Mar
31
What is the Point of Legal Pot?

Harmless plant, better than the alternative, threat to children, cash crop…. With so many viewpoints, which should dominate the discussion of cannabis in Canada? What is the reason to grow — and legalize — marijuana in our country? What’s the point of legal pot? 

When the Toronto Police Services (TPS) pulled off Project Gator, they were making a statement. I objected to the restriction of the nascent free market already established. The one that could guide the government through recreational legalization. But a reader reminded me that the government never promised a free market. They won based on a promise of regulation and restriction. To remove profits from organized crime and keep marijuana out of the hands of children. 

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Mar
16
The #CC5: Being at Bail Court

Last Wednesday, March 8th, I was a panellist on a marijuana legalization episode for theZoomer — far from Toronto’s bail court. The other panellists were a venture capitalist, an addiction counsellor, a lawyer, and a licensed producer. And, less intimidating, a friendly face in the Princess of Pot: fellow activist and owner of Cannabis Culture, Jodie Emery.

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Jun
24
Live Free or Die: Interviewing Shona Banda

Life is viewed by many in many ways: as a gift, as a curse, or even as a mission. But whatever views of life one might have, in it we all have one thing in common that we deal with everyday, and that is our health. And whatever the case may be regarding one’s health, we can all agree that “good” health is important simply because without it, we may as well throw in the towel and forget about those life views altogether.

Having been raised in the mid-west, Kansas, Shona Banda’s upbringing was in a very typical, American conservative environment where cannabis is known as a highly dangerous illegal drug, and is socially and morally frowned upon. This, later in life, ultimately left Shona feeling like she was a “druggie” when she decided to treat her illness with cannabis.

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Jun
22
Shona Banda: Redefining Freedom

As a part of good health, what we put into our body is as equally important as how we treat it. To have the freedom to treat ourselves with naturally grown plants, nuts, seeds and fruits we have depended on the earth since man has existed. Nutrition from the earth is here for a reason, so why not utilize its given resources, including cannabis, to optimize our overall health?

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Jun
10
Project Claudia Update — Raid Response

Twelve High Chicks thanks regular guest contributor Tracy Curley for this timely, firsthand account. We hope she, and all of our friends in Toronto, remain safe while continuing to fight for patients’ rights and access. 

Toronto is still in turmoil after the Project Claudia raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. Stakeholders met this past Tuesday, June 7th, to prepare for the raids that are rumoured still to come. Meanwhile Canada waits for legalization of recreational pot to be introduced in the spring of 2017.

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Jun
03
How Project Claudia Happened

Twelve High Chicks thanks regular guest contributor Tracy Curley for this timely, firsthand account. We hope she, and all of our friends in Toronto, remain safe while continuing to fight for patients’ rights and access. 

Trouble in Toronto

Many were shocked when on Thursday, May 26th, Toronto Police Service (TPS) raided more than 40 marijuana dispensaries, using battering rams and entering with guns drawn. 90 people were arrested when Project Claudia happened; police filed 186 trafficking charges (possession for the purpose of) and 71 charges for proceeds of crime (cash seized on premises).

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Apr
08
The Search for Truth: Interviewing Craig X Rubin

In life, one may face a moment of defiance, suffer a loss or experience grief, and perhaps be forced to circumvent changes to regain what one feels to have lost in the first place. Sometimes when suffering, one seeks something of a spiritual pillow to soften the blows of reality. And, most often, one seeks inner peace to stitch back the hope lost.

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Jan
08
Classic Chicks: Redemption of a Drug Smuggler — Interviewing Brian O’Dea

Editor’s Note: This Classic Chicks article is a combination of two previous articles, originally published March 21st and 24th, 2015, formatted for Twelve High Chicks’ year two layout. Content and intent have not been changed.

I first was introduced to Brian O’Dea, a polite and distinguished gentleman, when I travelled to Ottawa in December 2014 to meet other cannabis freedom activists and to screen Adam Scorgie’s The Culture High. With a polished demeanour and extensive vocabulary, Brian wouldn’t strike you as the type of person who would “move” copious amounts of cannabis around the world. He is educated, experienced, and skilled in his endeavours. He’s known to be one of smartest criminals the DEA has ever managed to catch; it was only after he’d retired as drug lord that the DEA finally managed to gather enough evidence to convict him.

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Aug
07
To Obey or Not to Obey

For most of us, we learn to obey at an early age. Parents use a variety of methods and will go to great extremes to teach this lesson; it’s important for the survival of the child and for the sanity of the parent. It also serves the child well with respect to getting what they want while they grow up. The problem is that it does not always serve us so well in society after we have grown up.

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Aug
04
When Police Attack — Cannabis Day 2015

It was a beautiful sunny Wednesday morning and it was already getting warm by 9:30. I was making my way to the Vancouver Art Gallery on Canada Day. For the last fifteen-plus years marijuana enthusiasts, protesters, and other civic-minded people have gathered there to celebrate our nation’s birthday, to exercise their right to peaceful assembly, and to protest the unjust laws that prohibit the sale, growth, and use of marijuana by having an open cannabis farmers’ market, much like the 4/20 celebration held every April 20th: Cannabis Day.

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