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What if California makes marijuana legal?

California's Proposition 19 on whether to legalize marijuana has fueled a debate among bloggers and pundits over this question: Because Canada exports a large percentage of its marijuana to the United States, could legalization in the U.S. cripple the Canadian economy?

Police Raid of Medical Cannabis Dispensary Puts Patients at Risk (Press Release)

For Immediate Release: August 5, 2010

Police Raid of Medical Cannabis Dispensary Puts Patients at Risk

Yesterday, Cannabis as Living Medicine (CALM), one of the most well- established medical cannabis dispensaries in Canada, was raided by police in Toronto for the second time in five months. In the last couple of months, a dispensary in Guelph, another in Iqaluit, and several in the province of Quebec were also raided.

Canadians for Safe Access, a national patient advocacy organization, is denouncing these raids. The result is that thousands of Canadians suffering from MS, Cancer, HIV/AIDS, arthritis and other critical and chronic illnesses have lost an important source of their medicine, laments Rielle Capler, a researcher and co-founder of the organization. They will have to go to the streets or suffer without their medicine. Capler adds, Rather than leave these dispensaries vulnerable to police raids, CSA is calling on Health Canada to work with them to develop regulations that would ensure their protection as well as the highest quality of care for patients. Our government should be supporting patients to access the best possible medicine, and supporting the organizations that are providing this vital service."

While the use of cannabis for medical purposes is constitutionally legal in Canada, the Federal Governments program, which provides licenses to patients for legal possession of cannabis, does not provide an adequate legal source of this medicine. Government statistics show that only about 800 of the 4000 licensed medical cannabis users access the governments supply, which is considered by many to be inferior. Research indicates that over half of license holders acquire their cannabis from dispensaries, which currently supply high quality medicine to an estimated 20,000 Canadians with critical and chronic medical conditions.

Medical cannabis dispensaries, also know as compassion clubs, have played a vital role supplying safe access to cannabis for the critically and chronically ill in Canada for over 12 years. These organizations provide access to a variety of high quality cannabis strains and preparations that can effectively alleviate pain, muscle spasms, nausea, anxiety, and other serious symptoms. Compassion clubs are also at the forefront of academic peer-reviewed research on medical cannabis in Canada. Well-run dispensaries are appreciated by patients, accepted within communities, and their work has been lauded by various court  rooms across the country.

Contacts:

Rielle Capler 604-818-4082- [email protected] Philippe Lucas 250-884-9821 [email protected]

Marijuana legalization may harm Canada's export economy

A thriving marijuana industry has aided Canada's economy, but it is almost completely dependent on U.S. exports. Various agencies and economists agree that marijuana is Canada's largest cash crop ($20 billion per year) and the industry employs 250,000 in British Columbia alone. Now, political shifts in the U.S. and at home are now threatening this boost to Canada's economy.

Press Release: MP Keith Martin Introduces bill to decriminalize marijuana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1, 2009 CONTACT: Dr. Keith Martin at [email protected] or 613-996-2625. Liberal Health Promotion Critic Keith Martin Introduces Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana OTTAWA - Tomorrow, Liberal Health Promotion Critic MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, Dr. Keith Martin, will stand in the House to introduce a bill to decriminalize marijuana. "The "war on drugs" approach, characterized by zero tolerance, has been a complete failure. It has not reduced the rate of violent crime or drug use, nor has it saved money or lives. To realize meaningful change on our city streets, we must decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot. This will cause drug abuse to be addressed in the public health system, rather than through the courts. It will sever the connection between organized crime and drug users. This bill is bad news for criminal gangs because it would collapse of the demand for drug products," said Dr. Martin. Dr. Martin has worked as a doctor in detox programs and has seen firsthand the effectiveness of harm reduction structures such as decriminalization and drug substitution programs. His Private Member's Bill would introduce fines for the possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana instead of criminal charges. Nationwide studies and House Committees have found that federal drug and crime policies are not working to reduce drug trafficking and they overwhelmingly point to this course of action. Drugs and drug trafficking would still be illegal, but drug users would be brought into the public health system instead of being tried in court and sent to jail, where users often come out dependant on more serious drugs. Additionally, the monies now allocated to law enforcement for possession of small amounts could be redirected to youth awareness programs and public policies that discourage drug use. "In the medical profession our first principle is 'do no harm'. We are actually doing terrible harm if we continue to address substance abuse uniquely as a criminal issue from the federal level. The blinders have to come off; we have to take a medical perspective if we are going to turn this thing around." Dr. Keith Martin is the Member of Parliament for Esquimalt - Juan de Fuca and the Health Promotion Critic for the Liberal Party. He is a physician who worked in detox, and alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers for 14 years. -XXX-

