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Montreal — A judge has halted the drug-trafficking trial of two marijuana activists who were involved in a club that dispensed the drug for medical use. A lawyer who represented the federal government at the trial said Thursday's decision amounts to an acquittal for the accused. "When the judge orders a stay of proceedings, that is tantamount to an acquittal," Robert Marchi said in an interview. Marc-Boris Saint-Maurice, director of the Compassion Club, and Alexandre Neron, who worked at the club, were accused of possession of marijuana and trafficking the drug. The case was watched closely by pro-cannabis and law-enforcement groups because of its implications for …

Montreal - Canadian activists for the medicinal use of marijuana celebrated a court victory on Thursday by launching an Internet site offering home delivery of cannabis for seriously ill people. Saying it would even offer tax deductions for orders, the Marijuana Party Foundation took the unprecedented step after Quebec Superior Court Judge Gilles Cadieux stopped the drug- trafficking trial of two volunteers from Compassion Club of Montreal, a group that provides marijuana for medicinal purposes. In his long-awaited decision, Judge Cadieux agreed that the pair, Marc-Boris St-Maurice, 33, and Alexandre Neron, 22, had planned to sell marijuana when they were arrested al…

Source: Associated Press Police raided the home of a medical marijuana activist and seized about 13 pounds of the drug, more than 100 plants and more than $11,000. However, no arrests were made. On Tuesday, police searched the home of Dion Markgraaff, a 33-year-old marijuana user who once ran a cannabis club in Ocean Beach. Markgraaff and his roommate, who was not identified, were both considered by police to be qualified medical marijuana patients. Both men were allowed to keep one plant each and an ounce of marijuana between them. The amount of marijuana found at Markgraaff's home appears to be permissible under the city plan developed in response to Proposition…

They began walking out of the Fayette County Jail here this afternoon, the first of 567 Kentucky state prison inmates that Gov. Paul E. Patton abruptly ordered released this week in a step to reduce a $500 million budget deficit. Governor Patton said only nonviolent offenders were being given the early mass commutation. But those let out today included men convicted of burglary, theft, arson and drug possession, some of them chronic criminals. "A percentage of them are going to recommit a crime, and some of them are going to be worse than the crimes they are in for," Mr. Patton acknowledged in announcing the emergency releases. But, he added, "I have to do what I hav…

Source: Hamilton Spectator The last session of Parliament ended on a high note for Paddy Torsney. In the closing days of Parliament, the Burlington Liberal MP found herself talking almost constantly about marijuana. As chair of a parliamentary committee examining the non-medical use of drugs, Torsney's job has been to explain why members are recommending the decriminalization of marijuana. The 13- member, all-party committee recommended people who possess less than 30 grams of pot should get a fine rather than a criminal record. A first offence would bring a $200 fine, second offence $500, third conviction $1,000. Marijuana would remain an illegal drug, as Torsne…

The Globe and Mail It's been a great week for Big Weed. I thought Kyoto and its ratification were going to be the last big news out of Ottawa before our diligent parliamentarians retired for Christmas. Putting the planet on the path to repair, arresting the whiplash of drought and flood and the melting of the icecaps -- these are big-ticket items. And I can't wait for the windmills. I see a lot of Holland in our future. But there was enough energy left over even after Kyoto, even after the "terrific achievement" (as Allan Rock would have it) of the gun registry program, to take up the cause of deep inhaling, and consider "relaxing" the nation's pot-possession prohi…

"Source: National Post Two real estate agents were the ringleaders of a $35- million cannabis-growing operation using the homes of innocent people, police revealed yesterday. The two agents arranged for 56 homes to be used for harvesting more than 35,000 marijuana plants in the greater Toronto, London and Ottawa regions, said Constable Steve Morrell of the York Regional Police. Homeowners would approach the two agents to lease their homes, but instead they turned them into drug dens, he said. "The ringleaders would make out false names and information, like references; after all, they were the ones responsible for checking these things out. "Then they leased th…

