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Canada becomes second country to legalise cannabis use

Canada becomes second country to legalise cannabis use

June 27, 2018 Mary Jane

Cannabis Act passes, with the legislation expected to take effect in a few months

Canada is to become the second country in the world to fully legalise marijuana, after the senate approved legislation paving the way for recreational cannabis to be legally bought and sold within the next two or three months.

Weve just witnessed a very historic vote that ends 90 years of prohibition, senator Tony Dean told reporters on Tuesday after the vote to pass the Cannabis Act.

It ends 90 years of needless criminalisation, it ends a prohibition model that inhibited and discouraged public health and community health in favour of just-say-no approaches that simply failed young people miserably.

The federal government has said it would give provinces and territories which are responsible for deciding how recreational cannabis will be distributed and sold eight to 12 weeks after the legislation is passed to get ready for sales, but the exact date that sales begin will be set by the federal government.

Justin Trudeaus Liberal government introduced the legislation last year in a bid to make Canada the second country in the world to legalise cannabis, after Uruguay. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.

On Tuesday, the prime minister welcomed the legislation being passed. Its been too easy for our kids to get marijuana – and for criminals to reap the profits, he wrote on Twitter. Today, we change that.

Initially, the government planned to begin retail sales by 1 July, but the timeline was delayed as the senate debated the legislation. Canadas upper chamber voted 52 to 29 on Tuesday to make marijuana fully legal in the country.

Some Conservative MPs and senators voiced their disappointment as the bill passed on Tuesday. Sad day for Canadas kids, senator Linda Frum wrote on Twitter.

Conservative senator Leo Housakos said: When you normalise the use of marijuana and youre a young person and you had certain reservations because of the simple fact that it was illegal, theres, I believe, a propensity to have somebody be more inclined to use it.

Once legalisation goes into effect, Canadians will be able grow up to four plants in their own home and carry up to 30 grams of dried cannabis for personal use. Those caught with more than this amount, or who supply marijuana to minors will face penalties.

Sales of cannabis which analysts estimate could eventually be worth somewhere between C$5bn and C$7bn annually will vary widely across the country. In Alberta, recreational cannabis will be available at more than 200 private retailers while in New Brunswick, the provincial government will operate a chain of stores called Cannabis NB.

The minimum age of consumption will fluctuate between 18 or 19 years depending on the province.

On Tuesday, supporters of the legislation stressed the cautious, prudent approach to the landmark change. What the governments approach has been is, yes, legalisation but also strict control, said Peter Harder, the governments representative in the Senate. That does not in any way suggest that its now party time.

The historic vote comes with its own set of challenges for the government; it has promised it will now explore the idea of clearing the criminal records of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians with past convictions for simple possession and will have to address the concerns of some Indigenous leaders who said they werent adequately consulted on the legislation.

Canadas softer approach to cannabis could also exacerbate the countrys already turbulent relationship with Donald Trumps administration. While nine US states and the District of Columbia have legalised recreational marijuana, the White House has previously suggested that the Department of Justice will do more to enforce federal laws prohibiting recreational marijuana, raising concerns over how Canadas approach will coexist with a potential US crackdown.

Nearly 400,000 people a day cross the border between Canada and the US. Since 2016, Canada has been pushing the US to change a policy that bans Canadians who admit to having used marijuana from travelling to the United States.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

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Canada closer to legalising marijuana after senate vote in favour

Canada closer to legalising marijuana after senate vote in favour

June 13, 2018 Mary Jane

The countrys upper chamber votes for legislation aimed at ending more than 90 years of prohibition, but with dozens of amendments

Canadas senate has voted to legalise recreational marijuana, clearing a major hurdle as the country moves towards becoming the first in the G7 to fully legalise the drug.

The countrys upper chamber voted 56-30 on Thursday in favour of legislation aimed at ending more than 90 years of prohibition. The senate, however, added nearly four dozen amendments, meaning the legislation will now return to the House of Commons for consideration.

The federal Liberal government, led by Justin Trudeau, introduced the legislation last year in a bid to make Canada the second country in the world to legalise the cannabis, after Uruguay. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.

