North America // Current

Cannabis, Tobacco and Alcohol Use - Comparing risks of harm and costs to society

Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers than they are for those who use cannabis, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a report published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.

According to the report, “In terms of [health-related] costs per user: tobacco-related health costs are over $800 per user, alcohol-related health costs are much lower at $165 per user, and cannabis-related health costs are the lowest at $20 per user.”

The review, authored by researchers from the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia at the University of Victoria and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse at the University of Ottawa, stated: “Alcohol is used by a very large number of people with the vast majority of these using in low- or moderate-risk ways. Conversely, cannabis and tobacco are used by far fewer people. The majority of cannabis use is low- and moderate-risk, however, while the majority of tobacco is high-risk.”

The study reported that social costs applicable to marijuana are primarily “enforcement-related.”

The authors concluded: “The harms, risks and social costs of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco vary greatly. A lot has to do with how the substances are handled legally. Alcohol and tobacco are legal substances, which explains their low enforcement costs relative to cannabis. On the other hand, the health costs per user of tobacco and alcohol are much higher than for cannabis. This may indicate that cannabis use involves fewer health risks than alcohol or tobacco.

“These variations in risk, harms and cost need to be taken into account as we think about further efforts to deal with the use of these three substances. … Efforts to reduce social costs related to cannabis, for example, will likely involve shifting its legal status by decriminalizing casual use, to reduce the high enforcement costs. Such a shift may be warranted given the apparent lower health risk associated with most cannabis use.”

According to a recent Rasmussen national poll of 1,000 likely voters, Americans believe by more than two to one that alcohol is “more dangerous” than marijuana.

http://blog.norml.org/2009/11/17/do-the-math-tobacco-related-health-costs-800-booze-related-health-costs-165-pot-related-health-costs-20-any-questions/
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/publications/cannabis/bck/7Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers than they are for... more

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Journalist murders in Mexico hit new record

According to a tally by El Universal, the country’s top-selling newspaper, 12... more

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Jodie Emery November 13, 2009

Jodie brings us up to date on what's happening with Marc, as we try to get him out on... more

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Marc Emery Rallies at MP Offices Across Canada

CANNABIS CULTURE - Supporters of Marc Emery showed up at their member of parliaments'... more

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5 weeks ago was our last full day together

It's almost 11pm on Sunday, November 1st. Five weeks ago, Marc and I were spending our last night together, counting down the 11 hours until his court appearance and incarceration on Monday, September 28th.

We spent our last Saturday and Sunday nights staying late at the office with our friends/employees, smoking a lot of cannabis and talking about good memories. Marc signed the last sets of "Prince of Pot" DVDs, large and small "FREE MARC" posters, and copies of CC #57 (printed the day of the raid, and released with a warning sticker on the final seed catalogue).

We took some photos of everyone together in our store/office those nights, and cherished every moment, knowing that we would soon be torn apart for what could be five long years...

I'm crying now, remembering how precious and important those last few days were. It was hard to come to terms with the fact he was going to jail. We knew it was coming and we accepted that, but it doesn't make being separated any less painful. We tried to do everything as we would normally do, but also take time out to just love each other, and had a beautiful final few days together (though every day we spent together was wonderful, and the last few months especially so).

Everything seems much more intense lately. I cry almost every day because I miss Marc so much, and sometimes I cry when reading the newspaper because I'm just so sad and concerned about the way our country is changing. The Stephen Harper Conservative government is taking Canada in a very scary direction -- they've doubled the prison budget, introduced laws to eliminate parole and early release, passed laws that take away the double time credit for pretrial imprisonment, restrict prisoners' rights and rehabilitation programs (no more farming or animals, fewer in-person visits, and possibly even taking away voting privileges like in the USA), and spending undisclosed billions of dollars on the military... Those are just some parts of the overhauling of Canada, and there is so much more everyone should know...

Marc wrote an incredible review of the Conservative Party's terrible impact on Canada called "Stephen Harper and The End of Days (of Canada as we know it): Revelations about the Conservative Party's direction for Canada", and it can be heard on his fourth "Prison Pot-cast" audio report (click here to listen). You should also listen to his other "Prison Pot-cast" recordings, as it gives you a look into his daily life and thoughts while behind bars.

