Designated Growers Corner

[tommy_greens]

Great now the new rules will make it easier for gangsters to drop some cash and have MASSIVE legal grow ops in huge facilities.

Actually, it looks more like all the extra costs of doing business as an LP under the new program will mean the profit margins are less than half of an illegal grow op. Most likely in the 25% range. Also the security clearance hurdle will probably make it difficult for them too. I'm putting my money on most of these grows moving to the bush and operating illegally.
My guess is that a lot of gangster types that have multiple big shows will get rural properties and consolidate all the gear from a 300kw, 150kw and 100kw 'legal' grows into one monster 500 to 1000 light grow op in the sticks.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.terracestandard.com/news/196678391.html

Pot charges dropped

By Margaret Speirs - Terrace Standard
March 09, 2013

ANOTHER GROW-OP case has been stayed here after several years of going through the courts.

Charges of production of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking against Patricia Kerr were stayed prosecutor Jack Talstra told her lawyer in a March 5th letter.

Defence lawyer Timothy Klaassen was going to argue, at his client’s scheduled court date of March 6, that the trial had been delayed too long and that the court should drop the charges against his client but didn’t have to thanks to the letter.

And Kerr has had a medical marijuana licence for three-and-a-half years now, Klaassen added.

That licence allows her to grow her own marijuana, to possess it and also to have another approved person grow a certain number of plants for her, he said.

On Aug. 5, 2009, Terrace RCMP reported they executed an Aug. 1, 2009 search warrant, seizing more than 100 marijuana plants growing outside at a Rosswood property.

A man and woman were arrested and police expected to recommend charges of production of a controlled substance against both, said police at that time.

“I can say that because of the length of the time that the case took to get to trial that this had an impact on my client who does have a medical use certificate and has had one since September 1, 2009 and I think that that may well have been a factor [in the stay of proceedings],” Klaassen said.

“I think that another factor might be that the co-accused, [Tracey Paul Corbet] there’s been a warrant out for his arrest for several years now and I guess I can say that the expectation was that we were going to be saying that he was the one behind the outdoor grow-op.”

Corbet and Kerr lived together in 2009 but haven’t done so for a long time, added Klaassen.

Since charges were laid back in 2010, Corbet has never appeared for court, said Klaassen.

A Canada-wide warrant was issued for Corbet’s arrest Oct. 12, 2010.

“We were trying to chase primarily the co-accused [Corbet], who had absconded,” said prosecutor Jack Talstra, adding that was one of the major reasons for the delay in getting to trial and the subsequent stay of charges.

“We were hoping to find him in the meantime,” he said.

Charges of production of a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and trafficking a controlled substance will remain outstanding against Corbet, who is believed to be a U.S. citizen.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.timescolonist.com/news/l...anges-in-the-air-on-medical-marijuana-1.88075

Jack Knox: More changes in the air on medical marijuana

Jack Knox / Times Colonist
March 9, 2013

Just before Christmas, I was hanging out at a CounterAttack roadblock when one of the cops pulled a big bag of pot out of a van.

It looked like about six ounces, enough to make Woody Harrelson go weak at the knees. Driver busted, right?

Wrong. He produced a Health Canada letter saying he was allowed to hold 180 grams of medical marijuana.

“You know,” grumbled one of the cops as the driver and his dope disappeared into the night, “when I went for a root canal the dentist prescribed me some T3s — but he didn’t give me 100 of them.”

That came to mind Friday while reading of an Ontario arrest in which a family was accused of making hundreds of thousands of dollars by abusing licences to grow medical marijuana.

“In any system there are going to be abuses,” replies Philippe Lucas, a former Victoria city councillor and longtime pot activist. He’s more worried about those who use the system legitimately.

A research affiliate with the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., Lucas is in the thick of things as Ottawa moves to change the rules regarding medical marijuana. He’s among those working on a certification process for the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries, and has been doing work for the federally funded Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Currently, Health Canada licenses about 21,000 people to grow small amounts for themselves or others among the 28,000 ailing Canadians it permits to possess medical marijuana. Some people get pot shipped to them by a government distributor.

Worried that your garden variety drug dealers are shielding themselves with personal-growing licences, Health Canada wants to stop letting users cultivate their own plants as of April 2014. Instead, it proposes licensing commercial operations that would provide all of the country’s medical marijuana.

Lucas has reservations about that. First, one in five of the sick individuals who currently grow their own couldn’t afford the $8.80/gram price proposed by Ottawa. They also might not be able to get the strains that work best for them.

Also, all marijuana would be couriered to individuals. There’s no provision for storefront distribution. “In Victoria right now I’m aware of about five dispensaries,” Lucas says.

Lucas does like Ottawa’s plan to have physicians, not Health Canada bureaucrats, decide who can use the drug. That’s good news, he says, as it could reduce a bureaucratic process that can take six weeks, even months, to a single-day exercise. The Canadian Medical Association is balking, though. It doesn’t want doctors to be the gatekeepers.

