[HEALTH]
A study was released that shows smoking pot causes cell damage that could make a person more likely to develop cancer. [webMD] Good thing Health Canada is cracking down on deadbeat patients who use government-certified medical marijuana, demanding full payment in advance before shipping the weed, to halt the rising number of accounts in arrears. [ctv]
[GROW OPS]
People who grow drugs can be smart or stupid, sneaky or blatent, or any host of opposing words that I probably am unable to think of right now.
From the "hide-in-plain-sight" file, according to experts some organized crime groups are using an exemption from Health Canada to grow medical marijuana as a way of hiding illegal grow-ops. [ctv] An espresso machine repair company operating from a warehouse across from the Port Moody police station appears to have been the hub of a major marijuana distribution network. [VanSun] Nobody is safe... Sooke RCMP shut down a marijuana grow-operation in August, destroying almost 1,000 plants at a location about 30 minutes north of Port Renfrew and about 90 minutes west of Sooke. [VanSun]
Best "hide-in-plain-sight" story: Vancouver police dismantled a marijuana-growing operation located a few blocks from their own front door, after firefighters found about 1,000 marijuana plants while putting out a fire in the space. [VanSun] [cbc] But it's because grow-ops are getting more sophisticated... say the cops, wiping the egg from their faces. [ctv] (I shouldn't make fun of them. It could've happened to anybody.)
Can't hide from the sky, though. "Led by the RCMP Federal Drug Enforcement Branch with the assistance of the Canadian Forces, officers from detachments across Vancouver Island are hoisted from helicopters to destroy plants in areas that are often remote with rugged terrain. Police expect to eradicate at least 30,000 plants this season." [VanSun] Still, by October 9th the papers were already saying this was the "best year ever" for outdoor marijuana crops on Vancouver Island, with both growers and Mounties hauling tens of thousands of plants out of the forests. [VanSun]
Can't hide, also, it seems, from the damn bears. A pair of outdoor marijuana growing operations were found in Langley in September... and one of them was found when the officers responded to a resident's call about a black bear. After some time looking for the bear, but being unable to find it, they did find a property with both an outdoor and indoor marijuana growing operation. [VanSun]
A secret pot room was found in an "upscale" house in Surrey. [cbc] [VanSun] And yet Surrey recorded a drop of over 80 percent in the number of residential marijuana growing operations between 2004 and 2008, according to a study. [VanSun] Maybe they've gone into the "clone" business. [VanSun] And the City of Surrey wants to know which of its residents have licences to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. You know, so they can make sure the public is safe with the facilities having the proper modifications and all. [VanSun]
And the police in Richmond decided to bust some people, in "a series of busts". [VanSun]
And we mustn't forget Chilliwack. [cbc] [ctv] And when it pours: Chilliwack RCMP investigating a major marijuana-growing operation in an underground bunker arrested six people on the neighbouring property after discovering it, too, was being used to grow drugs. [VanSun]
And Abbotsford, after police arrested one man and uncovered a marijuana growing operation when they responded to reports of gunshots in a residential area. [VanSun]
And while this isn't exactly a "grow-op"... it's actually a "bakery"... I'm still going to put it in here among all the regional news, because this raid happened at the beginning of December, in Victoria. [VanSun]
And in many cases the residents of BC end up footing the bill on power consumption stolen during grow-ops. [ctv]
But in a landmark ruling, Canada's Supreme Court decided a convicted marijuana grower in North Vancouver wouldn't lose her house as part of her sentence. [cbc] But there were other whoops: The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia sold three utility trailers that had been used as marijuana grow-ops — with many of the illegal modifications still in place. [cbc]
For something different but fascinating, here's a photo-journal by photographer Mathieu Young in GOOD Magazine about The Harvest. [good]
[The MARC EMORY Saga]
The self-professed Prince of Pot kept in the news. In June he declared he was going to plead guilty to the drug charges in the US. [VanSun] And in his own words: [straight] Then he announced he would continue running the B.C. Marijuana Party from his jail cell. [VanSun] And two of his associates were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle to two years of probation for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. [VanSun] So he launched a "Farewell Tour" across Canada. [VanSun] That saw him giving speeches in Vancouver on August 17th. [VanSun] Then on September 28 he surrendered to authorities for extradition to the United States. [straight] [VanSun] [ctv] Newspaper calls him Canada's first Marijuana Martyr. [VanSun]
In related-unrelated news, an Abbotsford pot activist was fighting to keep his municipal business licence after being charged for allegedly selling the drug to teens. [cbc]
And in further related-unrelated news, veteran Vancouver pot activist Marc Boyer, who seems to run in every election that comes along, failed in his second attempt to have marijuana-trafficking charges thrown out because he doesn't have a valid birth certificate. [straight]
And continuing the theme, David Malmo-Levine, one of Canada's most flamboyant marijuana activists, was led off to jail at the end of October to serve a six-month sentence for a pound-a-day trafficking operation he ran for three years. [VanSun]
[DECRIMINALIZATION]
There are always articles on the pro and con sides of the legalization/decriminalization coin.
