Prohibition

Choosing the next President of the United States begins in Iowa in mere weeks. For the cannabis culture, 25 million people in the United States, there is only one option: Ron Paul. Read more »

BY PETER MCKNIGHT, VANCOUVER SUN

In 1932, Ernest Lapointe stood before the House of Commons and asked "What is cannabis sativa?" It was an odd question since the drug had been illegal for nine years, and since we would expect Lapointe, as a former attorney general, to know something about it.

But then again, virtually no Parliamentarians knew anything about cannabis in 1932, or in 1923 when its possession was first criminalized. Indeed, when Minister of Health Henri-Severin Beland introduced the bill that would add cannabis to the list of prohibited drugs in the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, he mentioned not a word about it. Read more »

By: The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - A report from the country's public prosecution service says 72 per cent of all cases handled by federal prosecutors last year involved drugs.

The more than 58,000 drug prosecutions stand in stark contrast to other areas of federal law — including fewer than 10,000 cases for infractions involving health, safety and economic and environmental security.

The annual report says there were just three prosecutions under the Criminal Code's anti-terrorism provisions.

The report comes as the Conservative government introduces a sweeping omnibus crime bill that will add new drug offences to the Criminal Code, including tough new minimum sentences for people convicted of growing six pot plants or more. Read more »

By: EDWARD GREENSPAN AND ANTHONY DOOB, Globe and Mail

The federal government has promised to reintroduce its Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act – a bill that died when the spring election was called. The bill is aimed at combatting illicit drug production and distribution by imposing harsher penalties on organized crime, such as six-month minimum prison sentences for those found growing as few as six marijuana plants and a two-year minimum sentence for those selling marijuana to persons under 18 near schools. Read more »

TIMES COLONIST Editorial

Jonathan Bacon surely knew the risks that came with his chosen profession. He knew his life would end violently; it had been threatened many times. The only question was when he would be gunned down.

Bacon's death on Sunday - in a flurry of bullets from automatic weapons outside a casino in Kelowna - should not have surprised anyone familiar with the gangster life.

His younger brothers, Jarrod and Jamie, must understand their days are numbered as well. Their friends and associates and family cannot ignore the cold reality that gang activity usually ends with prison or death.

Yet, despite the inescapable danger, more British Columbians are choosing to join gangs. They put family members at risk while accepting - whether they admit it or not - the odds of an early demise. And even more people choose to associate with gang members. Read more »

OTTAWA CITIZEN

At first glance, the story of how a trace of cocaine was found on Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' money during a border security demonstration may seem merely amusing. But it should also serve as a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of overreliance on technology for law enforcement.

Toews was at Toronto's Pearson Airport to view detection methods border officers use to spot illegal drugs, food and plants brought into Canada. When his $20 bill was tested using an ionizer machine, according to reports, it went into red alert. Read more »

BY JOHN ANDERSON, TIMES COLONIST

Re: "Legal drugs and gangs," July 1.

The editorial on the failed "war on drugs" is music to the ears of the criminal justice professionals who make up Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. We know, from personal experience, that prohibition enriches criminal gangs and fosters criminal activity while doing nothing to reduce drug use and the attendant violence in our cities.

Forty years of the so-called "war on drugs" in North America has actually increased the supply and potency of illegal drugs. Countries which have removed criminal penalties for drug use, such as the Netherlands and Portugal, have achieved declines in use and addiction. Read more »

By: The Canadian Press, Reposted Winnipeg Free Press

TORONTO - A new study suggests children from homes where their parents produced drugs were largely found to be healthy themselves.

The Toronto-based research from the Motherisk Program at the Hospital for Sick Children questions the frequent seizure of children from those homes, as it found the kids to be medically fit with the majority showing no symptoms of exposure to illicit drugs.

Dr. Gideon Koren says the research shows that not all in-home drug operations can be considered the same and the decision to remove a child must be made on a case-by-case basis. Read more »

UBC Media Release

The University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s International Reporting Program (IRP) has partnered with Al Jazeera English to produce Freedom From Pain, a half hour documentary that will air on the program People & Power at 6:30 PM EDT (3:30 PM PDT) on Wednesday, July 20.  The documentary will also stream on www.internationalreporting.org/pain.

The journalism graduate students and faculty members working with the IRP discovered that more than half the countries in the world have little to no access to morphine, the gold standard for treating medical pain. They traveled to India, Ukraine and Uganda to investigate how countries around the world deal with suffering patients. Read more »