Overall, authorities are largely happyish with the proposed changes. As it is, they’re having a hard time keeping a handle on the growth in growing (the Province newspaper reported last week that the number of Health Canada-approved grows in B.C. jumped to 11,601 from 4,169 during 2012). Municipalities, often unaware of where plants are being grown until the dodgy wiring catches fire, are now looking at controlling them through zoning regulations.

That’s just one of the ways authorities deal with a shifting legal landscape.

“We don’t find a lot of issues with medical marijuana now,” says Const. Mike Russell of the Victoria police. If someone found with dope pulls a Health Canada permit, the cops walk away. (But no, the document issued by Victoria’s Cannabis Buyers Club isn’t enough. “That’s not a Get Out of Jail Free card.”)

Enforcement of pot laws across the province appears inconsistent; SFU criminologist Neil Boyd found charges for simple possession of marijuana have fallen to virtually nil in Vancouver proper, but doubled in B.C. RCMP jurisdictions in six years.

What’s unclear is how much pot was possessed by those arrested — one joint, or 30 plants by someone who might have otherwise been done for trafficking. Typically, in Victoria, someone found with a small amount won’t be charged, not unless he’s driving a car or acting like a butthead.

Currently, a group called Sensible B.C. is campaigning for a provincewide referendum to do away with all police resources devoted to arresting adults for possession. The group, with which Lucas is associated, wants minors found in possession to face liquor-type tickets and fines, not criminal charges. Sensible B.C. also wants the provincial government to cover medical marijuana costs as it does other prescription drugs.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.thespec.com/news/local/a...-pot-bust-limits-options-for-legitimate-users

Medicinal pot bust limits options for legitimate users

Joan Walters
Fri Mar 08 2013

Michelle Kanashiro is concerned after the bust of a Hamilton criminal organization that police say used Canada’s medical marijuana program as a front for alleged drug trafficking.

“These people have made us all look bad,” said Kanashiro, who believes the charges further stigmatize legitimately licensed medical marijuana users. “We’re not bad, we’re sick.”

Kanashiro has used 10 to 15 grams of weed a day over the last three years for a roster of ailments that include hepatitis B, which has caused painful liver problems. She is one of about 28,000 people licensed by Health Canada to possess marijuana for medical purposes or to produce small amounts for themselves or others.

Her marijuana arrives once a month from a retired botanist friend in British Columbia.

“All we have to pay for is his hydro,” she said. “He’s doing it because he’s our friend and he’s our designated, licensed grower. It’s all totally legitimate.”

Kanashiro uses weed for pain management, appetite enhancement and as a sleep aid because “it does all kinds of wonderful things for me. I’m almost 55 years old and who would have thought I’d be using marijuana at this age.”

She resents that abuse of the national marijuana licensing program means she soon will be unable to get her weed from the B.C. friend.

Health Canada has said fraudulent use of licences prompted changes to the way patients access marijuana.

Hoping to eliminate criminal exploitation of the system, Health Canada is ending personal production licences for marijuana in favour of licensed commercial growers who would be inspected and audited by Health Canada.

“We’re no longer going to have a choice,” Kanashiro said.

The Health Canada crackdown also bothers Ron Borer, a user with multiple sclerosis.

“These people who abuse the system are affecting my ability to function,” said Borer, a 40-year-old Burlington resident.

Borer got his licence about five years ago with medical approvals from his neurologist and family doctor and found it instantly took away his pain.

“I don’t do it a lot but I’ll have a little puff, not even a whole joint, when I’m having a bad day. I try not to do it too often.”

Borer gets his weed through Health Canada, one of the current options for licensed patients to access marijuana. He would have preferred to continue to get it that way.

“I find it nice, easy and it’s secure because it’s through the government,” he said.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/03/0...ng-over-consultations-on-eliminating-grow-ops

Medical marijuana grower fuming over consultations on eliminating grow-ops

By Bill Kaufmann, Calgary Sun

March 01, 2013

Legal medical marijuana growers are being shut out of consultation meetings bent on eliminating pot grow-operations, says a Calgarian licensed to produce the drug.

John Macdonald voiced concerns efforts to make Alberta officially grow-op free will also harm legal producers, adding people like him should be included in meetings that are part of those consultations.

“Why can’t we be part of formal discussions, I don’t know why we can’t get representation,” said Macdonald, 49, who says he eats cannabis to ease pain for his arthritis and spinal disease.

Last week, Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis announced three-months of consultations whose input will be considered by the province.

Part of it will involve meetings between firefighters, police, civic leaders and the real estate industry.

“I believe there’s a better way as far as fire concerns and other things go — I just want to work with these other people,” said Macdonald.