The legislation divided the responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments, with Ottawa responsible for regulating production while leaving it to provinces and territories to decide how the drug will be distributed and sold.

Once passed and implemented, those who want to grow their own marijuana will be limited to four plants per household. Canadians will be allowed to carry up to 30 grams of dried cannabis for personal use while those who sell or give marijuana to minors or who drive under its influence will face stiff penalties.

Since becoming the Liberal leader in 2013, Trudeau has argued that the decriminalisation and regulation of marijuana would help keep the drug away from children and ensure profits dont end up in the hands of what he described as criminal elements.

While the sale of recreational marijuana is not expected to begin until August or September, the senate vote was one of the major obstacles standing in the way of legalisation as Conservatives senators sought to block the initiative.

The many amendments added by the senate and which will now be considered by MPs reflect some of this opposition, such as tighter restrictions on advertising by cannabis companies and allowing provinces to prohibit home cultivation.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Mary JaneCanada closer to legalising marijuana after senate vote in favour
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I served 20 years for cannabis. Now the police are cashing in on it | Rosie Rowbotham

I served 20 years for cannabis. Now the police are cashing in on it | Rosie Rowbotham

June 13, 2018 Mary Jane

The same authorities who hounded dealers are now investors in cannabis and theres still no amnesty for past convictions. The hypocrisy is staggering, says Rosie Rowbotham, a former producer at CBC Radio

Over the course of my life, I have been convicted in four separate trials, sentenced to a total of 69 years in prison, and after many appeals served just over 20 of them the first two in maximum security. I was finally released on parole in 1997.

Given the length of time I was incarcerated, you might be thinking that I was involved in hard drugs or violence. After all, some murderers do less time than I did.

But my crime? Conspiracy to import, possess and sell cannabis.

I brought in tons of hash from the Middle East and tons of pot from Jamaica, Mexico and Colombia. Torontos infamous Rochdale College was my home base. After my first trial, I told the judge: Im going to do it again and I did but I can assure you I never got involved with any harder drugs, let alone anything violent. I was strictly a pot guy: a hippy capitalist from Belleville, Ontario, who wanted as big a piece of the North American market as he could get.

In jail, I saw myself as a prisoner of the war on drugs one of the thousands of others who lost part of their future in the long, cruel and ultimately futile attempt to stop people from buying, selling and smoking weed.

Norman Mailer testified on my behalf at my first trial, Neil Young at my second. Young told the court that he took exception to the prevailing stereotype of deadbeat pot smokers who could never make a positive contribution to society, pointing out that he was a prodigious toker and yet he still likely paid more taxes than everyone else in the court room combined.

Now a new day is dawning in Canada or so it seems. Possession of pot for recreational use is about to be legalized. Canadians will be able to possess up to 30 grams, buy it, share it, put it into edibles and grow a few plants.

To be honest, Ive never considered myself to be a marijuana activist. I wasnt a campaigner for legalization: I was making big money, and legalization would have been bad for my business.

I also dont trust or respect politicians, especially when it comes to pot. In 1969, the prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, set up the LeDain Commission to study the pot scene in Canada. After hearing from thousands of Canadians, the report recommended cannabis possession be legalized. I was 18 at the time, a pot smoker and hopeful. Nothing happened.

Fifty years later, however, the war on pot is finally over, and my side has won. So why am I not celebrating?

Lets start with the movement to grant amnesty to people with past cannabis convictions. Im glad that the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said he plans to move forward in a thoughtful way on fixing past wrongs that happened because of this erroneous law.

If the law is so erroneous, however, why is his government continuing to bust people for possession? In 2016, more than 17,000 Canadians were charged with a law that will soon disappear. Offering them amnesty would be a nice gesture, but the damage will have already been done. Why charge them in the first place?

A
A simple amnesty from the Canadian government is not enough. Photograph: Simon Webster/Rex Shutterstock

And how would amnesty work? After legalization in their states, several US cities, including San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego, moved to expunge all records of felony convictions for cannabis possession. Will Canada do the same? If not, amnesty will be a hollow gesture. Even then, Canadians with pot convictions may still not be allowed to travel to the US because American authorities have their conviction records on file.

