Talk:Legal history of cannabis in Canada

Created

I've created this article in hopes that others more knowledgeable than I will come and expand it. My thinking is that Canada is on the forefront of legalization efforts, yet the Legal issues of cannabis article only mentions the US and the UK. The outline is suggested, be bold. I intend to publicize the creation of the article, in hopes of attracting knowledgeable Canadians to work on it.

-SM 15:34, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Article title

I'm uncertain that this is the best title (and if in Canada it should be Legalisation, I humbly apologise). Please let's discuss here and reach consensus before moving the page around, as I am creating links to it (from Talk pages mostly), and would like to reduce the thrash.

-SM 15:47, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Canadian English says that -ize is more popular than -ise, and otherwise I think it is a good title because it reflects that the law is also involved in the process, ie in the UK it would have to be Cannabis legalisation campaign, SqueakBox 15:40, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Key court decisions

I am uncertain which these would be, but would like to reference them here, with small separate articles added. Cf Gonzales v. Raich.

-SM 10:52, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

That case has nothing to do with Canadian legalization. Why would US supreme court have jurisdiction over canada? [unsigned comment]

Sorry, I meant compare it for style, i.e., decisions relevant to Canada cannabis prohibition should be enumerated here, like Gonzales v. Raich is documented and referenced in connection to US prohibition. -SM 12:37, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Links to information that should be added

Two articles that directly link to a few of the headings in this article are:

http://www.ndp.ca/page/1277

Relates to: "Proposed federal decriminalization"

"The September 30, 2002, Speech from the Throne indicated that the federal government would consider the possibility of the decriminalization of marijuana possession. However, since then the government has been clear that the changes found in Bill C-10 do not mean decriminalization of marijuana."

The NDP support full decriminalization, but reject policies of lowering fines, based on the idea that "lowering, but not eliminating, a punishment results in more punishment. It's called the "net-widening effect."

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4482.html

Relates to: "History of prohibition of cannabis in Canada"

Mainly the 1987 bill that made it illegal to distribute books and any printed matter about marijuana or any ‘illicit’ drug, including magazines "High Times" and "Grow Yer Own Stone". The impact of this bill could be regarded as enormous. No printed matter about marijuana. This would have severely stunted the legalization movement. Compare this to today, where in major retailers such as Chapters and Indigo, you can find books with recipies for hash brownies.

Relates to: "Early legalization efforts"

The article details the legalization efforts since the early 1990s, detailing Marc Emery's campaign to reverse that bill and to get marijuana legalized, including putting ads in the newspaper openly calling for himself to be arrested. Marc Emery was arrested 4 times, not including his current arrest by the DEA for distrobuting (over 60,000) seeds online, for which the US government gives a maximum penalty of death.

Someone should add the information from these articles into this Cannabis legalization article

July 13th Legalization in Ontario

Someone needs to provide some sources for the provincial court's decision to strike down cannabis laws in Ontario from July 13th. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.57.49.94 (talk) 20:26, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Comment:

july 13th of what year? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.177.147.203 (talk) 04:30, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Comment: this year. the court gave 90 days for the government to respond. this deadline was decided on the 13th of april. So April the 13th + 90 days = July the 13th — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.63.34.176 (talk) 18:21, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

References

Can someone please make better references to the potlawhasfallen.ca website, they simply link to the index page which don't give the reader any proper reference. 38.119.98.199 (talk) 10:38, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

You're better off not referencing the "potlawhasfallen.ca" website. The information there is vague and it seems that some people take it as being a lot larger than it really is. I have corrected a section in this article which declared that a 2008 trial decided the possession laws were unconstitutional and void, while the true decision only removed a single line from the Medical Marijuana Access law. Edit: If you want to use the "potlawhasfallen" site, I'd recommend taking their information and crossing it with official court records -- I found one of them online which I attached to the section rewrite. I have no doubt you can find the others and compare. 76.65.23.174 (talk) 22:01, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Neutral article?