He also said the province should speak out against the federal crime omnibus Bill C-10 he fears will phase out medical grow licenses like his.

Denis said he won’t tread on federal criminal jurisdiction.

But Macdonald said “you can’t state it’s none of your business when the health of every Canadian lies with the provinces.”

On Wednesday, Denis said the province won’t target legal growers.

“There’s no intention of affecting people growing marijuana with a licence from the federal government,” said Denis.

He said consultation meetings are being confined to a certain participants “to keep costs in line.”

Denis said Macdonald can make online submissions as part of the consultation.

Macdonald admitted Denis has scheduled a one-on-one meeting with him next month but said it doesn’t address being excluded from stakeholder discussions.

 

[tralfaz]

its funny to watch the wheels of propaganda turn in the media

 

[romulanlover]

very relevant thread - wish I found it earlier

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/03/08/alberta-docs-debate-medical-pot

Alberta docs debate medical pot

By Allison Salz, Edmonton Sun

Friday, March 08, 2013

Changes to the way Canadians access medical marijuana has sparked conversation amongst docs in Alberta.

Federal legislation tabled late last year would remove Health Canada from its role in deciding the fate of medical marijuana applications, leaving it to doctor discretion.

Under the new rules, the dried marijuana can be purchased from a pharmacist, a licensed producer, or directly from their doctor.

Physicians would be allowed to sell, provide, or administer marijuana as long as they were compliant with regulations like labelling and dosage restrictions.

This poses great concern to some on the council of College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA), as noted in a report presented to council Friday.

Among their concerns, that physicians would be asked to provide a prescription for a substance for which they feel there is no scientific evidence of effectiveness.

“I think it’s time to nip it in the bud, so to speak. I think it was a mistake that medical marijuana was approved in the first place,” said member Kate Wood, referring to the government’s own admission that scientific studies have not demonstrated that marijuana is safe and effective for medical use.

“I feel like there will be a lot of people running to the doctor to get their prescription.”

Canadian courts have found that individuals who “need” marijuana for medical purposes have a right to reasonable access, reads the report.

“The concern I have, if I say I don’t prescribe it because I don’t feel comfortable, will a complaint be filed?” said member Dr. Keith Brownell.

“They should just legalize it like alcohol then.”

Patients can currently access medical marijuana through a grower designated by Health Canada or by getting licensed and growing it themselves.

Under the new regulations, marijuana would only be available from commercially-regulated growers.

Vice President James Stone expressed concern with doctors dolling out weed in their offices.

“I think the prescriber shouldn’t be a dispenser, that creates conflict.” Stone said.

Sister colleges in Ontario and Quebec have indicated that they plan to prohibit the prescription of marijuana by doctors, notes the report.

Council put the matter over to their next meeting for further discussion.

There are currently 22,000 authorized users of medical marijuana across the country.

 

[abbotsterdam]

Don't forget that pharmacies have been legal since 2005 so instead of dispensaries or doctors doling out scripts at their offices they will give the patient a prescription and then the patient goes to the pharmacy or in some cases due to isolation or inability to get around the prescription can be shipped. One obvious problem is the extra cost of shipping by courier and especially since they are proposing 15 grams max per shipment..tough for a patient who is shut-in and needs 30 grams a day @ about $10 per shipment courier fees twice a day so the system still needs some work.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/...s-to-contraband-pot-after-failure-to-find-doc

Man turns to contraband pot after failure to find doc

March 14, 2013

A 30-year-old man arrested by RCMP with 33 grams of marijuana in his car can’t find a Kamloops physician to prescribe it, his lawyer said Thursday.

Christopher Hermanson pleaded guilty in provincial court to possession of a controlled substance. Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi said Hermanson was pulled over Sept. 15, 2012, at an RCMP road check.

An officer noticed a smell of green marijuana and searched Hermanson’s vehicle. The marijuana seized is worth an estimated $215.

Jeremy Jensen said his client, who has a university education, suffers from anxiety and sleep apnea. He uses contraband marijuana to treat those problems.

Hermanson has not been able to find a family physician in Kamloops who will prescribe him with medical marijuana.

“Physicians aren’t prescribing it. They’re of the opinion medical marijuana is not to be used.”

Jensen said there is at least one physician on Vancouver Island who will diagnose and prescribe medical marijuana via Skype — something Hermanson will seek out.

“It seems the law is a little behind where the world is with medical marijuana,” Jensen said.

Judge Stella Frame granted Hermanson an absolute discharge, along with a $400 victim fine surcharge. He will receive no criminal record.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/03/16/medical-marijuana-user-ignored-licence

Medical marijuana user ignored licence

By Harold Carmichael, Sudbury Star
Saturday, March 16, 2013

A Hanmer man who was found growing marijuana plants in his home three years ago has been fined $1,000.

