Konserwatywno-talibanski rzad dyktatora Harpera dalej uprawia lapanki na chorych ludzi w Kanadzie. Policja dokonuje rajdow na Kluby Milosierdzia. Polowania na pacjentow i na roslinke konopi trwaja. Zgroza i widmo tyranii wisi w powietrzu.
Odmawiam Tajemnice radosne z prosba do Boga aby ten represyjny rzad przepadl z kretesem w nastepnych wyborach.
Pot club raids help organized crime: Senator
Police have done the Mob and street gangs a favour by cracking down on cannabis clubs, say pot decriminalization advocates. They warn people will now be buying their stuff from criminal networks instead of tax-paying businesses.
Thirty-five people were arrested in raids on Quebec's so-called "compassion clubs" - storefront outlets operating in plain view - while 90 kilograms of cannabis were also seized Thursday.
Those clubs in Montreal and Quebec City offered a wide selection of marijuana for about $10 per gram to customers who claimed a medical condition and provided a doctor's note.
Police argue that the clubs were selling to healthy people and essentially were drug-trafficking operations.
Senator Pierre Claude Nolin says users of medicinal marijuana are now forced to find it elsewhere, and the vast majority will wind up getting it from criminal gangs. After making the arrests, police themselves declared the clubs had no connection to criminal gangs. "It's the most disastrous consequence of the whole operation," said Nolin, a longtime advocate for relaxed drug laws.
"The vast majority will have to look at the black market ... and the substance on the black market is not exactly the quality substance that are received in the clubs." He says research suggests there are roughly one million Canadians who say they smoke cannabis for medical purposes, while less than 5,000 such permits have been issued by Health Canada. That means, he says, the vast majority will have to find their supply elsewhere.
An afficial for the federal Justice Department said there would be no comment on the cases. All questions were referred to Health Canada.
The Health Canada website says that, as of June 2009, 4,029 people had authorization to possess dried marijuana for medical purposes and 2,360 were allowed to cultivate or produce it.
A pie chart indicates the largest number of permits - 1,631 - were issued in Ontario, followed by 1,008 in British Columbia. Nova Scotia was third with 491, followed by Quebec with 305. THE CANADIAN PRESS (METRO, Monday, June 7, 2010).
CALM bust sends shivers
THE MARCH 31 BUST ON THE COMPASSION club CALM sends a chill through my backbone. Why did the police of 51 Division raid? Who knows? The reason for the bust go unreported.CALM has an estimated 300 federally licensed patients. What kind of message does this send to the medical community who believe in medicinal marijuana?
It's time the police get with the program and realize that we who are medically in need of marijuana are not criminals.
This is an election year in Toronto. Maybe we should all make some noise with our ballots. A rally's planned for April 11 at Allan Gardens. Shame on the Toronto police.
Jeffrey Russel
Toronto ("Letters", NOW, April 8-14 2010).
CALM after the storm
Compassion club still in a haze after shocking cop bust
By JOSH HUME
A FEW DOORS DOWN FROM THE NOTORIOUS Blue Sea Restaurant at Queen and Mutual is a discreet storefront, unmarked on the outside. The mirrored windows and security cameras are all that suggest an unconventional interior life.Compassion club still in a haze after shocking cop bust
By JOSH HUME
This is the home of CALM, Cannabis As Living Medicine, whose inside premises look like a cross between a doctor's office and a head shop.
A mobility scooter was parked out front on March 31 when eight plainclothes officers raided the marijuana compassion club; today, six days later, there's a news truck.
CALM is out of commission now, but owner Neev Tapiero is hosting an open house for well-wishers and members, who will now have to look elswhere for their medication. All he has to offer today is a Tupperware container of Oreos.
In last week's bust - now a major hit on YouTube - police arrested nine people, including Tapiero, volunteers, staff and security guards. All were charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, and Tapiero with "proceeds of crime." Police hauled away 16.5 kilos of pot, 1.9 kilos of hash, 200 grams of hash oil, $31,000 in cash and computers.