You can't win an argument with the Drug Czar. I found that out fast when John Walters, the federal government's tireless, full-time propagandist in the War on Drugs, met for an edgy but civil hour of debate recently (Oct. 30) with editors and reporters in Pittsburgh. Czar Walters, whose official title is director of National Drug Control Policy, came to town as part of his national campaign to debunk the latest crisis of the government's never-ending Drug War--"the myth of harmless marijuana." Later that day, he would tell an assembly of local high school students that pot is not a soft drug that deserves to be decriminalized or legalized, but a dangerous, addictive …

Source: wbir Twenty four patients at Claiborne County Nursing Home tested positive for marijuana this weekend. Administrators were baffled until Monday. Claiborne County Nursing Home says it contacted the Tennessee State Health Department, the TBI, and local police when an elderly patient first tested positive for marijuana last week. They say more tests tell a different story. Mossie Roark's children got the shock of their lives when their 84- year-old mother tested positive for marijuana. Her daughter Brenda Short said, "I don't know what to think. It just floored me and everybody else." Benda Short's mother lives in the Claiborne County Nursing Home. She tes…

Source: West Hawaii Today Big Island lawyer and Teen Court judge Cynthia Linet smoked marijuana every night for six months during her chemotherapy treatments for cancer in 1998, she told members of the County Council Tuesday in testimony opposing the marijuana eradication program. Linet was among 14 people who testified against "Green Harvest" which is funded by at least $500,000 annually in state and federal grants. Councilmembers won't address the program's funding until March, when they begin work on the budget. However, residents offered testimony at the Finance Committee meeting Tuesday when an October marijuana eradication report from the police chief was t…

Source: Oakland Tribune Lawyers argued Tuesday over whether a federal judge can or should bar U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson from treating medical marijuana patients as criminals. U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins didn't rule Tuesday, but indicated he'll do so no later than mid-January. Patients sued the government officials in October, claiming their civil rights are being violated by federal crackdowns on medical marijuana. The federal government still deems all marijuana growth, possession or use illegal, even though California voters OK'd medical marijuana in 1996. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawai…

A year after the West Virginia Legislature legalized growing industrial hemp, the crop hasn't been grown in the Mountain State and it probably never will be -- at least without an act of Congress. Growing industrial hemp is legal by state code, but federal regulations make it next to impossible. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration only allows marijuana growth for research purposes, and only then under the strictest of security. The federal government doesn't make a distinction between the marijuana people smoke to get high, which contains a psychotropic chemical and the industrial hemp, which contains less than 1 percent of the substance. That means West Vi…

Source: EurekAlert That people are getting fatter is not news. Around the globe, physically demanding occupations like farming and mining are now carried out by machines. Western values such as television and automobiles are now encroaching on the most isolated environments. Finally, a highly processed diet -- along with a sedentary lifestyle -- is the likely culprit in the high rates of obesity seen among indigenous peoples who were originally hunters and foragers. Now they eat a diet that is "entirely store bought and provided by truck." Scientists and anthropologists have observed that in some societies, a high rate of infectious disease seems to be keeping childre…

Swiss pot trade-show by Dana Larsen (02 Oct, 2002) Swiss tolerance and engineering on display at awesome CannaTrade exhibition. Kautz Felix: this guy grows the best buds in all of Switzerland! Switzerland celebrated the many wonderful facets of the cannabis plant this March, with the second annual CannaTrade fair and trade show. 65 exhibitors from nine nations took part in an awesome display of entrepreneurial spirit and the many marvellous uses of the wondrous cannabis plant. Although not quite as large as Germany's Cannabusiness trade show (CC#35, Cannabis business is big business), CannaTrade has the benefit of a more tolerant legal climate, which allowed the…

GLOBAL HARVEST REPORT 2002 HIGH TIMES brings you tales of hardship and victory from across the globe. Our roving reefer reporters give you the dope on what’s being grown, picked and smoked this harvest season. Fire up a fatty and get in touch with your bud-blowing brethren across this pot planet of ours. THE NETHERLANDS The Netherlands escaped the flood-ridden weather that plagued much of Central Europe this summer. Even though most of the summer has been gray and cool, much of August was dry. For example, Mila, of the Hemp Hotel (Amsterdam) and Pollinator fame, visited the Master’s garden just south of Amsterdam in August and reported, “His famous White Widow pla…