"It's a tough lesson learned, but in the future, take care if you have a (medical marijuana) licence," Superior Court Justice Robbie Gordon told Joel Pineault on Friday. "Be mindful of the information on the licence or things are going to happen.

"I can tell you if it happens again, it won't be as lenient and you will end up doing time."

The fine had been suggested in a joint submission by federal prosecutor Pierre Bradley and defence lawyer Glenn Sandberg.

Pineault had originally been charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of simple possession.

The Crown dropped charges of possession of proceeds of crime and possession of a controlled substance.

The court heard a Greater Sudbury Police officer checking out a matter in a trailer home area on Mervyn Street in Hanmer on March 23, 2010, had difficulty finding the right trailer, so he knocked on the door of one of the trailers to get information. In talking to the resident -- Pineault --the officer detected the smell of marijuana and condensation on the windows. He also noticed Pineault was nervous.

Thinking there was a marijuana grow-op in the trailer, the officer passed the information on to the drug unit, which got a search warrant.

Officers found several full-grown marijuana plants and about 100 plant-starter cups in which three-to six-inch tall marijuana plants were growing. Officers also seized $415 in cash, 69 grams of loose marijuana and assorted growing equipment, such as lights.

At the time, Pineault had a medical marijuana licence from Health Canada and was allowed to have up to 90 grams of marijuana on his possession and grow up to 15 plants.

"There were over 15 plants," pointed out Bradley.

Sandberg told the court Pineault was seriously hurt in a motor-vehicle accident with a tractor-trailer in 2007 and suffered inoperable damage to five lumbar discs in his spine. As a result, he continues to suffer medium-to crippling-level pain.

"It became a case of pain management," said the lawyer. "He was a novice farmer at the time."

Sandberg said Pineault was determining the sex of the small plants. Only female plants produce the active ingredient -- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- for which marijuana is known.

"The plants were not quite at that stage," he said.

Sandberg said Pineault no longer has a medical marijuana licence and is using prescribed narcotics to address his pain. The lawyer said his only real option is some new form of surgery that can solve his disc problem.

"Until that happens, he is going to be a slave to the controlling narcotics that have enslaved so many," he said.

Sandberg and Bradley both noted that had a trial been held and the Crown proceeded on the original charges, there would have been several difficult legal issues involving the search warrant and the plants to wade through.

The $415 seized by police was ordered returned to Pineault, but all other items were forfeited to the Crown.

Pineault did not address the court.

 

[c-ray]

from http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/big-business-billions-legalization-pot-180000605.html

How big business will make billions on the legalization of pot

By Sarah Barmak and Michael McCullough | Canadian Business – 22 hours ago

At a beige, two-storey building outfitted with security cameras, in the shadow of several affluent Toronto condos, a steady trickle of customers comes to buy pot. Ready with cash and either Health Canada authorizations or doctors' notes saying their patients report relief when using marijuana, they walk up to a counter inside Cannabis As Living Medicine (CALM), one of the city's longest-running medical pot dispensaries.

Two-gram bags start at $14 each. (The shop will sell 28 grams at most to a patron per week.) A display case shows some enticing options that wouldn't look out of place in a Tim Hortons: chocolate chip cookies, brownies topped with greenish marshmallows. A menu lists ingredients, prices and exactly how much marijuana they contain (typically one or two grams each). Many health-conscious patients can't, or don't wish to, inhale.

CALM owner Neev Tapiero, whose dark brown eyes never seem to fully open beneath his Muppet-sized eyebrows, boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of marijuana. Since starting CALM as an upstart, bicycle-mounted weed delivery service 17 years ago, the 41-year-old has served roughly 4,000 customers and become one of Toronto's biggest ganjapreneurs. He has two outstanding trafficking charges resulting from two 2010 police raids on CALM when it was in a different location; a neighbour complained about the smell, he explains in his second-floor office as he puffs a large joint. But that hasn't deterred him. If marijuana were to be legalized in Canada, and the rules were liberal and fair, Tapiero says, he would be among those ready to go legit.

CALM founder Neev Tapiero (Photo:Jamie Hogge)

In spite of a hazy policy climate in Canada-the Conservative government seems committed to a more restrictive policy on marijuana, not less-there is an ever more visible grey market in Canada catering to cannabis users. Health Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Program has quietly exploded from less than 500 authorized users in 2002 to more than 28,000 in little over a decade. Medical marijuana dispensaries, online seed sellers, head shops selling drug paraphernalia, sellers of hydroponic equipment and so-called vapour lounges where customers are welcome to smoke their own weed make up a budding industry, not just in big cities but in suburbs and small towns too. In Vancouver, there is even a company offering tours of the city's high-minded establishments.

For the entrepreneurs running these businesses, the dream of legalization now appears tantalizingly close at hand. Ballot initiatives passed in Colorado and Washington last November make it legal in those states for adults to possess and consume cannabis for recreational purposes.

