All Pot 'Compassion Centres' In Montreal Shut Down...
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Holly_Golightly a répondu le Wed 9 Jun, 2010 @ 9:38am |
 Coolness: 158720 | ^ yeah let's get shit faced with bugs repellent! hahaha
ya blond marocain is the bomb.. haven't seen it often in Quebec... i often buy it in Netherlands tho.. going there in few weeks can't wait! |
| I'm feeling hitched right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Nuclear a répondu le Tue 15 Jun, 2010 @ 1:22am |
 Coolness: 2603970 | A WAY FOR GOVERNMENT TO DEAL WITH DOPE
Last week, Quebec police departments busted five "compassion clubs" that were selling "medical marijuana" to anyone with a doctor's note - -but that's just a whiff of what's going on elsewhere. I was in California recently, the loosest U.S. state for marijuana laws, where 1,000 "compassion clubs" were operating legally while I was there. Sometimes it was hard to believe my eyes. On the famed boardwalk at Venice Beach, I passed the "Kush Doctor's Marijuana Club," a beachfront store with a long lineup beside a big sign saying MEDICAL MARIJUANA AVAILABLE HERE! As thousands of bikers, bladers and tourists streamed by, bikini-clad "nurses" handed out "Kush Doctor" pamphlets and shouted: "Get your legal pot here!" Meanwhile, police just sauntered by. A girl of maybe 18 handed me a pamphlet and told me how to get some. "Ya just go inside like I did and tell the doctor ... you know, your problems .. and he'll give you a prescription and, uh, you know ... like then you get your stuff." Under California law, doctors can prescribe marijuana if you suffer from "sports injuries, auto accidents, anxiety, insomnia, asthma, cancer or any ill for which marijuana provides relief" -like a stubbed toe. Once you get your doctor's letter, you choose from a counter display of designer pot with names like Purple Kush, Sour Diesel, Juicyfruit and Trainwreck. There are also granola marijuana bars and chocolate pot turtles "for medicinal use only." It's all legal in California, as long as you pay the 8.25-per-cent sales tax. Last week, state police did close down several hundred clubs deemed to be dicey, but hundreds remain legally open, including mine on Venice Beach. This November, California will hold a state referendum to legalize marijuana -and a recent Los Angeles Times poll predicts a large majority will vote yes. My own grass-smoking days are long behind me, but I think legalization is the right way to go. Fighting marijuana is an endless battle that sends many innocent users to jail. It's also spawned a massive crime industry with gang battles, drug kings and a drug war in Mexico that kills more 10,000 people a year. Why not decriminalize it -as 53 per cent of Canadians say they want? The only devil is in the details. Even if we do decriminalize pot, how would we do it? We don't allow public drinking on the street, so we wouldn't encourage people to roam around smoking joints at Ste. Catherine St. benches and bus stops. Maybe we'd follow Amsterdam, the European drug capital where you must go to a "cannabis cafe" with "pot menus" featuring stuff like Lebanon Gold and Afghan Supermellow hashish. But unlike Amsterdam, Montreal law makes it illegal to smoke in cafes -and if you can't smoke inside, or outside, where's left? Inside your car with the windows up? Or maybe at special "grass picnics," on the grass? These issues pale compared with how marijuana would be sold. Presumably, government would become the only legal dealer, bringing the usual problems of any government monopoly. In Quebec, the SAQ could set up a Maison du Marijuana with designer shelves like their wine stores and civil service "weed consultants" offering advice like SAQ sommeliers. "May I recommend the Rene Levesque superstrong independantiste ganja, or the Pierre Trudeau homegrown lite, for the elderly." But that might encourage more public use, so the government would probably create gloomier dispensaries, like the SAQ did back in the '60s, when all liquor was hidden in a back room. You'd have to line up for your marijuana at a clerk's desk and order by its generic Latin name. YOU: Hi. I'd like some marijuana, please. CLERK Sorry, sir. Will that be Cannabis sativa Linnaeus, subspecies sativa var. spontanea? Or would you prefer Cannabis indica var. kafiristanica forma afghanica? YOU: Uhh ... you don't just have some vodka, do you? Once the bureaucracy was set up, we'd see the same problems as everywhere in government. Quebec Marijuana Board executives would be caught spending too much money on expenses while flying off to sample products in Morocco, India and Jamaica. The province's Director of Dope Sales would be charged with submitting $500,000 in rolling paper and water pipes as a business expense. There'd be more trouble when the Quebec Marijuana Board decided to support certain festivals like the SAQ does. There'd be the B.C. Bud Montreal jazz fest and the Ganja Grand Prix -but a scandal would break out when they sponsored a children's AfghanBhangBlack Supermellow Shakespeare in the Pot Park. On the plus side, marijuana would no longer cause a criminal offence or waste trillion of hours of police effort. On the downside, when government takes over the marijuana business, you can bet medical compassion clubs will lose their compassion. |
| I'm feeling nuclear right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» recoil a répondu le Tue 15 Jun, 2010 @ 5:02am |
 Coolness: 86490 | article from the Globe and Mail the other day... 2 well-known businessmen got caught smuggling backbacks filled with pot through the mountains into the States