PRO-ers: [MindHack] [Freakonomics] Mexico legalized drug possession. [nyt] The supreme court in Argentina ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption. [bbc] And some fine editorializing from Beyond Robson. [br]
CON-ers:
FENCE-ers: [good] [PaulHillsdon] [good]
Slate asked how much tax revenue would be raised if governments legalized marijuana. [slate]
[UNCLASSIFIED STUFF]
Vancouver Sun's "marijuana issue" section. [VanSun]
And a list of the Top 10 Most Popular Recreational Drugs. [ListVerse]
Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here: Ross Rebagliati says the whole pot controversy that temporarily stripped him of his Olympic gold medal for snowboarding in 1998 just prepared him for politics, and now he's going to run federally as a Liberal against Stockwell Day. [ctv]
[AMERICA]
As usual, there were some downer-news from the down-south... A 44-year-old Washington State man plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana from B.C.
[VanSun] And a Canadian helicopter pilot who brought about 70 kilograms of marijuana into northern Idaho was sentenced to nearly four years in prison. [ctv]But there was some upper-news as well... A bill was introduced to allow students convicted of pot possession the ability to get student loans, which they had been barred from for over a decade. [good] [mcclatchy] And passing in a landslide vote Oakland became the first U.S. city to tax proceeds on medical marijuana. [cnn] The California State Tax Board announced that if marijuana were to be legalized for recreational use, it would raise nearly $1.4 billion for the state. [laist]
Ever the investigative reporters, Slate takes the time to visit LA's THC Expo, the convention for the (medical) cannabis industry. [slate]
And the first Marijuana Cafe in the United States opened on Friday, November 13th in Portland, Oregon. "Posing an early test of the Obama Administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug," reports Fox News. [fox]
[HEMP]
Last August, Oregon signed into law a bill permitting the production, trade and possession of industrial hemp. [treehugger]
[IN OTHER DRUG NEWS]
According to an analysis of crime statistics, the "free heroin" addiction treatment centre that opened in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 2005 did not cause any noticeable impact on neighbourhood crime rates. [tyee]
And in the Freakonomics blog of the New York Times, there's a story about how decriminalization of many drugs (including marijuana, cocaine and heroin) by Portugal in 2001 has resulted both in a decline in overall drug use (!) and HIV-infection (from people sharing dirty needles). [freakonomics]
And according to a Tazmanian government spokesperson, Australian wallabies are eating poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite". [bbc]
The use of ecstacy is on the rise. [cbc] And death from Opioids (like OxyContin) is on the rise: almost double what the rate was in 1991. [cbc]
Oh, and cocaine has been found on 95% of U.S. banknotes. [NatlGeo]
In some news about The Original Drug... Pubs and bars in British Columbia are routinely failing to meet a requirement by the province’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to provide customers with a list of drink prices and serving sizes upon request. [VanSun] But now Vancouver eateries have the option to serve liquor past midnight. City council voted unanimously to extend liquor hours for restaurants, allowing liquor service until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends for restaurants across the city. [ctv]
