News

But Event Promoters Warned to Take Quick Action on Safety Concerns Or Risk Reversal of Decision All-night dances in Edmonton threatened with a ban on booze will be allowed to keep serving alcohol - at least for now.

Power Theft Leads to Arrest; Balance of $833,000 Home Goes To Feds A Richmond home used in a marijuana grow operation has been seized and sold, said Richmond RCMP.

The young men and women who witnessed a gunman opening fire at Dawson College in September 2006 found different ways of coping with the traumatic events of that day - and for some there was a newfound dependence on drugs and alcohol.

Leading Thunderbird Lodge the youth treatment centre, in Fort Qu'Appelle, has been changing lives.

Opinions

A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana.

Is It Possible That Brewer and Horne Are Actually Acting Wisely Regarding MMJ? Now she's really gone and done it.

What do we really want? Mary Boland "Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse for both the addict and the rest of us."

Marijuana is good, compassionate medicine, it's often said. In hard financial times, pot's a godsend as a homegrown cash crop.

Letters

The drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use.

Re: "Sensible limit for smoking, driving," Jan. 18 editorial. I strongly disagree with your recommendation on what limits should be set for drivers who smoke marijuana. Your editorial seems comfortable in accepting the 5 nanogram limit of THC (the "psychoactive substance in marijuana") in a driver's system. But the editorial goes on to say that a state toxicologist reported "the best research shows impairment is detected at the 2 nanogram level." So why go along with the higher 5 nanogram limit? And isn't marijuana supposed to be generally illegal? We already have enough death and destruction on our roads and highways. I wholeheartedly agree with state Sen. Steve King, who is "leaning toward proposing a zero-tolerance bill." If any amount of THC is detected, the driver is busted.

Editor, Not only does God, the ecologican, indicate he created all the seed-bearing plants saying they are all good in the first book of Genesis (letter published on-line Jan. 24, "Leviticus doesn't forbid the use of marijuana), it's literally the very first page of the Bible. That's no accident. The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis (marijuana) is to accept it with thankfulness (1 Timothy 4:1-5). It also predicts cannabis prohibition before it occurs and describes the type of people who will do the evil.

Legislative action is needed in the fight against synthetic drugs. As soon as a substance is controlled, someone changes the compounds to make it legal again. The news is filled with frightening tales about the problem caused by bath salts, spice and other synthetic drug threats.

Regarding Al Kamen's Jan. 18 column " 'Reefer Madness' for the YouTube Generation": This article is consistent with my hypothesis that the rules of professional conduct of journalists or some style manual require that articles about drug policy include a joke about chips, brownies or junk food. Can reporters and editors be so humor-deprived that they always have to joke about laws and policies that every year put hundreds of thousands of cannabis users in handcuffs, give them a criminal record and cost hundreds of millions of dollars on pointless police overtime. Ha, ha, ha, "pass the chips"; I'm dying with laughter.

Want to solve our economic woes? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to stop killings and drive-by shootings? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to see a reduction in gangs? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to unplug our court system? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to reduce our prison budgets? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to prevent Mexico from civil war? Legalize drugs and tax them. Want to stop wasting money on a defunct DEA? Legalize drugs and tax them.

Editor, The authorized version of the King James Bible gives Christians the right to every herb, including marijuana. We don't have to look very far. The first book of Genesis mentions herbs four times with God saying in verse 29, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth." God also said after bringing forth herbs, "God saw that it was good." And, again in verse 31, "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Psalm 104:14 stated, "and herbs for the service of man."