The first Martin government budget was released today. There was nothing really earth-shattering announced, but there were some interesting points made and some money well-spent. There was some help given to students with an increase in student loan money and the default ceiling raised. Some people are complaining about a program that is being implemented for low-income families — children born after 2003 will receive money in the form of grants to help the families save for post secondary — saying that low-income families don’t save money and that the answer is to reduce poverty. Personally, I think the best way to get out of poverty is to be given the opportunity to start saving, but that’s just my opinion. People are complaining about the lack of funding for defense, however there was a slight increase in the amount that DND gets AND personnel who are deployed in “hostile environments” are going to get tax breaks (they don’t have to pay income tax for their entire tour!) so I think that balances out. As usual, there’s always going to be someone complaining about something because you can never please the entire country. But it seemed to be fair and balanced and that’s the important thing. I’m happy with it.

Ottawa has announced a new project that will be starting soon:
Health Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in pharmacies, a move that could boost the number of registered medical users.

Officials are organizing a pilot project in British Columbia that would allow medical users to buy marijuana at drugstores.

Currently, 78 medical users in Canada are permitted to buy Health Canada marijuana, which is grown in Flin Flon, Man. The 30-gram bags of dried buds, sold for $150 each, now are sent by courier directly to patients or their doctors.

The department will allow participating pharmacies to stock marijuana for sale to approved patients without a prescription.

That’s right — people who are legally allowed to use marijuana for medical use will now be able to purchase it at their local pharamacy. For months since the legalized-for-medical-use ruling came out, there has been debate over how these people were supposed to get their pot. Now they will be able to just get it at the drug store. This is a great step for Canada, and it’s one that I’m very glad to see the government taking.

I decided to name this post “why is the world going crazy?” because it’s something that I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of days. The first time that I thought it was when I read this article about how more hate crimes against Jewish people and Holocaust survivors have been popping up in the Toronto area. I can’t imagine the kind of hate that you need to have to torment and torture elderly people who have already been to the depths of hell. But yet that is what is happening in Toronto. Even the dead are not safe, with tombstones and graves being defaced at night. What is going through a person’s mind when they create such a disgusting display? What could possess them to treat people, even those who have gone before us, in such an inhuman way?