After reading your proposed changes I truly believe that this is simply the first step to try to eliminate the program.
Your list of “concerns” seems to be an accumulation of all the old stereotypes that have been put forward for many years. I personally would like to know what percentage of licensed patients actually have experienced any of the items on the list. It appears to be the same propaganda that the US government has been attempting to use for years on their failed “War on Drugs”. At what point are we going to stop spending billions of dollars on something that cannot be enforced? At what point are we going to stop ruining the lives of individuals by giving them a criminal record for something that to most is socially, medically and morally acceptable? Politics has no place in medicine and health care. Manipulating numbers, scare tactics and misinformation is a very poor way to address the health of people like myself. For the very first time in my over 50 years of life I feel ashamed of the Canadian Government.
In regards to the licensed commercial producers concept I believe this is simply a way to overprice the medicine thus stopping people from using due to financial reasons. Once this happens it will be very easy to stop the program all together under the guise of lack of use by patients. What steps are planned for keeping prices in line? Will this form yet another underground market? Presently the product being sold retails for approximately $5 per gram if ordered from the government. My cost of growing is less than $2 per gram. Street value goes between $8 and $20 per gram. What prices will be charged by these “commercial producers”? I’m estimating that it will be $15 per gram and higher. So based on my prescription this will cost me $45 plus tax a day for at total of over $16000 per year. Thank you for removing the only medication that elevates my pain without adverse effects on my health, body and well being. I guess it is much simpler for me to go back to “opiates” lose my job and become a burden on my family and society.
If these proposed changes do come into effect will you be mandating health insurance plans cover the cost of my medicine? If not it only substantiates my hypotheses of your attempt to eliminate the program.
It is my firm belief that if these changes come into effect it will be you the Canadian Government that will increase the illicit sale of my medicine. It will be you who increases the criminal element. It will be you who ruins mine and many other people’s lives.
Please I beg of you let me stay a functional member of society, let me control my pain in a simple non-narcotic manner at an affordable price. Let me attempt to live my life. —Yes, it is Medicine
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.
I agree with you.
The Conservative government will try to kill the medicinal marijuana program. I think it offends the Conservative “base” to know that folks might derive a medicinal benefit from an herb which the Conservatives really believe is a vehicle for Satan to gain control of the minds of the young.
It was fortunate for Harper that Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer never got re-elected in 2008. His arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession in 2010 would have been more of an embarrassment for Harper than it already was. Naturally they had to get rid of his wife and cohabitant, Conservative MP and Cabinet minister Helena Guergis, through innuendo and slander, in order to improve the optics of the party going into the last election.
I think everything Stephen Harper knows about marijuana he learned from watching the film “Reefer Madness”.
Everything I know about marijuana I learned by watching televised coverage of NDP conventions.
Yikes!
http://rob.nu/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/u…
canada, where the fuck is that. i thought we were living in a fifth world country? might as well be, some of the medicos are from the dark ages of leeches and skull boring. and then we have the zillion dollar hospitals, stocked with another zillion bucks worth of equipment, and no one to use it, or not trained to use it. fuck sakes people, don’t go in there, you might not come back out.
give me the good old country traveling doc anyday. when they made housecalls, at least you knew they were serious, and well trained. today, all they do is push fucking buttons, and look at readouts, that might be uncalibrated to your dilemma.
get a permit to grow if it’s so cheap to….
they aren’t unheard of and may take time to acquire but would surely be worth it…
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.…
because of the green…
I remember reading in the paper that NS has the highest amount of legal medical marijuana users per capita in the country. So this would effect NS in a big way.
So not only does Harper want to make mandatory sentencing of 6 months to a year in prison for as few as 6 plants, he wants to make it harder for people who have a legitimate need for it and force them to use more dangerous and harmful drugs to ease their pain. Does that make sense to anyone?
I hate this motherfucker and everything he stands for. Do any of you want to see a prison for profit system here? If so, can I ask why? Is it in the best interests of Canadians? Maybe for Stevie’s buddies and those that work for them. To me this is an attempt to make more Canadians criminals thus justifying the need for his new prisons.
I could literally go on for days about why weed, at the very least medicinal, should be at the very least decriminalized. What is the opposing argument? Every one I’ve heard sounds like some stone age bullshit.
Let’s see let me list a couple:
“If we legalize it everyone will start doing it”
Please, it’s so available and acceptable I GUARANTEE no one is choosing not to smoke it just because it’s illegal. I don’t think anyone is saying to themselves “I’d love to try it but it’s illegal!”
“It will encourage and make it easier for kids to get their hands on”
Total opposite of the truth, when I was a kid it was way harder for me to get my hands on alcohol, tobacco, lotto tickets, pornography and other things that are reserved by law for adults, not impossible, but challenging. Weed was available for purchase in my junior high school and all over the neighborhoods we hung around in. It was and still is everywhere. Legalized regulation would take it out of our kid’s schools, and out of our neighborhoods.
As for encouraging them, cigarettes and alcohol are legal and we teach our kids in school and hopefully at home that those things are dangerous for your health and illegal for minors to use or possess. We need to stop telling our kids “this is bad” and start teaching them about when and where it is appropriate and inappropriate. Just like we teach them that it’s not ok to drink in public, or drive drunk, or come to school or work drunk, we should be doing the same for smoking weed. Not just that it’s bad and to never do it or you will end up a degenerate livin-his-mom’s-basement-at-45, loser stoner stereotype.