It's difficult accepting what has happened but I'm staying very strong, and I'm learning a tremendous amount running every part of our organization and business, and managing various campaigns. I get through each day with a lot of support, and Marc calls me at least 4 times every day. I get to visit him every Sunday; in fact, I saw him earlier tonight. Visiting Marc is one of the best parts of my life -- seeing him, looking into his eyes, examining his face and remembering what it was like to kiss and touch him...

The glass barrier and awful little metal sound grate prevent us from being able to make any physical contact, but we put our hands up to the glass and stare into each others' eyes. I so cherish that one hour together each week... I can't imagine what it'll be like to not see Marc this often. I don't know if I'll be able to visit him in the USA, as he might be far away in Florida, Georgia, Texas, or wherever there's space in the federal prison system, and I might not be able to make it to his facility...

I wish he could just serve his time in Canada. People should be contacting the Justice Minister and asking him to have Marc charged for the same crimes in Canada -- after all, selling seeds is against the law, the Vancouver Police investigated Marc in 2003 (but the Crown refused to lay charges), Marc conducted his activities in CONTINUED> http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/20407It's almost 11pm on Sunday, November 1st. Five weeks ago, Marc and I were spending our... more

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Passing of Bill C-15

A vote was carried out yesterday to amend Bill C-15 What will this mean for Canadians?

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STOP BILL C-15 Mandatory Minimums Pass House With Support of Liberals

CANNABIS CULTURE - Controversial drug bill C-15, which includes mandatory minimum jail sentences for small amounts of marijuana, passed the Canadian House of Commons with the support of both Liberal and Conservative parties. The bill now moves to the Senate for a final vote.

Health experts and activists criticized the bill for including mandatory sentences, which have been proven ineffective and destructive time and again in studies.

Despite a backlash from the NDP and some Liberal members in the days before the final vote, the majority of Liberals supported the bill, which passed with a vote of 194 to 54. The bill needs only Senate support to become law.

"I think it is really bad news," Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East (NDP), told Cannabis Culture, "the evidence shows very, very strongly - overwhelmingly - that mandatory minimum sentencing is not an effective policy when it comes to drug crime. My fear is that we are going to see more people in jail, and more people fighting charges because they know they will be facing a mandatory minimum sentence. That means more court time and more backlogs."

With Canada's prison system already overstretched to the breaking point, experts say the bill could create a create a dangerous influx of new inmates.

"We are now going down a path the Americans went down 25 years ago," said Kirk Tousaw, a criminal lawyer and executive director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation. "A path they are now abandoning because of the incredible devastation that these kinds of sentences have caused to their criminal justice system and to the social fabric of their communities."

If passed, the bill would enact a number of minimum sentences for drug crimes, including an automatic six month jail term for as few as five plants. The bill has been lambasted for targeting first time drug offenders and small-time dealers and users, instead of focusing on high-level producers and distributors.

"Mid and upper-level traffickers will get no particular increase in punishment, because a major dealer would already get six months or a year for any kind of trafficking," said Vancouver marijuana activist (and CC editor) Marc Emery. "What we’re going to see is people who wouldn’t normally go to jail, they’re going to be the people affected. Largely young people in schoolyards - because if you are dealing around a school, it’s an enhanced penalty. The enhanced penalties of six months, a year, two years, are going to affect, almost exclusively, people under the age of twenty-five."

If passed, the bill will undoubtedly fill Canada's already overtaxed prison system with non-violent offenders, and demand more police for proper enforcement.CANNABIS CULTURE - Controversial drug bill C-15, which includes mandatory minimum jail... more

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The Solution to Our Environmental Woes is to End Prohibition

The best solution to our environmental problems is to end prohibition. There is no other viable option short of the immediate end to military conflict that will have the same positive impact on the ecosystem.

Our first step towards a sustainable existence should begin with cannabis. Its assimilation into our civilization is the safest, simplest, most efficient immediate solution that we can implement in time to prevent an ecological catastrophe.

Cannabis is a plant, and its use is as old as civilization itself. It has thousands of immediate and potential applications. Its cultivation rejuvenates the soil, it can replace wood products, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint, plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care. It is one of the most important bounties of nature. It’s a plant that we were meant to use.