Im also bothered by the fact that the governments current plan is to bar people with pot convictions from participating in the huge marijuana economy that is now emerging. We have the expertise. We know how to grow high-quality plants. We have the distribution networks. The governments policy is unfair, punitive and discriminatory: if it really believed in amnesty, it would let people with non-violent records for possession lead the way.

Instead, the government has turned the pot economy over to the people who lost the drug war: the cops and politicians who were responsible for destroying so many lives by turning pot smokers into criminals. Theyve been given the keys to the vault. Theyll be profiting from the same activities they used to prosecute. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Look at Julian Fantino, the former chief of the Toronto police service. In 2015, then a Conservative MP, Fantino declared his complete opposition to legalization, likening the decriminalization of marijuana to legalizing murder.

Fantino
Fantino receives a salute from Officer Pat Troll, a mascot from a series shown to Catholic schoolchildren. Photograph: Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Today, hes on the board of directors of Aleafia, a company that connects patients to medical marijuana. When asked about his change of heart on pot, Fantino replied that he had embarked on a fact-finding mission and discovered that marijuana was not the demon drug he once thought it was. Perhaps he should have done some fact-finding before he started tossing people in jail.

Also on the Aleafia board is Gary Goodyear, who held several cabinet positions in Stephen Harpers government the same government that proposed mandatory minimum sentences for anyone convicted of growing at least six marijuana plants. So is Raf Souccar, a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP whose portfolio included drug and organized crime enforcement. Former deputy Toronto police chief Kim Derry and ex-Ontario premier Ernie Eves are also members of the old law-and-order crowd who have rushed to cash in on the legalization of marijuana.

On its website, Aleafia describes Fantino as a leading expert on drug enforcement. Theyve got that right. Ive never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but shortly after joining the Toronto police department in 1969 he became a member of the drug squad, one of the hundreds of Toronto cops who pursued me relentlessly throughout the 1970s. Now he gets to cash in on the legalization of marijuana, while people with criminal records for something that is soon to become legal languish on the sidelines or, in many cases, still in jail. If Im a criminal, what word would you use to describe Fantino and all the other ex-cops and politicians who are now looking to get rich by switching to the other side?

A simple amnesty is not enough. It should include an apology for ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of people for no legitimate reason. They should be asking us to forgive them. I sentence them to have to live with themselves for the rest of their lives.

  • Rosie Rowbotham is a former producer at CBC Radio

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Mary JaneI served 20 years for cannabis. Now the police are cashing in on it | Rosie Rowbotham
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All eyes on Canada as first G7 nation prepares to make marijuana legal

All eyes on Canada as first G7 nation prepares to make marijuana legal

June 10, 2018 Mary Jane

From crime to health to business, Canadas decision to legalize marijuana is a grand progressive experiment that promises to answer a host of questions

When Canopy Growth opened its first cannabis factory in an old chocolate plant near Ottawa four years ago, it did so predicting a bright future. Canada had already legalized medical marijuana, and Canopy predicted full legalization for recreational use to be next.

What the company hadnt predicted, however, was the sudden flood of foreign visitors. Politicians and police authorities from Jamaica, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece and Australia have all come knocking, as well as doctors from New Zealand, Brazil and Chile, along with groups of corporate investors and bankers so many that Canopy now sometimes splits up the groups according to their birthdays.

We knew wed have to give a lot of tours, so we just cut a window into the wall, said the company spokesman, Jordan Sinclair. We put windows in all of the doors.

Canada will be thrust even more directly under the international microscope on Thursday, when a vote in the Senate is expected to ratify Bill C-45, effectively making Canada the first G20 nation to legalize recreational marijuana.

Its going to be a bit of a science fiction experience for a while, said Benedikt Fischer, an expert on substance use at Torontos biggest psychiatric hospital. Its unique in the world, because its happening for the first time in a wealthy country. Its not like in the US, where there are these state experiments. Most people kind of ignore Uruguay. And so the world is really looking at this.

Governments, researchers and business leaders around the world all have their own reasons for keeping tabs. Legalization could affect Canadas crime patterns, health and countless other factors but exactly how, no one yet knows.

