cannabisnews.com: Weed Regulations Bad for The Government’s Health





Weed Regulations Bad for The Government’s Health
Posted by CN Staff on July 26, 2003 at 11:09:12 PT
By Steve Durant
Source: The Muse
Is there something wrong, or is it just the weed? Every time the leafy, budding images of the cannabis sativa plant show up on the television, there’s debate. Should Canada decriminalize pot? If so, how much? For who – people over nineteen? People over sixteen? And how about medicinal marijuana? The debate can quickly become complicated, wordy and sometimes downright stupid. The parties involved aren’t even on the same page. Ottawa’s worried about small concerns like how the public will react, how to keep the buds away from the border and likely, what all those cops will do when they don’t have sixteen-year-olds to chase around. 
The rednecks and the American government are screaming that pot will bring damnation – it’ll ruin our economy as workers languish over the bong; it’ll de-motivate our children and turn them into arts students; it’ll cause smash-ups on our highways and terror on our streets. The pro-pot activists say it’s not stoners, but the cops who arrest them, that are the criminals. They see the joint as a constitutional symbol, in much the same light as some Americans see the gun. And so we have the ridiculous debate presently before the country. There’s two issues – medicinal marijuana and the controversy of all controversies, decriminalization. The government has repeatedly gotten caught with their pants down on the former issue, losing a court battle to deny sick people their medicine in a battle that struck down the entire pot law in Ontario by accident – oops! We’ve seen this all before. When Ottawa went up against abortion with all its might and lost, they had the option of watering down the law to please the Supreme Court. Instead they chose to take a graceful exit from the business of policing women’s bodies. Canada has no abortion law – the practise is now carried out in clinics and hospitals, rather than in dangerous isolation. But this time, the feds have got a different plan. Their half-assed proposal for decriminalizing weed – but only if you’ve got a certain amount, and not if you’re not selling it – gives politicians a great opportunity to side-step the media, but makes no sense. The nation’s stoners and anti-drug zealots need to stop bickering, stand up and ask politicians to their faces: does the government have any business stopping people from smoking pot? I sincerely doubt most MPs think it does. These are educated people, who must in some small way realize their after-parliament martini is no different than a student’s after-exam spliff. But instead of straight answers, we get decriminalization. It’s not a compromise. As long as there are still laws on the books making it any sort of offence to possess marijuana, the law states plainly that toking is wrong. That goes for selling, buying and growing, too. The law is about morality – it dictates what’s wrong, and by omission, what’s right. I’ve seen no logical moral arguments in the recent debate on the anti-pot side. People may say society will fall apart because pot’s a great moral ill, but they can’t back it up. “The kids will go crazy” is not an argument when study after study has shown they won’t. If laws don’t exist for a good reason, then they make a mockery of other laws. And there’s no good reason not to throw the entire marijuana law out the door. There’s also no reason the government shouldn’t cash in on the immense tax opportunities. With decriminalization, even the government eventually loses – they keep paying millions to convict people of possessing 15 grams or more. In the meantime, professional dope-growing operations – which tend to have deep connections to organized, violent crime – flourish with money the government could be taking if they legalized dope and taxed it. Face it, Jean and company: Canadians like their weed. Joe Canadian or Jill Newfoundlander is still more likely to go for a brew than a blaze, but there’s a good chance that while they’re socializing at the pub, their kids are scoring dope at the park. At the end of the day, the only difference is the kids’ money goes to bikers, not health care.Source: Muse, The (CN NF Edu)Author: Steve DurantPublished: July 17, 2003Copyright: 2003 The MuseContact muse.editor mun.caWebsite: http://www.mun.ca/muse/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmSmoking Judge Strikes Blow for Pot Puffers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16750.shtmlMessy Marijuana Law Tries Courts, Policehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16721.shtmlNo Laws Ban Possession of Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16321.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by SoberStoner on July 27, 2003 at 08:39:22 PT
One minor quibble
Excellent article except for the continued references to decrim when everyone here knows it's a RE-crim bill. Even other articles are starting to call it what it really is. Hopefully Marc's tour will continue to reinforce the truth that cannabis is legal in canada and the REcrim bill will face brutal opposition in the fall once canadians realize the the sky hasnt fallen down and people aren't turning into bats everywhere they look.Peace and loveSS
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on July 26, 2003 at 19:12:18 PT:
We've Come a Long Way But the Battle's Not Yet Won
A very strange article follows:CN AB: LTE: Drug Dealers Give Our Kids Death Sentences. 25 Jul 2003. 
The Brooks Bulletin http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v03/n1123/a01.html?397Another Joyce in the making.I followed the link to source http://www.brooksbulletin.com/ and found another side of the story: judges and wine and "people, pride and plants."People make Brooks bloom, all agree."The two judges praised Brooks while the Communities in Bloom committee thanked everyone who helped make the community shine at a dinner Monday night.Jacqueline Murray, emcee and Communities in Bloom committee member, told the 75 people at the cafeteria of Medicine Hat College-Brooks Campus that the committee feels justifiable pride in a job well done. Because of the work of so many residents, the town epitomized the national motto of 'People, Pride and Plants,' she said." Full story.
http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/local_news.asp?itemid=12351 We still have irrational opposition right here in Canada, in Alberta, said to contain the largest number of Americans in Canada, Americans who work for Big Oil and Big Ranching. It's strange that the LTE demonizes "all" drugs, including marijuana [sic] as giving "our kids death sentences." Yet alcohol is displaced prominently on the pages of the same newspaper. Is the letter writer a crank or a true representative of that community. "People, pride and plants" is the motto, and yet in the LTE a virulent attack on one plant in particular, cannabis.ego destruction is alive, but not well, in some parts of Canada, trying to keep ego transcendence from having it's day, but for the summer, at least, the future is flowering.
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Comment #2 posted by TroutMask on July 26, 2003 at 15:45:21 PT
Canadian Courts
According to another article recently posted here, the Canadian courts will hear the challenge to the non-illegality (or legality) of marijuana this Tuesday, I believe.-TM
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Comment #1 posted by bongman439 on July 26, 2003 at 11:40:42 PT
re: Weed Regulations Bad 
A well laid out common sense argument that will no doubt fall on deaf ears in Ottawa. I think our best hope right now is the Supreme Court. (And I'm not holding my breath waiting for deliverance from that body either).
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