Thursday, January 5, 2006

Does Sativex mean the end of Medical Marijuana? That's the question raised in this Hit and Run post by Jacob Sullum. These developments, while a boon to patients, will pose a challenge to the drug policy reform movement, which has gotten a lot of mileage out of the federal government's cruel, know-nothing intransigence on the issue of medical marijuana. Once legal, equally effective aternatives to marijuana are readily available, reformers will be forced to switch their focus back to recreational use (which is, after all, the main form of marijuana consumption), seemingly confirming the accusation that all their talk about the drug's medical virtues was just a cover. And having emphasized the sympathetic claims of suffering patients for so long, they will be in a weak position to argue that people shouldn't need a special excuse to smoke pot. I'm not sure I agree, but it's an interesting question. What do you think? 6:39:29 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

The odd situation where the government staying your drug charges is bad news. The Canadian government has issued a stay of three conspiracy charges filed by a private citizen against Marc Emery. By not allowing the trial to go forward, it opens the door to extradition hearings against Marc. It's a strange set of circumstances. The charges by the private citizen were filed on purpose to interfere with extradition. If Marc was under trial in Canada, he could not be extradited to the U.S. Emery's attorney, Kirk Tousaw says the decision is politically motivated. "I'm concerned when our government acts as an arm of the U.S. drug war and has an opportunity to reassert Canadian sovereignty but refused to do so," Tousaw said. "I think all Canadians should be concerned about that." McCann said he doesn't understand why the federal government would participate in an extradition request by the United States when it largely ignored Emery's activities and Health Canada even referred patients needing medicinal marijuana to him. Emery and his associates were arrested last July after police raided Emery's pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Emery, dubbed the Prince of Pot by American media, is set to return to B.C. Supreme Court next month to set a date for his extradition hearing. 6:34:55 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []