do not even have to be close- only silent and conforming.We have learned that they cannot be teaching American history in the schools and they we have institutionalized mind control from birth to death, with the hope that something can kill you before you get that first social security check. We have learned that the people's cornerstones of democracy, the media, jury nullification, and the ballot box have all been tampered with until they no longer are the cornerstones because their is no democracy.The people of the South will probably want to recycle their CSA (Confederate States of America) beltbuckles for the Corporate States of America. Many people of the choir know most of the songs by heart, but when you are out their without your songbook you need to have learned the words. The Canadian Senate Report and the nine pages of the Cato report are standard fare. Please learn the words and preach a little truth to erase the prohibitionist fiction that now dwells in people's minds.Let's use our media to carry our message. It is as simple as this- http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128
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Comment #2 posted by Lehder on May 25, 2003 at 09:13:16 PT
medical properties of marijuana
Here are a couple of paragraphs form abstracts of medical literature:1.  "Cannabinoids protect cells from oxidative cell death: a
            receptor-independent mechanism."            Chen Y, Buck J.            Department of Pharmacology, Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College
            of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA."Direct measurement of oxidative stress
            revealed that cannabinoids prevented serum-deprived cell death by
            antioxidation. The antioxidative property of cannabinoids was confirmed
            by their ability to antagonize oxidative stress and consequent cell death
            induced by the retinoid anhydroretinol. Therefore, cannabinoids act as
            antioxidants to modulate cell survival and growth of B lymphocytes and
            fibroblasts."http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10869379&dopt=Abstract2. "Neuroprotective antioxidants from marijuana."            Hampson AJ, Grimaldi M, Lolic M, Wink D, Rosenthal R,
            Axelrod J.            Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation, NIMH, Bethesda,
            Maryland 20892, USA. aidan codon.nih.gov"As evidence that
            cannabinoids can act as an antioxidants in neuronal cultures, cannabidiol
            was demonstrated to reduce hydroperoxide toxicity in neurons. In a
            head to head trial of the abilities of various antioxidants to prevent
            glutamate toxicity, cannabidiol was superior to both alpha-tocopherol
            and ascorbate in protective capacity."http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10863546&dopt=Abstract3. "Cannabidiol and (-)Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol are
            neuroprotective antioxidants."            Hampson AJ, Grimaldi M, Axelrod J, Wink D.            Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation, National Institutes of
            Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA." Cannabidiol
            and THC also were shown to prevent hydroperoxide-induced oxidative
            damage as well as or better than other antioxidants in a chemical (Fenton
            reaction) system and neuronal cultures. Cannabidiol was more protective
            against glutamate neurotoxicity than either ascorbate or
            alpha-tocopherol, indicating it to be a potent antioxidant. These data
            also suggest that the naturally occurring, nonpsychotropic cannabinoid,
            cannabidiol, may be a potentially useful therapeutic agent for the
            treatment of oxidative neurological disorders...."http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10810367&dopt=AbstractIn a nutshell, these abstracts strongly suggest that smoking marijuana can prevent brain and nerve degeneration. That is, smoking marijuana wards off the stupidity that advances with age as well as various neurodegenerative afflictions. Various extracts of marijuana will one day be squashed into pills that people will buy at high prices, while the natural herb itself remains illegal.What are the consequences of growing marijuana and smoking marijuana to take advantage of its healthful properties, or of distributing marijuana to meet the demand of consumers who wish to remain healthy and sentient today? They are:PRISONFORFEITURE OF HOME AND PROPERTYFORFEITURE OF VEHICLEFORFEITURE OF LIFE SAVINGSTHE SALE OF YOUR CHILDREN TO PROHIBITIONISTS AND CHRISTIANSA few years ago I found a copy of one issue of a magazine named "The Skeptic." It featured an article on "preAdamic Creationism," an extremely bizarre belief held by a lot of Christian fundamentalists - people who might purchase your baby from the government if you smoke marijuana.This belief system is based in racial bigotry and holds that the Lord God Almighty is responsible not for one creation but several. As evidence of multiple creations, preAdamic creationists point out, often in little cartoons that show a happy white couple and their white baby, that white parents never ever give birth to a black baby. Now, the argument continues, it is a given that Adam and Eve were white. So from whence do black people arise? The only possible answer, of course, is that the Lord God Almighty synthesized black people in some prior creation and that, observing them for a while, He grew dissatisfied with His work and set out upon further creations to produce a more satisfactory race. In the final creation, the Lord God Almighty created Adam, the white man, in His own image.I hope that all this has helped you to understand Christians, drug warriors and prohibitionists, why they want our children and why they wish us to suffer neurodegenerative disease and become as stupid as they are.
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Comment #1 posted by JSM on May 25, 2003 at 06:44:29 PT
IT'S COMING
The change from being illegal to decrim and finally to full legalization while excruciating in its slowness is on its way. The black market in drugs and other non-reported business activities is estimated to represent about 10% of the American (US) economy. Even the most repressive bigot  can not continue to ingore and pretend that this does not exist especially in a time of approaching devaluation of the dollar, deflation, immense government deficits, and eventually high inflation all leading to recession or even worse. These fools can continue on their moral crusade and ignore these forces only at their own peril and the one thing republicrats understand it is keeping in power and that serious economic turmoil is the one thing that will awaken even the most complaisant. So, they can go ahead and pretend that repression works or they can see the writing on the wall and take steps that will ultimately save their own butts. Personally, IMHO it will always be "it is the economy stupid."  Bushie boy knows this but is locked in a very rigid ideology (tax cuts = increased prosperity and above all else applease the conservative minority and the corporate powers making up his political base) that does not allows for recognizing the importance of the underground economy and the real danger this presents. 
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