VICS Trial, by Ted Smith

The VICS Trial continues to slog on with dates set for Nov. 26-30, followed by 11 more days starting on Feb 11, 2008. The trials have been very interesting to sit through with witnesses such as Senator Pierre Claude-Nolin, who advocates “at best” full legalization with regulation similar to alcohol, or “at least” see existing compassion clubs given licenses to distribute medical marijuana similar to pharmacies. Senator Claude-Nolin has become very outspoken for cannabis legalization since he was chair on the SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ILLEGAL DRUGS which released CANNABIS: OUR POSITION FOR A CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY in 2002. 

That report recommended that cannabis become legally available for everyone over the age of 16.  He sees the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations as a failure. Mr. Nolin stated the number 1 barrier to the MMAR was doctor’s unwillingness to fill in the forms, and then pointed out that the College of Physicians and Surgeons had sent letters to physicians telling them NOT to sign MMAR forms because of possible liability issues. As well, he noted the government keeps saying there is not enough research being done on the herb, but the federal government has cancelled all funding for cannabis research. Another problem he sees is double blind studies would not be completed before our lifetimes, thereby increasing unnecessary suffering, and asked the judge “Is history not here to reduce our individual training time?” Another reason Mr. Nolin states is the MMAR is to restrictive by only having physicians sign forms as opposed to include Naturopaths, Chinese physicians etc. “Doctors have been set up as gatekeepers to restrict access by not legalizing at the same time”. Another reason for the creation and continued application of the laws is the myth that cannabis is a gateway drug, which a common misconception is promoted by prohibitionists. The only gateway drugs found were tobacco and alcohol, according to the Institute of Medicine in the US.

Also testifying was Lynne Belle-Isle of the Canadian AIDS Society who would like to see community gardens where those able could contribute to the growing or care of their medicine to the best of their capabilities. According to a Canadian AIDS Society study- 86% of those living with HIV/AIDS in Canada acquire their medicine from the black market, 1.7% order from Health Canada, and 36% access local Compassion Clubs. This is despite federal spending of over $25million to produce and supply medical cannabis. The study, which was funded by Public Health Agency of Canada, also recommended the legalization of existing compassion clubs.

Several members of VICS and MMAR licensed growers have also testified about the problems that they have experienced with Health Canada’s programs.  These patients noted how difficult it has been for them to receive and maintain their license to possess or grow cannabis, if they were able to obtain one in the first place.  Complaints about the quality of the herb grown by Prairie Plant Systems for Health Canada have been brought to the courts attention by several patients.  Others have complained that the lack of information from the government about how to properly grow or how to make food and skin products from the plant has left them struggling to learn how to make safe medicine without risking their health and making the most out of their resources. 

Al least 10 days of court time has been taken to qualify VICS founder Phil Lucas as an expert in various fields, enter his evidence and begin his cross-examination.  He will continue his cross-examination at the end of Nov, but the first witness to take the stand should be Senator Pierre Claude-Nolin finishing his cross-examination.  At $6,000 a day, the legal costs for the trial have put a financial strain on VICS.  This part of the process has taken 30 days of court time alone, so the final bill from Conroy & Company could be in the range of $250,000.  John Conroy, president of NORML Canada, is one of the most successful and outspoken lawyers in the country and his counter-part, Kirk Tousaw, is an articulate and informed expert in cannabis law who is a member of the Board of Directors of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Chair of the Association’s Drug Policy Committee.  Two better cannabis lawyers could not be found in Western Canada.

They have their work cut out for them in this trial, though.  While the defense has exposed several critical flaws with the MMAR, the crown prosecutors have focused upon the accuracy of some of the statements made by some of the witnesses.  It is expected that the crown will call several employees from Health Canada as witnesses, including former director of the Medical Marijuana Access Division, Valerie Lasher, and Acting Director General of Health Canada’s Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Program to explain the development of the MMAR.  Given the massive amount of evidence that will be presented in this trial, it will likely take the judge some time to finish writing the decision after all the final arguments are made.  For background information about VICS and their trial see Cannabis Digest # 3, 10 and 14, and stay tuned for more updates in future editions of Cannabis Digest.

 

Updates, Warnings and Suggestions, by Gayle Quin

A special thanks to all those who participated in this years round of Hempology Contests, and we hope you winners thoroughly enjoy the bragging rights you earned!

12th Anniversary of International Hempology 101 was well attended, with a march around town ending up at our winter location at the Ministry of Health Building. We have enjoyed many evenings of laughter and education while watching “Reach For the Pot” hosted by Ted Smith. Unfortunately, as you can read on the front page, these weekly meetings are now ending, but stay tuned for future special Hempology 101 events.  For example, on Dec 19 we will be going around town and singing our Cannabis Carols, starting at 7pm at the Ministry of Health.