The sprouting of these islands of legality, observers predict, will spur other states to open up their cannabis markets lest they lose out on revenue and tourism, much as the casino gambling pioneered in Las Vegas became ubiquitous across the continent. On Feb. 5, U.S. Democrats introduced two bills in the House of Representatives-one that would legalize pot and regulate it under a renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, and another that would tax it. At least one private equity firm, Privateer Holdings, has been established to focus on the "emerging legal cannabis field." (Its first investment is Leafly, which offers reviews of dispensaries and marijuana varieties.)

Canada, considered a pioneer of herbal tolerance less than a decade ago, could find itself playing catch-up, belatedly adopting someone else's drug policy. "It's going to happen pretty fast," predicts Greg Williams, manager of the B.C. Marijuana Party and Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture, both of which occupy a heritage building in a gentrification-resistant part of Vancouver popularly known as the Vansterdam block. Owned by Jodie Emery, wife of so-called Prince of Pot Marc Emery (who is currently serving time in a U.S. prison for selling pot online), the building and its various enterprises deliberately pushes the envelope of legal or at least tolerated business activity. Were the product to be legalized, "we'd be primed to begin selling marijuana," says Williams.

That eventuality would present a significant business opportunity. A peer-reviewed study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, published recently in The International Journal of Drug Policy, pegged the retail value of marijuana consumption in B.C. alone at between $443 million and $564 million. The study further estimated that legalizing the industry could generate $2.5 billion in license fees and taxes over five years.

"This market is quite sizable," says UBC business professor Werner Antweiler. The industry is likely larger than the study suggests, he adds, due to the export of "B.C. bud" to the south and east. Other estimates that factor in the value of cannabis exports as well as internal consumption pin the size of the B.C. industry at between $2 billion and $7 billion. It's safe to say that Canadians generally spend at least $3 billion a year on cannabis products.

Canadians bought $9.1 billion worth of beer in 2011 according to Statistics Canada. That means an illegal drug is already one-third the size of a legal industry that benefits from national advertising and a vaunted spot in Canadian culture. When marijuana finally becomes legal, who will score a piece of the action?

(Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee/MCT via Getty Images)

The visible failure of the war on drugs, combined with a generational tipping point in attitudes, has poll after poll showing a majority of adults favouring the legalization or at least decriminalization of recreational cannabis use. An Angus Reid poll of 799 British Columbians last October suggested 75% felt it should be taxed and regulated rather than prohibited, up six percentage points from a year earlier. "These beliefs cut across political, social and regional lines. I can't think of any other issue where the laws on the books are inconsistent with the wishes of three-quarters of British Columbians," said Angus Reid vice-president Mario Canseco at the release of the numbers.

Efforts at a change in policy continue to run up against fear of the unknown, however. Unlike the lifting of alcohol prohibition, there is no history of legalized, large-scale marijuana production. Even in the Netherlands, where consumption in public coffee bars has been legal for decades, growers operate under the blind eye of officialdom and have no legal recognition.

Colorado and Washington have now begun to offer real-world case studies of how to legalize pot-and whether to treat it as a drug, a crop or a vice. Even before election-day amendments in both states legalized recreational use in November, they already had thriving medical markets.

Michael Elliott, executive director of the state's Medical Marijuana Industry Group, estimates Colorado is home to as many as 1,000 licensed growing facilities. And these are no hippie communes-the high cost of security and surveillance equipment required by state regulations means they need to be sizable to succeed.

The state has more than 108,000 medical users, and the potential market is multiple times larger. Thanks to Colorado's Amendment 64, any adult over 21-including out-of-state tourists-can now legally possess up to one ounce of pot, which they are allowed to buy from licensed retailers-which lawyer Rob Corry, who became known in Colorado for challenging its pot laws, hopes will soon be as common as bars.

Washington voters passed legalization measure Initiative 502 with a margin of nearly 10 points. The state will treat pot as a vice, like liquor or tobacco, and its liquor control board will charge fees to license producers, refiners and retailers, and levy a 25% excise tax on every ounce sold.

This "closed, highly regulated industry" described in a financial impact study is expected to add as much as US$1.9 billion to the state's bottom line over five years through increased revenues and savings on marijuana enforcement.

So far, the American experience suggests the first ones into the legalized recreational market will be those already operating in the medical market. Many Colorado medical dispensaries are large, with more than 500 registered patients each. "They have a major advantage," says Corry, who is now offering legal advice to dispensaries making the transition to retail-which, he says, will be most of them.

