| Your personal background. |
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I lived in Colombia for eight years with
my Colombian partner and our daughter. We lived in Cartagena, so close to the airport that we could hear all the airline flight
announcements. Our neighbour was the chief of police and our
daughter used to play with his kids so we spent some time in each other's homes.
I am a licenced amateur radio operator ham radio.
There were a group of us, all radio operators, who used to hang around together.
One day we decided to drive to another city. As one
of our little group lived on a farm, we arranged to pick him up on the way.
The driver was not too sure of the way to our pal's farm and managed to take the wrong
turning.
 A couple of miles up this country lane, he
realized his mistake and turned the car around.
Unbeknown to us, a group of narcotic police had staked out the
area because at the end of the road was a building that was being used to manufacture illegal
drugs. The police were waiting for the operators to return and,
seeing our jeep turn around, they thought that we were
them and that we had spotted them. So, they gave chase and surrounded us with guns drawn. Seeing that we all had hand held radios only reinforced
their suspicions. They placed one of their officers into our
car and ordered us to drive to the police headquarters.
When we arrived, they proudly escorted us into
the chief's office. I remarked, glaring at them, as they began to look very uncomfortable.
A short discussion followed whereupon the arresting officers
all apologized and coffee was served to us. On the way out,
the chief had his arm around my shoulder. I looked around
and just about every policeman in the area was there on parade.
They stared at us and afterwards I was known as a friend of the chief and nobody ever bothered me again. When I was living in the US
I was approached by a government agent one day.
They were looking for someone and found out that I knew this person so asked me if I would assist them
in locating him. They asked me to try to phone him and
some of his friends in an attempt to locate him
and requested that I record the conversations. So, there I was in a public phone
booth with a recording device making the phone calls.
Someone passing noticed me there and thought that
I was hacking the phone so called the phone company, who called the police.
The next thing I knew was that two cops were outside the booth signaling
for me to come out which I did.
I handed him the business card of the agent who I was working with and he
retuned to his car with it. A couple of minutes later
he returned, shaking his head. The very next day, I was a little
late driving to my daughter's school to pick her up and was going too fast in a 20 mph zone.
I heard a police siren and pulled over. It was the
same two cops. They looked at me aghast. With that
they got back into their patrol car and drove off. I was a pilot for many years.
In my early flying years in the 60s I was living in Montreal,
Canada.
One day I decided to visit the US so took off
from Dorval airport heading for Plattsburgh.
I was flying a little wooden airplane called a Culver V which was made
around 1942. The radio was very old and had only about six different frequencies.
After I crossed the border, I called air traffic control and told them I was heading for Plattsburgh.
I thought that he was giving me an alternative so asked him which one was nearest to the
town. I looked on the map and headed that way. Approaching
the airport I was impressed by the huge size. I tried all the various frequencies that were in the radio but
could get no response.
I was getting close now so decided just to land,
rocking the aircraft wings to indicate that I had no communication with them.
As soon as I landed, a couple of jeeps came screaming over and I was surrounded by armed soldiers.
An officer strode over to me and demanded my identification. I handed
him my British passport. He sighed and shook his head, handing back the
document to me. Once when I was living in Florida,
I was approached by the DEA. They asked me if I would play the part of a drug pilot, fly
to Jamaica, load the plane with marijuana and fly back to the USA.
They gave me a seized Piper Aztec belonging to the Palm Beach Police Department to use.
I dutifully flew to Jamaica and reported to my contacts
there.
Unfortunately, the project had to be cancelled because there was a hurricane passing through there.
I flew the aircraft back to Fort Lauderdale and reported to Customs.
The officer came out to look at the airplane and noticed that it had several illegal extra gas
tanks fitted. This is totally illegal. We
are going to have to seize the airplane! You are going to have to do whatever you think,
" I told him nonchalantly. He returned to his office and returned with a large sticker bearing the words "Government seal.
Eastern 614 hold position, Delta 456 hold short, National 364 negative, we have a Tripacer at two
thousand feet and we are not sure what he's going to do next!