Each Canadian province plans to roll out its newly legalized market in a slightly different way, creating about a dozen mini-laboratories within one massive test case.

Even places that have already taken the legalization plunge are hoping Canada will solve some mysteries. After Colorado legalized marijuana five years ago, for example, organized crime reacted by ramping up supplies of black tar heroin, opiates and harder drugs, said Dr Larry Wolk, the states top public health official.

But Wolk says he is interested to watch that process unfold on a bigger scale in Canada, where the new law is expected to deal a much more significant blow to the black market. Any new mix of illicit drugs in the country could have new effects on public health.

Whats the impact of marijuana legalization on the opioid crisis? he asked as an example. Does it actually act as a substitute so that people can get off opiates for chronic pain? Is there a positive impact? Or is it a negative impact, because as a result theres more opiates in the black market? Is [pot] a gateway? We dont really have an answer.

One delicate balance for Canadian authorities has been guessing at what kind of pricing will be low enough to eradicate illicit sales yet not so low as to entice new users. Canadas finance minister, Bill Morneau, recently said the goal is keeping cannabis out of the hands of kids and out of the black market. That means keeping the taxes low so we can actually get rid of the criminals in the system.

One sign of success will be if Canada not only discourages underground sales, but converts illicit sellers to the new system, said Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a Dutch criminologist.

What I am mainly following is who will be the new legal growers, and whether authorities manage to get some of the illegal growers to become legal growers, he said.

Legal
Legal marijuana for sale at a shop in Salem, Oregon. Photograph: Andrew Selsky/AP

Each country around the world that has debated whether to relax cannabis laws has had its own priority in mind: from generating revenue to discouraging drug cartels. In Canada, the emphasis has been largely on public health. Cannabis will be sold in fairly plain packaging, and usually through government-run boards that already control liquor sales.

It wont be like buying Budweiser or branded alcoholic products, said Steve Rolles of Transform, a UK drug policy thinktank. Its going to be more like buying pharmaceuticals from a chemist.

Still, its hard to know whether Canada, or any similar western country, will be able to stick to that public-health focus, he said.

We have concerns that the lessons from alcohol and tobacco wouldnt be learned, and we might see overcommercialized markets in which profit-making entities would seek to encourage more use and could encourage risky consumption behaviours, he said.

So far, Canada has allowed a few major players to dominate the industry, and their influence remains to be seen, said US marijuana industry expert Mark Kleiman.

You dont want to build up big vested interests that then resist any change, he said. If you have commercial industry in cannabis, theyre going to end up writing the laws.

For epidemiologists, Canada will provide the best-ever data sets on cannabis use.

Colorados health results have been encouraging, said Wolk. But overall, researchers lack solid data about cannabis use. Some key questions include addiction levels, how cannabis affects mental health, and effects on young people, said Israeli scientist Raphael Mechoulam, often called the grandfather of cannabis research.

About 10% of the users may be addicted less than alcohol or tobacco, he said. Some users, who are already prone to schizophrenia, may get the disease earlier. He said he is also keeping an eye on whether heavy use by young people may affect their central nervous system.

Another current Canadian health debate is how many people will be light, casual cannabis users, and how many will be heavy users.

The government still must decide how to approach products that are very potent in THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis, said Mark Ware, a drug researcher and pain specialist who helped lead Canadas federal taskforce advising the new legislation. Black-market sellers have produced increasingly strong concentrates, he said.

Those have not been the subject of studies up until recently, so the question of whether to regulate those, allow them in whatever context, and then be able to study their impacts on health, that would be very important, he said. But once theyre out there, its very hard to put them back in the box again.

Canadian police, meanwhile, will grapple with how to crack down on cannabis-impaired driving. Thats already a struggle around the world, regardless of marijuanas legality, said Rolles. But its much more difficult to measure impairment from cannabis than from alcohol, and enforcing a legal limit will prove tricky.

Meanwhile, many investors have already made huge profits from cannabis stocks, and a big question for them is whether the bubble bursts or the value keeps rising.

