The Globe and Mail Posted Monday,

January 25, 2010 9:27 PM ET

Ross Rebagliati’s 300-metre skateboard up the highway from Osoyoos yesterday was the closing of a circle for him; the restoration of his good feelings about the Olympics, just as they’re about to hit his home turf.

“That was very, very exciting, emotional,” Mr. Rebagliati, 38, said after completing his torch run on wheels, as his wife, bundled-up baby and parents tried to keep up on the side of the highway.

But once again the drug controversy he’s been unable to shake since shortly after his history-making Olympic medal in Nagano, Japan, re-emerged after his glorious Olympic moment.

Despite the imposition of a code of silence on Mr. Rebagliati by the federal Liberal Party, for whom he plans to run in the next election, the former Olympian spoke openly about his desire to see marijuana legalized.

“Prohibition didn’t work; this isn’t working,” he said after running with the torch, which some have even said resembles a giant joint.

“You look at the numbers; it’s not helping by throwing people in jail. I think the thing we can focus on is helping people with addictions, taking a proactive view.

How can we help people rather than throw them in jail?” Mr. Rebagliati was jubilant in his post-skateboard moment, and either forgot about his party’s edict that he not speak to the news media, or chose to ignore it.

The North Vancouver native and former Whistler resident won the first Olympic gold medal in snowboarding, at the 1998 Winter Games.

The good-looking blue-eyed blond with the winning smile and affable manner became an instant sports star. But when traces of marijuana were detected after a drug test, the controversy made him a household name.

“I had the opportunity for about 24 hours in Nagano to really feel that awesome ‘yes I won the Olympics’ feeling and it kind of went away after that,” Mr. Rebagliati said yesterday.

“I really wanted to represent Canada in a better light than that and today was really part of sort of healing that for me.”

He was ultimately allowed to keep his gold medal (he argued that he’d inhaled the smoke second-hand but the IOC’s decision was based on the fact that marijuana was not specifically banned). But the headline-making incident took a deep toll.

“A cloud was following me, plus everyone knew who I was. It’s like the perfect storm for someone to go into hiding, which is basically what I did for two years.”

He was unable to collect his mail, go shopping, or pay his taxes. “I was completely unable to function. I was in shock, actually, coming back.”
He has had more ups and downs in the years since: lawsuits and money problems.

Now, he is back on his feet, at least personally.

In 2004, he met professional hockey player Alexandra Axsen at a charity tournament in Toronto. Two weeks later, he proposed. Two weeks after that, they married.

“When I met him I had no idea who he was,” Mrs. Rebagliati said yesterday.

“He said that’s part of why he married me.” Three years ago, they moved to Kelowna. Last spring, they had a baby, Ryan.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s my biggest accomplishment,” Mr. Rebagliati said.

“The gold medal doesn’t even scratch the surface of having a baby.”

Mr. Rebagliati likes to sing to his son and play with him.

He attaches a Velcro skateboard to Ryan’s feet while he bounces on the Jolly Jumper.

It was in response to a question from The Globe about his baby that Mr. Rebagliati addressed the legalization issue: What will he say to Ryan about the drug controversy, once his son is old enough to hear about it elsewhere?

“I’m hoping by the time he’s old enough that this will be like prohibition was back in the day, where it’ll be like a joke, like, ‘Oh I can’t believe it was like that when you were a kid.’ Prohibition didn’t work; this isn’t working.”

Mr. Rebagliati will not bring up his pro-legalization stand, he said, when he runs in the riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla against Conservative Stockwell Day.

But he knows the issue will dog him on the campaign trail – just as it followed him down his torch route yesterday.

“I’m prepared for it to go in that direction,” he said.

“But it’s not part of my platform.”

The new stage at Centennial Square was wonderful to use. Our local members of parliment, Denise Savoie and Dr. Keith Martin both had interesting perspectives and were so kind to take their evening to spend with us. Thank you so much. We want to give big thanks to A channel and B channel for covering our rally and informing the wonderful people of Victoria that were unable to make it out about Bill C-15, and our birthday party. We also would like to thank the Victoria Police force for keeping us safe while keeping their distance. We are so lucky to live in a city with informed and kind law enforcement. Fianlly, thanks to you! Following along online, informing others of important cannabis issues and coming out to rallys like this help us to be heard.

