Canada's BIG pharm takeover

[Docteur]

Canada's new medicinal cannabis regulations want to authorize commercial production by licensed producers and to stop giving licences for designated growers, so basically they are going to allow multi-million dollar corporations to take over most of the production of hundreds of tons of legal cannabis each year in North America ?

That means to me, that the companies that already have the first research facilities permits are going to be the
one taking over the legal production in Canada.

In 1998 GW pharm was founded, and in '98, Hortapharm B.V. sold almost all of their strains to british GW pharmaceutical, from that moment of history a newly created corporation had genetic control over most of the old-school dutch strains.

GW Pharm has a research facility in the Porton Down's United Kingdom military Park, a place where the UK government is researching CBRN defense, and has been making drugs and weapons tests on humans and animals, from there they have been able to created a whole bunch of patents relating Cannabinoid combinations and Therapeutic uses.

What i'm afraid that will happen one day, is that GW pharma could claim their intellectual rights over all the strains that they bought in '98, and they will be claimed due to their genetic genome background, something that they would track with a PCR machine and the AFLP analysis profiles.

When Cannabis becomes accepted on a global-scale, some pharmaceutical companies will be like Altria in the cigarrette business or like Coors in the brewing industry.

Ex :

Licensing agreements for the sale of sativex where given to :

-Bayer got the market in UK and Canada.

-Almirall got most of Europe.

-Novartis who got australia, new zealand, asia, middle east and africa ( excluding china & japan).

-Otsuka got the USA

Picture a similar monopoly in the next decade but with Legal cannabis and if you have in any of your strains mixed up with the patented strain they own then you will be out of business that simple.

Now, i would like to see cannabis taken off from the hands of criminals, so we can have some kind of standard concerning what goes into commercial cannabis for patients and recreational use.

However until it's still illegal for me to grow more than 6 plants for my personal use and meanwhile the government is growing tons and Bayer is selling it ? Bayer the same company that created heroin, Mustard gas and helped IG farben with the production of Zyklon B ?

F.ck that, I hope they won't be growing or $elling our pot, and I hope it will be legal one day for me to grow my beloved plants without fearing persecution.

 

[RubeGoldberg]

next you'll be telling us 9/11 was an inside job!

 

[c-ray]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aofoBrFNdg

 

[teemu shalanie]

If u haven't noticed some scientist types have hyjacked our med system , and convinced the Gov. of most of your above post,....however this is old news now , and we are all going to be fuct. I would get in bed with a gangster over a scientist/politician anyday,.. not only r we going to lose our right to supply ourselves, our new supply will be poisoned like the H20 we drink, food we eat etc,.....
TS

 

[VagPuncher]

. not only r we going to lose our right to supply ourselves, our new supply will be poisoned like the H20 we drink, food we eat etc,.....
TS

Some body has been hanging around with MedMan to much.

 

[Docteur]

next you'll be telling us 9/11 was an inside job!

That's something you will have to make your own conclusions about, will you like any reference about the article above please ask and i will provide

 

[c-ray]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders

 

[SirTOKESalot]

Every cultivar copyrighted when dealing with perennials and annuals,woody ornamental species and some trees. Legally you cant do vegetative propagation, Does this make any difference? There isn't going to be people going around like in large Ag checking peoples genetics. There is no way they will ever stop the underground genetics trading and breeding that goes on.

Its fucked up that this is going down, but it doesn't mean the end of canna. The people are much stronger and out number pharm keep doing your things, and the laws will eventually change again, and all will be well...

For now bunker down and buy a mini fridge for all of the genetics you will be saving, wait out the storm.

 

[Bushwacker]

Thuggery!

Thuggery!

Further taking of the commons by private interests. Harper and his ilk sell us all out, with the wrong-headed thinking that 'their own' will be well-off enough, so as not to be (similarly) disenfranchised (as the 'commoners').

Short sighted, dumb-ass Uncle Tom muthaf'kers!

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/pot-laws-hurting-society-185859622.html

Pot laws hurting society

By: Staff Writer

It's been two months since the states of Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for personal use, joining dozens of countries that have decriminalized or legalized the drug without experiencing the collapse of their societies, an increase in mental illness or a rise in the laziness index.

These states have stopped making criminals out of pot smokers because they realized it was counter-productive; it fuelled drug profits for organized crime, tied up police resources and saddled millions of young people with criminal records.

And as Free Press reporter Bruce Owen discovered in a special story published Saturday, if Canada were to change its prudish policies and tax the drug, it could be worth $2 billion for Ottawa in new revenue and an extra $600 million for Manitoba every year.

That money could fill a lot of potholes and provide cash for a wide range of other challenges, including the health, education and social-service systems.

Smoking dope may not be the healthiest life choice, particularly if it is used to excess, but the fact is marijuana has been around Canada as long as grandpa, and it's not going away. The drug is really no more dangerous -- but probably less harmful -- than other undesirable habits, such as alcohol, cigarettes and chocolate doughnuts.

