The latest poll on marijuana offers no real surprises, the public well ahead of the politicians on the issue, a full two thirds of Canadians support decriminalization. The numbers more significant when one weighs electoral realities, there is no political "downside" for the Liberals. Add in an NDP with a leader who is hardly revolutionary on the issue, and there is an opportunity to find a voice in this debate, make the "war on drugs" a distinguishing issue. The Conservatives have made these issues a political wedge, why continually play defence, rather than take a principled stance with rational underpinnings, which can pivot into a taxation issue as well?
The Liberals need to completely redefine their identity, but rather than "find themselves", they simply have to reassert what "liberal" means, the epiphany is nothing more than confidence to be what we should. No hand wringing, no soul searching, just stop being so calculated and in turn watered down, believe in things, alienate and be unabashed in conviction. Advocating marijuana legalization is a no brainer for "Liberals".
5 comments:
I agree that marijuana prohibition on the face of it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My question is, beyond the obvious, what would the Liberal party propose to deal with the not so obvious problems. If Canada legalizes marijuana will there be a limit on how many plants you an grow or will it be regulated like booze? How will you prevent the gangs from opening legal grow ops and smuggle their dope to the states? One of the main reasons people want drugs legalized is to reduce the gang violence but will legalizing marijuana do that?
I point you to prohibition era Canada and the cross border smuggling of booze. The violence was outrageous and the US was none too pleased. Will the Liberals have a plan to deal with an unhappy American government?
Once legalized what will we do to prevent "high driving"? Right now if a cop smells reefer he has the ability to deal with it. If it's legal, what will be the legal limit and how will we measure it?
It's the unexpected consequences of feel good policies that should be worrying the public when it comes to this new Liberal desperation.
Oh the concern troll routine. Yawn.
Cha-ching!
"One of the main reasons people want drugs legalized is to reduce the gang violence but will legalizing marijuana do that?"
It is one thing to illegally sell a legally produced product and make a profit, e.g., black market cigarettes. It is quite another thing to illegally produce and sell a product (e.g., moonshine) in market where there is legal competitors. The reason is simple. The illegality of the product means that your production and distribution costs are significantly higher. Also demand for your product is always going to be less. People want to know what they buying and consuming. So when given the choice of buying an illegally produced product versus a legally produced product they are going to go with the later. (There is one notable exception and that is when an illegally produced product is successfully passed off as a legal one, e.g., fake brand name goods). What holds for domestic market is likely to hold with international ones as well. Just as legally produced alcohol was smuggled into the US during Prohibition and not moonshine, legally produced pot is more likely going to smuggled into the US than illegally produced pot. With gangs fighting only smuggling roots and not both smuggling roots and domestic production, violence should go down.
That said, for a variety of reasons I think that there is little chance prohibition in the States would withstand a Canadian decision to legalize pot. Indeed, I think the US will legalize marijuana before Canada. Sooner or later, and I am betting sooner, a yes vote in a referendum in the States is going to put marijuana legalization on the political agenda in the States in ways politicians seem loath to. Moreover, even if such a vote is slow to materialize the sure scope of the "medical" marijuana industry in States such as California will do just that. There are more "medical" marijuana dispensaries in LA than Star Bucks.
Then there is what is happening in Latin America. Uruguay is poised to become the first country to legalize the production of pot and other Latin American countries are watching very closely. The war and drugs is becoming politically untenable in many countries and that has greatly reduced the US's ability to to dictate the regions drug policy.
If Canada legalizes marijuana will there be a limit on how many plants you an grow or will it be regulated like booze?
It will be regulated like tobacco. Yes, you can grow tobacco on your own, but you need to be licensed if you want to grow it for sale. How many people actually grow their own tobacco? The reason nobody does is that it is not worth the bother. Bulk tobacco is under $5 a kilo. At a similar price, each of your marijuana plants is worth a few dollars instead of $1000.
How will you prevent the gangs from opening legal grow ops and smuggle their dope to the states?
They would be competing against legal growers who can make a profit at $5/kilo. You'll spend more on fertilizer and equipment to do it indoors. They could still buy from farmers and smuggle though.
One of the main reasons people want drugs legalized is to reduce the gang violence but will legalizing marijuana do that?
They gang violence will probably increase as they lose 80% of their market, and fight each other over what is left. But then it will decrease as gangs leave the market and nobody replaces them because it's just not worth it.
I point you to prohibition era Canada and the cross border smuggling of booze. The violence was outrageous and the US was none too pleased. Will the Liberals have a plan to deal with an unhappy American government?
Most of the violence was after the smuggling and product was landed.
Myself, I'd tell the US, "Deal with the smuggling of guns into Canada, and we'll deal with smuggling pot into the US". Despite gun control, we have had a flood of illegal guns coming in. Perhaps a US government will take the Canadian goverment's "solution" which was to simply loosen gun control.
Once legalized what will we do to prevent "high driving"? Right now if a cop smells reefer he has the ability to deal with it. If it's legal, what will be the legal limit and how will we measure it?
If a cop smells reefer, there is NOTHING he can do, unless he searches the vehicle and finds dope. If you just tossed it out the window before he showed up, he's out of luck. Before breathalyzers, there were various "walk a straight line" type tests. A blood test could be done if you caused an accident.
It's the unexpected consequences of feel good policies that should be worrying the public when it comes to this new Liberal desperation.
I think the public is more worried about the unexpected consequences of CPC policies, such as letting anyone have as many sniper rifles as they want with nobody knowing about it, their gutting environmental reviews, their previous desire to deregulate banks, their desire to monitor the internet without warrants, their desire to buy fancy planes without tendering, their desire to remove various rights or their extreme secrecy in just about everything. I think the public is less concerned about the details of repealing marijuana prohibition, since we have ready examples of regulation with alcohol and tobacco, than the completely new territory the CPC continuously wanders into.
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