Cease And Desist: Zig-Zag Puts Kibosh on Justin Trudeau Rollies

CANNABIS CULTURE - So I received a cease and desist order via registered mail today from ZIG ZAG. It's 3 pages of their request, followed by 50 pages of their copyrights they own. In one part their letter mentions "Even though your use of our client's copyrighted works make a political spoof of Mr. Justin Trudeau, these activities can hardly be characterized as "fair" and would constitute copyright infringement." Although, they are not requesting costs, or damages, they are requesting I cease and desist manufacturing, advertising and selling them by March 21st 2014, if not they want costs and damages.

They will no longer be available after March 21st.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay Notices That Each Of His Fingers Is, Like, Totally Different

Just before announcing that the government's attacks on Justin Trudeau over marijuana legalization have failed and he will be introducing copy-cat legislation very soon.  Later on, MacKay plans to "spin some early Floyd and just chill".

Tories On Dope

Justice Minister Peter MacKay is hinting that the government might take steps to "modernize" Canada's marijuana laws:

Fining pot smokers for possession of small amounts is one policy the government will likely consider.

"That doesn't mean decriminalizing or legalizing, but it does mean giving police options, for example, to issue fines in addition to any other sanctions, or as a substitute for other sanctions," MacKay told QMI Agency. "These are things that we are willing to look at in the new year, but there's been no decision taken."

Looks OK.  In fact, looks like Justin may be dragging the CPC left on this issue.  Not so fast, says Ottawa Citizen columnist Dan Gardner:

Keeping pot possession a crime but adding ticket option = major net-widening. Absurd to call it “softening.” http://t.co/soCU6fA0q1
— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) December 18, 2013

Why net-widening? Many now let off with warning because cop thinks charge is too severe will get a ticket. ie. more punishment, not less.
— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) December 18, 2013

I asked after  this, and the following exchange ensued:

Looks better when you click on image.

So, maybe a bad idea.  Although on the other hand, as noted above, it looks as through the CPC thinks it has to play on Justin's field.  I'd suggest this means that JT's proposals on the issue are resonating a bit among the general populace.

LPC Lead NOT Weed Fuelled!

Latest Nanos Numbers: #LPC 36, #CPC 30, #NDP 25 #PnPCBC with @evansolomoncbc #CDNpoli
— Will (@natnewswatch) September 4, 2013

Don't even think it.  The economy has been, and will likely remain, anemic.  Usually  governments pay for that, even conservative ones who like to style themselves good stewards of the nation's finances and etc. Because clearly they must be wrong if the economy remains in the tank.

Summer Is Almost Over

..and poli-talk turns from the wan mellow of good ganja  to the economy, which ended Q2 with an enormous thud:

On a monthly basis, real GDP by industry declined 0.5% in June.

Work it out and that means less than two per cent growth for the year as a whole.  Mind you, one bad month does not a downturn make.  But it looks like the negative effects of Alberta's floods will be showing up in GDP reports still to come, and even afterwards there's nothing to suggest that growth into 2014 and even 2015 will be anything but anemic.  If the Harper Tories want to make this their focus, then the opposition should encourage them.

Kid Paiken Talks Like Hippy

He says:

Another very important development emerged from the Party’s 2012 biennial convention this past January, however. Liberal delegates overwhelming approved a policy pushed by young Liberals in British Columbia advocating the legalization and regulation of cannabis. The fact that 77 percent of all delegates backed the resolution proves that the issue is relevant not only to young Canadians.

Now that Liberal leadership candidates are beginning formally to declare their intentions, they should also pledge to campaign on this policy in the next federal election....

Look, I support this policy for the reasons the Paiken lad gives in his IPolitics article.  But too many party activists  want it to be the centre-piece of any LPoC revival, and I am afraid such thinking is madness.  Not because it enables the party to be labelled soft-on-crime.  The Tories may try that, but I don't think it will work: the majority of the country has supported either decriminalization or legalization for years, including a fairly large part of the CPoC base.  No.  Its madness because it allows the party to be labelled un-serious, and if the Tories have any brains that's the line they will take.

An election should be fought on the economic direction of the nation, on whether Canada's defence policy should be more or less closely tied to that of the U.S.  On big issues, that is.  Not on whether or not the occasional careless stoner gets away clean when a cop finds a roach in his car ashtray.

In any case, what practical effect would legalization have in the first place?  Weed's been about $300 an ounce since I came to Toronto (so representatives of the sub-culture inform me, at least).  Its almost impossible to get busted for simple possession.  And you never get those dry spells you used to back in the 80s, no matter how many grow-ops get busted.  So who really cares?

Can anyone seriously imagine somebody like Justin Trudeau, who is already being criticized as a light-weight, making  this bit of frivolity the key to his election strategy?  If so, they must be smoking something considerably stronger than the herb.

LPoC Tentatively Offers To Show Some Spine

Although the article is entitled "Conservative Crime Agenda Moves Forward", this piece from Xtra offers progressives a glimmer of hope:

Liberal justice critic Marlene Jennings says she is open to killing the bill at second reading but says the Liberals are looking at how the bill fits with other Conservative crime legislation.

That's right, the LPoC is contemplating not rolling over on Bill S-10, which would mandate mandatory prison terms for whipping up a plate of hash brownies or growing a half-dozen (6) pot plants. I'm not sure the Harper Tories have given a name to this bill, but one good one might be the "Lets Bust Gramma Hippy Act" or, alternatively, "An Amendment To Imprison The Entire Population Of Saltspring Island".

In any case, I interpret Ms. Jennings words as a cry for help and guidance. If enough noise is aimed at the right people, this trivial but profoundly stupid bill may yet die.

Iggy And The Herb: I Approve

For Montreal, Ignatieff's answers provide a glimpse of what could be expected under a future government. The Liberals would like to see Vancouver's Insite safe-injection sites replicated across the country - a notion briefly entertained by Quebec's Health Minister but never pursued. Public transit would be better funded as part of a larger green investment strategy, and social housing would get renewed attention, where active federal involvement would incentivize the construction of more units. And of course, the gun registry would be safeguarded. As for the shuttered compassion clubs, Ignatieff said Liberals would reintroduce Cauchon's bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, while Jennings added that the process for obtaining medical marijuana, already legalized under the Chretien government, would also be streamlined.

Lets see if he wilts under the kind of attacks that will undoubtedly materialize. Hang tough, O potentially glorious Iggy!

Because it`s a perfect Liberal wedge issue! Libertarians support decrim because they're a bunch of teenage stoners! SoCons must be smoking something, but they won't support decrim in order to fuck over Libertarians (who they hate because Libertarians are goddamn ATHEISTS!).

Meanwhile, when it goes through, the rest of us can stop buying weed off our neighbour's nine year old daughter, who is a ripoff, and deal directly with Tim Horton's instead.

Have Climate Change Deniers Discovered Marijuana?

During a discussion of the inadequate climate records in China, the boyz from Surface Stations reference some weird plants growing behind a station in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma:

Mater,

Correct me if I'm wrong... but is that a row of pot plants growing behind the MMTS?

Here are a couple of shots:





























Well, I wouldn't smoke the stuff, though I might try and sell it to kids.

So, anyway, have the boyz at Surface Stations refuted global warming YET AGAIN? Have they proven that any temperature increases have emanated from the stoned-out heads of WARMongering NOAA volunteer Greenshirts lollygagging about in the dope fields of Oklahoma?

I doubt it, because smoking marijauna...they say...makes everything coooool.