They're talking about me! Tripacer three five whiskey, congratulations, you have now
carried out a successful landing on runway twenty four left.
Unfortunately we gave you twenty four right. Will you
please report to the control tower. I taxied over to the control tower,
exited the plane and picked up the intercom. I couldn't believe it.
He didn't even ask for my name. I called a pilot friend
of mine and asked him to come over and park the plane, not wanting
to be seen with it and left the airport hastily. While I was living in Colombia.I had
a Piper Aztec airplane there, parked at the Crespo airport in Cartagena.
There were lot of mountains in the area and, when the visibility was really poor, they
would shut down the airport.
I used to make myself look like an airline captain with white shirt, gold braided
cap and shoulder stripes. This had the effect of making me appear important
and it was easier to get things done at the airport.
All the control tower operators knew me also. One day I took off for Baranquilla to
visit some friends. It was a beautiful day with unlimited visibility.
One the way back to Crespo I contacted the tower about twenty miles out and told them
that I would be landing there. I gave them my name.
I pushed in the throttle and headed for the runway.
After landing I taxied quickly over to the tower and switched
off the engine.. As I got out of the plane, there was a sudden noise: a band right behind me started playing and hundreds of people started
waving flags and cheering. Startled, I turned around.
I knew it couldn't be for me and suddenly realized that they thought
that I was or had delivered the president. I waved
my arms wildly and shouted "No presidente, no presidente!" After about thirty seconds the band stopped playing and the crowd became quiet and I crept silently
away. In Canada I lived in a town called Three Rivers.
I used to fly from a small airport near to there.
The guys in the control tower were friends of mine and we used to joke together a
lot. One day as I was about to land and I was in the only aircraft
in the area they fired off a red flare which is a signal that the airport is unsafe and one should not land.
I knew that they were joking, so just continued.
The joke backfired as the flare set fire to the grass and
they had to call the fire department to put it out.
Another time, I left there to fly to a combined military/commercial airport.
My friends had advised me that the visibility was bad there and for me to be careful.
They also said that they would call the tower there and ask them to look out for me.
As I approached the airport, I saw a large group of soldiers lined up by the runway.
I decided to show them what a wonderful pilot I was and land right in front of them.
Somehow I managed to totally misgauge the landing and hit the runway hard,
bouncing all over the place. I embarrassingly crouched down and taxied to
a remote part of the airfield before getting out
so that nobody would see me.
When I returned to Three Rivers, glad that my friends there didn't know what a
mess I had made of the landing, the tower operators asked me to come up and see
them. When I arrived, they were hysterical, practically rolling on the floor.
In 2003 I moved to Indonesia where I met and married my wife.
She came from a very poor family and they lived
in a ramshackle house made mainly of bamboo.
Nobody in the family spoke English and I didn't speak a word of Indonesian.
I h ad to take a friend of mine with me everywhere I
went in order to translate. One day we visited my new father-in-law at his home and
sat down to chat with him in his bedroom.
That didn't surprise me very much as the house had an earthen floor.
That also sounded kind of reasonable. I checked to make sure that my
friend had translated that correctly. He had and I
began to wonder if Daddy had some mental problems.
Suddenly there was a rustling noise from under the bed which we all heard.
I crawled under the bed and peered around. It didn't
seem to mind my touching it so I gently picked it up and stood
up. I showed the animal to everyone and then walked outside
and gently tossed the bat into the air, whereupon it departed for an unknown destination.
The benefits of medical marijuana have always been dubious as majority of the government bodies across the globe refuse to accept its medical benefits.
The benefits of medical marijuana have always been dubious
as majority of the government bodies across the globe refuse to accept its
medical benefits. However, medical marijuana supporters continue to endorse that medical marijuana does have diverse beneficial usage in case of treatment of terminal
diseases like cancer and AIDS as well as other diseases like gastrointestinal illness and glaucoma.
These supporters also argue that it is less dangerous than alcohol, cigarettes, and over-the-counter medicines.