Colorado's journey toward legalized pot has already revealed tantalizing potential for the food industry. The state's Medical Marijuana Infused Product Manufacturer license allows producers to lace snack and drink products with the psychoactive chemicals found in cannabis-and those foods, developed by new edible pot brands, are now available to everyone. "There are products that help you sleep, help you keep your food down, help you with pain relief," says Elliott. "You can go and buy an (infused) oil and take it home and put it into anything you want. There's everything from soft drinks and candies to cookies and granola bars." Some makers of pot-laced goodies have seen huge revenues, none more than Dixie Elixirs, the largest infused product manufacturer in Colorado. Founded in 2010, yet already considered by some the Budweiser of the infused cannabis industry, Dixie operates out of a 27,000-square-foot Denver facility and distributes its mints, chocolate truffles and its marquee product, candy-coloured fizzy sodas, to almost all of the more than 500 medical pot retailers in the state. The sodas come in flavours such as Sparkling Red Currant and sugar-free Mixed Berry Flavored Water and have slick, minimalist labels-no tie-dye patterns or pot leaves in sight.

Owner Tripp Keber says his company's revenue increased nearly 130% last year. Its parent company, Medical Marijuana Inc., saw a record $3.4 million in net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2012. Keber says he's gotten calls from Canadian entrepreneurs eager to distribute his product as soon as it's legal to do so.

In a crowded, yet suspiciously languid café above a Yonge Street shop in Toronto, two young men fiddle with a glass water pipe with a two-inch square of titanium attached to a stem at its end, which has been blasted red-hot by a propane torch. On the square is a tiny morsel of "budder"-an intensely concentrated form of marijuana, said to contain as much THC as a large joint.

Sham Chaabo, 24, inhales from the pipe's business end as the potent tidbit flares and quickly turns to dark smoke. He is momentarily dazed, but soon resumes chatting with his friends. It's a typical Wednesday night in January at Vapor Central, one of Toronto's premier pot bars, known as vapour lounges. Every seat is taken as guests await the start of a comedy show. (Could a comic have a more receptive audience?) Chaabo, a York University student, first came here four years ago after hearing there was a place he could smoke indoors, unbothered by cops. "I was stunned," he says of discovering the hangout, with its leather sofas, tables, a stage and an array of paraphernalia for patrons to rent. "I couldn't believe it." But Canada is becoming a place where laws relating to cannabis are applied selectively. Where police and their municipal masters have higher priorities and tight budgets, tolerance rules. But now legalization stateside is forcing the issue onto the national agenda.

"There's no way Canada will be left in the dust in this billion-dollar industry," says York University law professor Alan Young, who has spent the past two decades in courtrooms challenging Canada's criminal pot laws on behalf of medical users. Despite the federal government's intransigence, to Young, the legalization of marijuana in Canada is a matter of when, not if. The challenge is creating a legitimate industry when the expertise in growing and distribution mostly resides in the black market. "The problem is, there's a disconnect between capital and the world of marijuana production," he says. The vast majority of that industry-an estimated 85%-is currently controlled by organized crime. The question facing those jurisdictions legalizing the pot trade is how to make the transition from a criminal to a regulated and taxed industry.

(Newscom)

Among those most ready to capitalize on legalization are medical retailers, like CALM's Tapiero. They have the expertise and the supply chains in place. Next in line would be other grey-market operators. But the big unknown is whether and how people currently in the black market would go legit. This is where most of the growing expertise currently resides. According to Cannabis Culture's Williams, many only work in the black market because of prohibition and would gladly come out into the open. But there are others with a checkered past who would prefer not to be known or to operate under regulatory constraints. As with contraband cigarettes, the black market will persist if taxation proves too onerous. "If the state wants to sell me marijuana, it's going to have to be cheaper and just as good as I'm getting now," Williams says. Tellingly, only 13% of registered medical marijuana users in Canada buy from Health Canada's approved (and taxpayer-subsidized) grower, Saskatoon's Prairie Plant Systems.

Perhaps in recognition of this reality, the medical program is about to change in a way that could lead to a boom in licensed dealers and smokers.

By April 2014, Health Canada will be getting out of the pot business, opening up the market to licensed producers and letting individuals buy it with only a doctor's note (they currently need Health Canada authorization). Though it will primarily let growers ship medical marijuana through the mail, the changes have some in the pot community dreaming bigger. Olympic gold medalist Ross Rebagliati has grand plans for a flashy chain of medical pot shops in B.C. called Ross's Gold that would make CALM look quaint, even though it's as yet unclear whether storefront pot sales will be allowed.

Despite the changes on the medical front, the federal Tories have not only indicated their intention to keep marijuana in the Criminal Code, but have also introduced mandatory minimum sentences of six months on small-time grow-ops-six or more plants-as part of the omnibus crime bill, Bill C-10. Ottawa's hawkish stance appears increasingly at odds with public opinion, creating an opening for politicians willing to come out on the legalization side. "We can't continue to ignore the remarkable consensus among the public," says B.C. Liberal MLA Kash Heed, a former police chief. In January, a committee of the federal Liberal party, following a vote in favour of decriminalization a year earlier at the party's convention, came out with a 38-page paper advocating full legalization. "My view is that the public consensus has shifted, and politicians at the national level are lagging behind," says Vancouver lawyer Geoff Plant, a former B.C. attorney-general. He thinks it would not take long for the federal government to change direction, especially in the face of developments in the U.S. "This is an issue whose time has almost come," he says. "It may not be this prime minister. It could easily be the next."

