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Day warns of U.S. backlash on marijuana Decriminalization will cause border delays, hurt economy, Alliance critic says: Tighter border security Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief National Post Monday, December 16, 2002 http://www.nationalpost.com/national/story...-9541414C6D59%7 Stockwell Day says Ottawa's plan to decriminalize possession and cultivation of less than 30 grams of marijuana goes too far and will "create problems related to the [u.S.] border issues." A lifelong record for possession is too tough, Cauchon says. OTTAWA - Canada's softening stance on marijuana and hard drugs will provoke a backlash in the U.S. Congress that would lead to harsher…

Source: Alameda Times-Star Few words inspire such a range of reactions, from anger and fear to excitement and laughter. Everybody's got an opinion about pot, and most of those opinions - whether for, against, neutral or incoherent - are based on myths and urban legends that have accumulated over the years. If the federal government would ever commission a thorough, fair study of marijuana's short- and long-term effects, of course, people would have some facts to back up their already vehement opinions on the subject. But given the decidedly non-apocalyptic conclusions of the least-biased book I've found on the subject, "Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the …

Loretta Nall could have done a lot of things when the helicopters started to target her. She could have gotten scared. She could have moved to another house or into an apartment. She could have just tried to ignore them and prayed that they'd go away. Instead, when police helicopters began hovering over her rural Tallapoosa County home, whipping the trees with high-speed winds and deafening her with thunderous noise, she got organized. "I think they were looking for marijuana, but I don't know why they thought that I was growing it," she said. "I wasn't." On Sept. 19, the cat and mouse games with the drug helicopters came to a head. "They came over and were just …

Drug house squad shut down By EDITH BEVIN December 17, 2002 A police operation set up to target drug houses has been abandoned, the Northern Territory News learned last night. Assistant Commissioner John Daulby said Operation Firefox had been shut down. It was set up on August 14 and used members of the drug squad to target known drug houses following the introduction of the Government's tough new anti-drug laws. But Mr Daulby insisted the end of Firefox did not mean police had given up on drug houses. "It's been a significant operation, but it has run its course," he said. "But we will continue to target drug houses." Mr Daulby said education packs on …

Source: Calgary Sun Loosening Canada's pot laws will improve security at the border, not bog it down, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said yesterday. Graham downplayed reports that the U.S. is prepared to re-assign border guards working the U.S.-Mexico border, to work on the northern border should Canada go ahead and decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot. "Some people in the United States have said it will raise problems at the border, so we'll see if that's true," Graham told CTV's Question Period. "I don't believe it will because I think we'll do it in a way which reduces the tensions." Last week, a Commons committee recommended Canada bring …

Source: Sudbury Star It’s easy to joke about politicians and pot heads, but the parliamentary committee that recommended changes to Canada’s drug laws has offered advice that has to be taken seriously. For starters, the parliamentarians are not the first to suggest laws regarding simple possession should be eased. Last summer the Senate’s legal affairs committee said the same thing, and federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon agreed, although not emphatically. The parliamentary committee, which released its report last week, has suggested that possession of a small amount of marijuana no longer be regarded as a criminal matter. Instead, it would be regarded as mor…

What was a "pipe dream" for many might soon become a reality. A House of Commons committee has recommended decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. This week, reporter Tobi Cohen explores both sides of the issue. CON: INCREASED IMPAIRMENT ON ROADS More accidents on roads and increased work for law enforcement officials are some of the fears of opponents of marijuana decriminalization. With no mechanism in place to determine whether someone is too high to drive, Raynald Marchand of the Canada Safety Council fears decriminalization will prompt partyers to toke and drive as a way to have fun and get where they need to go while evading potential l…

source : Trimbos Institute Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction Information on drug use in the EU-Member States is provided by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).[13,14] Institutes in the US and Australia also regularly publish the results of population drug use surveys.[15,16] The percentage of Americans and Australians who have ever used cannabis in their lifetime is twice as high as that in the Netherlands. In the year prior to the survey almost one in five Australians and one in ten Americans had consumed cannabis. With the exception of the United Kingdom last year use was lower in the EU-Member States. Sweden …

Source: Victoria Times-Colonist While doing some research in the Netherlands recently, I was told a curious story by an Amsterdam city councillor. This councillor is also the owner of a "coffee shop" - a pub that sells marijuana - and so he often plays host to the foreign officials who constantly tour Holland and marvel at how the country's liberal justice policies have somehow managed to fail to spawn depravity, misery and chaos of biblical proportions. One day, he told me, he showed a foreign politician around his pleasant little shop. He pointed to the second floor and told the visitor he had another room upstairs. "That's where they inject hashish," he said wi…

In the preview to the news last night there was a story about a "multi million dollar" grow bust. There was footage of police loading plants in a helicopter. I passed out before the story actually came on Does anyone know more details of what I'm talking about?

Big excitement has hit the drug legalization world. A recent RAND Drug Policy Research Center study reported that marijuana may look, act, and smell like a gateway drug to abuse of harder drugs, but that possibly it is not a gateway drug after all. The marijuana normalizers - as in, "let's make marijuana use normal, or acceptable" - loved it; so did some of the press. Both were quick to misportray the study, so much so that the author of the study himself was dismayed. Andrew Morral of RAND believes he did everything he could to explain he did not disprove the gateway theory but, as he told me, "The story about it misrepresented both our findings and my comments abou…

This was in the my newspaper yesterday ohhh.. how nice to see these "american authorities" giving the Australian Feds $100,000 for their "part" ummpfftt! Urbanhog

Ottawa — Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said Sunday he's not worried that "a fresh source of tension" with United States officials would arise should Canada decide to decriminalize marijuana. "I'm not concerned," he said on CTV Question Period. "It will certainly be an ultimate item of discussion. Some people in the United States have said it will raise problems on the border, so we'll see if that's true. "I honestly, in the end, don't believe it will, because I think we'll do it in a way which reduces the tensions the way we've handled the 30-point border program." On Thursday, a parliamentary committee released a report recommending fines rather than crimin…

U.S. drug czar John Walters says Ottawa's push towards decriminalizing marijuana could make Canada a major supplier of drugs, a situation he says will "complicate" efforts to secure the world's longest undefended border. "Frankly, I'm worried about Canada beginning to look like Mexico as a major supplier of drugs into the United States," Walters told CTV's Question Period Sunday. "We want legitimate trade and movement but we cannot ignore the threats that are serious -- terror and drugs -- to become an increasing problem." Earlier this week, a Commons committee recommended decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, saying current p…