The federal government is asking for input on its planned law for legalizing marijuana. Anyone who is interested might want to weigh in:
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/you-should-probably-take-the-governments-...
http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-system-systeme-sante/consultations/...
The vice.com link above is broken. Here is a fixed link: You Should Probably Take the Government’s Boring Ass Quiz About Weed
Thx. I thought I left a space there.
I sped through the bureaucratic jibberish. My answers were short, and mostly against criminalizing youth, or criminalizing users (except for considerations of impaired driving or industrial work). The only other really important thing for me is getting rid of organized crime - and I think legalization will be a help with that.
I think that pot smokers are going to be surprised to wake up to a world where "legalized" cannabis is so heavily regulated that the black market will still thrive.
The "discussions" paper was a push/poll exercise that repeated the myths from the anti-pot activists. I am so fucking tired of hearing that rag weed was low in THC back in the day. Your damn right it was and that is why we all smoked hash especially black hash. The only people who smoked the rag weed are the same people who now say I tried pot a few times in my youth and all I ever got was a headache.
I have been saying for some time now that the new legalized regime will not allow growing your own for personal use and given this "discussion" paper I will add that they will be selling shit no one wants to smoke so the black market will be alive and well.
My 28 year old son tells me that some of his friends voted Liberal because of the promise to legalize which to the untrained ear sounded less restrictive than the promise to decriminalize. Silly youth believed a lying Liberal leader whose specialty is obfuscation while smiling.
I continue to be greatly amused by "restricting access" and "protecting our children" being the big thrusts of the Liberal legalization spin, rather than "Canadians enjoy smoking the stuff". Here's the thing: Those arguments aren't entirely wrong, but they're also 100% applicable to every other controlled substance. If the NDP had decent leadership at the moment, now would be the ideal time to roll out some attack ads asking why Trudeau wants cocaine, heroin, and meth to remain easily accessible to children.
I think you are right k.
But what it will mean is another round of inadequate supply and court challenges and wasted time until they are finally forced to get it right.
No different than what they are pulling on assisted dying.
Fortunately there are the examples south of the border of systems which, to a greater or lesser degree, work. So they can no longer claim it will be the end of the world.
