na dnie teczki. Przejrzalem swoje teczke a tam na dnie pelno wycinkow z marihuana. Marihuana przez lata byla traktowana przez media i panstwo z bardzo waskiej perspektywy - policyjnej, czyli kryminalnej. Obecnie jest przedmiotem szerokiej debaty politycznej tu w Kanadzie.
Liberalowie przez nia straca wladze, poniewaz obiecali Kanadyjczykom dekryminalizacje i nigdy slowa nie dotrzymali.
NDP natomiast zawsze gadali o legalizacji, ale ostatnio stonowali swoja retoryke i teraz tylko chcieliby dekryminalizowac. PQ, Zieloni i Liberalowie sa za dekryminalizacja. Konserwatysci jeszcze sie wahaja, choc oficjalnie sa przeciwko dekryminalizacji, wszak nie odrzucaja mozliwosci uzywania marihuany do celow leczniczych. Tylko Partia Marihuany jest za calkowita legalizacja ziolka.
POT A ROLE?
Grief counsellors met with distraught students at a private North York high school Thursday after a 17-year-old classmate died when he was ejected from a van and crushed beneath it. Police are investigating whether marijuana played a role. The teen had just left Metropolitan Preparatory Academy for lunch with three others, who sustained minor injuries when their vehicle struck a curb and rolled several times ("NewsDigest", 24 HOURS, January 13-15, 2006).
New pills could switch off hunger
A marijuana joint might seem an odd starting point in the search for weight-loss secrets. Yet a compound switching off the same brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke cannabis looks set to become the world's first blockbuster anti-obesity medicine, with sales tipped by analysts to top $3 billion US a year.
Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, or rimonabant, which could be approved by U.S, regulators as early as next month, is the first of a new wave of treatments that may spell fat profits for some pharmaceutical companies.
-Reuers ("lifestyle" 24 HOURS, January 17, 2006).
Fight crime, legalize pot
Communities are well-served when activists and religious leaders take the lead in combatting the gun violence that is ruining so many young lives in Toronto and elsewhere. Unfortunately, they do not always understand the root causes of the problem they are fighting.
Basic economics tell us that making a commodity harder to obtain will make it more expensive. Dealers of illegal narcotics have benefitted from this simple truth for decades, as the government's war on drugs has created a lucrative criminal premium for the gangs willing to suffer the risks associated with selling contraband. As a predictable result, violence around the illegal but immensely profitable trade has increased, contributing to serious gang and gun problems.
Yet Canada Christian College president Charles McVety and an array of Toronto activists are now blaming marijuana decriminalization plans - and other perceived instances of not being tough enough on drugs - for Toronto's gun crime.
"Stop the soft talk on drugs'" Mr. McVety said at a news conference in one of Toronto's high-crime neighbourhoods ealier this week. "Young people are joining gangs for the lure of drug money."
It is true: Young people are joining gangs because there is a quick cash to be had. But making drugs even more verboten, and therefore even more profitable, is just going to make matters worse.
Obviously, heavy drug use is destructive and frequently deadly. Consequently, it is debatable whether legalizing hard drugs - even if it reduced organized crime - would be a responsible reform at this time. But cracking down on drugs such as marijuana - no more harmful than alcohol, the prohibition of which once caused no shortage of crime problems as well - is surely not the answer. The best way to reduce crime is to legalize marijuana, not to make it even more of a hot commodity ("Editorials", NATIONAL POST, Friday, January 13, 2006).
Hopefuls talk about pot
"Where do you stand on the legalization of marijuana?" All seven candidates in the riding of Trinity-Spadina, seated at a long table at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre on Bloor Street West last week, smiled as the more than 300 residents in the packed room suddenly sat up with new interest.
The first to answer was John Riddell, running for the Canadian Action Party, whose day job is superintendent of a highrise. "I don't think I'd have a problem with that." Laugher. Cheers. Next was Nick Lin, running for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. "I don't think it's appropriate for the state to interfere in individual lives." The crowd went wild. The Liberals' Tony Ianno, defending his seat in the riding mentioned support for his party's proposed decriminalization of marijuana, adding pot would become an alternative to drinking, so we'd have to figure out "how to ensure if people are smoking that they're driving safely." The audience was aghast. Asif Hossain, candidate for the Progressive Canadian Party said he doesn't smoke pot, but believes in civil liberties, so bring it on. More applause, hoots.
Suddenly, the mood in the room turned dark as Conservative candidate Sam Goldstein, seething in his seat, took his turn. Pointing a menacing finger at the crowd, he chastised them for wanting candidates to control gun crime in their city, while wanting to legalize a drug that was causing the gang warefare on their streets. NDP's Olivia Chow: "I'm surprised it has taken so long and still nothing has been done." More applause. Finally, the seventh and final candidate was able to speak - Thom Chapman of the Green party: "I'm sorry, I forgot the question." He got the biggest laugh of all.
Toronto News Service ("Toronto", METRO, Monday, January 16, 2006).
CALGARY MAN TO FIGHT DRUG CONVICTION
Ottawa An ill Alberta man who admits to growing and distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes will challenge his drug trafficking conviction in Supreme Court today in a test of how far juries can go in acquitting people who openly break the law. A lawyer for Grant Krieger, a long-time medical marijuana crusader, will square off against Ottawa over a rare legal safety valve called jury nullification, which allows jurors to rule against a law in exceptional cases. Mr. Krieger, 51, was sentenced to a day in jail for being caught with 29 marijuana plants seven years ago. The Calgary man, who uses marijuana to control multiple sclerosis, runs a "compassion club" to sell or give marijuana for medical purpose.
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service ("National Report", NATIONAL POST. Tuesday, January 17, 2006).
