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Source: National Post Ottawa - Despite the Prime Minister's misgivings, Martin Cauchon, the Justice Minister, says he intends to pursue decriminalization of marijuana by taking a proposal to the federal Cabinet "in the weeks ahead." Mr. Cauchon heads to Europe today, where he will discuss pot decriminalization with his counterparts in France, England and Germany, which have relaxed their laws or plan to do so. "I want to move ahead as quickly as I can," Mr. Cauchon said yesterday, when asked whether Jean Chrétien's hesitancy will delay legislation. Mr. Cauchon, a 40-year-old who has confessed to smoking pot in his youth, acknowledged that he and his boss may ha…

Pembroke, Ont. - An Ottawa Valley man who was pulled over while smoking a marijuana joint has been found not guilty of driving while impaired. Rick Reimer, a retired lawyer from Killaloe, Ont., has an exemption from Health Canada that allows him to smoke marijuana to help him with his multiple sclerosis. In February 2002, he was pulled over for crossing the centre line. The officer noticed that he was smoking a joint and charged him with impaired driving. But Reimer, who defended himself in the case, insists that marijuana does not impair his ability to drive. "I know that I'm not guilty, I'm innocent and I hoped that the court would see it that way and I'm glad th…

Since its inception in January 1995, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) has devoted substantial time and energy to changing the medical marijuana laws. Over the years, there has been sufficient scientific evidence to establish that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine for some of the people prescribed to it. Two pieces of evidence is that it increases the appetite of patients, which increases caloric intake, and it has preserved their vision for years after they were expected to go blind. September 6, 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) chief administrative law judge, Francis Young, ruled: "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest ther…

g'day;... c.3400 B.C. The opium poppy is cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians refer to it as Hul Gil, the 'joy plant.' The Sumerians would soon pass along the plant and its euphoric effects to the Assyrians. The art of poppy-culling would continue from the Assyrians to the Babylonians who in turn would pass their knowledge onto the Egyptians. c.1300 B.C. In the capital city of Thebes, Egyptians begin cultivation of opium thebaicum,grown in their famous poppy fields.The opium trade flourishes during the reign of Thutmose IV, Akhenaton and King Tutankhamen. The trade route included the Phoenicians and Minoans who move the profitable item across th…

Source: Canadian Press City officials in Saskatoon have received a proposal to set up a Dutch-style cafe where small amounts of marijuana can be consumed. Mayor Jim Maddin says the city's planning and zoning department received a letter from a person interested in the idea -- provided Canada's marijuana laws change. Few details of the Saskatoon proposal are known. In Holland, over 800 licensed cannabis cafes have been set up where marijuana users can buy and consume small amounts of pot. Saskatoon Mayor Jim Maddin says what has likely prompted the proposal is federal discussions on loosening marijuana laws. A federal committee has recommended de-criminalizing…

Ottawa -- They inhaled -- and exhaled. Several front-runners in the New Democratic Party leadership race admitted in a nationally televised debate last night to smoking pot at some point in their lives. The question was raised in connection with the candidates' position on decriminalizing marijuana. Jack Layton, a well-known Toronto city councillor, joked that he never exhaled, a reference to the effects of second-hand smoke. "Six or seven million Canadians have tried marijuana. Are they criminals? I don't think so," Mr. Layton said. "What we do need to do is take a sensible approach." Mr. Layton said the federal government, which is planning to decriminalize marij…

Air Force report, Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach were flying F-16s toward their base after six hours of an uneventful mission when they spotted gunfire on the ground and reported it to flight controllers. One of the pilots requested permission to fire, but was told to wait. Seconds later, Schmidt reported surface-to-air fire and advised the flight controllers that he was going to "roll in," or attack the shooters. Umbach confirmed the sighting, adding, according to the report, "I've got some men on a road, and it looks like a piece of artillery firing at us." The bomb released by Schmidt landed a few feet from a Canadian machine gun crew, killing Sgt. Marc Leger…

Source: New York Times Ratcheting up the debate over sport utility vehicles, new television commercials suggest that people who buy the vehicles are supporting terrorists. The commercials are so provocative that some television stations are refusing to run them. Patterned after the commercials that try to discourage drug use by suggesting that profits from illegal drugs go to terrorists, the new commercials say that money for gas needed for S.U.V.'s goes to terrorists. "This is George," a girl's voice says of an oblivious man at a gas station. "This is the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. "These are the countr…

Jaffa — The country is going to pot. No one seems to mind. It makes us feel like we live in a normal 21st-century nation instead of some backward place where two peoples, neither of whom eats pork, kill each other over a piece of scrubby land. We're having elections at the end of this month. You've probably heard more about them than you ever wanted to know. Same here. The TV and newspapers talk about nothing else, except the sunny prospects for war with Iraq. The election issues are clear: peace or war; prosperity or economic collapse; clean government or rampant corruption; legalized or illegal grass. Now, Israelis are pretty smart people . . . except when they v…

Source: AlterNet "House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002."- Reuters, May 1998 Welcome to America, 2002, Land of the Virtually Drug-Free where President George Bush insists that casual drug users are financing terrorism, while his niece is caught with crack cocaine in drug rehab. Where one person is arrested approximately every 44 seconds on a marijuana charge. Where 77% of Texas drug convictions are found to involve less than one gram of a drug. U.S. fighter pilots in Afghanistan are given amphetamines to stay awake on bombing runs, leading some to question the drugs contrib…

Source: Oakland Tribune Lawyers for marijuana authority Ed Rosenthal of Oakland argued Monday the federal government has singled him out for persecution and prosecution, a prelude to asking that the drug charges against him be dropped. They'll be back before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco on Wednesday, and the judge has said he'll rule that day on whether to dismiss the case. Rosenthal, 58, a widely known marijuana activist and author, was among those arrested last February when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided his home office and other Oakland sites, as well as the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco an…

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP INTERVIEW WITH PRU MACSWEEN, RADIO 2UE Subjects: Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative; detention centres; cricket; New Year. E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………… MACSWEEN: I have the Prime Minister on the line. Good afternoon, Prime Minister. PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, Pru. Nice to talk to you. MACSWEEN: You too. We're seeing you everywhere, aren't you supposed to be on holidays? PRIME MINISTER: No, I go on holidays tonight. MACSWEEN: Oh, I bet you're counting the hours. PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I'll still be around. I'm not going away, but Mr Anderson will be taking over as Acting Prime…

Source: Kitchener-Waterloo Record Waterloo Region -- It's been a long time since Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi smoked a joint. But that doesn't mean he has anything against people who do choose to use marijuana. Telegdi supports the movement to decriminalize the use of moderate amounts of marijuana. He would like to see it made an infraction punishable with fines or community service rather than an offence met with harsher punishments and a criminal record. So many Canadians are using pot, he says, it's silly to consider all of them criminals. Plus, he believes police resources are wasted on trying to bust marijuana users when there are more serious crimes…

Frequent cannabis use increases the risk of developing depression and schizophrenia in later life, according to three new studies published today. Authors of the studies, from Australia, New Zealand and Sweden, all conclude that the authorities should introduce strategies to reduce cannabis use - particularly amongst minors. In one study of 1,601 students from 44 secondary schools in Australia, frequent cannabis use appeared to result in a rise in later depression and anxiety in girls. Daily use among the girls, who were studied from the ages of 14-15 for seven years, was associated with a more than fivefold increase in the odds of later depression and anxiety. We…