Just reading the article and found it a bit biased. I'm nor pro nor against legalization... I just think it emphasizing a little bit too much on Canadians being pro-legalization. I'm not a Wiki expert but I'm sure we can work this out to make more "encyclopedic"!

The link at the bottom look more like advertising to me then real info, especially the "medicalmarihuana" one.

Maybe I'm not the most knowledgeable person that said! 99.245.234.66 (talk) 00:14, 28 April 2008 (UTC) 99.245.234.66 (talk) 00:15, 28 April 2008 (UTC) Xiaozhuli

I agree this article is crazy biased in favor of legalization, and could really use some work.38.119.98.196 (talk) 14:27, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Bot report : Found duplicate references !

In the last revision I edited, I found duplicate named references, i.e. references sharing the same name, but not having the same content. Please check them, as I am not able to fix them automatically :)

• "RvLong" :
  • [http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2000/2000canlii5762/2000canlii5762.html CanLII - 2000 CanLII 5762 (ON C.A.)<!-- Bot generated title -->]
  • [http://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2007/2007oncj340/2007oncj340.html CanLII - 2007 ONCJ 340 (CanLII)<!-- Bot generated title -->]
  • [http://www.law.ualberta.ca/centres/ccs/Current-Constitutional-Issues/Court-Strikes-Down-Marihuana-Regulation.php Centre for Constitutional Studies<!-- Bot generated title -->]

DumZiBoT (talk) 02:51, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Position of the NDP on legalization and status within other parties

According to a recent edit, it appears as if there is disagreement over the stance of the NDP on Cannabis rescheduling. Can anyone clarify just what their position really is? My goal is to get a clear position on each political party articulated here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spudst3r (talk • contribs) 20:20, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Regarding Ontario, Canada

For some clarity:

Cannabis prohibition was declared of no force or effect in Ontario by the Ontario Court of Appeals in "R v. Parker" July 31 2000. The judge delayed this for 1 year to allow Parliament to legislate a new statute or modify the existing one (should they want to) to deal with cannabis. Parliament never legislated anything (an order-in-council to create medical marihuana access regulations (MMAR) was created, but is not the required legislation that the law requires), and 1 year later cannabis lapsed into legality. This ruling marks the prohibition on cannabis possession as unconstitutional, and is therefore retroactive back to the law's creation (in this case the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, 1996). Cannabis is therefore legal in the jurisdiction of Ontario.

The problem is that the government has completely ignored the court rulings by failing to delete the prohibition from the statute. Courts time and time again, however, agree that there is indeed "no crime known to law" that anyone can commit regarding cannabis possession. In other words - the cops may arrest you or seize your plant, but the court will be on your side should you use the proper defense, and you will get your plant back, and some people have even gotten money for damages.

The map on this article is misleading in that it says cannabis in Ontario is illegal, even though it isn't. I think this is a very unique situation and that there perhaps should be a new category on the map: "legal, but still enforeced as illegal" or something appropriate and similar.

Here is a website that has a list of binding precedents as well as other information: www.ccldr.net

Bottom line: Cannabis is legal in Ontario (dozens of court cases agree), but is enforeced as if it were illegal (still in the law books), and Wikipedia needs to address this accurately. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.235.138.164 (talk) 04:33, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Wrong Map

In Austria its forbitten to grow, have and to consume canabis.

New Conservative Crime Bill

The final sentence in the introduction states that new crime bills are specifically targeting Marijuana users. I'm not familiar with the bill itself, but the reference does not support this statement. In the given reference, it states the targets of the legislation are "organized criminals and others who profit from the manufacture and distribution of drugs..." Since neither Marijuana or drug users are mentioned in the reference, I believe a new reference which actually supports the statement should be found or the statement should be changed. 130.113.174.54 (talk) 15:58, 25 July 2011 (UTC)