Rebutting Rona’s Rotten Ramblings
Another Voice Speaks Out
I am please
to present the first of what I hope will be many guest contributions to this Blog.
On April 30, 2014 Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health announced a new government
program to create more opposition to Cannabis use. As justification she
presented a fabrication of its dangers to our youth. Fortunately for us Wayne
Phillips took the time to write the following revelation of the distortions in
her announcement which can be seen at the link referenced below.
Re: Health Canada Highlights Dangers of
Marijuana Use for Youth,
OTTAWA, April 30,
2014/CNW
The Wicked Bitch of the East
The Dangers of
Marijuana Challenged
Wayne P. Phillips, May
4, 2014
Health
Minister Rona Ambrose hosted a roundtable with representatives of the healthcare
community and research experts today to discuss the scientific evidence of the
risks associated with the use of marijuana by youth, especially over the long
term. This meeting, of course, builds on a presentation where Minister Ambrose
announced funding for A Health Promotion and Drug Prevention Strategy for
Canada's Youth - a national project led by the Canadian Centre on Substance
Abuse (CCSA). How else would Health Minister Ambrose find support for her
Ministry's convoluted fabrications posing as “scientific” evidence unless there
were funding involved. Minister Ambrose's roundtable speaks to the (lack of)
credulity of the current government; moreover, it flies in the face of history.
The 1923
House of Commons Debates, 14th of March, 1923, pages 1136 – 2124 under the
title, "Narcotic Drugs Act Amendment Bill the "Hon. H.S. Béland1
(Minister of Health) moved for leave to introduce Bill No. 72 to amend the
Narcotic Drugs Act. He said, "The purpose of this bill is principally to
consolidate previous legislation for the suppression of the traffic in narcotic
drugs. . . ." Not only did the inclusion entail an act of tergiversation -
that is, falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language – on the part of
the Minister of
Health, Dr.
H.S. Béland, the inclusion allowed for the transition of an
unspecified
commodity. “There is a new drug in the schedule.” was all that was said.
Moreover, the purpose of the bill, the consolidation, in effect was tantamount
(in effect) to the manufacturing of a social problem. There was no traffic of
cannabis in 1923. Panic and Indifference by Giffen, Lambert and Endicott also
describe how “cannabis indica or hasheesh” was added by some unknown hand
later.
Recently
CBC News published an article by Daniel Schwartz entitled “Marijuana was
criminalized in 1923, but why?” What the article failed to mention however that
what was being consolidated, cannabis indica (Indian hemp), was a Proprietary
or Patented Medicines Act commodity at the time of the transition in 1923. So
consequently by not specifying what was being transitioned in 1923, the whole
medicinal aspects of cannabis was, in effect, denied by the very
department
that is still denying it today. The agenda is a Health Canada legacy.
Minister of
Health, Rona Ambrose, states, “As Health Minister, I am standing side by side
with medical professionals and researchers with a clear message -- There are
serious health risks for youth associated with marijuana. It is not safe. It
should not be promoted or endorsed. Together, with our partners we will work to
make sure youth and parents have the right information about the risks
associated with smoking and using marijuana.”
Fair
enough. It should not be promoted or endorsed. How then is the inclusion of
cannabis in the CDSA not, in and of itself, an endorsement? And, if Minister of
Health, Ambrose, is so concerned with “health risks for youth associated with
marijuana”, why then would the Minister want to see cannabis/marijuana
legislated in a manner that insures the perpetuation of its availability to the
very youth she claims to be concerned about? How can the Minister deem to have
the right information about any supposed risks associated
with
marijuana when the Minister's agenda of perpetuating a social problem is the
only primary concern for either the Minister or Health Canada.
The
actions, words and motives of Health Minister Ambrose are as questionable today
in 2014 as Health Minister H.S. Béland's were in 1923. He sought to consolidate
what she (in this instance) seeks to perpetuate. In order to do that Minister
Ambrose must continue to rail in the face of both history and court rulings
that in both instances recognize cannabis as medicine. As such, funding health
promotion and drug prevention become red herrings to distract both media and
the general public from the fact that the inclusion of cannabis
in the CDSA
is precisely that which perpetuates the problem thereby increasing the
probability of youth becoming vulnerable. It doesn't matter how much funding is
provided because the underlying agenda is perpetuating usage not safeguarding
youth.
Health Canada's new Medical Marijuana Program
Regulations (MMPR) and Health Minister Ambrose's position has prompted further
concerns for Canadians as the Conservative government sought to unceremoniously
transition those holding Authorizations To Possess (cannabis) from the Medical
Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR) to the new program. Given the fact that the
Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR) is a court ordered program that
continues to be challenged as unconstitutional, for the Government to think
that a new program can be just enacted as if it were business as usual more
than demonstrates the degree of dysfunction this type of irrationality, for
which Health Minister H.S. Béland should ultimately be held to accounts for (posthumously),
is capable of.
Increasingly
though those holding Authorizations To Possess (cannabis) under the Medical
Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR) are taking up the call to stand side by
side with the 200+ Canadians that have already filed Statements of Claim for a
two dollar Registry fee using the John Turmel Kits at
after B.C. Lawyer John Conroy's Allard Ruling
left many, who either did not fall under the time-frames specified or beyond
the 150 gram limit, out. Many that did fall under the time-frames specified
could also, for numerous other reasons not mentioned, count themselves among
the Left-Outs as well. The Turmel Kits are provided in numerous formats and
YouTube videos outline the process. The time is long overdue for Health Canada and the Minister to acknowledge the
wrongheadedness of Health Canada's gambit and seriously consider the
idea of reparations. Canadians know about both cannabis and its world renowned
medical properties. Moreover, the idea of maintaining the pretext of health
promotion and drug prevention in the face of the inclusion of cannabis in the
CDSA stands as both the crime of the century and the joke of the century.
