According to marijuana activist Marc Emery who is being extradited to the United States for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet, Canada's Conservative Minister of Justice Vic Toews is "…the most hostile Minister of Justice the Canadian cannabis community has ever had to deal with."
Thank goodness! Mr. Toews has made it clear that the Conservative government has no intention of decriminalizing marijuana as had been proposed by the previous Liberal government. This position was confirmed by Prime Minister Harper on April 3, 2006 in a speech to the Canadian Professional Police Association meeting in Toronto.
There is good reason for the position taken by the Conservative Party, as it appears from recent studies that marijuana is not a harmless drug but rather, its use has very serious side effects. For example, the results of studies released in 2006 alone are alarming.
- A study published in January 2006 in the British Medical Journal (volume 332) reported a strong link between marijuana use and psychosis. Psychosis, according to this study, is a severe mental illness characterized by the presence of delusions, hallucinations, and other associated cognitive and behavioral impairments that interfere with the ability to meet the ordinary demands of life.
- A study published in February 2006 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, indicates that marijuana affects fertility and reduces the chances of a good outcome in fertility treatments by reducing the number of eggs available and lowers the sperm count.
- A report published in the March 14, 2006 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, by Dr. Lambros Messinis, a neurologist at the University hospital of Patras, in Greece, indicates that long term users of marijuana, of at least one marijuana joint a day for 10 years, perform poorly in a range of standardized tests, including verbal fluency, verbal memory and learning.
In 1985, Australia adopted marijuana decriminalization laws and "medical" marijuana use. This has resulted in marijuana becoming the most commonly used drug in Australia. The New South Wales Health Department released a report, in March 2006, discussing the devastating impact of marijuana use on the mental and physical health of chronic users. According to its Health Minister, John Hatzistergos, "anyone who thinks cannabis is a soft drug should come to visit a psychiatric unit to see its devastating effects". Australian Prime Minister John Howard has now called on the Australian states and territories to abandon decriminalization and to introduce tougher laws to deter marijuana use.
Marijuana Used as Medicine
In the 1980's in the United States, over a period of several years, a number of seriously ill patients were permitted to use marijuana legally. This program, however, was terminated in 1992, when the United States Public Health Service stated that there was no scientific evidence that the drug was assisting patients, and issued a warning that smoking marijuana as a form of medical therapy may actually be harmful to some patients .
By January 2006, however, 13 U.S. states had passed legislation or ballot initiatives allowing marijuana for medical reasons. Eight of these states ranked in the top ten states for marijuana use by persons aged 12 or older. All these top ten ranked states, without exception, had passed laws permitting marijuana use or had active campaigns which promoted the message that marijuana is a medicine.
This indicates that, as perceived risks of marijuana decrease, the use of marijuana increases . That is, marijuana use increases when there is an active promotion of marijuana or its use as medicine.
Those dedicated to normalizing and eventually legalizing the use of marijuana and other drugs are very aware of this link between marijuana, perceived as a medicine that treats illnesses, and the acceptance of it for social purposes. For example, in the United States, Richard Cowen, former director of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) stated in 1993 during the 50th anniversary conference celebrating the discovery of LSD, "The key to it [legalization of marijuana] is medical access. Because, once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana medically under medical supervision, the whole scam is going to be bought…. So that once there's medical access, if we continue to do what we have to do, and we will, then we'll get medical, then we'll get full legalization."
In short, NORML uses the medicalization of marijuana to achieve legalization of marijuana and that is why marijuana is now being promoted for medical use in Canada.