The postcards will be ready before Christmas so you can write home about all the fun you had at Cannabis Carolling.  If you want to check out our coverage visit…………

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t-hLlb0NzA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvgF6MeXd0k&feature=channel_page

You can purchase CANNABONDS online using the form below.

You can also purchase CANNABONDS in person at the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of Canada’s Victoria, BC location at
826 Johnson Street, or through the mail by cheque. Make cheques payable to “International Hempology 101 Society”, and mail to:

826 Johnson Street

Victoria, B.C.

V8W·1N3

Canada

Thanks for your support!

Why we are pooling together funds with CANNABONDS:

On Monday, February 17^th, the trial of Colby Budda begins and with him will be judged the activities of the Cannabis Buyers Clubs of Canada. Last June, Victoria
police raided the Johnson St. storefront where the Cannabis Buyers Clubs of Canada headquarters helps people with incurable medical problems. This was the fourth search and
seizure within 6 months resulting in several charges being laid against Colby Budda and club founder, Leon Ted Smith. Police took over $30,000 in cannabis, equipment, computers
and cash in the raids.

Despite four police raids, the Cannabis Buyers Clubs of Canada has never been closed for a full day since openning the doors on Johnson Street. The club currently has about
1,200 members with other networks in Parksville/Coombs, BC, and Halifax, NS.

The CANNABONDS will provide funds for legal fees for the current trial of Colby, the trial of Scott Johnstone and Ryan Fink, and the future constitutional challenge by
society founder Ted Smith.

After being arrested for allegedly sharing pot cookies and joints in November of 2000, Ted was granted a constitutional trial based upon the arbitrary and unreasonable nature
of the trafficking laws. After being arrested at the Cannabis Buyers Clubs of Canada head office in two of the raids last year, Ted now faces a total of 6 trafficking-related
charges with a total maximum penalty of 30 years in jail. It is estimated that if Ted fights all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, the legal costs will be at least
$10,000. Investing in a $25 CANNABOND will be an easy way for people to help defeat the trafficking laws and support a medical cannabis group, while also recieveing a
lifetime membership to a proven non-profit society.

Pg. 118 The possibility of a “drug free society” is unrealistic. People seek and use drugs to feel better. Medications/drugs are not risk free, but the risks can be minimized only with accurate and readily available information on the harmful effects prior to their use. Compared to most medications available today, cannabis is remarkably safe and effective and therefore should be available as an initial option to patients. As a social/recreational drug, the effects of cannabis are pleasant for many with little personal or societal risks and therefore may be a safer choice compared to other social/recreational drugs used by adults. While concern is justified about the dangers involving children and teenagers using drugs, the lies and cruelty of the marijuana prohibition are confusing to young people who learn not to trust their government. The harm resulting from the prohibition of cannabis costs individuals and our society as a whole much more than the drug itself.
When viewed from a nursing perspective, cannabis can be a useful therapeutic agent if it were legally available. Cannabis could be a useful harm reduction agent for substance abuse if it were regulated. The greatest harm from cannabis is the threat of legal consequences related to its illegal status. Nurses and other health care providers can play a vital role in reducing the harmful effects of medication/drug use. Health care professionals can teach patients and the public how to minimize the potentially harmful effects of cannabis when it is used as a medicine or social/recreational drug, but as long as cannabis remains in schedule 1, health care providers will be reluctant to talk with their patients about this drug. The role of the healthcare provider is severely compromised by cannabis prohibition and society suffers from this unjust, cruel, and costly policy. Published by Haworth Press, 2002

The CBC of C mandate is to provide cannabis to people with incurable physical medical problems or as otherwise directed by their doctor. This includes individuals with rare, obscure medical conditions where either the symptoms or side-effects of prescription drugs can be alleviated by using cannabis. Also, for people suffering from permanent physical pain or diseases, the ability of cannabis to induce relaxation, stimulate the appetite and help with sleeping is fundamental to maintaining a tolerable lifestyle.

