NDP Against the Drug War

Join End Prohibition!

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 9:08pm
                 

Want to End the War on Marijuana? Join the NDP!

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:10pm

Free Marc Emery! The FREE MARC Campaign

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sat, 11/21/2009 - 7:48pm
Canada's best-known marijuana activist needs your help!
 
Marc Emery has fought for the end of marijuana prohibition for over a decade, through direct action civil disobedience, and funding anti-prohibition activists and campaigns, but now he needs your help.
 
Marc Emery has been extradited to the United States for the sale of cannabis seeds to American customers where he will serve a 5 year US prison sentence. You can help reverse this abrogation of our sovereignty by joining in calling for his immediate return to Canada:
 
Contact Vic Toews to approve Marc Emery's treaty transfer request
 
Participate in the FREE MARC Campaign to raise awareness about Marc Emery's extradition
 
Call Your MP and ask them to support Marc Emery's return to Canada

C-15 Has Returned - Now Called S-10

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 05/05/2010 - 10:50pm
Rob Nicholson today reintroduced C-15 as Bill S-10, the bill is slightly different, with mandatory minimum sentences kicking in at 6 plants, not 1. So, to say again, the bill no longer has a mandatory minimum sentence for 1 marijuana plant.
 
That being said, the bill is a disaster for Canada. S-10 will imprison thousands of Canadians for victimless crimes, send people to jail for growing 6 marijuana plants, making any hashish (or baked goods) and a host of other offences.
 
There is no evidence that S-10 will work, indeed, every scientific study says it will fail. We know that prohibition has never worked, and we know that mandatory minimum sentences only increase the violence in our society.
 
Please contact your Member of Parliament (Login to EndProhibition.ca or WhyProhibition.ca, your MP will display in the top Right of the page) and let them know you oppose S-10 or any mandatory minimum sentence for marijuana.
 
Additionally, please, call (866) 808-8407 to let the Conservative Party of Canada know you oppose their harmful and dangerous so called "tough on crime" strategy. The evidence is clear, S-10 will do nothing but harm our society and cost billions of dollars.
 
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EndProhibition

On the street, you can see the harm caused by drug laws

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 5:57pm
By David Bratzer, Ottawa Citizen Special
 
Like many other police officers, I have witnessed the tragedy of the HIV epidemic first hand. It is one thing to read the statistics demonstrating the connection between illicit drug use and HIV; it is another matter entirely to patrol the streets, day in and day out, repeatedly arresting men and women infected with the HIV virus.
 
Our country has one of the finest health-care systems in the world, but our laws surrounding drug use result in unnecessary disease and death.
 
In this context, the recent announcement of the Vienna Declaration has bolstered my conviction that drug prohibition is a national policy failure.
 

More than two-thirds of B.C. residents back Insite

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 5:36pm
By Todd Coyne, Vancouver Sun
 
The majority of British Columbians support Insite, North America's first legal drug injection site, and oppose the federal government's attempts to close it.
 
That's according to a nationwide poll by Angus Reid released Wednesday showing that 68 per cent of respondents in B.C. support Insite and its services for drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, while 30 per cent oppose Insite and two per cent were undecided.
 
B.C. was the only province in which Insite had majority support, while opinion in most other provinces was largely split or on the fence.
 

Needle exchange in prisons makes sense

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 5:31pm
By Richard Elliott, Vancouver Sun
 
Re: Ideology, not reality, drives Tories' AIDS policy, July 24
 
Peter McKnight's column nicely showcased the flawed logic in the government's approach to HIV/AIDS, where relevant evidence is ignored.
 
One area not specifically addressed is the high rates of HIV and hepatitis C in Canada's prisons. We argue -with ample evidence to back it up -that providing clean needles and syringes in prisons would help curtail the spread of disease. More than 90 per cent of people in prison eventually return to society. Doesn't it make sense to ensure that the least possible number of them acquire infections while inside?
 

Injecting some safety

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 5:28pm
By IAN MCINROY, BARRIE EXAMINER
 
Keeping drug-laced syringes out of harm's way is the goal of a Barrie business.
 
The Aerarium Group is installing hygienic syringe disposal units in all its public washrooms at the Barrie by the Bay commercial centre, located at 80 Bradford St., to keep needles off the streets.
 
"We cannot hide our head in the sands and ignore the reality of the situation," Aerarium president Steve Sperling said, of the proactive approach to the problem. "This will ensure the ability to safely dispose of these products privately."
 

