For Immediate release: Media / Announcement

VICTORIA, BC - Local resident Sam Vekemans has just about completed a project he calls 'Unschedule Cannabis for a SAFER Canada'. The project to find out the cannabis policy stance of all members of Parliament (currently 304). By doing an internet search with the terms 'marijuana' or 'marihuana', or 'cannabis' Sam says that the stance is sometimes easy to find. Many members of parliament have spoken in the House of Commons mentioning Marijuana, and he credits OpenParliament.ca a website which organizes the official parliament Hansard of everything said, which makes it easy to find. 

Further, Sam has created a set of 10 Google Slideshow presentations which include a direct quote along with the MPs photo, riding and the source date, title, author (where applicable) and a direct URL for reference.

Sam has put this information as CC-0 meaning its public domain so anyone is free to use these slides in any way they wish. Currently, the slides get downloaded as .png images and uploaded to the projects blog http://unschedulecannabis.blogspot.ca and to the projects Facebook page.

He also uploads the images to MPs facebook page as well as tweets from his @Acrosscanada twitter account to the MPs. ''The best way that people can be of help is simply sharing the posts and slides to their networks so to get the information out'' Sam says that anyone is free to download and share and reuse the information.

UPDATE: The MPs statements can be found on SlideShare.  Please share across social media to get these statements known.

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Cannabis: Legal like Alcohol, Cigerettes, Lettuce, Dirt or Rx Prescription Drugs? - (Please vote poll on the side)

I have come to the conclusion that with in the Cannabis community, there are basically 4 different groups.

Those who want Cannabis to be legal like alcohol.  This would imply that a 'Provincial Cannabis Bureau' be setup. (the LCBO or the BC Licqure control board)
This would be controlled by the province, and taxed and regulated.

Those who want cannabis to be legal like Cigarettes, where it can be available at stores, but need to be in a separate section, behind the counter, and an age minimum to be able to purchaise it. .. it's taxed for the province.

Those who want it legal like lettuce, where it would be available in stores. And regulated like any consumable good. 

Those who want it legal like Dirt, where its not regulated. .. (although you can buy dirt)

And those who want it legal like Rx Prescription drugs. .. as it is not yet (doctors are not regularly prescribing it)


The reason why i posed this, is that there is a difference between 'decrmininalization', 'legalization'  and 'unscheduling'.
I propose simply unscheduling, and then letting the provinces decide on what they want todo.  But Unscheduling would mean that it's no longer a controlled substance, and the criminal code when reference to schedule II, would simply not apply and it would be removed.

Please vote on the side of this post, and comment below.

Thanks,
Sam Vekemans
(blog creator)

Frank Leonard, Mayor - District of Saanich, BC

https://twitter.com/frank_leonard

@frank_leonard Will Saanich adopt 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' approach for to patients .. to stop growing in their homes? http://t.co/pHydjFMfNF
— Sam Vekemans (@acrosscanada) March 5, 2014

Don't know stance.