Press Advisory: Decision in Charter Challenge to Federal Medical Marijuana Program to be Issued February 2nd in B.C. Supreme Court

Contact: Kirk Tousaw at 604-836-1420 or [email protected], or Philippe Lucas at 250-884-9821 or [email protected] The most comprehensive constitutional challenge to Health Canada's medical marijuana policy and practice will conclude next week in the B.C. Supreme Court. A decision will be heard in BC Supreme Court (800 Hornby Street Vancouver BC Canada) on the 2nd of February at 9 a.m., marking the final chapter of this nearly five year charter challenge. The decision is open to the public. This court case is the most extensive legal challenge ever mounted against Canada's much-maligned federal medical cannabis program. It stems from a May 2004 RCMP raid of a medical cannabis research and production facility near Sooke, B.C. overseen by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS), a non-profit medical cannabis organization located in Victoria, B.C. The raid resulted in the destruction of over 900 cannabis plants being cultivated for the 400+ members of the VICS, all of whom use medical cannabis with the support of their physicians, and to the arrest of Mr. Mat Beren, who was the VICS employee responsible for the facility at the time of the raid. "Our hope is that the courts will come to the aid of Canada's critically and chronically ill by defending their constitutional right to access and use medical cannabis from a safe source without unnecessary bureaucratic delays or obstacles," said Philippe Lucas, the founder and director of the VICS and a newly elected municipal councillor in the city of Victoria. "Canadians have a well-established legal right to access medical cannabis," added Kirk Tousaw, counsel to Mr. Beren. "It is tragic that Health Canada has not put in place a system to effectively allow patients to exercise that right. Because of their failure, the arrest and prosecution of both patients and caregivers continue to this day." The VICS is a medical cannabis non-profit society founded in 1999 that currently supplies a safe source of cannabis-based medicines to over 850 critically or chronically ill Canadians with a doctors¹ recommendation for its use. Where/When: Vancouver's Provincial Court (800 Hornby St.) on the 2nd of Feb. at 9:00 a.m. What: Final decision in Regina v. Beren Charter challenge Press: Press conference to follow decision (10:15 a.m. EST)

Press Release: Results Show that North America's First Heroin Therapy Study Keeps Patients in Treatment, Improves Their Health and Reduces Illegal Activity