But everyone in the weed universe is wondering why, after the club's 14-year history of quietly serving up pot meds to cancer patients, diabetics, people with HIV/AIDS and others, our finest made the swoop. It's all a haze to CALM lawyer Ron Marzel. "It's a big mystery," he says. "CALM is so well-organized and -managed."
Well-managed, yes, but not entirely legal. Compassion clubs operate in a grey area of Canada's laws, helping those who can't access the feds' medpot program. Most of those arrested were holders of Health Canada's official card permitting the legal use of medpot, meaning their doctors were willing to fill out the required forms.
But only a small number of CALM's 2,600 clients have been able to score this scarce credential; a mere 801 physicians in Ontario have prescribed pot. Many more, though, are willing to facilitate the use of medicinal grass by filling out compassion club paperwork, which requires writing up a diagnosis for the patient.
So what got police so fired up last week? Rumour has it that police were responding to a neighbour's call about the smell of pot smoke, but 51 Division's Detective Jim Brons won't confirm this. CALM, he says, was "absolutely not" targeted by police. "I don't think compassion clubs are a priority for us by any means of the imagination," he says. "We only investigated this one as a result of a community complaint. That's all." But then, he adds, a little ominously, "We didn't think it was going to be of this magnitude, actually. We never expected them to have that much marijuana and hashish on the premises."
For those seeking the pain-soothing, appetite-stimulating properties of weed, getting the right strain, the right amounts, is a major challenge. Those with Health Canada permission are supposed to use the feds' pot supply or that of a grower, who can't supply more than two users. Ill folks without the magic card rely on compassion clubs, which Health Canada says are breaking the rules.
According to CALM volunteer Amy Brown, one of the arrested, "the police are well aware of our presence, and we have an open-door policy with them, according to which they can let us know of any complaints." The raid, she says, came out of the blue - so much so that at first she thought the place was being robbed. Running a compassion club, it turns out, demands a high level of vigilance, since the product attracts attention from both sides of the law. And Moss Park is already a high-crime area.
But though medpot fails into a kind of legal purgatory, Marzel thinks he will have a pretty good case based on past precedents. The larger goal, he says, will be to get compassion clubs officially licensed. "I want to ensure that patients get their medication and that facilities like CALM get status recognition."
According to York U law professor Alan Young, who has represented compassion clubs in the past, that legal limbo is what leads to raids. "I would have thought in light of the history that if there was a problem, we would have been contacted by police, as opposed to going through this empty ritual of having a charge that never will see the light of day."
In 2002, the Toronto Compassion Centre was similarly raided. Eighteen months later all charges were withdrawn. "We need a court ruling to determine what the status of the clubs is," says Young. "[Authorities] prefer the grey area; it gives them the ability to intrude when they see fit." The immediate issue, though, is where CALM clients are going to get their weed. Says Brown, "How do you tell a cancer patient who can't eat because of chemotherapy, 'I'm sorry, you're going to have to wait a couple of weeks'? It's heartbreaking" (NOW, April 8-14 2010).
04:30 Hrs. Budzik zrywa mnie na rowne nog. Na dworze 12-stopniowo. Temp. w kuchni 19.5C.
04:38 Hrs. Badam cisnienie krwi. 100/60 mmHg + puls 67/min.
04:41 Hrs. Badam stezenie cukru we krwi. 11.3 mmol/L.
04:45 Hrs. Pije lyzke stolowa oleju konopnego mum's original na pusty zoladek + zagryzam czekoladka Xocai POWER.
04:47 Hrs. Lektura tronowa. "Newsweek".
05:25 Hrs. Wskakuje na wage APSCO. 81 kg.
05:27 Hrs. Ceremonia lancuchowa.
05:32 Hrs. Badam stezenie cukru. 5.9 mmol/L.
05:42 Hrs. Badam cisnienie krwi. 93/60mmHg + puls 65/min.
20:41 Hrs. Badam cisnienie krwi. 122/76mmHg + puls 69/min. + czestuje sie czekoladka Xocai POWER + jablko.
21:08 Hrs. Po rozmowie z Ryskiem
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