Tories' All-Night Voting Session Puts Pot Bill On Hold

OTTAWA — Progress on the government's cannabis legalization bill and all other work in the House of Commons was put on hold until next week, thanks to a Conservative filibuster that forced an all-night voting session Friday.

The Conservatives forced the marathon of votes as a procedural stalling tactic to draw attention to their calls for the Trudeau government to disclose how much its carbon pricing plan will cost Canadians.

There's a Man Serving Life in Prison for $5 Worth of Marijuana in the Same Country Where Millions Can Smoke It Legally

Deedee Kirkwood is a hippie housewife in Camarillo, a scenic beach town in California outside of Los Angeles. When she was younger, she followed the Grateful Dead on tour and says she smoked copious amounts of pot “before and after." But her youthful indiscretions had no legal consequences. “I did a lot of stupid stuff, but as a white lady I got lucky,” she tells me over the phone.

Kirkwood often writes letters to Fate Vincent Winslow, an inmate in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He’s not as lucky as she was. In 2008, Winslow was homeless on the streets of Shreveport, Louisiana. One night, an undercover cop approached and asked him for “a girl” and some pot. Winslow got two dime bags of weed from a white dealer he knew and sold them to the officer. In all, he made five bucks from the sale, money he needed to buy food, he says.

Cuomo Opposes Legal Weed, While Helping His Alcohol Industry Donors

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo waded into the national debate over drug policy, declaring his opposition to legalizing cannabis and asserting (despite research to the contrary) that using pot leads to the use of other, stronger narcotics. Cuomo has long promoted the alcohol industry, whose donors have bankrolled his election campaigns and whose businesses could be adversely affected by marijuana legalization.

Cuomo’s office did not respond to International Business Times’ request for comment about marijuana-related scientific research or about his support for the alcohol industry.

Harper Cites 'Science' As Proof Pot Is Worse Than Tobacco

Stephen Harper isn't budging from his claim that marijuana is an "infinitely" more harmful substance than tobacco.

However, the Conservative leader was unable to draw on research to prove that assertion when pressed about the matter during a radio interview that aired this week.

Harper sat down with CKNW's Jon McComb in Vancouver for a discussion that turned somewhat testy on the matter of pot.

Stephen Harper’s hypocrisy and hysteria on marijuana

Politicians know how to harvest the low hanging fruit at election time.

Now, Justin Trudeau has sniffed out the low hanging cannabis on the campaign trail — and promised to legalize it.

It’s time, long past time. The Liberal leader can make up for the sins — or omissions — of his father in failing to decriminalize marijuana possession generations ago, when Pierre Trudeau ignored the recommendations of the 1973 Le Dain Royal Commission he created as prime minister.

Harper’s pot is ‘infinitely worse’ than tobacco assertion ‘misleading’ — health experts

Public health experts are slamming Stephen Harper’s assertion that marijuana is “infinitely worse” than tobacco, saying the remark has no basis in scientific fact.

The Conservative leader made the comment the morning after the final debate of the election campaign Friday night, during which he criticized Justin Trudeau’s proposal to legalize the drug.

Laureen Harper Comment Sparks Confusion About Her Marijuana Stance

Once lauded as an election issue to watch, Canada’s marijuana laws are gaining a little more attention after the prime minister’s wife hinted she may support decriminalization.

Laureen Harper's comment at an Ontario campaign office appears to contrast with the stance underlined by her husband Conservative Leader Stephen Harper against loosening the country’s marijuana laws.

Christie Promises To ‘Crack Down’ On Marijuana If Elected President

During a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) claimed he will “crack down” on states that have legalized marijuana, if he becomes President in the future.

“Marijuana is a gateway drug. We have an enormous addiction problem in this country,” said Christie. “And we need to send very clear leadership from the White House on down through the federal law enforcement. Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law. And the states should not be permitted to sell it and profit from it.” Asked if he’ll enforce federal law in Washington and Colorado, he responded, “Absolutely. I will crack down and not permit it.”

Donald Clarkson, Kamloops Grandpa, Jailed For Growing Pot To Supplement Pension

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A British Columbia grandfather who started a marijuana grow-op to augment his small pension has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Donald Clarkson, who is 76, pleaded guilty to production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking after police raided a building on his property two years ago.

Uruguay Releases Legal Marijuana Market Rules

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay has finally released its rules for the legal marijuana market it is launching this year, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. But anyone hoping the South American nation will become a pot-smoker's paradise should probably head to Colorado instead, President Jose Mujica suggested on Friday.

Canada's Doctors Decline To Join Anti-Marijuana Campaign

The main groups representing Canadian doctors have declared they will not participate in Health Canada's upcoming anti-drug campaign targeting young people.