It is with the greatest of pleasure that I get to announce our dear friend Mike is no longer in jail. A very grateful thanks to all those who signed the cards for Mike, he said they made his stay much more tolerable, as no other inmates had such a display of solidarity to see them through. With all due respects, I know Mike will use the time spent incarcerated for a greater purpose than those who put him there ever intended! I look forward to Jan. 30/08 when Mike will be teaching “Growing Cannabis” at the University Lecture. Keep On Growing!  You should check out some of the lectures on YouTube by simply typing Hempology into the search engine.  

The 5th Annual Art Auction is well on the way so come and look at the walls! They are covered with original works from over 15 local artists.  It’s a silent action so come and place a bid whenever you’re able. Action culminates at 4:20 pm Nov. 15, International Medical Marijuana Day. Great thanks to Honourable Mayor Lowe and Victoria’s City Council for their ongoing support with medical cannabis issues.

One of the main problems we personally as well as a group face is getting physicians to be co-operative when it comes to filling in Health Canada ATP’s. Doctors are warned and even threatened with the removal of their licenses if they fill out the forms. I have had potential members come to me wondering how best to approach their doctors to become members. I give them a copy of the product guide and ask them to educate their physicians about the 27 edible and topical cannabis treatments that we supply. Many have come back sooner with more supportive results than expected. It is only through proving its efficacy that we will get physicians and political support to get laws changed. So with that in mind, I would ask you all, please, to do the same thing, take a product guide to your doctor and help educate them.

The Marc Emery/Michelle Rainey/Greg Williams extradition trial has been delayed again until January.  We hope to have Michelle speak at the 9th Annual Cannabis Convention on Feb 10, 2008.

At the last AGM the membership voted to drop the cost to join the society from $10 to $2.  You can read more about it on page.  Help us become Canada’s largest cannabis legalization organization in the country by joining.
Check out the new web page for the CBC of C at cbc-canada.ca.  Be patient, though, as it will take a bit of time for the site and forums to be fully operational. 

 

Officials Take Pot Shots at Canadian and US Athletes, by Veronica Horn

Marijuana is taking time and resources away from catching the real cheaters in sport, one of Canada's top drug testing officials said.

Athletes who occasionally smoke marijuana and get caught shouldn't face severe penalties, so drug testers could focus on steroids and other drugs athletes use to enhance performance, said Joseph de Pencier of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, the group that administers drug testing for Canadian athletes.

"I don't think it's a fight that Canada and some other countries are going to win about getting cannabis off the list altogether," he said. "I think we're just whistling in the wind on that one."

There is a debate over whether marijuana can be a performance enhancing drug, but athletes have to set an example, said Scott Burns, who represents the U.S. government at WADA (World Anti-doping Agency).

But the current rules mean that some university athletes have trouble getting into graduate programs when they test positive for marijuana when they are recreational users, which de Pencier said is too high a penalty to pay for smoking an occasional joint.

Both Pro Football Weekly and NFL.com, the league's website, reported that Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson, Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams and Louisville defensive tackle Amobi Okoye admitted to having used marijuana during interviews at the NFL scouting combine in February.

Former NFL rushing champion Ricky Williams has tested positive several times for marijuana through out his professional career.

July 2004: Suspended after testing positive for marijuana for the third time, Williams retires. Oct. 10, 2005: Williams rejoins the Dolphins. April 25, 2006: Williams is suspended for the season by the NFL for violating the league's substance abuse policy for the fourth time. April 2007: Williams applies for reinstatement but tests positive again for marijuana, delaying his return until at least September. October 1, 2007 Williams applies for reinstatement. It may take up to 60 days for a decision.

According to Sean Millington, a lot of players in the CFL smoke a lot of marijuana as well. Millington has spent 13 seasons as a running back with the B.C.  Lions, Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts and who has been a member of the CBC’s CFL broadcast crew off and on since 2003.

Millington’s revelation appeared on the CFL’s website, and was promptly removed within 24 hours of being posted.
In his column, he wrote an eyebrow-raising piece where he suggests a drug policy is not necessary for the CFL and even criticizes Commissioner Mark Cohon for planning to develop one. 

“It’s all about politics, which is about optics as opposed to reality a lot of the time,” Millington writes.  “Mark Cohon wants the drug policy so he can have the CFL appear to be in line with similar policies in the NFL, NBA and MLB.  This desire is birthed from a feeling of inferiority with regards to those leagues.

Instead of recognizing that the CFL is a distinct entity with unique challenges and advantages, once again, it is being compared to its supposed big brothers and being found wanting.

The NFL has a drug problem and needs drug testing, so we must have a drug problem and need drug testing.”

Millington claims that, unlike NFLers, CFLers generally don’t get paid enough to be able to afford drugs — except for marijuana.

“To be completely fair there is a large amount of marijuana use,” Millington divulges, “but I don’t think anyone is suggesting that smoking pot is a performance enhancer or that it has a significant negative affect on one’s lifestyle.”

Other sports and their athletes are not immune to heavy penalties for smoking a little pot.

In June 2007 Canadian boxer Marc Bourassa was suspended from competition for two years after testing positive for marijuana. Bourassa defeated Canadian team veteran Adam Trupish for the 69-kilogram title at the tournament.
It was during the national championships on Feb. 16, 2007 that his test came up positive. The positive test means that the 23-year-old is permanently ineligible to receive federal sport funding. Bourassa waived his right to a hearing.

There is still no word on whether he will be stripped of his title.

The CCES also announced that another Canadian boxer tested positive for cannabis but only received a warning. The athlete’s identity was not released.

Even disabled athletes with legitimate medicinal reasons for smoking cannabis are not exempt.

Such as the case of Canadian Paralympic skier, Kimberly Joines, who has been banned from competition for nine months after testing positive for marijuana at a World Cup event in Aspen, Colorado in May 2007.

Joines suffered a spine injury while snowboarding in 2000, and as a paraplegic she got right back on the slopes despite ongoing pain and discomfort. As a member of the national team, she has also suffered several crashes in training and competition, and was seriously injured when she fell off a chairlift in 2005, cracking ribs and damaging her shoulder. She also broke her femur in training that year.

She has no intention of staying on the sidelines after she’s done serving the nine-month suspension. Nine months is the maximum penalty for a first-time offence, which Joines says stemmed from a misunderstanding.

Joines had applied to Health Canada to be allowed to use medicinal marijuana, which she says she used as a painkiller because it had fewer negative effects than prescription medications. At the time she applied to Health Canada she was told that the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports would allow the use of medicinal marijuana, not realizing that the IPC Anti-Doping Code, which uses the same list as WADA - has no similar exemption.

While Joines plans to be back in October the incident caused some difficulty for the 26-year-old. For one thing, she lost her Sport Canada funding of $1,500 a month that she relied on. She will need to re-qualify next year on the World Cup circuit to have that funding reinstated.

Unfortunately, there is not a uniform policy regarding drug testing and marijuana in either professional or amateur sports in Canada or the US. It seems the inconsistent and harsh punishments will continue for athletes who partake in the harmless and non-performance enhancing weed. 

Sports leaders who make the rules internationally think differently about cannabis. In Great Britain and the Netherlands both sports and government officials have recently called for cannabis to be removed from the list of drugs banned in sport.

 

Hello folks, by Skip LaFleur  

Today could have been a wonderful, beautiful day, full of sunshine and birds, here in Victoria B.C. but, as has been for the last year, it was chilly and metallic grey.

The reason for the “grey year” is aerosol sprays, or chemtrails. When you awaken in the morning, look outside at the sky. You will probably see aeroplanes crisscrossing the sky dispersing chemicals. These chemicals, are often said to be normal condensation trails, i.e. contrails presumed to be the normal phenomena of high flying jets. They are not. 

Contrails only exist at high altitudes. Conditions must be freezing and arid. Conditions that simply don’t exist in costal areas like Victoria. These are jets equipped with devices for dispersing biologics and fine powders. Also, you may have noticed lately an unusually large number of people suffering respiratory problems and other maladies, never before experienced. When you take the time to look up and watch their macabre air show notice the dense white or whitish chemtrails that flow out, gradually dispersing and forming the science fiction looking sky. These aren’t innocuous substances, they are toxic metals: aluminium, cadmium and barium. They are what we commonly refer to as heavy metals. Also. Having a practice that puts me in touch with people, who are trying to improve their health and well being, alerts me to the consequences of exposure to the airborne pathogens, it’s devastating to all of us. These substances are anti-biotic. We are biotic. They accumulate in complex organisms, wreck havoc, and become extremely damaging.

 Aluminium easily penetrates the brain-blood barrier and accumulates in the central nervous system. I really recommend that you take a little time out of your busy schedules, and investigate the problem. It’s deadly. Something to consider is the immense profits gained by exposing people to poisons. As the petrochemicalpharmaceuticalcartel says, “side-effects are future business”. Makes me wonder about the pilots and ground crews. They know the dangers; they have restrictions regarding exposure, yet they persist in poisoning their families, friends, neighbours and every other living thing. How, can they sleep at night?  There is a film on line called Aerosol Crimes. Google it two words. In the film, there’s a female Naturopath who gives sound advice. Information on how you may protect yourself. Essentially, you must focus on good dietary practices, things like eating natural, preferably, organic food, clean water, herbs, essential fatty acids and good quality vitamins. Organic food is richer, not chemically saturated, so you can eat less and feel better. Call your M.L.A. Eat lots of greens. Buy in bulk.

Don’t eat out of bags and cans. It’s toxic, and a waste of money. If you can afford it, buy air filters. I purchased an I.Q. air filter, from Switzerland. I sold my motorcycle for the money. I’m glad. My wife and animal friends are glad too. Regarding animal friends, treat them as the equals they are. Take away religion and were all equal. Finally- learn, know your subject. Research the topic as much as possible. Tell others and don’t be afraid to tell the truth, even when your voice falters. Remember; Nature cures, side effects are future business.             

Happy Trails

 

Thanks to all our contributors: Ted Smith, Gayle Quin, Veronica Horn and Skip LeFleur