Legalize pot, Weeds star says
Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker has urged the U.S. government to legalize marijuana after playing a cannabis-selling mother in her hit comedy Weeds, imdb.com reports.
The 41-year-old actress says, "I'm really in favour of legalizing marijuana. I don't think it's that controversial."
Metro Toronto News Services ("CelebrityBuzz", METRO, Thursday, January 19, 2006).
Stephen Harper for prime minister
Unfortunately, Mr. Martin failed to fulfill that potential. On so many issues, where a single gesture of true leadership might have made a real difference, he failed to act decisively. Missile defence, marijuana decriminalization, democratic reform, health-care liberalization: On each, progress has been paralyzed because Mr. Martin has fretted about displeasing one constituency or another ("Editorials", NATIONAL POST, Thursday, January 19, 2006).
Marijuana could curb morning sickness: study
Small amounts unlikely to harm pregnant women
BY TOM BLACKWELL
A new Canadian study suggests smoking marijuana while pregnant is an effective way to combat morning sickness, though researchers note the findings are far from conclusive.
Almost all of the B.C. women surveyed at the University of Victoria and University of British Columbia said smoking marijuana helped curb the nausea of pregnancy.
The study's authors say the research points to at least the possibility of an effective treatment for a problem medical science has been largely unsuccessful in tackling.
Small amounts of marijuana would likely not do much harm to pregnant mothers, suggests the study, just published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. More research into the idea is definitely warranted, said Rachel Westfall, a fellow with the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research at UVic.
"I thought: 'This is an interesting sociological experiment, where women are going out and self-medicating with something that is really looked down upon by society at large," she said. "Are people using it? The answer is clearly yes and they think that it works."
Aided by Patricia Janssen, an epidemiologist at UBC, Ms. Westfall studied 84 women who were part of the Victoria and B.C. "compassion societies" - unofficial, non-profit bodies that dispense marijuana for medicinal purposes. Of those, 40 used cannabis to treat pregnancy nausea and 37 of them - over 92% - rated it as "extremely effective" or "effective."
Ms. Westfall acknowledged the study had weaknesses - the subjects were all predisposed to feel cannabis had medicinal benefits, they were reporting on past experience and there was no control group.
A spokesman for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada said none of the society's members could comment until they had examined the research. The nausea and vomiting of pregnancy affect at least 50% of pregnant women, likely due to a blend of factors including elevated hormone levels and heightened sense of smell.
Herbal remedies include ginger and peppermint. One of the few drugs designed specifically to treat morning sickness combines vitamin B6 and an antihistamine. None of the cures seem highly effective, Ms. Westfall said.
She discovered that some women were using marijuana while researching a PhD thesis on herbal cures used by pregnant women. And the literature has shown it to be effective in treating nausea caused by chemotherapy and other factors. The nest step should be a population-based study - one that surveys large groups of randomly chosen women on marijuana use during pregnancy - followed by a clinical trial similar to those used to test pharmaceuticals, she said.
As to adverse effects, some studies have found that recreational marijuana use leads to reduced birthweights, while others found no impact, the paper said. With marijuana use being so widespread, "if there was some serious developmental damage... I think we would have seen it come up, effect the general population," said Phillipe Lucas of the Victoria Compassion Society, which took part in the study.
Some evidence suggests that pregnant women could gain medicinal benefits with just a puff or two a day, so research would have to look at the negative impacts of only small doses, Ms. Westfall said.
National Post tblackwell@nationalpost.com (NATIONAL POST, Tuesday, January 17, 2006).
POLICE USED THE PHOTOS to track the suspects to a house in central Hamilton. Also seized were three loaded clips of ammunition and small amounts of cocaine and pot.
SOURCE: Toronto News Service ("Toronto", METRO, Wednesday, January 18, 2006).
Pot-kidnap link
Marijuana operation may have played a role in the abduction of truck driver
ROB LAMBERTI
Toronto Sun
Peel police may have stumbled on to a marijuana operation when its officers tried to execute a search warrant at a Caledon home while investigating the kidnapping of a trucker. Police said they were finalizing search warrants for the two-storey brick home on Bramalea Rd. north of King Rd. yesterday, but didn't reveal what they were seeking. But sources said police expected to find quantities of marijuana, possibly in the 30-metre trailer that was parked in the front yard.
Tactical officers raided the home early Monday after it was discovered a man who had been kidnapped off a Brampton street Friday by four men armed with guns had been held there.
During the raid, police were confronted by two armed men. Two officers opened fire, killing Rajesh Owaan, 21, of Concord, and wounding Jadjit (Joe) Singh, 43, in the leg.
Owaan's father yesterday stood at the door of the family's Anthony Lane home refusing to speak. A woman then came to the door and said the family was not ready to discuss what happened. "He was a young man," she said in response to a question about the dead man. "That was all. Okay?"
Yesterday, four Peel cruisers surrounded the Bramalea Rd. home while another cruiser and a command post vehicle idled on the side of the road as detectives in a task force formed to investigate the kidnapping prepared the warrants required to conduct a thorough search.
The kidnapping victim, Balkar Singh, 33, was snatched off the road and put into a van. He was reported to have been taken to the Bramalea Rd. house.
Sunday night, he was seen by officers getting out of a taxi outside his home. Balkar Singh was shot in the shoulder in what was reported to be a road rage incident on Hwy. 401 near London in 2003. Toronto area Sikh community members described him as a low-profile, but active, member of the community and a member of the United Sikh Federation, which wants an independent Sikh homeland.
A community member said Singh was among 150 Sikhs who took part in an August 2005 protest at the Indian consulate on Yonge St. The demonstrators last year also picketed the first Canadian visit of the Indian Punjab state leader, who was bringing a trade delegation here, the source said.
- With files from Tom Godfrey (TORONTO SUN, Wednesday, January 18, 2006).
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