So what’s the hold up? The short answer is America’s “War on Drugs”. The United States started a legislative war on this plant genus almost a century ago and they do not want to give up the fight.

The war on drugs is not a war between nations; it’s a corporate war on people, irrelevant of their nationality or ethnicity. It is a war against citizens of the United States and those of other nations. It’s a war without borders. It has gone through multiple mutations and over the last few decades grown into the monstrosity that it is today. It is a one sided war declared by nations on their citizens. A conflict not reciprocated by the citizens. It is a war that is sustained entirely do to ignorance, fear, and greed.

If there is such a thing as a just war, then the war on drugs is on the other end of the spectrum. It is the most unjust war that has ever been. It is a war exclusively waged for money. Every other war throughout history has had at least one other fathomable pretence. The war on drugs doesn’t.

The irony is that this war and the destruction that it unleashes can be brought to an end within an instant, if it was so desired. All that is required is to end prohibition, to repeal one law.

We know that the end to prohibition will have positive effects for our society because precedent for this has already been set. When prohibition of alcohol ended, so did most of the violence associated with gang warfare, as did much of the corruption in government. When prohibition ended, precious resources were made available again and a major source of revenue and employment was established through the sale of alcohol and its associated paraphernalia.

These same results have also been observed in Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalization. The United Nations has also confirmed these findings in its annual report on the state of global drug policy, and many countries have been paying-heed and following Portugal’s example. Decriminalization is sweeping through major parts of Latin America as well as numerous municipalities and States within the United States of America.

The only reason that America’s Federal “War on Drugs” still continues to this day is because its so-called adversaries, criminal organizations and certain sectors of government, don’t want it to end since its continuation guarantees them flow of funds.

All of the above is common knowledge to anyone who has remotely researched this topic, or for that matter, even thought about it. After all, who in their right mind would ever approve of a war on nature, a war on a plant, a war on a plant that’s not even poisonous, a war on a plant that is actually beneficial for us, our society, and the ecosystem? You would have to be deranged to do such a thing. But this is exactly what we have done. We have been waging a war on a plant for almost a century. We have been waging a war on cannabis that spans the globe, costs trillions of dollars, destroys millions of lives, and consumes precious resources.

On the behest of certain corporations and a small minority that profit from prohibition, we have been CONTINUED>>>The best solution to our environmental problems is to end prohibition. There is no... more

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Report on weed use prompts call for legalization

A report released Thursday that shows the number of pot smokers in the world has grown... more

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Prisoners of Ideology

The Harper government has ignored reams of research and conclusive evidence about... more

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Law and Order Ottawa: Bill C-15 is Wrong Approach to Drugs

Mexico has recently decriminalized possession of small amounts of most illicit substances. Portugal is reporting success with similar reforms. Former Latin American leaders are calling for ending drug prohibition and implementing legally regulated markets.

It seems that radical drug policy reform is catching on, but the current Canadian government is moving backwards by attempting to implement mandatory minimum sentences (MMS) for drug offences in the form of Bill C-15.

Bill C-15 moved through the House of Commons quickly this past spring, where a very deferential Liberal party supported the Conservative motion, with the Bloc Québecois and NDP opposing. Bill C-15 will prescribe mandatory minimum sentences (MMS) for drug crimes, meaning that certain offences will trigger automatic jail or prison sentences.

For example, growing between six and two hundred marijuana plants will result in six to nine months of imprisonment, or two years if youth are around. Producing or selling drugs such as cocaine and heroin with the involvement of organized crime or violence has a penalty of a one year minimum sentence. Doing the same in a prison or involving youth results in two years in prison. The Bill is part of the Conservative’s larger anti-crime strategy, an unabashedly ‘tough on crime’ strategy, light on supporting evidence, but heavy on divisive wedge politics.

Making Canadians safer, or making bigger profits for organized crime?

But is Bill C-15 going to make Canadians safer, as its defenders claim? Not likely. A 2002 Department of Justice study concluded drug consumption and related crime seem to be unaffected by MMS policies. The day to day of the illicit drug markets will hardly be affected. Since the risks of the drug trade will increase, prices likely will rise as well, resulting in higher profits for those we are trying to punish with this bill.