“The educational campaign has now become a political football on Canada's marijuana policy,” said a joint statement released Saturday by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Marijuana was criminalized in 1923, but why?

Pot activists in Canada and elsewhere took part Sunday in what was billed as a "Global Marijuana March." In this country, they were calling for the decriminalization of marijuana.

They might also have asked why it became illegal in the first place.

That happened in 1923, and if there was any kind of parliamentary debate historians have been unable to find a record of it.

Pot Prospectors Seek Fortune In Legal Weed

SEATTLE (AP) — Dot-bong, Marijuana Inc., the Green Rush: Call it what you will, the burgeoning legal marijuana industry in Washington state is drawing pot prospectors of all stripes.

Microsoft veterans and farmers, real estate agents and pastry chefs, former journalists and longtime pot growers alike are seeking new challenges — and fortunes — in the production, processing and sale of a drug that's been illegal for generations.

In Colorado, the only other state to legalize marijuana, existing medical marijuana dispensaries can begin selling for recreational use in January. But in Washington, where sales are expected to begin in late spring, the industry is open to nearly anyone — provided they've lived in the state for three months, pass a background check and raise any money from within the state. Washington on Monday begins accepting applications from those eager to jump in.

Tories Again Accuse Justin Trudeau Of Promoting Pot To Children

Conservatives are once again accusing Justin Trudeau of promoting pot to children after the Liberal leader explained his plan to legalize marijuana to a group of students on Wednesday.

Trudeau was in Brandon, Manitoba, to give a boost to Rolf Dinsdale, his Grit candidate in this month's byelection. The two visited a school in Sioux Valley, where students apparently asked Trudeau about his pot plan.

James O'Connor, managing editor of the Brandon Sun, posted on Twitter that Trudeau received applause when he explained why he favours legalizing and controlling the drug.

Police Groups Furiously Protest Eric Holder's Marijuana Policy Announcement

WASHINGTON -- A broad coalition of law enforcement officers who have spent the past three decades waging an increasingly militarized drug war that has failed to reduce drug use doesn't want to give up the fight.

Organizations that include sheriffs, narcotics officers and big-city police chiefs slammed Attorney General Eric Holder in a joint letter Friday, expressing "extreme disappointment" at his announcement that the Department of Justice would allow Colorado and Washington to implement state laws that legalized recreational marijuana for adults.

Grass crime no! Grain crime yes! The inconsistencies of Prime Minister Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open in his disdain for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's politically calculated admission he has recently consumed marijuana.

Fair enough under the circumstances, I guess. I'm enough of an old fuddy-duddy myself to feel that a citizen, let alone a Parliamentarian, ought to obey a law even if he or she is working to have it overturned as ill-conceived, harmful or unneeded.

So I have to admit that Trudeau's comment left me feeling uncomfortable, especially since it so clearly illustrated the difference in the way the law treats a well-off young man with powerful connections and working class kids with no house, little influence and a beater or a bus for a ride.

Justin Trudeau's Marijuana Admission Slammed As 'Poor Example' While Liberals Defend Leader

OTTAWA — As Conservatives pounced on Justin Trudeau's admission he smoked marijuana as an MP, saying it is proof he is unfit to govern, Liberal MPs say they believe the public wants an open and honest leader.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay denounced what he called a "profound lack of judgment" from the Liberal leader.

"By flouting the laws of Canada while holding elected office, he shows he is a poor example for all Canadians, particularly young ones," MacKay said in a statement. "Justin Trudeau is simply not the kind of leader our country needs."

Marijuana Dispensaries Becoming Exclusive Domain Of The 1 Percent

Once a business proposition that required little more than a few thousand dollars and some gardening equipment, selling medical marijuana is quickly becoming a dream fit only for deep-pocketed entrepreneurs.

Regulations in states that only recently legalized medical marijuana are mandating that would-be dispensary operators set aside large amounts of cash before even applying for a license, tipping the scales in favor of businesspeople with money to burn. Drawn-out licensing processes being devised in those states mean permits to run dispensaries will likely only go to those able to afford a cadre of consultants and lawyers.

Racial Disparity In Marijuana Arrests: Black Americans Are Nearly 4 Times More Likely Than Whites To Be Arrested For Possession Of Pot

The U.S. War on Marijuana is not just costly, time-consuming and unnecessary -- it's also racially biased, according to a new report.

In recent years, several states have passed laws that decriminalized marijuana, and a majority of Americans now support legalizing the drug. Yet between 2001 and 2010, there were over 8 million pot arrests in the U.S. What's worse, the authorities making the arrests were targeting black Americans far more than whites.

Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use

The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

That's the good news. The bad news, not included in the study, is that most heavy users admit that pot has had a negative effect on their physical and mental health as well their functioning on the job and socially.