When change does come, it will be a victory not just for potheads and activists calling for the government to butt out of the ashtrays of the nation. It will be a money-making opportunity, both for entrepreneurs who dream of growing a business and politicians who will be more than happy to tax it.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/20...html?sid=373aa11d-5d9d-49c7-9b13-0ce186ef2f87

Early release, published at www.cmaj.ca on March 11, 2013. Subject to revision

Marijuana is not a prescription medicine

John Fletcher MB BChir MPH

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.

What role should doctors play in the control of marijuana? Health Canada in a news release late last year announced proposals for “new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations,” suggesting that “changes improve public safety [and] maintain patient access.”

The document goes on to suggest that “the proposed new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations aim to treat marihuana as much as possible like any other narcotic used for medical purposes.”

Under the existing regulations it is the federal minister of health who issues a patient with authorization to possess marijuana.

Under the proposed new regulations it is doctors, or possibly other health practitioners, who will issue “a medical document, similar to a prescription” allowing their patient to obtain marijuana. The language is soothing and suggests that marijuana is a medicine, albeit one that needs special oversight like morphine and for which users may be seen as patients in certain circumstances.

It is but a small step from here to suggest that doctors should prescribe marijuana for medical indications. But is marijuana a medicine? Or, more specifically, is it a prescription medicine?

Marijuana is certainly pharmacologically active, but that is also true of a large number of compounds that are not medicines, such as dry cleaning fluid. Marijuana may be used to relieve pain and appears to be effective in this role for some people.

Hence, it is a drug, but then so are many other plants that are not used as prescription medicines such as St John’s wort or belladonna.

What characterizes a prescription medicine is that it has an identifiable compound or active ingredient that has a known potency in its pure form; its pharmacokinetics and route of delivery are understood; it is delivered safely; it is manufactured with a consistent formulation; and it has undergone regulatory studies and been approved as having a favourable balance of benefits and harms.

Several prescription medicines have already been developed from cannabis, but under the proposed new regulations marijuana itself has none of the above characteristics. Doctors are being asked to prescribe a dried leaf containing several compounds of unspecified potency, some of them active and none of them pure; smoking is an unreliable way to deliver a consistent dose, is probably harmful and no other medicine is administered this way; there is no evidence that those offering to supply marijuana understand how to deliver a consistent drug dose in a smoked product; and, most important, marijuana has not undergone regulatory testing and approval as a medicine.

Marijuana is a drug that is at a similar stage of development to poppy and foxglove in the 19th century. Although doctors may have prescribed those drugs then, in the 21st century we prescribe morphine and digoxin. If the government is serious about asking doctors to prescribe marijuana, it should remove the barriers to developing marijuana as a pharmaceutical product.

Then doctors would have a medicine they could prescribe with some knowledge as to its effectiveness and side-effect profile, safe in the knowledge that they are not alone in the firing line should something go wrong. But there is no suggestion in the recent announcement that this is the government’s intention.

The real impetus for change is probably to control the use of this illegal substance and to reduce the risk of fire from home growing operations. In her announcement of the proposed new regulations, Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said “Current medical marihuana regulations have left the system open to abuse. We have heard real concerns from law enforcement, fire officials and municipalities about how people are hiding behind these rules to conduct illegal activity and putting health and safety of Canadians at risk.”

These are real concerns. The number of people authorized to use marijuana has grown faster than was expected from 500 in 2002 to 26 000 today, and it is clearly hazardous to grow a regular supply of this flammable resinous plant at home in a basement. But it is muddled thinking to suggest that the solution is for doctors to prescribe it.

It does make sense for doctors to be involved, though. We are at an awkward stage in marijuana’s development because it is a potentially useful, but illegal, herbal product that the government is prepared to tolerate in certain circumstances. It would be much better for the government to specify criteria that must be met for an individual to be permitted to use marijuana.

The doctor’s role would then be to certify that a patient met these criteria. This is not the same as a doctor making a diagnosis and deciding to prescribe a drug for a defined indication.

This is more akin to certifying that a patient meets the government’s criteria for a disabled parking permit. The doctor does not suggest the patient should drive or that a disabled parking place would be good for them, just that they do fall into the category of person that the government says may have one.

It is time the government made up its mind. Does it want marijuana to become a medicine? If it does, it should work with the pharmaceutical companies to ensure that this is a properly researched and developed drug. At the moment, marijuana is a herbal product and not a medicine. Doctors should not allow themselves to be lulled into prescribing it.

