Isn’t it time that we tax and regulate cannabis?
MARCO’S EDITORIAL
Greetings fellow readers. It brings me great pleasure to let you know that Treating Yourself Spain was a HUGE success at the Spannabis Expo in Barcelona, Spain.
This led us to participate at Grow Med in Valencia Spain on April 20 – 22, 2012. Although cannabis isn’t legal in Spain it is tolerated, providing that you are using it in private and you are not selling it.
There is even a town tucked in the hills of one of Spain’s most picturesque regions. The Catalonian village of Rasquera has agreed to rent out land to grow marijuana, an enterprise the local authorities say will allow them to pay off their 1.3 million euro debt in two years.
I just wish that the Canadian Government would see that they too can benefit by taxing and regulating cannabis. Instead Stephen Harper pushes through bill C10 that calls for a 6 month mandatory minimum for growing just six plants of cannabis and someone caught growing more than 200 plants will have to spend more time in jail than that of a pedophile.
I really don’t understand how politicians can ignore the science that proves that using cannabis is beneficial to one’s health.
I know that if I wasn’t able to use cannabis or didn’t have access to it I wouldn’t be able to function as I do today. As a matter of fact, I would- n’t be surprised if I ended up in hospital due to my ailments.
The research has been done and in the history of mankind NOBODY has ever died from using cannabis but this CAN’T be said of alcohol or the pharmaceutical drugs that are available everywhere even if you don’t have a doctor’s prescription for it
The Global Commission on Drug Policy includes: former Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso; former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria; Mexico’s former president Ernesto Zedillo; ex-UN chief Kofi Annan; former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board Paul Volcker; former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz; Mario Vargas Llosa; Carlos Fuentes; and Richard Branson.
The Commission called for loosening restrictions on marijuana and putting an “end to the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.” The group of statesmen and prominent intellectuals said punitive measures had led to a situation where “the global scale of illegal drug markets largely controlled by organized crime has grown dramatically.”
They encourage experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs (especially cannabis) to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their cit- izens. ” “Let’s start by treating drug addiction as a health issue, reducing drug demand through proven educational initiatives and legally regulating rather than criminalizing cannabis,” Cardoso said.
On a much happier note we are working hard at getting the 3rd Annual TY Expo put together and I am happy to announce that Steep Hill Labs will
be at the TY Expo testing samples brought to the expo by attendees. There will be a nominal fee of $50 per sample that is tested for THC and CBD. In issue number 33, there was a typo in the application form as the pricing reflected the 2011 prices and NOT the 2012 pricing which is correct in the Expo advert. Looking forward to meeting up with everyone on May 25th to 27th at the Expo which is the highlight of my year.
Until next time Take Care and Peace.