Liberal MP Brian Murphy stated in the House of Commons that it would be a good thing even if the organized criminals were not deterred and the only people caught and deterred by C-15 were ‘mom and pop’ marijuana growers. Recently law enforcement officials in California stated that the mom and pop operations in that state are diverting significant amounts of market share away from Mexican cartels. Responsible growers are the biggest competition for organized crime, yet we want to lock them up?

The trouble with Bill C-15 is that it still addresses the issue of drugs with a war-on-drugs mentality. Illicit drugs are seen as something that can be removed from our society, when in reality they are a lucrative commodity and have been part of societies since the beginning of time. Without responsibly and sensibly addressing drugs in our society this Bill will be another failed attempt at maintaining a criminally enforced drug prohibition in a society that won’t sustain it.

For many, Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) are the silver lining of Bill C-15, but experts have already warned that they are not a viable option for many who will be facing charges under Bill C-15. DTCs are expensive to build and few Canadian cities already have one. Treatment centers and services have long waiting lists. For those who do get access to the DTCs, success rates are low and generally short-term.

Liberals choose ‘tough on crime’ over ‘smart on crime’

In April 2009, members of CSSDP descended upon Parliament Hill to speak to MPs about Bill C-15. Our position, like the majority of witnesses, was that the Bill should be dropped in its entirety, and replaced with a sensible, evidence-based drug policy.

Many of the Liberal MPs we met with agreed with us that MMSs were not going to make Canadians safer, or curb the illicit drug market, or change the fact that roughly 70 per cent of resources go to enforcement rather than treatment, education or harm reduction. But then we heard what really mattered to them; if the Liberal party voted against Bill C-15 the Conservatives will paint them CON'T>Mexico has recently decriminalized possession of small amounts of most illicit... more

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Poll shows Canadians split over extradition of 'Prince of Pot'

Canadians are divided on the extradition of Marc Emery to the U.S. to face five years... more

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North American Pro-Sports leagues close to banning players from Twitter

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Deputy goes to wrong home, finds different suspect

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Altered State - California's slow journey to marijuana regulation

Daylight blinds you as you emerge from the BART station underground onto the sidewalk.... more

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Marc Emery's Farewell Speech in Vancouver

"Marc gives a passionate, funny and informative speech to the Vancouver faithful. Go... more

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North Americans pay more for cell phone service

Cell phone users in the U.S., Spain, and Canada pay more for mobile phone service than cell phone users in other parts of the world, according to a survey published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The OECD surveyed mobile carriers in its 30 member countries. The report showed on average how much consumers spend over the course of a year.

For a consumer subscribing to a medium-use package that provides about 780 voice minutes, 600 short text messages, and eight multimedia messages, the survey found that the monthly price of service ranged from $11 a month for service in the Netherlands to $53 a month for service in the U.S. as of August 2008.

On a yearly basis, American cell phone users are spending about $635.85 on cell phone service. Spanish cell phone users pay about $508.26 for the year. And Canadian cell phone subscribers pay about $500.63. By contrast people in the Netherlands and Finland pay the lowest amount for cell phone service, only $131.44 per year. And cell phone users in Sweden only pay $137.94 per year.

Prices for mobile phone service have steadily been decreasing over the years. The survey indicates that between 2006 and 2008 mobile phone voice prices fell on average about 21 percent for low-usage consumers, 28 percent for medium usage, and by about 32 percent for subscribers with the highest consumption patterns. Text messaging continues to be a lucrative business for mobile operators, the report also says.

But the results of this survey also highlight the continued gap between what cell phone users in North America pay versus what they pay in other parts of the world, such as in Scandinavia. This shouldn't come as a huge shock given that Europe has typically offered cheaper domestic plans than American providers. But it's somewhat surprising that Spain ranked as the second most expensive place in the world for mobile service.

It is likely that the U.S. will continue to be the most expensive country in the world to use a cell phone. As carriers build faster 4G networks, they are likely to increase prices on higher-end services. But if the economy continues to get hammered, more consumers might turn to lower-cost prepaid services that offer flat-rate pricing.

These plans have become more popular recently. And there are signs that increased competition may drive down prices on these services. But even though they offer a good value, they are still not used by the mainstream. And most U.S. cell phone users subscribe to a post-paid plan.Cell phone users in the U.S., Spain, and Canada pay more for mobile phone service than... more