Background to Medical Use of Marijuana in Canada
In 2000, the Ontario Court of Appeal (yes, that court is always creating difficulties with its so-called "progressive" agenda) ordered Health Canada to develop regulations to allow the medical use of marijuana. Mr. Rock, the former Minister of Health, was delighted to do so, rather than appealing the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. He immediately created a program to have doctors dispense marijuana. However, the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Protective Association questioned his proposal and were reluctant to implement it. The next Health Minister, Anne McLellan, was not as enthusiastic about the medical use of marijuana as Mr. Rock, and stated that, while the government was not convinced of the medical benefits of marijuana, it was, nonetheless, compelled to establish a dispensing plan as a result of the Ontario court ruling. It is significant however, that both Mr. Rock and Ms McLellan are lawyers and they were aware that a decision by a provincial appeal court applies only to that particular province and it does not apply nationally. Apparently however enforcing the Ontario Court decision nationally was exactly what the Liberal government wanted to do - and it used the Ontario decision as its excuse to do so.
In July 2003, the Canadian Medical Association insisted again that "the government has not made the case for the safety of the medical use of marijuana", and the CMA strongly recommended that the physicians of Canada not participate in dispensing marijuana under existing regulations, and warned that those who do, do so at their professional and legal peril. Consequently, the government resorted to a new plan - namely, that marijuana be dispensed by pharmacists.
In June 2005, the Federal Department of Health established a pilot project to assess the feasibility of distributing marijuana for medical purposes through a conventional pharmacy-based drug distribution system.
If accredited, Canada would then become the second country in the world, after the Netherlands, to allow the direct sale of medical marijuana in pharmacies. It would also mark the first time that community drugstores in Canada would sell a controlled substance that is not an approved drug.
Renewed Push for Medical Use of Marijuana
With the clear intentions of the Conservative government to not decriminalize marijuana use, the supporters of marijuana are now renewing their argument that marijuana has medical uses. They assert this, despite the fact that there is no clinical research to support marijuana as a medicine.
To remedy this lack of evidence, several marijuana activists, including Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto who argued the successful case before the Ontario Court of Appeal on marijuana as medicine, and Moses Znaimer, former owner of MTV, man-about-town, and "progressive" thinker, have recently formed a company called Cannasat Therapeutics. This company is to be used to conduct research on the medical use of marijuana with the view of developing cannabinoid products for sale. As stated by Mr. Young, in a recent article published in the National Post, (May 3, 2006):
Canada is the ideal jurisdiction for advancing cannabinoid research, as we are the only country in the world where patients have a constitutional right to use marijuana as medicine, and where the government has a constitutional obligation to produce this medicine to facilitate reasonable access through other channels.
Thanks to the extremist appointed judges on the Ontario Court of Appeal, Canada is faced with these problems with marijuana. In this regard according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, (May 2, 2006) Cambridge University has recently published a book "Cannabis Dependence" which provides substantial scientific evidence that the euphoria induced by the THC, (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in marijuana, can be addictive to approximately 10% of those who use it. Marijuana, according to addiction treatment statistics, is showing a dramatic growth in marijuana related problems, and this rise in problems reflects a big spike in marijuana use both in Canada and abroad.
The Result of Failure to Enforce Marijuana Laws
In view of the former Liberal government's determination to medicalize and legalize marijuana, it is not surprising that, according to a study of young people in Canada released in 2004, our youth now hold the distinction of topping all nations (Switzerland was second) in frequent marijuana use. The lead researcher for this study, Dr. William Boyce of Queen's University, stated that the increased use of marijuana in Canada was tied to the three As - affordability, availability and acceptability. He stated, "in Canada, I think all three of those things come together so that it's actually used quite a bit by kids here. It's not so expensive, it's definitely available and with the legislation introduced in the last Parliament - and perhaps again in this one - that decriminalizes marijuana use, it certainly provides a signal to kids that this is not a highly illegal activity."
Thank heaven, the Conservative government is now providing a different message to our youth on marijuana use.
Please write to Prime Minister Harper and Minister of Justice Toews to thank them for the planned enforcement of the present marijuana laws rather than legalizing its use. Their actions will make a significant difference to our nation's youth. Please also request that marijuana use for so-called medical reasons be stopped if and until such time that it can be scientifically determined that its use has in fact, medical benefits.
Please write to:
The Right Hon. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Building
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
The Hon. Vic Toews, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Justice Canada
East Memorial Building, 4th Floor, 284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H8
Your MP at:
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
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