[Courtesy of North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI)] For Immediate Release: October 17, 2008 Contact: Julie Schneiderman at (604) 806-8380 Results show that North America’s first heroin therapy study keeps patients in treatment, improves their health and reduces illegal activity VANCOUVER, BC, October 17, 2008 – Researchers from the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI Study) today released final data on the primary outcomes from the three-year randomized controlled clinical trial. “Our data show remarkable retention rates and significant improvements in illicit heroin use, illegal activity and health for participants receiving injection assisted therapy, as well as those assigned to optimized methadone maintenance,” says Dr. Martin Schechter, NAOMI’s Principal Investigator, Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and Professor and Director, University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health. “Prior to NAOMI, all of the study participants had not benefited from repeated standard addiction treatments. Society had basically written them off as impossible to treat.” The data, which was collected from 251 participants at sites in Vancouver and Montreal, demonstrate that a combination of optimized methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) and heroin assisted treatment (HAT) can attract and retain the most difficult-to-reach and the hardest-to-treat individuals who have not been well served by the existing treatment system. Key findings at the 12-month point of the treatment-phase of the study showed that HAT and MMT achieved high retention rates: 88 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. Illicit heroin use fell by almost 70 per cent. The proportion of participants involved in illegal activity fell by almost half from just over 70 per cent to approximately 36 per cent. Similarly, the number of days of illegal activity and the amount spent on drugs both decreased by almost half. In fact, participants once spending on average $1,500 per month on drugs reported spending between $300-$500 per month by the end of the treatment phase. Marked improvements were also seen in participants’ medical status with scores improving by 27 per cent. Of particular note amongst the findings, participants receiving hydromorphone (DilaudidTM) instead of heroin on a double-blind basis (neither they nor the researchers knew) did not distinguish this drug from heroin. Moreover, hydromorphone – an opiate licensed for the relief of pain - appeared to be equally effective as heroin, although the study was not designed to test this conclusively. According to the NAOMI Study Investigators, further research could help to confirm these observations, allowing hydromorphone assisted therapy to be made more widely available. While a comprehensive health economics study is pending, researchers have already determined that the cost of continued treatment is much less than that of relapse. “We now have evidence to show that heroin-assisted therapy is a safe and effective treatment for people with chronic heroin addiction who have not benefited from previous treatments. A combination of optimal therapies – as delivered in the NAOMI clinics - can attract those most severely addicted to heroin, keep them in treatment and more importantly, help to improve their social and medical conditions,” explains Schechter. A summary report of the findings and background information on the study are available at: www.naomistudy.ca.

Report on Harm Reduction in Canada

[Courtesy of Canadian Harm Reduction Network] The Canadian Harm Reduction Network and Canadian AIDS Society Launch a New Report on Harm Reduction in Canada 18 June 2008 The Canadian AIDS Society and the Canadian AIDS Society, in partnership, have launched a new publication entitled "Learning from Each Other: Enhancing Community-Based Harm Reduction Programs and Practices in Canada." The report is the culmination of a 17-month-long study based on the findings of a harm reduction symposium and a series of focus groups, site visits and community walkabouts in nine medium-sized cities across Canada. The study was funded by the federal government's Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund. "The recent judgment on the operation of Insite, Vancouver's safe injections site, reminds us that harm reduction services are fundamental healthcare rights and that to deny such services is in effect an infringement of the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Our report shows how Canadian harm reduction programs are vital to our communities through their service to a population that is often marginalized and alienated," says Monique Doolittle-Romas, Executive Director of the Canadian AIDS Society. "These programs are making a valuable difference in people's lives and to society by helping protect the health and well-being of those most in need. They typically do this under the constraints of insufficient or insecure funding." Targeted to health care professionals, outreach workers and service providers working in the field of harm reduction in Canada, the report highlights how various programs were developed and implemented, the challenges encountered and the lessons learned along the way. It also provides in-depth testimony from people with drug-use experience about what works well, what does not, the impact that harm reduction programs and services have on their lives, and what can be done to improve programs. "People who work in harm reduction and people who use drugs told us at various meetings that they don't know what is happening in other cities. The need for information sharing is critical," says Gail Flintoft, Chair of the Board of the Canadian AIDS Society. "We took this project on so that people don't have to recreate the wheel. Sharing this information will enhance harm reduction services by enabling people to learn from each other's experiences." "Service providers and service users alike told us that having information about the 'unknown' harm reduction - what goes on outside the major cities across Canada - would help them save both lives and money, said Walter Cavalieri Director of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network. "Now they have it." The report shows how community and health care organizations prevent harms related to drug use, primarily the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. It also portrays the holistic underpinnings of the programs which cater to both the basic health and emotional well-being of people who use drugs. Most importantly, the report shows the human side of harm reduction, including the perspectives from the many people harm reduction programs serve, in their own words. It's a celebration of the dedicated harm reduction pioneers and proponents who are working to protect the lives of people who use drugs. Often discussing issues beyond harm reduction, it also provides a compelling glance at societal challenges, including poverty, homelessness and gentrification in urban centres. The report can be accessed, in English and French, on the websites of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network at www.canadianharmreduction.com/project and the Canadian AIDS Society at: www.cdnaids.ca/learning_from_each_other.