Theyre waiting to see if the skys going to fall, said Sinclair of Canopy. One of about 100 Canadian legal producers of medical cannabis, the company owns a third of the medical market, began trading on the Toronto stock exchange in 2016 and last month became the only cannabis producer on the New York stock exchange.

[Investors] are waiting to see if all the stigma and all the demonization of this product thats built up in 90 years of prohibition is true, Sinclair said. Its on us to demonstrate that its not.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Mary JaneAll eyes on Canada as first G7 nation prepares to make marijuana legal
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Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall

Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall

March 19, 2018 Mary Jane

Murder and violent crime found to have decreased most in states bordering Mexico as drug cartels lose business to regulation

Drugs trade
The Observer

Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall

Murder and violent crime found to have decreased most in states bordering Mexico as drug cartels lose business to regulation

Marijuana

Marijuana is sold legally at a dispensary in California. Photograph: Mathew Sumner/AP

The introduction of medical marijuana laws has led to a sharp reduction in violent crime in US states that border Mexico, according to new research.

According to the study, Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime, when a state on the Mexican border legalised medical use of the drug, violent crime fell by 13% on average. Most of the marijuana consumed in the US originates in Mexico, where seven major cartels control the illicit drug trade.

These laws allow local farmers to grow marijuana that can then be sold to dispensaries where it is sold legally, said the economist Evelina Gavrilova, one of the studys authors. These growers are in direct competition with Mexican drug cartels that are smuggling the marijuana into the US. As a result, the cartels get much less business.

The knock-on effect is a reduction in levels of drug-related violence. The cartels are in competition with one another, Gavrilova explained. They compete for territory, but its also easy to steal product from the other cartels and sell it themselves, so they fight for the product. They also have to defend their territory and ensure there are no bystanders, no witnesses to the activities of the cartel.

Whenever there is a medical marijuana law we observe that crime at the border decreases because suddenly there is a lot less smuggling and a lot less violence associated with that.

While the Mexican cartels smuggle other drugs such as cocaine, heroine and metamphetamine across the border, the market for marijuana is the largest drug market in the US and the one from which the cartels can make the fattest profit. It costs around $75 to produce a pound of marijuana in Mexico, which can then be sold on for $6,000 depending on the quality.

Gavrilova, along with fellow researchers Takuma Kamada and Floris Zoutman,studied data from the FBIs uniform crime reports and supplementary homicide records covering 1994 to 2012. They found that among the border states the effect of the change in law was largest in California, where there was a reduction of 15% in violent crime, and weakest in Arizona, where there was a fall of 7%. The crimes most strongly affected were robbery, which fell by 19%, and murder, which dropped by 10%. Homicides specifically related to the drug trade fell by an astonishing 41%.

The authors claim their study provides new insights into methods to reduce violent crime related to drug trafficking. But its publication comes as the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is rescinding the Obama-era policy that ushered in the medical marijuana laws.

When the effect on crime is so significant, its obviously better to regulate marijuana and allow people to pay taxes on it rather than make it illegal, Gavrilova said. For me its a no brainer that it should be legal and should be regulated, and the proceeds go to the Treasury.

More than 20 states across the US have implemented medical marijuana laws so far. In those that have, there is now one marijuana dispensary for every six regular pharmacies.

The study suggests that the full legalisation of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will have an even stronger impact on the drug trade as large-scale marijuana production facilities are erected in these states, further threatening the position of drug cartels.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the cartels are now trying to get into the legal marijuana business in California by opening their own farms. Others are turning to human trafficking and kidnapping to shore up their falling profits. There are also reports that some cartels are switching to new forms of drug cultivation by growing poppies in Mexico to produce their own heroin rather than importing it from Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

Mary JaneLegal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall
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This Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals

This Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals

March 19, 2018 Mary Jane

Medical-marijuana company Aphria Inc. posted a 39 percent jump in second-quarter revenue to C$8.5 million ($6.8 million), exceeding the most recently reported figures of larger peer Aurora Cannabis Inc. and giving it the second-highest quarterly revenue of pot-specialty companies globally. Aphria remains upbeat, even as the increased legalization of marijuana is called into question after a move by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to revoke policies that allowed its spread and warnings of a possible de-listing. At a conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Vic Neufeld stated plans for several acquisitions that will target expansion in four more states.

    Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/

    Mary JaneThis Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals
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    How Uruguay made legal highs work

    How Uruguay made legal highs work

    February 11, 2018 Mary Jane

    The South American countrys move to full legalisation of cannabis has so far proved a success, especially for its 17,391 users

    Every afternoon a long queue of people gathers outside a tiny neighbourhood pharmacy in Montevideo. The shop is so small that they can only be let in one at a time. Its a slow process but the mostly young clients dont seem to mind. They stand outside or sit on doorsteps chatting in groups of twos and threes as they wait their turn in the warm southern spring.

    A chemist inside in a green medical coat asks them each to press their thumb on a fingerprint scanner. The electronic device is connected to a central government computer that will either authorise or deny the purchase of their allotted 10 weekly grams of legal marijuana. It is a state-controlled, high quality product guaranteed to provide excellent highs.

    On the street 25 grams of marijuana would cost you 3,000 pesos, thats about $100 for something with probably a large amount of pesticide, seeds and stems, says Luciano, a young buyer who is next in line. But here the same amount would cost you only $30, and it comes in guaranteed, premium quality, thermosealed 5g packs.

    In July this year, tiny Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise the sale of marijuana across its entire territory.

    The most important thing has been the change of paradigm, says Gastn Rodrguez Lepera, shareholder in Symbiosis, one of the two private firms producing cannabis for the governments Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis. Uruguay dived in at the deep end without too much international support. They said it wouldnt work. Well, its working now.

    With a population of only 3.4 million, squeezed in between its two giant South American neighbours Brazil and Argentina (population 208 million and 43 million respectively), Uruguay has long been at the forefront of liberal policies not only in South America but worldwide.

    A divorce law that allowed women to separate from their husbands simply by asking a court for permission was passed as far back as 1913. Abortion was legalised in 2012, with Uruguay the only country in Latin America to do so apart from Cuba.

    Part of the reason for Uruguays liberal temperament is a longstanding separation of church and state in a region where the Catholic Church remains dominant. There is no official Christmas day on Uruguays state calendar. Most Uruguayans refer to the holiday by its government denomination of family day. Easter week is referred to as tourism week.

    Uruguay locator map

    Uruguays switch to a legal marijuana market has not been without its hitches, however, notably the resistance of most pharmacists to act as outlets for the recreational marijuana (medical marijuana remains illegal in Uruguay).

    Only 12 of the countrys 1,100 pharmacies have signed up so far to supply the 17,391 government-registered consumers served by the system, which explains the long queues outside. The low price and slim profit margin partly explain their reticence. But the main problem is that banks have threatened to close the accounts of pharmacies selling marijuana, said one chemist who sells marijuana in Montevideo, but who did not want to reveal his name for fear of such bank intervention.

    Although sales of the drug have been legalised in various US states, they remain illegal at federal level, leading to a situation where most banks refuse to handle marijuana-related accounts anywhere in the world. Even now that sales in Uruguay have been completely legalised, the fear of running into trouble with the US federal authorities has become concrete.

    The problem with the banks was an unforeseen hitch, says Eduardo Blasina, president of Montevideos cannabis museum, set in an old house in the artsy Palermo district of the capital city. But these bumps will get smoothed out eventually.

    The potency of the original government-licensed marijuana also failed to satisfy consumers at the start. The government made a mistake because the first batch they released to the market in July had a potency level of only 2% THC, says Blasina.

    THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis content. This is much lower than the levels found in legal recreational weed in US states like Colorado.

    The government quickly got the message and has now upped the content to 9% THC, says the Montevideo pharmacist. A consumer himself, he adds: Ive tried it and I can assure you that it provides a most satisfactory experience.

    Registered
    Registered users queue outside a pharmacy to buy legal marijuana in Montevideo. Photograph: Andres Stapff/Reuters

    For those who would rather not buy their legal weed at a pharmacy, Uruguays marijuana law allows consumers to plant their own at home (up to six plants) or join special privately run cannabis clubs with a maximum of 45 members who are allowed to withdraw 40g per month from the clubs crop.