Booze was also banned at one point in the past, but the authorities re-legalized it after realizing -- as Colorado and Washington have realized today -- that it was counter-productive to try to stamp out a product that the otherwise law-abiding majority of people wanted.

People today want legal and safe access to marijuana. A recent survey by Toronto's Forum Research found 65 per cent of Canadians favour either the legalization and taxation of the drug, or decriminalizing it in small amounts. Other surveys have reached the same conclusion.

But despite all the evidence that suggests the country's marijuana laws are badly outdated, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is determined to not only maintain them, but to increase penalties for dealing in the drug.

The country under Mr. Harper has actually moved backwards on an issue that has been the subject of study for 40 years.

In 1972, for example, the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, led by Gerald Le Dain, recommended repealing the law against the simple possession of cannabis and cultivation for personal use. A minority view on the committee recommended a policy of legal distribution of pot and that the provinces implement controls on possession and cultivation, similar to those governing the use of alcohol. It was a progressive report for the day, but, unfortunately, pretty much ignored.

Then, in 2002, separate committees of the Senate and House also recommended a more liberal approach.

The Senate committee said marijuana should be treated more like tobacco or alcohol than like harder drugs.

The House committee said while marijuana might be unhealthy, the current criminal penalties for possession and use of small amounts of cannabis are "disproportionately harsh." It recommended that the Canadian ministers of Justice and of Health develop a strategy to decriminalize the possession and cultivation of not more than 30 grams of pot for personal use.

Those reports also had negligible impact on the Liberal government of the day, which only promised to ease the penalties for simple possession.

With a rising number of people opposing the current laws, it's difficult to understand the Harper government's continuing obstinance, which appears to be based on an outdated and irrational fear of "reefer madness."

It's long past time for the government to listen to the evidence and to the will of the general public, rather than to obsolete and discredited ideas that do not serve the public interest.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 7, 2013 A10

 

[Docteur]

Hey watch this video about Cannabis social clubs in Spain with English subtitles we should do this LIVE all over Canada !!!

comment your thoughts about this idea please i think we should do this in Canada instead of having a Corporate takeover in Canada we should have some Social Clubs.

Imagine The Cannagraphic Cooperative !

 

[Docteur]

Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain (Video)

Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_qno06LLY

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/Kotarski+Future+wreathed+smoke/7782839/story.html

Kotarski: Future is wreathed in pot smoke

By Kris Kotarski, Calgary Herald January 7, 2013

"If there's one thing that tastes better than whiskey, it's smuggled whiskey."

That particular nugget of wisdom comes from the mustachioed Canadian Club chairman, a convincing manly-man clone of cult Parks and Recreation character Ron Swanson.

And it's true, isn't it? While the forbidden fruit cliche may be as old as the Old Testament, there is certainly something exciting about transgressing against society's norms, which is what the fictional chairman was celebrating in a television commercial when he smugly remarked that during prohibition, "Canadian Club was the most bootlegged whiskey in the States."

Of course, Canadian Club is not the first liquor company to celebrate the fact that its product was smuggled into the U.S. during prohibition, and it won't be the last. Sleeman has been banking on its bootlegging heritage for a while now, even running an ad celebrating Al Capone as a "man who did what he did and took whatever he wanted," and it's a fair bet that the prohibition era will continue to show up in Canadian beer commercials for as long as Canadians continue to think that alcohol prohibition was a terrible idea.

But what about our current prohibition?

The year is 2070 and thanks to a series of free trade and intellectual property agreements that succeeded NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and whittled away what was left of our privacy, commercials are being beamed straight into your eyeball during pauses in conversation as part of your visual implant end-user agreement with Micro-Apple.

You wish you could turn the commercials off, but you don't know how and your grandson isn't visiting until next Saturday, while you want to watch reruns of Parks and Recreation today.

All of a sudden, the chairman of a different club struts into your field of vision, except that he's not wearing a dinner jacket, but a leather Hells Angels vest.

"You see when America had this terrible idea called prohibition, Canada helped the U.S. out. B.C. bud was the most bootlegged weed in the States. And if there's one thing that tastes better than marijuana, it's smuggled marijuana."

At that point, you might smile to yourself and light up. Or not. For over five decades, it has been your choice, ever since the consensus around the "war on drugs" began to break down in the 2010s, when U.S. states and Canadian provinces started voting to allow marijuana to be sold on the open market.

And, like in the alcohol prohibition era before it, drug prohibition became a bit of a political laughing stock, as governments could no longer hold back the tide against populations that openly flouted laws, and eventually voted through changes to antiquated legislation. It also became a commercial success, with bootleggers - dealers - now celebrated in popular culture as minor heroes of a bygone era.