Happy 10th Birthday, Canadian Hemp Industry!

[Courtesy of Ruth's Hemp Foods]

 

This week marks the 10th anniversary since Canada's Industrial Hemp Regulations came into effect.

On March 12, 1998, about 100 people gathered in Tillsonburg, Ontario with great excitement to hear our former Minister of Health, Allan Rock, make the announcement, formalizing what we had been working towards for several years previous.

We've come a long way. Starting at just 264 licensed acres in 1998, a high point was reached in 2006 at over 48,000 acres.

And the players have changed as well - very few of the faces in that room are still involved, and many new ones have appeared.

Now to grow hemp in the US... see below for a delicious way to support American farmers.

To celebrate the birthday of the modern hemp industry, we're taking 20% off of all our products! Shop at www.ruthshempfoods.com, and at check-out, code in Happy 10 to receive the discount. It will be good until March 22.

In Hemp and Health,


Ruth

VoteHemp bar

Support the right of American farmers to grow hemp!

Despite the fact that most Canadian hemp is now sold in the US, it is not legal to grow in that country... yet! Read about the struggle to legalize commercial hemp at

www.VoteHemp.com.

And here's a delicious way to support VoteHemp: buy the VoteHemp bar - we donate 20% of the profits of this bar to VoteHemp. Scroll to the bottom of this page http://www.ruthshempfoods.com/hempbars.html to buy the VoteHemp bar.

VoteHemp bar

hemp field

 

 
     
     
     

Press Release: Educating Prime Minister Stephan Harper about Drug Policy

[Courtesy of Beyond Prohibition Coalition] For Immediate Release: February 1, 2008 Contact: Dr. Susan Boyd: cell: 788-828-8828, email: [email protected] Educating Prime Minister Stephan Harper about Drug Policy In response to Prime Minister Stephan Harper’s flawed drug policy, which emphasizes increased crime control rather than harm reduction and drug policy reform, researcher and educator Dr. Susan Boyd in partnership with Beyond Prohibition Coalition, a Vancouver-based group, has created an educational website called “Educating Harper” at http://www.educatingharper.com. For each of the next 52 weeks, Dr. Susan Boyd will send Prime Minister Harper a letter containing a research article on harm reduction and/or drug regulation. The weekly readings are listed on the website along with a summary and a direct website link to the original paper. The website also provides concerned Canadians with information about drug policy. The first readings on the reading list pertain to the failure of drug prohibition and criminal justice initiatives such as mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences, the necessity of drug user input, and 25 peer-reviewed articles about the harm reduction initiative Insite. These are followed by summaries of a number of film documentaries and the 1973 federally funded Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-medical use of Drugs, better known as the LeDain Report. Other federal commissions and provincial and city reports about drugs and regulation, such as the Report on the Task Force into Illicit Narcotic Overdose Deaths in British Columbia, A Framework to Action: A Four-Pillar Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver, and Cannabis: report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, are included in the reading list. Dr. Susan Boyd is Associate Professor in the Studies in Policy & Practice program and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Addictions Research-BC at the University of Victoria. She is the author of: Hooked: Drug war films in Britain, Canada, and the United States (2008), From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Law, and Policy (2004), Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths (1999), and co-editor of With Child: Substance Use During Pregnancy, A Woman-centred Approach (2007). Beyond Prohibition Coalition is a Vancouver-based group that promotes community health, safety, and drug policy reform. They support moving towards the development and implementation of a system of regulation and control of currently illegal substance within a framework of public health and human rights. www.educatingharper.com

December Cannabinoid Chronicles Newsletter Available Online

[Courtesy of Vancouver Island Compassion Society] The December issue of Cannabinoid Chronicles is online and available for viewing at: http://www.thevics.com/publications/vol5/VICSNews5_4.pdf Some stories: Constitutional Challenge Hits Bump Loosen Medical Cannabis Rules, Lawyers Argue Ontario Court Ruling Challenges Cannabis Prohibition Comments on Swiss Study (Cannabis and Adolescents) Drug Disposal 101 IACM Bulletin Enjoy, Robin at the VICS