MAP Drugnews

CBC.ca
Tax on medical marijuana 'unfortunate,' says PEI grower
CBC.ca
Some members of the cannabis industry on P.E.I. are concerned with the federal government's plan to charge an excise tax on medical marijuana. The proposal to charge $1 per gram on products sold in Canada was released in the federal budget last week ...

and more »

CNBC
Canadian marijuana company's Nasdaq listing bodes well for the industry, but US companies still face barriers
CNBC
When a Canadian marijuana company listed on the Nasdaq last week, most in the cannabis industry said it was an important milestone in the fight toward legitimization. "Every success means future success for the industry. Every successful investment ...

and more »

Edmonton Journal
Cannabis retail applications open in Alberta
Edmonton Journal
There is no cap on retail cannabis licences in Alberta — a fact Hynes-Dawson thinks that might be the biggest misconception out there — but no single person or entity can hold more than 15 per cent of licences in the province. Over the next few ...
Application process opens for Alberta cannabis store licencesGlobalnews.ca

all 3 news articles »

WebMD
Marijuana Doesn't Seem to Harm the Kidneys
WebMD
TUESDAY, March 6, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- As marijuana use has increased in the United States in recent years, medical experts and users alike have wondered about its health effects. Now, a new study finds there's no link between marijuana use and ...

and more »

Profiteering off drug treatment is not something we look for in a candidate.

"I have a clean record,” wrote Illinois pastor John Elleson, who’s running for Congress in the Ninth District.

The reality is that court records show the pastor pleaded “no contest” to second-degree theft that scored him 150 hours of community service in 2003, the Chicago Tribune reported. He also had to return the $49,000 in benefit payments he stole while in Hawaii.

According to prosecutors, Elleson, along with wife Suzanne, both pleaded “no contest” to lying about feeding teenagers attending a drug addiction rehab that the couple ran.

The Tribune cited a Honolulu Star-Bulletin report that an investigation into the Ellesons began when a teen in the rehab outed the couple for demanding the teen apply for tax payer-funded benefit payments. They then demanded the teens turn the money over to them or face eviction from the program.

Pastor Elleson was then fired for his “contentious and noncooperative spirit” and his “assumption of dictatorial authority over an assembly.” He then got sued by the church for using the “Teen Challenge” brand.

The judge presiding over the case found he had “willfully engaged in . . . deceptive trade practices,” and demanded the couple pay legal fees for the church.

In 2010, police were forced to respond multiple times when the Bethel Pentecostal Church of God and Elleson’s Lakewood Chapel were fighting over a wall cutting their shared chapel in half. Half of Lakewood was sold to the Pentecostal church, however, Elleson would allegedly cut off power or the PA system while the Pentecostal church was having services. Elleson was accused of also removing microphones during services and playing loud music and projections onto the screen during the other church’s service.

Elleson lost the lawsuit brought by the Pentecostal church and was ordered to pay them $257,600 along with legal fees.

To make matters worse, Elleson has already come under fire for using Houston televangelist Joel Osteen in a campaign ad without his permission. Osteen had previously done a video the Ellesons could use to promote their own church.

Elleson was also caught falsely implying the Chicago Tribune endorsed his campaign over Democratic opponent Rep. Jan Schakowsky. He’s also falsely claimed he was endorsed by an independent voters group. He ultimately removed the text from his campaign website.

In an email exchange with Inc, Elleson wouldn’t answer any questions but called the Hawaii lawsuit “an unfortunate time in our lives.”

He went on to say he has nothing to hide, nor is he aware of a 1998 “samage conviction” from a Cook County case where he plead guilty to a misdemeanor. He claimed that he has a clean record.

 

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The second season of HBO’s quirky series acts as a respite from the Trump era, without ignoring it

f you’re the type of person who watches “High Maintenance,” Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld’s vignette-driven series about New York City and an affable pot dealer called the Guy who floats through it, you’ve probably noticed all there is to be cynical about these days. And probably I don’t need to rattle off a list of those things because they’re fairly obvious to you and you are reminded of them every day when you read the news, log onto social media or even when you walk through your changing city.

But maybe my assumptions about the show’s audience — that it’s mostly young, liberal, urban, concerned — are unfair. To make assumptions runs counter to the very ethos of “High Maintenance.”

Then again, the second season of the show, which began on January 19 and is currently roughly halfway finished, treats the causes for New Yorkers’ distress as tacit. Trump isn’t referred to by name. But a vague disastrous event in the first episode, “Globo,” has the city distraught in a way that’s reminiscent of his election victory. In the second episode, “Fagin,” a group of women gather at a Bushwick apartment to make protest signs and talk about social issues, and it seems like they’re preparing for the New York’s Women’s March, though that's never stated outright. Issues that plague the city, like gentrification and transportation, are also alluded to without being named.

This season of “High Maintenance” has been widely hailed by critics as a return to form. After moving from Vimeo to HBO in 2016, the show experienced growing pains; some of its spark was lost. This season, Sinclair and Blichfeld seem to have adapted to working with a bigger crew, at a faster pace, for a wider audience, and they seem to be in a better place in their personal lives, too. But another part of what’s made this season special is that the series has managed to act as a respite from what’s happening in the world without ignoring or downplaying what’s going on. How?

Well, for starters, lassos. One of my favorite moments thus far this season comes in the third episode, “Namaste,” an episode which is ostensibly about gentrification and the city’s stark class divide but also finds time for a man in a cowboy hat using a fire hydrant to practice his lassoing. The bit doesn’t feed into the plot in any way, but it adds depth to the show’s portrait of New York. It’s as if the show’s acknowledging that New York is changing in ways that are detrimental to minorities and the poor, but is also pointing out that weird, idiosyncratic people and moments remain.

In this way, “High Maintenance” often calls to mind the work of the late Jonathan Demme. Like Demme, Sinclair and Blichfeld are great at bringing the background of a scene to life. In the first episode, the camera passes by a group of foreign diners who, on the day of the undisclosed disaster, wonder whether the 9/11 museum will still be open. In “Fagin,” a stranger in an Uber sneezes, is not acknowledged, and exclaims, “Well, bless me, I guess! Damn!”  

In the same vein, it’s telling that nearly every character is given a name. Everyone on screen, no matter how small their role, is an individual rather than a prop. And even the props, sometimes, are named. A hammock is called Trisha. A snake is Fagin. Each has an arc; every detail is important.

Because so much of the show takes place in modern Brooklyn, many scenarios could be set-ups for punchlines — a man who’s left the Hasidic community dancing at a rave; a dinner at an artists' commune; a freelance brand strategist working for a New Age church — but while some of these moments are indeed funny, “High Maintenance” just about always stops short of mocking. Brooklyn isn’t glorified, but neither is it parodied. There’s enough to be cynical about in the world already. The joy of “High Maintenance” — and of this season in particular — is that it pushes all of that to the periphery, and brings the periphery to the fore. Best of all, you can see the small moments that make New York — and the world more broadly — beautiful, and you don’t even have to squint.

 

 

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