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.

The ex cops, politicians and friends of Bill Blair cashing in on legal weed

Chuck Rifici

Former CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada and a founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corp. and Tweed Marijuana Inc., the country’s largest licensed producer. Made a killing when Canopy took over Tweed. He's reportedly still a shareholder. Currently, CEO at Nesta Holding Company, “the premiere partner for companies within the cannabis space.”

Potential conflict of interest As the former overseer of the finances of the federal Liberal Party, Rifici's connections to money bags contributors in the party run far and deep. No doubt he's turning a few of them on to the big bucks to be made in the business of weed.

Justin Trudeau And The Great Pot Hypocrisy

Back in January 2012 I interviewed a moustache-sporting, longhaired Justin Trudeau at the Liberal Party of Canada's convention in Ottawa. Back in my hotel room where I was staying with 5 members of my team (we were hired by the outgoing Liberal president to create live content for the live stream broadcast), we had between us maybe a half-ounce of marijuana. For us -- writers, designers and technical support people -- it was pretty much the same thing as having a case of beer.

Bill Blair: Marijuana Laws Should Be Upheld, Enforced Until Liberals Legalize Drug

OTTAWA — Canadian laws on marijuana remain on the books and must be upheld and enforced even though the government plans to usher in legalization, former Toronto police chief and Liberal MP Bill Blair said Wednesday.

Blair, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, was among several officials who spoke at an open Senate Liberal caucus meeting focused on the legalization of marijuana.

Jodie Emery Bummed Liberals Gave Bill Blair Leading Role In Marijuana Legalization

OTTAWA — Some members of the marijuana movement are concerned about the government's decision to make Toronto's former police chief a point man on legalizing pot, activist and former Liberal hopeful Jodie Emery said Friday.

Liberal MP Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Jody-Wilson Raybould, has been tapped to take a leading role on the file, working closely with the departments of Justice, Public Safety and Health.

Ex-police chief Bill Blair to handle Liberals' pot legalization file

As the Liberal government gets to work on its campaign pledge to legalize marijuana, the former police chief of Toronto will be taking a lead role.

Last month, Bill Blair was named as one of two parliamentary secretaries to the minister of justice. Sources tell CBC News he's been assigned to handle the pot file.

Blair's new role fits with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's attempts to frame the issue during the election campaign.

Rona Ambrose's backwards pot politics

Well we finally found out what it takes to get the Harper government outraged. It wasn't our allies carrying out a global assassination campaign that presumes guilt without trial, or Canadian mining companies acting like the Latin American mafia, or even Zayn leaving One Direction. It was pot brownies. Health minister Rona Ambrose says she was "outraged" by the Supreme Court's unanimous decision that medical marijuana users should be free to purchase pot edibles like cookies, brownies, oils, or even a nice artichoke dip with some minced red onion...bit of lemon juice...little bit of pot. It's lovely. 

Medical marijuana legal in all forms, Supreme Court rules

Medical marijuana patients will now be able to consume marijuana — and not just smoke it — as well as use other extracts and derivatives, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today.

The unanimous ruling against the federal government expands the definition of medical marijuana beyond the "dried" form.

The country's highest court found the current restriction to dried marijuana violates the right to liberty and security "in a manner that is arbitrary and hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice."

Republican Congressman Threatens DC Mayor With Arrest Over Marijuana Legalization

Come Thursday, city officials in the nation’s capital will allow residents to grow and possess small amounts of marijuana. But a handful of Republicans in Congress are desperate keep the drug illegal in DC—so desperate that they’ve resorted to intimidation.

“You can go to prison for this. We’re not playing a little game here,” Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz warned in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post, referring to DC mayor Muriel Bowser and other city officials. “We’re putting them on notice.”

Protests begin as Congress tilts toward upending D.C. law legalizing pot

D.C. officials and activists for marijuana legalization launched a long-shot bid Wednesday to halt a federal budget deal that appeared poised to upend the city’s successful ballot measure last month to legalize the drug.

The day after Congress came to a tentative budget deal that included language intended to block the city’s measure, proponents chanted and marched to Capitol Hill, held a sit-in at the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and promised to keep urging congressional leaders to let the District govern itself.

Legalizing Weed Is ‘A Security Issue,' Says Uruguayan President

Uruguay’s trailblazing legislation legalizing the world’s first government-controlled weed market “began essentially as a security issue,” President José Mujica told The Economist magazine in an interview published Thursday.

Mujica has continued to defend the legislation, which he spearheaded as president, despite a lack of popularity at home and criticism from the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency.

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.

Heroic Uruguay deserves a Nobel peace prize for legalising cannabis

I used to think the United Nations was a harmless talking shop, with tax-free jobs for otherwise unemployed bureaucrats. I now realise it is a force for evil. Its response to a truly significant attempt to combat a global menace – Uruguay's new drug regime – has been to declare that it "violates international law".

To see the tide turn on drugs is like trying to detect a glacier move. But moving it is. Wednesday's statute was introduced by the Uruguayan president, José Mujica, "to free future generations from this plague". The plague was not drugs as such but the "war" on them, which leaves the world's youth at the mercy of criminal traffickers and random imprisonment. Mujica declares himself a reluctant legaliser but one determined "to take users away from clandestine business. We don't defend marijuana or any other addiction, but worse than any drug is trafficking."

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.

Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose

Just how deadly a killer is marijuana? Here's a GIF showing all of the people who have died after overdosing on pot:

Shea's shaming of Liberals over marijuana an attack from PMO, MPs say

P.E.I.’s three Liberal MPs say Fisheries Minister Gail Shea’s public shaming Monday of their support for legalizing marijuana was an attack from Conservative party central.

On Monday morning, Shea released a statement slamming Charlottetown MP Sean Casey, Malpeque MP Wayne Easter and Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay for endorsing their leader Justin Trudeau’s “reckless position” on pot legalization.

Trudeau scores

Canada's marijuana laws will not decide the outcome of the next federal election in 2015, but Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's sudden embrace of outright legalization shows he sees which way the wind of Canadian public opinion is blowing.

Mr. Trudeau has moved over the years from supporting the status quo, to decriminalization, to legalization of pot so it can be regulated, controlled and taxed.

Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Czar, Opposes Marijuana Legalization

NEW YORK -- U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske sought to portray the White House as a champion of drug policy reform on Wednesday, while staunchly opposing marijuana legalization and leaving unanswered questions about how the Justice Department will handle legalized recreational pot in Colorado and Washington.

Obama's Drug War: After Medical Marijuana Mess, Feds Face Big Decision On Pot

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In the summer of 2007, the owners of Harborside Health Center, then and now the most prominent medical marijuana dispensary in the U.S., were reflecting on their rapid rise. Steve DeAngelo had opened the center with his business partner in October 2006, on a day when federal agents raided three other clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. "We had to decide in that moment whether or not we were really serious about this and whether we were willing to risk arrest for it," DeAngelo said. "And we decided we were going to open our doors. And we did, and we haven’t looked back since. The only way I’ll stop doing what I’m doing is if they drag me away in chains. And as soon as they let me out, I’ll be back doing it again."

Marijuana legalization or decriminalization backed by most Canadians: poll

A new poll shows a majority of Canadians support loosening the country’s marijuana laws, a stance that’s starkly out of sync with the federal government’s pot policy.

According to the poll, released Tuesday by Toronto’s Forum Research, 65 per cent of Canadians favour either the legalization and taxation of the drug, or decriminalizing it in small amounts.