5000 people openly smoked pot outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2009 (Ming Pao photo)

5000 people openly smoked pot outside Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2009 (Ming Pao photo)

Some of the smokers look really young. (Ming Pao photo)

Haven’t written for a while. Too busy and too stressed out at life. :)

This news caught my eyes today: Top court ends government pot monopoly

Since people have been able to legally use pot medically a few years ago, we have been hearing complaints from “users” that government-santioned pot is of low quality. And that’s why there’re “compassion societies” springing up especially in the Lower Mainland to offer “better quality” med for users. With the top court’s decision of today, I guess I should really, seriously consider going into the “compassionate” business. Anyone?

CanWest — Canadians who are legally permitted to smoke pot to treat illness won a victory in the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday when it refused to hear an appeal of a ruling that put an end to the federal government monopoly.

A three-judge panel, without giving reasons, rejected the Justice Department’s application to challenge a Federal Court of Appeal decision that gave licensed producers the right to grow marijuana for more than one patient.

The Supreme Court’s decision to stay out of the matter effectively upholds the 2008 ruling, which dismissed the government’s argument that the industry would be thrust into deregulation if the court loosened federal restrictions.

The decision was a victory for a group of patients who challenged the federal regulations, arguing that the government-issued pot, supplied by Prairie Plant Systems in Manitoba, is too weak and that they should have the option to find their own supply.

The appeal court decision struck down government regulations that authorized users who cannot grow their own marijuana to designate a grower, or obtain government-issued weed.

The patients sought the right to buy marijuana from Carasel Harvest Supply Corp., which, under the current regime, was not allowed to supply more than one patient with medical marijuana.

There are about 2,000 people legally allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes, but the lower court found only 20 per cent buy it from the government supplier.

Justice Department lawyer Sean Gaudet argued in the appeal court that statistics weren’t enough to conclude the government-supplied marijuana was inadequate, or forced people to seek drugs on the black market.

Moreover, sanctioning growers to supply more than one patient would allow the industry to develop “without safeguards” and exacerbate the risk that marijuana will be diverted to improper use, he said.

Another piece by the Vancouver Sun talks about the goodie of using pot among teens. Note the wording: “therapeutically”. Maybe the stage to legalizing pot has been set with series of recent events?

Teens smoke weed therapeutically: UBC study

Not all teenagers smoke marijuana with the goal of getting high. A new study by researchers at the University of B.C. has found that some teens use marijuana to relieve or manage health problems when other therapies have let them down.

The study, led by UBC Okanagan professor Joan Bottorff, involved in-depth interviews with 63 teenagers who use marijuana. Of those, 20 said they use the drug to manage health problems.

“Marijuana is perceived by some teens to be the only available alternative for those experiencing difficult health problems when legitimate medical treatments have failed or when they lack access to appropriate health care,” Bottorff said in a statement.

The most common complaints among the teens were emotional problems — such as depression, anxiety and stress — sleep difficulties, problems with concentration and physical pain.

The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and published today in BioMed Central’s open access journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy.

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• 2700-year-old pot found in Chinese tombs (2)

(Caption: One of the mummies found in the Yanghai Tombs near Xinjiang, where the world’s oldest marijuana was found. The tombs are believed to belong to a northern Chinese nomad tribe who practiced Shaman over 2000 years ago. The group of tombs was discovered in 2003 and has since raised international attention. PHOTOS OF DALANG COUNTY GOVERNMENT)

CP – Researchers say they have located the world’s oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes,” rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

“To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent,” says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

“This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible,” Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

“It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied.”

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man’s high social standing.

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

“It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years.”

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

“I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue,” he said, referring to his latest paper.

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.

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