[ www.theglobeandmail.com ] 
Potential payoff for gruelling trek turns into drug charges VANCOUVER,BC- June 8, 2010 - Vancouver ad agency owner ‘made a mistake’ carrying pot-filled backpack over Canada-U.S. border, cites desperation to fund failing business Brennan Clarke From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Jun. 09, 2010 5:30AM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Jun. 09, 2010 5:34AM EDT From the moment Chris Neary hoisted the 15-kilogram backpack full of pot onto his shoulders, he had a sinking feeling that the smuggling mission he’d signed up for was not going to turn out as planned. Standing at his side in the darkness were three other men he barely knew, each carrying a similar-sized pack full of marijuana. Ahead of him lay a gruelling 16-hour trek – including five hours on his hands and knees crawling on a mountaintop – between Cultus Lake in British Columbia and Mount Baker National Forest in Washington State. That trek could have ended with a $10,000 cash payoff and financial breathing room for the struggling business that the former Telus marketing director said he was desperate to salvage. Instead, the smuggling expedition ended in drug-trafficking charges, with Mr. Neary now facing the possibility of a lengthy U.S. jail term. “When they gave me the backpack, I knew I'd made a mistake, but by that point I was in too deep and had to commit to it,” Mr. Neary said in an interview with The Globe and Mail, his first since his arrest. “I didn't know who else was involved or how serious of a nature these people were.” Mr. Neary, 34, owner of the Vancouver ad agency Frank Communications and former director of marketing for Telus, was one of five people arrested near the Canada-U.S border on April 26 and charged with conspiracy to import marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. Court documents say U.S. border agents found Mr. Neary and two other men, Duncan, B.C., resident Daryl Fontana and a Bosnian immigrant named Sinisa Gavric, “hiding in the woods near the snowline” in Mount Baker National Forest. Police recovered four backpacks full of marijuana weighing a total of 60 kilograms and arrested a fourth man, Carl Andrew Thiessen, as he arrived on the scene in a sport utility vehicle. The suspected organizer of the expedition, Richard Bafaro, was arrested a short time later at a Bellingham, Wash., hotel. All five men have pleaded not guilty. Mr. Neary, who returned to Vancouver on May 25 after nearly a month in custody, agreed to tell his story but declined to comment on his interactions with the co-accused or the specific circumstances of his arrest, saying lawyers have advised him to keep that information confidential until his trial begins. A self-described “ideas guy,” Mr. Neary enjoyed considerable success in the advertising business at a young age, most notably as a driving force behind Telus’s well-known animal-themed advertising campaign. He left Telus 3½ years ago to start Frank Communications, but the upstart firm was hit hard by the recession. He worked “400 per cent harder,” invested in new projects, sought out business partnerships and remortgaged his house – twice – yet continued sliding toward bankruptcy. This spring, broke, desperate and isolated from his friends, Mr. Neary decided in a “moment of bravado” that the smuggling scheme might help buy him some time. “I was so hell bent on making my business the same kind of success I’ve had in the rest of my career, I just overlooked the ramifications of it,” he said, estimating the $10,000 payoff would have supplied “about a month’s worth” of cash flow. “It was desperation and ignorance. … I was isolated,” he said. “I didn't ask anyone's opinion on it. I just did it.” Mr. Neary said his ego and competitive drive prevented him from admitting failure and walking away from the business. “I felt it was up to me to turn things around and I tried to do everything myself,” he said. “My ego took me to the top of a mountain, literally.” Personal and professional risks aside, Mr. Neary said the cross-border hike was a terrifying physical challenge that he would not want to repeat under any circumstances. “It was incredibly steep. There’s a five-hour stretch where you’re just crawling on your hands and knees in the dead on night in subzero temperatures,” he said. “Just the physicality of this trek, it’s something you would never do twice.” All five suspects are scheduled to face a trial by jury beginning July 6. If convicted, they face maximum penalties of 20 years and $1-million (U.S.) fines. However, Mr. Neary has co-operated with authorities, has no previous criminal history and played a secondary role in the smuggling operation, all of which can be mitigating factors in sentencing, staff at the state attorney’s office in Seattle said. Whatever lies ahead, Mr. Neary said he’s ready to prove to his friends and colleagues that he’s “better than this one situation.” “I’ve had humility slap me in the face,” he said, “and I want to stay accountable to it and move forward.” Special to The Globe and Mail |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini a répondu le Tue 15 Jun, 2010 @ 12:01pm |
 Coolness: 145185 | 20 years for 10 000 bucks, brilliant. |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» databoy a répondu le Tue 15 Jun, 2010 @ 12:12pm |
 Coolness: 106100 | At least he wont be able to hurt anyone with his drugs... :p |
| I'm feeling regenerate right now.. | |
All Pot 'Compassion Centres' In Montreal Shut Down...
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