Therefore marijuana legalization is a debate or an issue which
still continues.
 According to marijuana laws, while recreational usage of medical marijuana is restricted in most countries, several countries like
Canada, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Czech Republic , USA and many others are
beginning to legalize medicinal usage of cannabis. In US, there was a swell of support for medical marijuana legalization, and finally, California became the first
state to legalize medical marijuana by passing Proposition 215 (Compassionate Use Act) in 1996, followed by 16 other US states.
· The healing value of marijuana has been mentioned even in the ancient Chinese herbal remedy book attributed to Shen Neng.
· The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved medical marijuana
for handling conditions like nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy.
· If the marijuana laws regulate the medical marijuana market, it would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers,
as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.
The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were
legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to
their friends. · Medical marijuana legalization would permit
development of marijuana or cannabis as a valuable agricultural crop in the United States.
It can be used in the development of a new bio-fuel to reduce
carbon emissions.
Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) recently reported results for the last three
months of 2018, and the beginning of Canada's adult-use program
helped the company sell 334% more marijuana than a year earlier.
Unfortunately, operating expenses rose much further than sales, plus
profit margins in the adult-use market are slimmer than expected.
5 billion cash injection from Constellation Brands earlier
this year, the company can afford the losses, but investors want to know if they'll continue.
Here are a few reasons to expect at least several more quarters of operating losses
from Canopy Growth. Image source: Getty Images.
The rollout of recreational marijuana in Canada was a non-event for most of the country's
users because buying illicit marijuana has felt nearly legal for a long time.
There are dozens of mail
order weed ontario-order marijuana shops (MoMs) online that ship through Canada Post,
discreetly, and most of them even accept PayPal.
Although police can get warrants to inspect packages
after they've been delivered, it's rarely worth the trouble.
Criminal charges for customers are practically unheard of.
Edibles and concentrates are the two fastest-growing product categories in the
U.S., but you can't buy either from licensed retailers in Canada.
Of course, there are plenty of MoMs that cater to connoisseurs of both.
MoMs aren't the only competition that licensed producers and retailers
like Canopy Growth have to deal with. There are still plenty of illegal marijuana dispensaries throughout the country, and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere.
In New Brunswick, Canopy Growth's potential customers are waltzing right past government-run stores that sell
its products and into marijuana dispensaries that don't.
While there are occasional reports about dispensaries getting shut down by authorities, local municipalities that don't want to
be seen limiting patients' treatment options rarely take action.
When pressed about the issue, though, authorities generally claim that enforcing marijuana laws just aren't an efficient use of limited
resources. Whatever the case, Canopy will probably have to
compete with a thriving illicit market for the long term.
Statistics Canada runs anonymous online surveys that ask people for the size and price of their latest marijuana purchases, illicit or licensed.
5.61) per gram in 2017, and that was before companies like Canopy Growth started producing enough cannabis each month to cover the Hudson Bay.
5.25) from recreational sales. 4.84) in production costs per gram sold.
1.09) per-gram expense related to Canada's
new cannabis excise tax. This is a big advantage for MoMs and illicit dispensaries that don't pay the
federal excise tax or provincial sales taxes.
The price difference for medical-use patients who want an edible
solution is enormous. 171.23) at the Ontario Cannabis Store.
45.30) from MoMs and dispensaries. Across the country,
licensed retailers are having a tough time keeping their shelves
stocked, but that isn't because licensed producers can't keep up.
According to Health Canada, retailers sold just 14,379 kg of
legal cannabis in December. During the same month, ready-for-sale product
in the supply chain rose to 57,914 kg. Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB)
is another giant Canadian producer that lost a lot of money recently, and its
earnings call highlighted a possible cause of
the perceived adult-use marijuana shortages.
Aurora, Canopy Growth, and their peers have licenses to export medical marijuana to countries that pay more per gram.
As a result, Aurora isn't providing provinces with
more adult-use cannabis than their long-term supply contracts require.