Anyone have any other anti decriminalization/legalization arguments? I’d honestly love to hear them. I get the feeling I’m probably preaching to the choir though *cough cough*
Only when it is legal or more accepted can we really start to have a real conversation about it’s negative and beneficial effects, right now the official stance is “it’s bad” and that’s it.
Everyone has vices, millions of Canadians smoke pot, it’s much less detrimental than alcohol, tobacco and gambling and doesn’t hinder your ability to contribute to society like those 3 perfectly legal and highly taxed products/services do.
I’ve never heard of anyone putting their house up to feed their smoke habit, like you do with gamblers, I’ve never seen people on the street because of a weed addiction, like you do with alcohol. (those bums with “i need money for weed” signs are definitely using other drugs) I’ve never heard of anyone dying from smoking pot, like a tobacco smokers do every 5 minutes or something like that in this country.
I’m sure you’ve all heard this a hundred thousand times. It’s true indisputable fact. Who is it benefiting to keep it a criminal offense to possess this plant? Anyone care to tackle that one?
Am I really being bold in asking WHAT’S THE BIG FUCKING DEAL?! I have a weed habit and I have a full time job, pay my taxes and contribute to society. So do all my friends. Am I a criminal? I don’t know anyone personally who sits around smoking weed collecting welfare, although I’m aware they exist. I think those people have bigger problems than weed.
It’s bad for your health but so is McDonald’s, not to mention tobacco and alcohol. Let’s stop letting the government tell us what to do with our own bodies. It will also stop clogging our courts and make our justice system more effective.
End Prohibition. Like the OP says, these laws make criminals richer, and brings more money into the underground criminal economy when it could be going towards building schools and hospitals.
*steps off soap box*
Legit. The stuff is harmless and it actually helps a lot of people. Following the May 2 election I concluded simply that the voters of Canada are the stupidest people on the planet and reward neo-fascist leaders with majority governments despite breaking the law and being held in contempt of Parliament.
That’s what happens when you let someone with a business background run government. Stephen Harper is an embarassment to Canada period.
“So not only does Harper want to make mandatory sentencing of 6 months to a year in prison for as few as 6 plants, he wants to make it harder for people who have a legitimate need for it and force them to use more dangerous and harmful drugs to ease their pain. Does that make sense to anyone?”
It’s called Big Pharma. The pharmacy industry is very, very powerful.
Tommy,…
do you really expect the suited up, geezer yokels to fully admit their mistake all these years and all the ruined lives and wasted money on a ‘war’ they apparently can’t win?
They aren’t ‘wrong’ until they cave….
and so the ‘war’ rages on because, sadly, that’s the only argument they need.
Just like Afghanistan, zZz, just like Afghanistan.
zZz, You’re right.. I just think it’s glaringly obvious to anyone, including themselves, now, that they were wrong. Since when is it so bad to admit you’re wrong?
I remember watching a documentary and in it they tell about how Nixon, who was a Quaker, and a a total POS crook, as we all know, had his scientists or whatever conduct some studies on marijuana. When they brought back the results of this study, which were that this plant was relatively harmless and should not be classified as an illegal substance, he threw it in the trash and made a decision based on his personal ideologies that weed should be outlawed and frowned upon and thought of as a threat to society.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or fucking throw up.
Why can’t people just look at the facts?
There was a time when it was old white guys who rotted their cirrhotic livers with scotch and mostly young hippies and black musicians who smoked weed. I think from this follows much of the “war on drugs” mentality of the last forty years since it was old white guys who made most of the rules.
I think they still do but for some reason they never invite me to the meetings.
lol I often wonder what the world will look like when all these old fuckers are gone.
That’s the thing about old fuckers Tommy. They are definitely a renewable resource.
Right but I have to hope that when my generation is running this country we can put a stop to SOME of this hypocrisy. I maintain that hope. I do think that it will be at least decriminalized during my lifetime.
“I have a weed habit”
http://arrogantass.files.wordpress.com/201…
Imma be hitting up Amsterdam in Aug. … hayyyyyyyyy
lololz
Maybe. But when your generation is running the country they’ll be at least halfway to being old fuckers and they’ll have had plenty of time and opportunity to acquire hypocrisies of their own. I hope you find it a fair exchange.
I’m actually pretty libertarian on the issue. It’s not my taste, but hay, go to hell your own way sez I. All I ask is that you not bore me with the details. I honestly do not know what the decriminalization of marijuana will do for society, in terms of addiction issues, crime issues, etc. I know this much; it will not stop, or even slow our steady devolution. Hopefully it will not limit our capacity for damage control.
Of course, when you are an old fucker you’ll probably be shaking your fist scornfully at “Damned punk kids and their damned medicinal crack cocaine” >; )
Majority rules OP. Unless you can convince your pot smoking buddies to quit puffing long enough to put together a valid argument and present it, the Government will make those changes you so oppose.
sebastien_ you’re a fucking moron.
I don’t have proof (numbers and stuff) per se, but I would make an educated guess that the vast majority wouldn’t care much if weed was treated like alcohol is, for many of the reasons mentioned by tj.
I went 2 years ago Donk, it is the most awesome place ever. Enjoy.
Weed is honestly the only thing that helps with my migraines. I’ve been on every medication imaginable, and nothing takes away the unbearable pain like weed. BUT, I lost my source 🙁
Careful, canned, he’ll cry to the mods and have your comment deleted citing it as homophobia. It’s odd but he’s allowed to say some hateful things but criticizing him or telling him off isn’t tolerated because society feels it owes something to butt-rangers.