Police organizations and some provinces are trying to get the federal government to delay implementation to legalize marijuana.
I don’t get it. For decades police have spent billions of dollars trying to enforce legislation outlawing marijuana. For decades otherwise law abiding citizens have chosen to risk their comfortable lives and have chosen a plant over alcohol.
As of July 1 police should no longer be spending a lot of money and resources chasing those now law abiding citizens. So they need more time to prepare to do less? On top of that the federal government is going to pony up more than $250 million to help police work on enforcing what will still be illegal. Driving under the influence is illegal now, and people do it. Why will it be harder to enforce when it’s a legal substance, but like alcohol not legal to drive while under the influence?
Grow-ops are illegal now, and will continue to be illegal. I thought the purpose of legalizing pot was in large part to reduce the black market.
If that’s the purpose don’t do what Ontario is doing. Ontario is going to limit sales to a relatively small number of government stores. Fifty to start and about 150 down the road.
Right now there are about 150 dispensaries operating in greater Vancouver.
B.C. has yet to decide just how to roll out legal marijuana, and I hope they look at Ontario and use it as an example of how not to do things.
I actually think our liquor model in B.C. works pretty well and marijuana sales might look similar.
We already have dispensaries that many cities have decided to allow to operate. Why not allow them to continue but to do so under government supervision and regulation?
If the government wants to provide competition, our current model with government and private stores works well. I’m not sure that if we were to start over we’d decide government stores were needed as long as the government controlled distribution, but that’s yet to be decided.
My main reason to support legalization is to stop the outrageous criminalization of people who choose weed over booze.
It’s been a colossal waste of money and police resources in North America and elsewhere for decades, and it hasn’t stopped people from choosing to indulge.
I personally prefer a good scotch or glass of wine, but I have a friend who’s diabetic. He should not drink, but likes to mellow out after work with a joint.
I have another friend whose aged father-in-law found comfort in his last days by using edibles that he swore dulled the pain of severe arthritis. He was not a threat to anybody. Why should that be illegal?
It’s crazy. This Liberal government was elected, I believe, largely on its promise to finally end the war on drugs. To finally stop making criminals out of people who have decided to make a choice between marijuana and alcohol. So do it and do it right.
In the meantime, shouldn’t we stop enforcing the law as it is for the next nine months?
Recently, a young Saskatchewan man spent five nights in jail and was fined $130 for being found in possession of 1.5 grams of marijuana. (About three joints.)
This is at a time when thousands of Canadians are dying in the midst of an opioid crisis.
Is it too much to ask that the money we are wasting on enforcing out-of-date and soon to be gone marijuana laws be channelled into trying to reduce the influx of opioids and saving some lives?
I believe it’s time to consider what Portugal has done. Decriminalize all drugs. Treat addiction as a health issue not a legal issue, and allow doctors to treat patients who’ve become addicted.
Opioid deaths have all but disappeared in Portugal. Take the money we’ve been spending on enforcement and direct it into treatment, and allow the police to go after the hard-core drug dealers and work to really attack organized crime. I go back to the main intent of legalizing marijuana. Reduce the black market.
Bill Good is a veteran broadcaster currently heard daily on News 1130 @billgood_news
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