The Vancouver city council decision to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries is not sitting well with federal government ministers.

Yesterday after the city council passed the new regulations, Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose blasted the shops as illegal.

This morning National Revenue Minister and Conservative MP for Delta Richmond East, Kerry-Lynne Findlay told the Early Edition's Stephen Quinn they should be shut down.

"This is illegal what is happening in Vancouver."

"These stores have absolutely no regard for the rule of law. They've already been caught selling marijuana to kids."

The National Institutes of Health is dedicating $3 million to fast-track the development of drugs to treat marijuana addiction — an estimated 4.2 million Americans are hooked on cannabis — even as the president encourages its legalization and more states look to enact laws for its recreational use.

“Cannabis use is an increasing public health concern in the United States that requires immediate attention,” reads the government’s grant proposal, issued in May. “Given the high prevalence of marijuana use and its associated disorders and the large number of people who seek treatment, there is a critical need to discover and develop safe and effective treatments for [cannabis use disorders].”

BEIJING—
China has admitted that more than 14 million people or about one percent of the country’s massive population has used drugs. It has also disclosed for the first time that drug use has spread to as much as 90 percent of the country's cities, districts and counties.

Chinese authorities are also finding it increasingly difficult to point fingers at traditional suppliers - such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar - because China itself is a major producer.

Chinese factories are churning out hundreds of thousands tons of synthetic drugs while some of its farmers have even taken to opium production at home, according to a report released by China’s National Narcotics Control Commission earlier this week.

When pure and administered carefully, [cannabis] is one of the most valuable medicines we possess,” wrote British physician John Russell Reynolds in 1890, praising the substance’s curative properties. He even prescribed it in the form of a natural tincture for his most illustrious patient, Queen Victoria.

Over a century later, cannabis, also known as hemp or marijuana, is on the list of banned substances worldwide due to its psychotropic effects. A devastating and dangerous drug for some, a medicine without equal in the pharmacist’s repertoire for others, cannabis is beginning to be used again in the treatment of serious illness and chronic pain.

Authorities in three remote northern California counties joined forces in a raid on marijuana farms, destroying some 15,300 plants, the Eureka Times-Standard said on Wednesday.

The raid targeted the Island Mountain area known as the "Emerald Triangle", the newspaper said on its website.

The region, some 200 miles (320 km) north of San Francisco, is known to be popular with marijuana growers.

The operation, jointly conducted by the Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity county sheriffs' departments, is expected to continue through the week with more information expected on Friday, the newspaper said.

In Italy, a man has been acquitted despite growing marijuana at home, because it was for personal use and not for dealing.

The government will defend the United Nations (UN) policy to combat drug trafficking. The National Drug Board shall report to the High Commissioner for Human Rights UN in which he defends, among other things, market regulation of marijuana despite repeated criticism from the international organization

"Uruguay has embarked on a different path. And we have not only proposed concrete measures but have also made them effective in a different sense," said the deputy secretary of the Presidency and President of the National Drug Board (JND), Juan Andrés Roballo. "In Uruguay we are watching very closely internationally. And locally we have a special commitment," he added.

By Gavin Goffe

RECENTLY, our Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding, was reported as encouraging employers to review their policies on the issue of the personal use of ganja and "modernise their practices" in the light of the changes to the law, so that they don't treat this as a basis for excluding somebody from a job. His primary concern, it would appear, was that an employee could now legally smoke ganja in the privacy of his home and yet be dismissed if the substance was detected in the employer's drug test. He added that it was a matter for the employer to decide how to treat with the issue -- a view shared by the President of the Jamaica Employer's Federation, David Wan.

A mother who treated debilitating Crohn's disease with cannabis oil finds herself facing three decades in prison for the "crime" of using unapproved medicine. Her child was taken away by the authorities and is now in the "care" of the state. What an example of the insanity of the drug war!

Portland police said Wednesday that Oregonians who travel to Washington to buy marijuana only to bring it back into the state are "not an issue" as long as they stick with what the law allows them to possess.

Starting July 1, anyone 21 and older may possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana away from home and up to eight ounces at home. 

Oregonians shopping for cannabis in Washington are nothing new. May sales data released by the Washington Liquor Control Board showed that one Vancouver shop sold more marijuana than any other shop statewide -- thanks in part to Oregonians, who made up about 50 percent of sales.

Portland police said the issue isn't on their radar.