Reefer Sadness

Pot Club Bust Sends Me Onto The Street To Score

I am member 022 of the Toronto Compassion Centre. Not that it will do me any good now. Last week the feisty little organization at Bathurst and St. Clair that supplies medical marijuana to 1,200 of us who endure the daily pain of AIDS, hep C, MS, bipolar disorder and more was busted by Toronto’s finest. Read more NOW Toronto Aug 22, 2002

Compassion clubbed

Health Canada sniffs at court ruling that was supposed to open the door for growers

Imagine city hall just deciding not to grant marriage licences to gay couples in Ontario even though there was a court order demanding they do so. Health Canada is doing just that to medical marijuana users. Health Canada, despite the recent Court of Appeal decision to make medical marijuana more available, isn’t budging. Read more NOW Toronto Nov 13 2003

Pot paradise lost

Reefer refugees caught in U.S. war on drugs freaked by feds’ order to deport cancer patient

Last month’s refugee board ruling giving refugee Steve Kubby, a medical pot user and cancer patient, 30 days to pack up and leave was a terrible downer for those seriously ill folk from south of the border who hope to find safe haven here. Whenever things got too rough there on the front lines of America’s drug war, they could at least fantasize about heading out in the dark of night along the new underground railway to Canada. Many of them have actually done this. Read more NOW Toronto Jan 29 2004

The pot thickens

Big Pharma budding into medical pot plan with pill for the ill

The med grass community is fuming. Not over the Libs’ lousy pot legislation, but over Health Canada’s sneaky new regs requiring them to get their official pot at pharmacies. Read more NOW Toronto Nov 11, 2004

One weird scene, man

Stuck in the maw of the anti-drug monster, I wonder if cops will ever make peace with potheads

For some reason, my invite to attend the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) two-day grass summit has never arrived. So I just show up in the morning on the first day at an Ontario government building at Bay and Wellesley and, wouldn’t you know it, only “respectable” community stakeholders like bankers, insurance reps, realtors, CSIS agents and reps from the U.S. consulate have been invited to help cops revive the war on drugs. Read more NOW Toronto Mar 11, 2004

Not an outlaw here

Shockingly, feds are feeding Marc Emery to Yanks when our own courts won’t convict him

U.S. tanks didn’t need to roll into Vansterdam to snatch our beloved Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, on Friday, July 29. All the Yanks had to do was whisper to the BC Supreme Court and the RCMP, Vancouver police department and Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler fell in line. Emery was detained in Halifax for extradition on U.S. charges of conspiracy to launder money and distribute marijuana seeds and marijuana. Read more NOW Toronto Aug 4, 2005

Who’s your Puff Mama?

Weed seed buyers beware

That notice you got in the mail may be part of a DEA sting

The pro-pot movement may have been freaked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) nabbing of Canuck marijuana seed entrepreneur Marc Emery, but inhale deeply – the worst may be yet to come. What exactly is the DEA busy with here? The DEA denies it, but suspicious pot activists suggest it’s planning a mass roundup of Emery’s buyers. Read more NOW Toronto Sep 8, 2005

Father knows buds

Watch out, parent tokers – reefer-mad children’s aid societies could come knocking on your door Given the medicinal qualities of cannabis, one could argue that toking parents might be more relaxed caregivers, more capable of handling screaming teething babies or puberty-confused teenagers. But don’t tell that to child protection agencies across the province currently dragging parents – including those using the herb medicinally – to court for allegedly endangering their children’s well-being. Read more NOW Toronto Jan 5, 2006

Why arent we stoking AIDS toking?

Why aren’t we stoking AIDS toking? some delegates to the interna tional AIDS Conference who pick up Health Canada’s 32-page guide to medical marijuana end up carrying material around that could put them in prison back home. But even in terms of this conference, this is subversive stuff. Read more NOW Toronto Apr 17 2006

Pot march packs bongful of bud

The Global Marijuana March at Queen’s Park on May 6 was more Gay Pride, Caribana or beer festival than hardcore protest, which turns tokers off. The happening was attended by some 15,000 to 20,000, and like those other more mainstream fests, organizers paid all City of Toronto fees, including police hourly wages, and roped in corporate sponsors Pizza Pizza, Showcase (for the TV show Weeds), Ontario Corn Roasters and NOW. Read more NOW Toronto May 11 2006

Feds’ wily weed cash ruse

$4 million slash to medical mar ijuana research funding announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Monday (September 25).

