November 29, 2011 – A Toronto man vowed to challenge a city bylaw that he said stops people from growing medical marijuana at home, on the same day a charge against him was dropped for creating a fire hazard by growing pot in his apartment.

Although William Palmer was charged under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, his lawyer Paul Lewin said he plans to challenge the bylaw that he said bars marijuana growing in the city. Mr. Palmer lives in a Toronto Community Housing apartment near Dundas and Sherbourne Streets.
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Mr. Lewin said that for people who need medical marijuana, the bylaw goes against equality rights set out in the Charter and the Ontario Human Rights Code.

“The bylaw doesn’t leave any room for medical marijuana growing at all,” Mr. Palmer said at Old City Hall court on Monday, shortly after the charge against him was dropped.

Mr. Palmer has a licence from Health Canada to grow medical marijuana to help him deal with symptoms caused by his HIV medication.

Court heard that the city withdrew the charge because it’s not a matter of justice to pursue the case. The city did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Even [Toronto community] housing will not give me the permission to grow, but yet the government of Canada says I can grow,” Mr. Palmer said.

Mr. Palmer, 48, said that between October, 2008, and last year, fire, city or community housing officials came into his apartment and took away his plants and shut off the electricity three times.

He stopped paying his rent when the electricity wasn’t turned back on after the third incident, leading to his eviction and moving to his dad’s place next door. He said he’s not growing pot there.

Using pot eases the severe nausea and depressed appetite that come with taking HIV medication, Mr. Palmer said. He’s seeking upward of $50,000 in compensation for damages to his plants.

“The right to grow marijuana for medicine is a well-established right, this isn’t anything cutting edge,” Mr. Lewin said. “The law in Ontario is crystal clear. No one should have to choose between their health and the law.”

Mr. Lewin said he filed the challenge months ago and had asked that it be heard on Tuesday, the day before Mr. Palmer’s fire hazard charge was dropped. He said it’s expected to go to the Superior Court in the spring.

Since Mr. Palmer is on the Ontario Disability Support Program, he can only afford to grow rather than buy, Mr. Lewin said.

“The real issue here, I think, isn’t so much the specific details of this case. It’s the fact that there are people, lots of people, in this catch 22.”
By Cary Mills. Source.

November 8, 2011 – Alcohol causes far more damage to users and to society than does the use of marijuana, according to a new study published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.

Researchers at the Imperial College of London looked at “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol,” reports Paul Armentano at AlterNet. They determined that marijuana smoking, particularly longterm, does some harm to the lungs and circulatory system, and increases certain mental-health risks (which is debatable).

But in contrast, the authors described alcohol as “a toxic substance” responsible for almost five percent “of the total global disease burden.”

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​”A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered to be more than twice as harmful as cannabis to users, and five times more harmful as cannabis to others (society),” investigators determined. “As there are few areas of harm that each drug can produce where cannabis scores more [dangerous to health] than alcohol, we suggest that even if there were no legal impediment on cannabis use, it would be unlikely to be more harmful than alcohol.”

“The findings underline the need for a coherent, evidence-based drugs policy that enables individuals to make informed decisions about the consequences of their drug use,” the researchers concluded.

The findings are underlined by a just-published study, almost completely ignored by mainstream media, showing alcohol use increases lung cancer risk by 30 percent.

Alcohol use causes an incredible four percent of all deaths worldwide — more than AIDS, tuberculosis, or violence — according to a February 2011 report from the World Health Organization.

And a just-published study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that in the U.S. alone, an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to “excessive” drinking. The study estimates that the overall cost of excessive drinking by Americans is $223.5 billion each year.

Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for those who drink alcohol when compared to those who use marijuana, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a 2009 review published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.

“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 [italics added],” the investigators concluded.

Much of the evidence showing that the risks of marijuana are small compared to those associated with alcohol is covered in the excellent book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People To Drink?, coauthored by Armentano with Steve Fox and Mason Tvert.

Given all the evidence of the enormously higher cost of alcohol use than cannabis use to society, you may be wondering why it’s considered socially acceptable for everyone from the President on down to be seen drinking a beer, yet smoking a joint is considered a big deal. And guess which one is against federal law? Source.