Cannabis Hemp News

France is planning to tighten restrictions on the smoking of cannabis in an attempt to curb its steadily rising popularity. Campaigners claim that millions of people are regularly defying existing laws as more plantations of cannabis are discovered, particularly in the south of the country. At normal levels of consumption, up to three million French people will have smoked the drug on Christmas day. France's hardline interior minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, has been consulting cabinet members and government officials on raising the maximum penalties for cannabis use, from the present level of a year in prison or a £5,000 fine. This month the government made it an offen…

Source: New York Times Some tentative, very preliminary steps are being taken to address one of the great miscarriages of justice in the country — the roundup and prosecution of dozens of black men and women on specious drug trafficking charges in the Texas Panhandle town of Tulia. There is no reason to believe that any of the people arrested in the humiliating roundup on July 23, 1999, were guilty of trafficking. No drugs, money or weapons were found. Several defendants have already been proved innocent. All were arrested solely on the word of a clownish undercover cop named Tom Coleman who had a penchant for making up charges, throwing his "evidence" into the ga…

Source: Associated Press Lansing, Mich. -- Karen Shook was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in 1993 for arranging a drug deal for a man she didn't know was an undercover police officer. But the 49-year-old former bank teller could be paroled 10 years early under legislation expected to be signed by the governor within the next week to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes. Michigan is one of several states revising its mandatory minimum sentences. Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina and New Jersey also are considering eliminating such rules, said Laura Sager, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-bas…

The Yukon government will wait until Ottawa makes an official decision before it gets off the pot on the issue of decriminalizing marijuana. Recently, a committee of federal MPs released a report recommending that anybody caught with up to 30 grams of marijuana receive a fine instead of being charged and left with a criminal record. According to the report, fines would be paid without a court appearance and people would not receive a criminal conviction, much like a speeding ticket. However, the selling of marijuana would remain a crime. Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said the government could introduce a bill in the House of Commons to decriminalize…

Source: Edmonton Sun The decriminalization of simple possession of small amounts of marijuana - as proposed by federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon - has a certain amount of appeal. And taken in isolation of other Ottawa Liberal initiatives, it appears to be at least worth looking at. Sure we can understand Alberta Justice Minister Dave Hancock's concerns - echoed by many Canadian police officials - that pot smoking is a stepping stone to harder, far more addictive drugs which require large amounts of money to purchase and generally lead to criminal activity. But with the political acceptance of marijuana as a valid treatment for some forms of chronic pain - th…

The American pilots who mistakenly killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were drugged- up "guinea pigs" at the time of the bombing, one of their defence lawyers said yesterday. "This was an Air Force science project using AF pilots as guinea pigs," Charles Gittins, lawyer for Major Harry Schmidt, said in an e-mail interview with The Globe and Mail yesterday. This fall, a U.S. military investigation criticized the force's use of amphetamines, but found that the drugs used by Major Schmidt and Major Bill Umbach were simply "not a factor" in the pilots' fateful decision to drop a 225- kilogram, laser-guided bomb on Canadian infantry soldiers. Eight were wounded a…

Source: Hamilton Spectator Any move to relax Canada's marijuana laws inevitably runs into a whirlwind of controversy. For all of the problems created by the criminal conviction of people with small amounts of marijuana, there is still widespread reluctance to do anything that runs the risk of encouraging more consumption of the drug. If a parliamentary committee chaired by Burlington Liberal MP Paddy Torsney carries the day, Canada will break new ground by decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. Possession of up to 30 grams would be subject to a ticket and fine, rather than a criminal record. In the committee's view, it's more sensible to redirect police reso…

Source: Beacon Herald The Americans are pointing the finger at us again. Most recently, we have been charged (and convicted) of being a sanctuary for terrorists, being an inadequate military ally and having loose- lipped prime minister’s assistants. But now as we move towards a more liberalized take on marijuana use, Canada has been called a threat to young Americans. A report by the special parliamentary committee on the use of non-medical drugs released last week recommends decriminalizing the possession and cultivation of up to 30 grams of marijuana for personal use. Possession would still be illegal but would not result in a criminal record. Instead it would b…

Edmonton police say the launch of an Internet-based home-delivery service for medicinal pot users has left them in a quandary. Marc-Boris St-Maurice, head of the Marijuana Party of Canada, announced the service after a Quebec Court judge said depriving medicinal pot users of a legal source violates their right to life and liberty. The decision isn't binding in Alberta. Charges of trafficking or possession will still be prosecuted here, said Janet Henchey, director of federal prosecutions for Alberta. But a veteran member of the city police's anti-cannabis Green Team said uncertainty over pot laws has left cops in a difficult position. "If it was brought to our at…

(3) COURT RULING PROMPTS POT-DELIVERY SERVICE Medical Marijuana Club Activists Launch Order-By-Web Site After Judge In Quebec Stays Possession And Trafficking Charges MONTREAL -- Pot in Canada may soon be a click away with the launch of a home-delivery service for medical marijuana over the Internet. Marijuana activists in Montreal announced the start-up of http://www.marijuanahomedelivery.ca/ shortly after a Quebec judge threw out possession and trafficking charges yesterday against two volunteers at a medical marijuana club. Quebec Court Judge Gilles Cadieux said authorizing those who are ill to use marijuana in Canada while depriving them of a legal so…

Four arrests in raids on cannabis cafés By Chris Gray 19 December 2002 Police have arrested four people in a crackdown on Amsterdam-style cannabis cafés. Scotland Yard made the arrests at two cafés in Camden, north London, after keeping them under surveillance for nearly two months. Police said the cafés, Amsterdam of London and Ian's Hemp Bar, sold legal paraphernalia associated with cannabis but officers suspected drug dealers were operating at both. About 25 officers raided the cafés and seized 14 wraps of marijuana, two marijuana grinders and a small amount of cannabis resin from Amsterdam of London. Two men, aged 29 and 38, and a 21- year-old woman were arr…

Murdering activists, smuggling drugs, unseating governments and impregnating hippie girls is all in a day's work for members of America's elite intelligence organizations. These agents of America's secret government use drug war as an excuse to sabotage democracy in foreign countries and assassinate political opponents, using tactics perfected in their own nation. FBI . political police With the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) accusing the world's marijuana cultures of collusion with terrorists, it's instructive to look at times in the past when the US was faced with foreign threats, and the role of its intelligence organizations during times of cris…

Police from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo recently detained and questioned the prioress of a Serbian Orthodox Church monastery, for suspicion of growing marijuana. In early August, UN police officers noticed pot-like plants in a field where they had been landing their helicopters. Since the field belongs to the monastery, UN police took the monastery's 70-year-old prioress Mother Efrosinia to police headquarters, for several hours of questioning. The plants in question were indeed cannabis, but hemp, not marijuana. Father Sava Janjic, speaking for the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, explained that cannabis hemp grows wild in Serbia. "Hemp is a plant here in …