Issue #9 December 2020
You may remember television ads in 2010 for Guelph Ontario brewer, Sleeman. (The brewer has been owned by Japanese brewer Sapporo since 2006.) The theme of the Sleeman ads featured the brewer’s “notorious” activity during alcohol prohibition in Canada and hinted at clandestine collaboration with infamous gangster Al Capone.

Issue #8 September 2020
It is – a disturbing title. It creates a queasy feeling in the gut, perhaps more than a bit of resistance in the mind, and a wariness to proceed. But I hope you will. Because it is important. I have often written and have often said, “We have three long-lived legal, revenue-driven, government-regulated drug industries, and we have three international public health crises.”

Issue #7 June 2020
Even a short post about any aspect of drug policy does not exactly write itself while the world’s attention is focused on the COVID19 pandemic and the protests on the systemic racism that plagues our society. On those matters I will defer to others who are better qualified to comment on, and more profoundly impacted by, these monumental events.

Issue #6 February 2020
Those of you who are more familiar with my work will recognize the title of this posting. I have used it frequently in publications and presentations to make an important point. For me, it is a clarion call for changing how we think about drug use and drug problems.

Issue #5 December 2019
No, I don’t mean on therapeutic cannabis in the literal therapeutic sense – but rather, in the classic literary sense – as in sharing my perspective on the topic. Some people, who are less admiring of my work, have suggested that a regimen of a calming agent might not be a bad idea just to “mellow you out a bit’. Maybe.

Issue #4 September 25 2019
“Every day, our kids turn to dealers, gangs and criminals to buy marijuana, putting them in harm’s way.” This claim has appeared on the Liberal Party of Canada’s website since at least 2016. It may be one of the most blatant canards of Canada’s cannabis legalization campaign.

Issue #3 June 2019
As with any spectacle, there is almost always urban myth surrounding it, and cannabis legalization is no different. One of the myths that prevails is that Justin Trudeau was an enthusiastic architect of cannabis legalization in Canada. In an interview at the beginning of the 2012 Liberal Party Convention, he was asked about his opinion on cannabis legalization.

Issue #2 February 2019
< February has always been a special month for me. It is the month of my mother’s birth, my own birth, and my wife’s birth. And Valentine’s Day. February 2019 is also the second anniversary of the release of my report "Cannabis Law Reform in Canada: Pretense & Perils". I think of this report as a balanced, evidence-based antidote to both cannabis cheerleading & demonizing.

Issue #1 November 2018
Prime Minister Trudeau has quite correctly stated that cannabis legalization is not an event but a process. And what an intriguing process it has been – with endless controversy, unexpected twists and turns along the way, and assuming different shapes in different provinces.