    The transformation of consumers has been astounding, says Blasina. Theyve gone from buying low-quality products from street dealers to becoming gourmet experts who compete with the crops at their clubs.

    Confident that pharmacists will eventually find a way to work round the refusal of banks to handle their accounts, Blasina is more worried about the ban on selling legal marijuana to visitors from abroad in a country where tourism keeps growing, partly due to Uruguays beautiful beaches, but also because of its growing reputation as a liberal haven in South America.

    Visitors arrive here hoping to enjoy freedom in one of the most liberal countries in the world, so they feel disappointed when they find out they cant buy legal marijuana, says Blasina. They end up buying it on the street, which contradicts the whole point of the law, which is to cut traffickers out of the business.

    Blasina and others have started pressing the government for the passports of tourists to be stamped with a permit to purchase a small amount of marijuana during their stay. A record number of visitors will arrive this summer and what will we say to them? Sorry, you cant smoke? he says.

    There are ways round the problem, however. The quality of the marijuana is so high that the 40 monthly grams permitted by the government far exceeds what I could smoke on my own, says one Uruguayan who works with foreigners travelling here. So I always have enough to share around with visitors.

    Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

    Mary JaneHow Uruguay made legal highs work
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    Canadian marijuana advocate blasts hypocrisy of ex-police cashing in on cannabis

    Canadian marijuana advocate blasts hypocrisy of ex-police cashing in on cannabis

    February 1, 2018 Mary Jane

    Former public servants and police officers are finding opportunities in the countrys fledgling industry including some who were once adamantly anti-pot

    One of Canadas most prominent marijuana activists has taken aim at former police officers who have entered the countrys fledgling cannabis industry, saying it was hard to stomach that those who spent years sending people to jail for pot offences are now poised to profit as the country moves towards legalisation.

    Its a mix of hypocrisy and pure profiteering, Jodie Emery told the Guardian. They made a living off tax dollars for trying to keep people out of the cannabis business and now theyre going to position themselves to cash in.

    Her remarks come as legislation aimed at legalising recreational marijuana by 1 July 2018 was passed in the House of Commons. The bill will now head to the Senate, paving the way for Canada to become the first country in the G7 to fully legalise the drug.

    Former public servants, politicians and law enforcement officers have gravitated towards the sector, which analysts say could eventually be worth somewhere between C$5bn and C$10bn annually.

    The most controversial of these would-be entrepreneurs is Julian Fantino, a former Toronto police chief who once likened the decriminalisation of marijuana to legalising murder and, just two years ago, declared his complete opposition to legalisation.

    Julian
    Julian Fantino was opposed to legalisation but now is aiming to profit from the likely billion-dollar industry. Photograph: Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

    Fantino recently announced that he would helm a company that connects patients to medical cannabis among other services. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.

    A former Conservative MP, Fantino was also part of a government that sought to crackdown on marijuana offences, passing legislation stipulating mandatory jail time for those caught with six plants or more.

    At the launch of his company, Aleafia, last month, Fantino waved off questions about his past views. Days gone by, we all had a certain attitude and certain perception of things being what they are and what they were, he told reporters.

    Fantino said he had embarked on a fact-finding mission after being approached by Afghan war veterans who wanted access to marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and pain. [I] learned a lot about this whole space and medical marijuana and that to me was the conversion, if you will, to enable us to be more helpful to people who are not presently attaining the kind of results from their medication, which is usually opiates. Fantino did not respond to a request for an interview with the Guardian.

    Emery described Fantinos message as deeply offensive. Im always happy to see our opponents admit that we were right by adopting our messaging and what weve been saying for so long, she said. But its hard to stomach when he isnt saying that hes sorry for arresting people for cannabis, hes not saying sorry for ruining lives and trying to prevent access to patients and veterans for all those years.

    Emery who along with her husband Marc own the Cannabis Culture brand, which at one point included more than a dozen marijuana dispensaries across Canada was arrested in March on charges of drug trafficking and possession.

    Her arrest came amid warnings by government and law enforcement officials that despite the legislation snaking its way through parliament, recreational marijuana remains illegal in the country.