A $4 million slash to medical mar ijuana research funding announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Monday (September 25) led to early celebration among medpot activists. “It was really exciting this morning when the rumour was that the Tories cut the whole program,” says Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas with only a small hint of sarcasm. Read more NOW Toronto Sep 28, 2006

Big Weed’s distancing act

Cannasat’s biz meet stokes pharma-pot threat to compassion clubs

I arrive at U of T’s Massey College prepared to celebrate five years of Health Canada’s Marijuana Medical Access Regulations stoner-style. Alas, our hosts, Cannasat Therapeutics, are hoity-toity wine sippers. Lucky for me I wore my Goodwill white tuxedo jacket. The finger-food sampling at this November 2 investor seminar for the company, which hopes to market cannabis pharmaceuticals, is fantastic. But I’m barely able to nibble the shrimp skewers and smoked salmon puffs because I haven’t had time to take my marijuana meds. Read more NOW Toronto Nov 16, 2006

Mouldy myths

Cops warn of rampant mould at pot ops but public health says there’s no fungus in sight

Should a b-movie blob threaten the city, Toronto cops will have lots of experience battling make-believe enemies. Fact is, menacing claims last week by our finest that the grow ops busted at 2600 Jane were rampant with mould may be plain untrue. Read more NOW Toronto Dec 7, 2006

When cops inhale

Did narcs who busted pot church break the law by sparking up?

Did the Toronto Police narcs who swooped down on the Church of the Universe congregation in the Beaches, arresting 22 and laying 205 pot charges, actually inhale? That’s a loaded question for those worried about lack of accountability when it comes to officers breaking the law during investigations. Undercover officers are granted extensive powers under the law enforcement justification provisions of the Criminal Code as well as the Controlled Drugs And Substances Act. These laws were passed after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that cops may commit crimes, with exceptions, during undercover investigations. Read more NOW Toronto Jan 11, 2007

Hash Mob smokes up Dundas Square

Madd chronic and I arrive for our first officially announced Out Yourself Smoke Out, a 420-joint circle at.

Madd chronic and I arrive for our first officially announced Out Yourself Smoke Out, a 420-joint circle at 4:20 pm on April 20. Founder of the Toronto Hash Mob (THM), Madd Chronic once dreamed of smoking at the centre of the universe, wherever that is. But we’ve settled on Dundas Square and have already notified police and square management that this is no festival, it’s a protest. Read more NOW Toronto Apr 26, 2007

Pot Prince blesses herbal affair

Marc Emery gives hardcore puff fest much needed political edge

Thousands upon thousands of tokers are demonstrating the normalization of cannabis at the Saturday, May 5, Global Marijuana March and fest with some hardcore puffing. On the surface, the event may look like it lacks political muscle. Attendees have showed up on the north lawn of Queen’s Park to spread blankets, fire up their favourite bong and openly inhale with their friends to the sounds of Ill Scarlet. Read more on NOW Toronto May 10, 2007

Feds pot gouge

The days of health canada marking up medical marijuana to the tune of 1,500 per cent may be nearing.

The days of health canada marking up medical marijuana to the tune of 1,500 per cent may be nearing an end. Or are they? Word from NDP health critic MP Libby Davies is that the office of Auditor General Sheila Fraser is “in the early stages of an audit of certain user fees” being charged medical pot users by Health Canada’s Medical Marihuana Access Division. Read more NOW Toronto Jun 14, 2007

Time for city to grow op

After three hours punching each other silly over issues like amending the fireworks bylaw, the licensing and standards committee is finally ready to hear my deputation September 11.. I’m here on behalf of the Canadian Cannabis Society to speak to the final agenda item: how the city plans to police pot and divvy up the proceeds of grow op busts. At the start of the meeting, I hear chair Howard Moscoe say offhandedly that he’s thankful no one is speaking on the proposed bylaw. A city staffer informs him otherwise. Read more NOW Toronto Sep 27, 2007

Don’t get too high on pot ruling

The feds’ backward pot laws have been smoked out yet again – this time by a court decision two

The feds’ backward pot laws have been smoked out yet again – this time by a court decision two weeks ago declaring weed possession laws unconstitutional. The ongoing legal confusion surrounding our pot laws is what’s making our Medical Marihuana Access Program look like it’s being administered by the Trailer Park Boys. Read more NOW Toronto Jul 26, 2007

Purring at puff party

Toke-in has more takers than Earth Day rally

Amazing pot smog hangs hazily in the sunny afternoon during Toronto Hash Mob’s second successful smoke-out on Sunday, April 20, better known as 4/20. By 4:20 pm, almost 2,000 stoners fill our makeshift auditorium behind College Park at 420 Yonge. They come to blaze. Standing three deep on steps leading onto a dry outdoor skating rink, enthusiasts wave their weed. Read more NOW Toronto Apr 24, 2008

Bust my Bubbleator

Goodies handed out at annual bud bash barely enough to cut a buzz

When I pictured what high times pot orgy the Toronto Cannabis Cup would look like, I imagined tables and tables piled high with sweet toke. But five strains only? And no info available on any of them? The fifth annual competition, held at a College Street venue (kept hush-hush out of respect for the own­ers last month), saw some 200 most­ly out-of-town weed warriors shell out $250 each to rate the best bud this country has to offer. “Ontario has the best pot. It’s right here in this room!” High Times editor Dan Skye hollers. Read more NOW Toronto Jul 17, 2008

Pot prince takes the rap

Weed disciples gasp as Marc Emery cops to five-year prison deal

Our prince of pot, Vancouver-based Marc Emery, puts it simply: “I’ll be disappearing in 60 days.” He’s referring to his plea bargain with U.S. officials over charges arising from his online marijuana seed business, made public January 14. Read more NOW Toronto Jan 17 2008