Jodie Emery Quits Liberals and so should we

Jodie Emery Quits Liberals

Last week’s arrest in Toronto the last straw for marijuana activist. Jodie Emery Quits Liberals and so should we

Activist and former federal Liberal nomination hopeful Jodie Emery has canceled her party membership, saying Justin Trudeau’s party lied to Canadians about its plans to legalize marijuana.
Emery made her announcement via Twitter Friday morning, accusing the party of backing away from its commitment to legalize pot.

“I canceled my liberal party membership & monthly donations,” she tweeted. “I encourage my fellow Canadians to do the same.”

In a telephone interview with The Tyee, Emery said she joined the party after it voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, thinking it was a good way to further the cause.
Emery said the campaign promise to legalize marijuana helped the Liberals win the 2015 election. The party’s failure to deliver on the promise should convince people to pull their support, she said.
 “Political parties value nothing more than money and voters and volunteers,” she said. “So in order to try and convince them to take people more seriously, I think it’s important to resign memberships and stop donations to make them actually see the consequences of lying to the public.”

In the last election campaign, the Conservative Party came out hard against marijuana while Trudeau vowed to legalize it.

The Liberal platform said it was going to regulate the drug to ensure it didn’t fall into the hands of minors and decriminalize consumption and minor possession.

During a campaign stop in Vancouver, Trudeau said on local radio he would move to decriminalize pot “immediately” if elected.

Emery said she defended the party in the media when it was attacked for the legalization pledge, despite its decision to reject her as a potential candidate in a Vancouver riding.

Emery said the party is moving toward establishing a tightly controlled marijuana market where a handful of producers with connections to government funds will have a monopoly, shutting out existing dispensaries.

That’s not what she and other marijuana advocates expected when they supported the party, Emery said, believing that full legalization would include marijuana being sold at independent outlets.

The Liberals also criticized the number of people being charged with “non-violent” marijuana-related crimes during the campaign.

But last week Emery and her husband, pot activist Marc Emery, were arrested in Toronto and charged with drug offenses as a part of a cross-country police operation. The couple runs marijuana shops in Canada, including Vancouver, under the Cannabis Culture name. Marc Emery was released from a U.S. prison in 2014 after being convicted of selling marijuana seeds from his Vancouver base.

In December, Trudeau urged police to enforce current marijuana laws.

Emery called the situation “prohibition as usual.”

She said the government is trying to demonize her and other operators of small dispensaries in order to clear the way for big business hoping to get into the marijuana market.
“It’s a demonization attempt to pre-emptively justify the severe regulations they will be introducing,” she said. “I feel that this is all part of a major campaign.”

The way the Liberals want to make pot available would essentially be similar to only allowing major breweries sell beer in their own stores, she said.

Responding to questions about Emery’s concerns, the Department of Justice issued a statement on behalf of Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould.

It said current marijuana laws should be obeyed until Parliament changes them, citing safety concerns regarding minors. Those laws do not allow for storefront operations to sell pot.

Canadian Cannabis Home Growers

Canadian Cannabis Home Growers Will Soon Be Able To Grow Their Own

Canadian Cannabis Home Growers Canadians who use cannabis for medical purposes will soon be able to grow their own weed under new rules outlined by the federal government on Thursday. But a licensed producer based in Smiths Falls, Ont., isn't worried about having to fend off competition from medical marijuana users intent on producing their own plants. Medical marijuana patients can grow 'limited amount' of cannabis at home under new laws Ban on medical marijuana patients growing own pot struck down by Federal Court "People could decide to grow their own," said Bruce Linton, founder, and CEO of Tweed. "But they prefer to buy from a lawful, properly produced, safe supplier." Under existing rules patients who use medical marijuana are required by law to buy their weed from one of 34 licensed producers across the country. Health Canada announced in a statement that the new access to cannabis for medical purposes regulations will allow Canadians to produce "a limited amount of cannabis. or designate someone to produce it for them." The new rules are a response to a federal court ruling that struck down the regulations restricting the rights of medical marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis. The Allard v. Canada decision gave the government six months to amend regulations for medical marijuana. The new rules come into effect on Aug. 24. The amount that can be grown will depend on a patient's prescription. A patient with permission from a doctor to ingest one gram of medical marijuana a day will be allowed to grow two plants outdoors, or five plants indoors. Cannabis 'not a geranium' Linton says there were good reasons the old rules were put into place, and the risks of growing at home still exist. "The police chiefs, fire chiefs, municipal officials found there were frequent fires, electrical shock dangers. It caused mold, mildews. It caused access to kids, and if you got really good and grew a lot of it you became a great target to steal from," he told CBC News. "Growing your own isn't. putting in a terrific patch of geraniums. This is not a geranium." One of Tweed's customers might be willing to give the new regulation's a try. Mandy McKnight's son Liam uses a cannabis oil to help control his epileptic seizures. She says his medicine costs more than $600 a month. "It's beyond affordable to be able to maintain buying Liam's meds from a licensed producer," McKnight said. Although she has no plans to start growing her own immediately, she welcomes the government's decision. Safety concerns remain Health Canada says it remains concerned about the health and safety risks of home growing operations and that Canadians exercising the option to grow at home should follow guidelines. "They're expected to comply with municipal bylaws that touch on electrical and fire safety," said Jacqueline Bogden, assistant deputy minister of Health Canada's cannabis legalization and regulation branch. Linton says Tweed intends to offer a service to those users who worry about the safety aspects, or even the smell, of growing marijuana at home. In certain municipalities, Tweed will rent a designated small space and do the growing for them. "What Tweed will bring is the soil, the seeds, the fertilizers, the methodologies," Linton said. But another Ottawa-area man who uses medical cannabis to control his severe anxiety is concerned that the new rules only allow users to grow plants from seeds and plants from licensed producers like Tweed. "They're grown in a very detailed environment where there is temperature control, humidity control," said Alex Newcombe. "These are very, very non-resistant strains that they're using. So you're typical growers at home will find it very difficult to maintain any level of quality crop." "We want our local growers. all the people who are putting the love and caring into their plants instead of these big industrial grows." The new regulations do not change other laws that make it illegal for Canadians to use marijuana recreationally. Dispensaries and compassion clubs are also not authorized to sell marijuana and remain illegal under the new laws.