Canada: Feds Relax Pot Rules

Ottawa Sun ^ | Dec. 9, 2003

[Wolfie]

FEDS RELAX POT RULES

In a bid to boost the availability of pot, the feds have softened medicinal marijuana rules. Health Canada announced yesterday that it's okay to pay a licensed grower for their weed.

The department also cut the red tape in the application process. It now requires a patient to obtain the recommendation from one medical specialist - -- not two.

Health Canada spokeswoman Catherine Saunders said the move responds to an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in October criticizing the federal medicinal marijuana program for making it too difficult to get access to pot.

More Growers

By striking down rules requiring a licensed grower to provide medicinal marijuana for free, Health Canada hopes more people will cultivate the crop.

"It might make it more available when you compensate the licensed grower," Saunders said.

Saunders said there are no changes to the rule that licensed growers can only provide pot to one user and a maximum of three people can pool their resources to grow medicinal marijuana.

"It wouldn't become a business in that you can only grow for one person," she said.

The feds provide 30 seeds for $20. Dried marijuana is also being provided by Ottawa for the bargain price of $5 a gram -- about $10 cheaper than it goes for on the street.

Health Canada has okayed 697 Canadians to possess marijuana for medical purposes and another 530 people are allowed to cultivate pot -- most of them in Ontario.

[cryptical]

Seems like our neighbor to the north has the right idea on some subjects.

[Wolfie]

"It wouldn't become a business in that you can only grow for one person," she said.

Ummm...Not quite. The court's ruling holds that a licensed grower can grow for an unlimited number of people. Maybe the court will step in and suspend the possession law until the government gets it right.

[Dunedain]

Mostly right. The new laws are actually very complicated. There is still a limit on possession which is rather arbitrary.

I would prefer all out decriminalization.

Many Americans get uptight about pot. I think they should be more worried about escthasy, which is in massive use among America's young population

[TKDietz]

When you say all out decriminalization what do you mean? Are you saying you want it to be taxed and regulated like alcohol? Or do you just want to lower or remove criminal penalties for possession of marijuana? Depending on who is using the word, decriminalization can mean several things. Many American states are said to have decriminalized marijuana when all that really happened is the penalties for possessing it have been lowered or the possibility of jail time has been removed. Often this is only for the first or first few times one is caught.

I am providing a link to a report by Canada's Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs entitled "FINAL REPORT: CANNABIS: OUR POSITION FOR A CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY." It's a pretty interesting read if you have time to slog through several hundred pages. If not, there is a short executive summary and you can hit the main body of the report for anything for more on any topic you find of particular interest. There are some interesting arguments made and some interesting conclusions reached in this report. It's worth looking at.

The link is here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/Committee_SenRep.asp?Language=E&Parl=37&Ses=1&comm_id=85

[TKDietz]

Sentiments like those you've quoted from the Canadian Senate report seem infinitely more "freedom loving" than a lot of what I hear from so many alleged conservatives regarding the war on drugs. I’ve read that entire report, and while I don’t agree with everything in it, I have to say that I do agree with most of it. The fact of the matter though is that there has never been one of these major policy studies done on marijuana laws in the US or anywhere else where the experts have concluded that we need to get tougher on marijuana laws. To the contrary, every single major marijuana policy study in the last 35 years has resulted in recommendations that marijuana either be decriminalized or legalized. In every case though, the experts are ignored, being drowned out by voices like those you hear (see) in these forums, with anecdotal evidence and knee jerk reactions, irrational fears and the ever present delusion that somehow they are going to make people who smoke pot or those who intend to do it care what the government says about it. The number of people who want reform is growing. It’s only a matter of demographics and time. Sooner or later there will be a majority supporting reform of our marijuana laws.