References

1. Harper government announces proposed new marihuana for medical purposes regulations — changes improve public safety, maintain patient access. Ottawa (ON):
Health Canada; 2012. Available: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/nr-cp
/_2012/2012-193bkc-eng.php

(accessed 2013 Feb. 14).

2. Ware MA, Wang T, Shapiro S, et al. Smoked cannabis for chronic neuropathic pain: a randomized controlled trial.

CMAJ 2010;182:E694-701.

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.vancouversun.com/Editori...+fledged+prescription+drug/8106855/story.html

Editorial: Marijuana should be made a full-fledged prescription drug

By Vancouver Sun editorial, Vancouver Sun March 15, 2013 4:14 PM

This Jan. 26, 2013 photo taken at a grow house in Denver shows a marijuana plants ready
to be harvested. The federal government ought to ensure consumers of medical marijuana
receive the same protections as consumers of any other drug taken for medical purposes.

Photograph by: Ed Andrieski , AP

“It is time for the government to make up its mind.” So says Canadian Medical Association Journal editor-in-chief John Fletcher in the current issue of the journal. “Does it want marijuana to become a medicine?”

It’s a good question, and one that Fletcher poses in response to proposed changes to the medical marijuana regulations, changes that, according to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, “strike the right balance between public access and public safety.”

Noting that, “In the past decade, Canada’s Marihuana Medical Access program has grown exponentially, from under 500 authorized persons in 2002 to over 26,000 today,” the feds expressed concern that many people have been hiding behind the regulations to produce marijuana in their homes.

This has resulted in significant threats to public safety given that growing operations frequently catch fire. Consequently, the new regulations will open the market to companies that meet “strict security guidelines.”

While these changes won’t eliminate growing operations, they might help to reduce their number. And in that sense the proposed regulations might help improve public safety. But there is more.

Safety and access, say the feds, will be enhanced by treating marijuana “as much as possible like any other narcotic used for medical purposes.” And that means the federal health minister will no longer authorize a patient to use marijuana; rather, authorization will come from a health care practitioner, who will sign “a medical document similar to a prescription.”

Now that certainly makes marijuana look like other prescribed drugs. But as Fletcher argues, looks can be deceiving: “What characterizes a prescription medicine is that it has an identifiable compound or active ingredient that has a known potency in its pure form; its pharmacokinetics and route of delivery are understood; it is delivered safely; it is manufactured with a consistent formulation; and it has undergone regulatory studies and been approved as having a favourable balance of benefits and harms.”

And how many of these criteria does medical marijuana produced under the proposed regulations satisfy? None.

The reason is simple. The marijuana that would be accessed under the new regulations will not be subject to proper testing, which means the potency of its compounds will remain unclear. And smoking marijuana leaves is probably an unhealthy way to deliver their active ingredients.

There is a way to remedy these problems, however. And that involves treating marijuana, not “as much as possible” like other medically used narcotics, but exactly like other medically used narcotics. That means, in Fletcher’s words, working “with the pharmaceutical companies to ensure that this is a properly researched and developed drug.”

Until that time, Fletcher advises that physicians should not be prescribing marijuana. But while the CMAJ editorial is primarily — and understandably — concerned with physicians being “lulled” into prescribing a drug that isn’t a prescription drug, everyone should be concerned with patients getting a prescription drug that isn’t.

The federal government ought to be commended for developing regulations that allow people access to marijuana for medical purposes. But to ensure public safety, the feds ought to ensure consumers of medical marijuana receive the same protections as consumers of any other drug taken for medical purposes. And that means making marijuana a full-fledged prescription drug rather than one that just looks like it.

 

[Ilikecookies]

You win Green Supreme, I'm whoever you want me to be.
Now will you please stop harassing me and leave me alone? I don't want anything to do with you.

 

[med-man]

i guess this thread is as good as binned once sept rolls around. was fun while it lasted. cant wait to start the commercial growers corner once i get licensed.

med-man

 

[Green Supreme]

Ahhhh, you missed me again. Both of you actually. So cute. Peace GS

 

[Yes4Prop215]

"the federal Tories have not only indicated their intention to keep marijuana in the Criminal Code, but have also introduced mandatory minimum sentences of six months on small-time grow-ops-six or more plants-as part of the omnibus crime bill, Bill C-10"

crazy...so no more growing your own unless its for measly purposes. gotta get on board with the commercial guys or stay under 6 plants.

 

[med-man]

i like the 6 plant rule. very similar to the dutch policy. treez pleez,

med-man

 

[MoeBudz^420]

c-ray...i can't believe the article writer thinks that is ready for harvest.
Looks more like half-way, tops. Well, I'd give that at least 4-5 more weeks...

edit: should look more like this, imo:

Peace