140 million), or 23% more than three months earlier.
Keeping sufficient inventory levels is important, but this much inventory growth during a perceived shortage isn't a
good sign. Image source: Getty Images. On to Plan B?
Canada's adult-use program isn't going to be the revenue contributor investors
hoped for, and that's going to cause Canopy Growth to report
more operating losses in the quarters ahead.
10.03) per gram, which suggests the region could become a high-margin revenue stream down the road.
Sadly, an international revenue stream is probably
a lot further down the road than investors hoped for.
1.28 million) more than a year ago. Recently, members of the European Parliament approved a motion for a resolution on cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The non-binding resolution will ask member countries to prioritize cannabis research and reconsider domestic laws that prevent its sale.
While a larger EU market could help Canopy Growth make ends meet, it won't happen fast enough to stop this marijuana producer from bleeding money in the
foreseeable future. That makes this stock too
risky to even consider right now.
Nine months after the RCMP raided the Tobique First Nation dispensary Tribal ReLeaf, and were
blockaded by community members for hours, two people have been charged with
cannabis trafficking. But Chief Ross Perley of Tobique First
Nation says he's not concerned. Five charges were laid against
59-year-old Gerald Roland Bear from Tobique First Nation and 46-year-old Tina Marie Sappier-Bear.
Perley described them as "former employees" who
used to manage the store. The dispensary branded as a "pain management centre" was subject to an RCMP raid in Tobique
First Nation last October, which ended with a community-led blockade that came
close to conflict.
The dispensary has since resumed operations and a few weeks ago
a new location on Oromocto First Nation near Fredericton opened its doors.
Operating medicinal cannabis dispensaries is illegal anywhere in the country, and only Health Canada-approved suppliers can fill cannabis prescriptions.
But in an effort to assert self-governance, Tobique First Nation passed legislation in 2012 titled the Compassionate Use Act, which allows on-reserve dispensaries to sell
cannabis to designated people. Tribal ReLeaf serves members of
the First Nation whether or not they have a prescription, but it also will serve any non-community members
who have doctor's prescriptions or licences.
Charges were laid against a few employees after the raid
but were dropped in October. Community members reported RCMP took thousands of dollars worth of cannabis products as well.
Cpl. Jullie Rogers-Marsh, an RCMP spokesperson, said the confiscated
products are in evidence because the investigation is still going on.
She said she can't comment on why it took so long to lay the new charges.
The five charges are trafficking cannabis marijuana, possession for the purpose
of trafficking cannabis marijuana, trafficking cannabis resin, possession for the purpose of trafficking cannabis resin and
possession of proceeds of crime. New Brunswick First
Nations are not the only ones trying to get a share of
the cannabis market. And many are drawing parallels between the cannabis
and tobacco trades. The argument for being able to self-govern and self-regulate is made by First Nations people all across
the country, including Six Nations in Ontario and people on Algonquin territory
near Quebec. Tobique First Nation owns 51 per cent of the Tribal
ReLeaf dispensary on the reserve.
Tribal ReLeaf's newest location stands behind the Oromocto
First Nation gas bar. There are two signs on the front that have the
same branding and style as the Tobique First Nation branch.
The store sells the cannabis plant as well as edibles and baked goods containing cannabis
oil. Tobique First Nation councillor Julian Moulton said representatives from Oromocto First Nation approach his band and
asked to form a partnership. So far, so good.
She said anyone who isn't abiding by the guidelines set out by Health Canada can expect notification they are operating illegally in the province.
She said she cannot speak particularly about how the RCMP has
been operating with respect to the Oromocto dispensary.
Perley said the dispensaries are important for the community not only for the revenue they contribute — which goes toward housing and community services — but
also because they help combat a First Nations painkiller problem.
Moulton said he's observed a shift in painkiller use in his community in the year Tribal ReLeaf has been in operation. Even skeptical elders were convinced after they tried cannabidiol, or CBD,
the pain relief compound in cannabis that doesn't have psychoactive effects. |
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