THE INTERNATIONAL HEMPOLOGY 101 SOCIETY is an incorporated non-profit society dedicated to educating the public about hemp, cannabis and prohibition. We educate about the agriculrural, environmental and industrial advantages of growing hemp and using other eco-friendly products, as well as the medicinal and spiritual uses of cannabis and other plants and substances. We educate about the roots of prohibition, who or what we are up against and what we need to do individually and collectively in order to change the laws and misconceptions, which are suppressing the remarkable cannabis sativa plant.
Member Profile: Shawn Saunders Time for reason

I had the great pleasure of meeting Elvy before the break for Christmas. She gave me more to think about over that holiday season than I care to think
about most times. She gave me a present that can’t be wrapped, but that can definitely be shared.
She shared with me time, stories, pieces of her life. The most precious things that can be shared. But what she gave me was courage. The kind that does not come easy. It’s the courage it takes to stand in front of your friends and ask for help with arms outstretched. The courage it takes to cross boarders and ask of friends when you know they have been shot for helping their friends, for doing the very same things you are doing. The courage it takes when your son looks you in the eye and says “But Mom, you could get arrested!” These are the things Elvy and I shared, the things I believe all people share if they are brought up with a healthy love and understanding for their fellow mankind.

Elvy was not a pot head in the beginning. In the beginning she was a woman who was blind. Born with congenial cataracts, she later in life developed glaucoma. She underwent numerous operations, painful drops and medications that she had acute reactions to. Almost to the point of suicide she said before she allowed her own doctor to talk her into trying something that was illegal. He himself had to procure some for her before she would try it. The first couple of joints didn’t do anything. The next time he got better medicine and Elvy noticed a difference before she finished the first joint.

Cannabis keeps the internal fluid pressures of the eye from building up and blocking the optic nerve, thus helping to retain vision. Now her big problem is getting through the night. THE is fat soluble and so goes through your bodies system in four hours. Most of us like to sleep for six to eight hour’s undisturbed to have a sunny disposition in the morning. If your medicine only lasts for four of those hours you’re either going to wake up with further impaired vision from the previous day, or you are going to have to set an alarm to get you up in the middle of the night to take more medicine.
Elvy Musikka, con’t

The next bigger problem she faces is her illness is degenerative, meaning it’s going to keep getting worse according to doctors. I’d like to add here that this is now a point that Elvy herself likes to argue. It seems the vision in both of her eyes is slowly improving over the years since she started to use cannabis. She smokes cannabis, eats cannabis, and uses it as a poultice not only on her eyes, but also to heal her arm when she broke it last year. The federal government doesn’t think she needs increasingly stronger medicine for her decreasing vision. They would not give her anything else to try, so when she heard about our B.C. bud she decided to come and try for herself. Her suspicions were confirmed and B.C. cannabis made her more comfortable right away. She loved everyone’s medicinal baking and was eagerly going to try Ryanol as a way of helping throughout the night.

Also, because of their war on drugs (and other related issues), Elvy and a lot of other American citizens are very uncomfortable with their government right now and are turning to their neighbors to the north and south for refuge. Elvy, many others, and myself were very disappointed with the fact Steve Kubby’s hearing was turned down. We have already seen the beginnings of a migration similar to that of the Vietnam war draft dogger epidemic. I myself welcome them with open arms because these are the people who dare to stand up for what’s right and not for what’s easiest. Every night I hear Elvy’s last words to me “We have to find a way to work together, to unite and beat them.” And I believe that time is almost here, that lots of people from around the globe are thinking the same way.

Elvy is the best kind of activist we have, not because she knows more, or cares more or is braver than anyone else, but because she has endless courage And what helps her, myself, and many others through lonely nights is knowing that the next day we’ll be with people who care, and share, and dare.

Thank-you Elvy Mussika for being you. For more info on Elvy’s history please look up Musikka, Elvy. Pages 52-57 of Lester Grinspoon,M.D., and James B. Bakalar.”Marihuana The Forbidden Medicine.” Elvy makes herself available for Court trials, Interviews, and Presentations whenever possible and can he contacted through the club.