Oregon sues Calgary mom for foster care costs

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 5:14pm
By KATIE SCHNEIDER, Calgary Sun
 
The mother who fought Oregon authorities for two years to get her son back to Canada after he was seized into foster care says it’s ridiculous they are now suing her for child-care costs.
 
The boy, now 12 years old, was taken by U.S. officials in 2008 while visiting his stepfather in Oakridge, Ore.
 
His mom battled for two years to get her son back to Calgary and finally saw her wish come true when he was returned to her last month.
 
Now the state is coming after her for costs related to his stay in foster care including medical expenses, citing the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act.
 

Why our drug policy is 'inconsistent' with all available evidence

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 12:35am
By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen
 
It's safe to assume most people have never heard of the "Vienna Declaration." And that simple fact helps explain why public policies that fail -- policies that do vastly more harm than good -- can live on despite overwhelming evidence of their failure.
 
The Vienna Declaration, published in the medical journal The Lancet, is an official statement of the 18th International AIDS Conference, which wraps up today in Vienna. Drafted by an international team of public health experts, including Evan Wood of the University of British Columbia, the Vienna Declaration seeks to "improve community health and safety" by, in the words of the committee, "calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies."
 
Please don't stop reading. I promise this will not turn into another of my rants about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition. I've been writing variations on that theme for more than a decade now and everyone knows I am a crazed extremist whose views are not to be trusted by decent folk. I'll spare you.
 
Instead, I will merely present a few sentences from the Vienna Declaration:
 
 

Legal medical marijuana patient threatened with eviction from tobacco friendly building

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 12:33am
By: Jason Youmans, Monday Mag
 
An Esquimalt woman says a local social housing organization is trying to evict her from her home of two-and-a-half years for using cannabis to treat her chronic conditions.
 
Christina Goluch, who suffers from debilitating arthritis and lupus and has Health Canada permission to possess and use medical cannabis, says she is the target of a campaign by the site manager of the Greater Victoria Housing Society’s Lions Lodge to rid the building of marijuana smokers, many of whom, says Goluch, are elderly and disabled and consume the drug to treat a variety of maladies.
 
“I’ve never gotten any real legal advice and so don’t really know where I stand,” says the 58-year-old. “I’m just sort of bobbing in the ocean alone, and really, everyone’s looking on to see what’s going to happen, because it will be a major victory for the medical marijuana community if I get the right to stay.”
 

Vancouver 2010 Pride Parade - Join Us!

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 12:35am

Location

Thurlow and Nelson, Downtown Vancouver BC
Intersection of Thurlow and Nelson
Vancouver BC
Event Picture: 
This Sunday, August 1st is Vancouver's Annual Pride Parade!
 
We want YOU to March with us! Meet at 11am, Nelson and Thurlow (Spot DE6).
 
We'll be there with a truck, sound system and lots flags and banners! We need lots of activists to march with us to demonstrate our support and solidarity with Pride Vancouver! Let's celebrate their victories while we struggle for our own!
 
Come out this Sunday at 11am, Nelson and Thurlow to march in Pride and help legalize marijuana! This will be a very fun event, so come down and prepare to have a lot of fun!
 
This is the 32nd year for Pride Vancouver, and more than 750,000 people are expected in attendance. This makes Pride one of the biggest events in Vancouver ever year, a crowd we can't afford to miss.
 
Date: 
Sunday, August 1, 2010 - 11:00

HIV only winner in useless drug war

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 8:43pm
By MINDY JACOBS, Toronto Sun
 
Over the centuries, scientists who dared to challenge rulers of the day often found themselves in jail. Today, politicians who prefer ideology over truth just stick their fingers in their ears.
 
The key statement that emerged from last week’s International AIDS Conference was a declaration asking governments to base their drug policies on scientific evidence.
 
So far, about 14,000 people have signed the so called Vienna declaration, including Nobel Laureates, former heads of state, religious leaders and experts in science, medicine and law.
 

Tories don't let evidence guide decision making

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 8:24pm
The StarPhoenix
 
According to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, the Conservative government doesn't govern based on the latest statistics.
 
Defending the Stephen Harper government's "get tough on crime" agenda Monday on the CBC Radio program, The Current, Mr. Nicholson said critics keep insisting: "You have to use the statistics and the measuring sticks we want. I say you can't do that."
 
His statement is much more illuminating than the ongoing controversy over the Tories' decision to make voluntary Canadians' responding to the long-form census. The data obtained from the previously mandatory responses had been used to glean a wide range of statistically valid information about Canadians.
 
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