    The charges bar Emery, who has been released on bail but faces life in prison, from participating in the marijuana industry once it is legalised. So its sad to think that not only are we not allowed to compete against the cops getting in the pot business, but were still forever branded criminals, she said.

    The government is currently mulling whether those convicted of minor drug offences should be allowed to work in the sector.

    Emery said at least 11 high profile former police officers were now tied to the pot industry, including a former second-in-command with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who had joined forces with Fantino to head Aleafia.

    Others include a former West Vancouver police chief who has for years consulted for medical marijuana companies and a former deputy of the Toronto police who, after 38 years in law enforcement, began working with marijuana businesses in 2012. The Liberal governments plans for legalisation are being led by Bill Blair, another former Toronto police chief.

    Emery described the situation as unfair. They not only enforced the law against people in a way thats recognised as racially biased, targeting poor, marginalised people but they actively opposed reform to the law, she said. Its like a creationist being put in charge of teaching evolution in university.

    Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

    Mary JaneCanadian marijuana advocate blasts hypocrisy of ex-police cashing in on cannabis
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    This Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals

    This Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals

    January 15, 2018 Mary Jane

    Medical-marijuana company Aphria Inc. posted a 39 percent jump in second-quarter revenue to C$8.5 million ($6.8 million), exceeding the most recently reported figures of larger peer Aurora Cannabis Inc. and giving it the second-highest quarterly revenue of pot-specialty companies globally. Aphria remains upbeat, even as the increased legalization of marijuana is called into question after a move by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to revoke policies that allowed its spread and warnings of a possible de-listing. At a conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Vic Neufeld stated plans for several acquisitions that will target expansion in four more states.

      Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/

      Mary JaneThis Pot Company Posts Record Sales as CEO Eyes Deals
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      Peru legalises medical marijuana in move spurred by mother’s home lab

      Peru legalises medical marijuana in move spurred by mother’s home lab

      December 25, 2017 Mary Jane

      Proposal to decriminalise the drug came after police raided a makeshift laboratory where a group of women made cannabis oil for their sick children

      Lawmakers in Peru have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to legalise medical marijuana, allowing cannabis oil to be locally produced, imported and sold.

      With a vote of 68-5, Perus Congress approved the bill which will be written into law in 60 days, once regulations for producing and selling cannabis have been set out.

      Alberto de Belaunde, a governing party lawmaker and advocate of the proposal, said: Weve ensured that thousands of patients and their family members will enjoy a better quality of life.

      This is a historic moment and my dream is that empathy and evidence can continue to defeat fears and prejudices, he told the Guardian.

      This was not an abstract debate, it had a human face, he added.

      The legislative approval followed a government proposal to decriminalise the medical use of marijuana for the treatment of serious and terminal illnesses after a police raid in February on a makeshift laboratory where a group of mothers made marijuana oil for their sick children.

      The laboratory was in the home of Ana Alvarez, 43, who founded the group Buscando Esperanza or Searching for Hope to treat her 17-year-old son Anthony who suffers from a rare and severe form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, as well as tuberous sclerosis, which causes tumours to grow on the brain and other organs.

      Were very happy with the fact that Peruvian law has approved this, Alvarez told the Guardian. But were not totally satisified.

      We want associations like ours to be included in the production of this natural medicine, she said, adding that the new bill only allowed strictly regulated local production of cannabis oil, precluding organisations like hers.

      She was also worried that imported marijuana derivatives would be too expensive for her to buy for her son and for the families of other patients. The homemade oil was made for a fraction of the cost, she said, and came in different varieties for the personalised use of more than 300 patients.

      We would have liked the patients associations to be have been allowed to produce their own cannabis oil, De Belaunde agreed, adding it could be possible through university investigations into medicinal marijuana, which are now permitted.

      After Colombia, Peru is the largest producer of coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, and it has a thriving illegal drug trade. It is now the sixth country or territory in Latin America to legalise the use of cannabis in some form.

      The medicinal use of cannabis oil is now legal in Perus neighbours Colombia and Chile as well as in Puerto Rico. In Uruguay, marijuana cultivation and use is permitted in all its forms.

      Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

      Mary JanePeru legalises medical marijuana in move spurred by mother’s home lab
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