On arrival at hospital, I was in a coma, my heartbeat over 220 beats a minute. I was wheeled directly into the operating room for surgery by Dr. G. S. Cameron, the best neurosurgeon at the time. In the operating room I hemorrhaged and died twice. After the surgery I remained in a coma with an unchanged heart rate for 2 months.

When I awoke, I was severely mentally disabled. I was unable to speak or move and I was in agony. I suffered extensive damage to one side of my brain and I could not feel my left side. Over the next 20 yrs, I learned sign language, relearned to speak and graduated from my wheelchair.

My right hemisphere is primarily scar tissue and when the membrane around it swells, I get severe traction headaches. I have tried painkillers to no avail. Luckily, I met some friends who have infused medicinal cannabis into cookies, cakes and more. When I ingest these items, my pain decreases considerably, sometimes to nil. As a chronic pain sufferer, I highly recommend the use of medical marijuana.

The general theme to this convention is ‘growing together’ with a focus on the history of cannabis activism on the BC coast and how the sub-culture is becoming a legitimate industry.

Featured in the November 10, 2003 edition of Forbes, Advanced Nutrients has been more openly supportive of medical cannabis growers than any other fertilizer company in North America. With 86 different products grossly generating $12 million in sales in 2003, the company has plenty of incentive to improve upon fertilizers for medical cannabis users and is keenly interested in being a leader in the industry. Co-owner Michael Straumietis is looking forward to explaining why his company has been so supportive of the medical use of cannabis and what new products will soon be available for growers.

Opening the day will be Chris Bennett, as he has done all five years. He will talk about his work over the past fifteen years learning and teaching about the history of cannabis and prohibition. His story touches many people, as well as aspects of the movement, including the fact that his wife, Rene Boje, is a well known refugee who could be sent back to the US to jail for helping medical cannabis users in California.

Brian Taylor will talk about the recent proposed changes to Health Canada’s MMAR and how the cannabis community can use the media, like his magazine Cannabis Health, to help the movement become an integrated part of mainstream society.
Covering the scene of hemp on the island will be Brian Johnson who will focus on the successes and challenges faced by the Canadian hemp industry.

Mathew Elrod will update the audience with Internet sources of international news and political commentary, acknowledging changes in cannabis laws around the world.

Steve Palmer will discuss his need for medical cannabis clubs and how people can advocate to the government.
Ted Smith will conclude the symposium with an overview of constitutional challenges to the prohibition of cannabis in Canada, followed by a summary of his court cases, which should begin May 26.

Ted faces six trafficking-related charges stemming from the four times he has been arrested since November 8, 2000. His lawyer, Robert Moore-Stewart, has prepared arguments against the law based upon six different sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Other information booths and activists are expected to attend and join in on one of the best annual functions the cannabis culture offers on Vancouver Island.

Dissenting opinion:
Pp 264: Arguments solely based on vague general costs to the health care system cannot justify imprisonment for any kind of risky undertaking. There is hardly a net benefit to society in imprisoning; on the basis of the costs they impose on the healthcare and welfare systems, those very persons who may need access to and support from such systems. Canadians do not expect to go to jail whenever they embark on some adventure which involves a possibility of injury to themselves. I see no reason to single out those who may jeopardise their health by smoking marijuana.

Pp 268: Most if not all of the arguments before this court have focused on possession for personal use. On this record, it is virtually impossible to determine whether possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking causes more than little or no harm to others. I am aware of the health risks associated with marijuana use could be used to demonstrate the trafficker, involving third parties, such as, for instance, the issue of consent.

Pp 301: The harm caused by using the criminal law to punish the simple use of marijuana far outweighs the benefits that its prohibition can bring. LeBel J. notes that the fact that jail sentences are rarely imposed illustrates the perception of judges that imprisonment is not a sanction that befits the inherent dangers of using marijuana. In the case of appellant Caine, Howard J. also observed that the prohibition had brought the law into disrepute in the eyes of over one million people. These are exactly the kinds of reactions that are indicative of the arbitrariness of the impugned provisions. As I have already mentioned and as Howard J. observed, when state prohibits socially neutral conduct, it exposes itself to the risk of eroding it’s credibility.