Except that you're old enough to remember the Hells Angels before they went legit. And you remember the cartel wars that shook up Mexico, Colombia and every country in between, and the romantic picture painted by the Hells Angels chairman with his neat vest and well-kept beard doesn't quite live up to the reality you still remember.

But does it matter? The ineffective laws are gone, the money is flowing freely in all directions (including paying part of your pension), and innocent people are not going to jail anymore because they liked to relax after work with a smoke or a hash cake.

And as company after company beams in advertisements celebrating their role in a bygone era, smoothing out the roughest of rough edges to move more and more product, you stop and wonder - is this progress? Is this how it always has to be?

In November 2012, the polling company Angus Reid found that 54 per cent of Americans and 57 per cent of Canadians are ready to legalize marijuana, with 68 per cent of Canadians and 66 per cent of Americans describing the "war on drugs" as a failure.

In another survey, Forum Research found that 66 per cent of Canadians thought the government should legalize and tax or decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Prohibition is ending soon. The question is: What will the marijuana commercials look like?

 

[c-ray]

from http://www.themanitoban.com/2013/01/the-war-on-drugs/13321/

The war on drugs

Posted January 7th, 2013 by Alex Passey

The war on drugs is an archaic waste of time and money, and a recent poll conducted by Angus Reid suggests that 68 per cent of Canadians feel this way. There was a time when our neighbours to the south held a much more conservative view on this subject, but the same Angus Reid poll revealed that 66 per cent of Americans also believe that the war on drugs has been a dismal failure, and that 57 per cent of Canadians and 54 per cent of Americans feel that marijuana should be legalized and readily available for sale on the open market.

The states of Colorado and Washington have even gone so far as to vote in favour of this policy, though U.S. federal law will always trump any such vote at the state level, and marijuana will remain officially illegal.

I believe that the war on drugs is the most important issue facing society right now. There is no other issue that touches so many aspects of our lives on such a drastic level. It affects our economy, a broad range of social issues, and our basic freedoms. The UN has estimated that the global narcotics market is worth over US $320 billion a year. This is money that is taken out of the hands of our economy, which could be taxed and spent on drastically improving our social programs, such as support and treatment for addicts, but is instead put directly into the hands of organized crime.

Not only would legalization allow us to invest more money into social programs, it would also be a huge blow to the underground economy that organized crime depends on, and would be absolutely devastating to the criminals who cause such devastation to our society and make such social programs necessary in the first place. Legalization would also free up all the money that many nations are pumping into the war on drugs.

For example, the United States spent US $15 billion in 2010 on a futile attempt to eliminate the supply of narcotics, money that could be much more productively spent.

But as much as the war on drugs hurts the public at large, it hurts the users even more. We have made criminals out of a large segment of the population who are otherwise law-abiding citizens. There are prisons filled with people who were suckered into selling drugs and trying to make a quick buck in an underground economy. There are even some in jail whose crime was nothing more than enjoying a vice that was not sanctioned by the government. We have also stigmatized addicts as criminals, making it far less likely that they will seek out the help they need, and have driven them to even lower depths.

Sadly, even though legalization could cripple organized crime and release users from the stigma so that they might step out into the light, there is no end in sight. Despite the fact that there are countless organizations advocating for legalization, some even founded by the very people fighting the war on drugs (such as LEAP or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), the prospect of legalization, even for a drug as benign as marijuana, is still a long way off.

You see, there are simply too many powerful people and organizations that stand to benefit from narcotics remaining illegal. We’ve all seen the anti-drug advertisements sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug Free America. The hypocrisy here is that the PDFA has received millions of dollars in funding from alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drug companies. Of course, all of these corporate entities have a stake in keeping narcotics illegal because they sell a product that is in direct competition with chemical narcotics, and any new product on the open market could potentially cut into their profits. Their interest is economic, and not for the well-being of the public at large.

Yet in terms of nefariousness, the PDFA pales in comparison to the privatized prison system in the U.S., a system I shudder to think may one day be adopted in Canada when we can no longer economically sustain our swelling prison population. Companies like the GEO group and the Corrections Corporation of America actively lobby the American government to maintain laws that are harsh on drug users and dealers so that there is a steady flow of inmates that they can use for cheap labour. Revenues for private prison corporations annually reach near the two billion dollar mark. When there is this kind of profit to be made, the pressure on the government to keep narcotics illegal and to put drug users in jail for long periods of time is immense.

So for now we will continue to treat otherwise productive members of society as criminals because of their choice of vices. Gangsters will still gun each other down in the street in turf wars and continue to recruit children from low-income families by giving them an easy way to make a quick buck. Hundreds, if not thousands, of police and soldiers will die in Mexico and South America in a hopeless battle with the drug cartels.

Corporations will continue to exploit prison inmates as a cheap source of labour. And liquor, tobacco, and prescription drug companies will continue to rake in record profits every year.

Welcome to our drug free world.

 

[Docteur]

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[Docteur]

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