By Jesse Robitaille
This column originally appeared in the now-defunct Bullet News Niagara in April 2014.
“A very good friend of mine
told me something the other day.
I’d like to pass it on to you
‘cause I believe what he said to be true.”
— Trooper
Canadian folklore says we’re here for a good time, not a long time.
We’re only driving these meat machines for a short while, and we should have some control over how we drive them—unless, of course, they’re rentals, and we have to return them to God when we die... But that theory is difficult to prove, and this is coming from someone who has spoken to God, on numerous occasions, with the help of some of His plants and fungi.
So who’s to say who’s pure or impure?
When it comes to the "drug problem," the best way forward avoids throwing every person who wants to explore their mind's contents into a cage. This idea of personal liberty quickly turns our drug problem into a police problem, something the seemingly immortal Keith Richards first suggested during a 1970s heroin binge.
Now, it’s becoming a money problem, too.
BALANCING THE BUDGET
Thankfully, there is a solution to our government’s budget woes (not to mention its chronic mismanagement and corruption problems).
In the words of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, “When we find fair, creative solutions to the challenges we face, we all succeed together.”
And I ask you this: what’s more creative than marijuana legalization, with its economic boosts and libertarian ideals?
Canada's beer industry stands as a case study of legalization's benefits. Booze was illegal before, too, but fast forward 90 years, and the government now gives the booze-makers money.
After decades of alcohol-driven degeneracy in the 1800s, most Canadian provinces repealed their booze bans in the 1920s. Some communities with strong temperance movements have upheld prohibition into the 21st century, but Canada's alcohol industry now brings in about $50 billion a year.
One man’s poison is another man’s profit.
Ontario’s ever-growing craft beer industry employs 650 people at 47 microbreweries and another 3,600 people in the agriculture and hospitality sectors. The growth is partly owed to the Ontario Microbrewery Strategy, which helps small brewers to the tune of $1.2 million a year.
Why does our government offer this support?
Well, it makes good economic sense to keep a thriving industry local. By spending $1.2 million on small breweries each year, the province's coffers receive about $400 million in return.
So why, in some crazy, paranoid world, would we ever not offer this support?
Perhaps cannabis can provide a window into the world of political decision making.
“Our government has been clear that, unlike Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada, we have no intention of legalizing marijuana, which would normalize smoking marijuana as an everyday activity,” said Paloma Aguilar, the press secretary for Justice Minister Peter MacKay.
Aguilar forgets this billion-dollar industry exists regardless of the government’s involvement in it.
(And our government may be out of touch with its electorate because smoking marijuana is already an "everyday activity" insofar as drinking alcohol is an everyday activity.)
Let’s not forget how disastrous alcohol is to our health: a 2011 report by the World Health Organization found alcohol causes about 60 serious diseases and accounts for more deaths worldwide than AIDS, tuberculosis and violence. Booze is one of the greatest public health threats, yet the government subsidizes the industry surrounding it.
“We will focus our energy on preventing harmful drug use, especially by children, not on increasing access to marijuana as Justin Trudeau proposes,” Aguilar added, claiming the government always puts the health and safety of families and communities first.
Basically, drugs (except for alcohol and tobacco) are bad, m’kay?
PUMP THE BRAKES
ON YOUR GUILT TRIP
Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t a tirade against alcohol and cigarettes.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
I’m only talking about the negative effects of these drugs to shine a light on the hypocrisy. I think you should be able to do what you want as long as you don’t bother anyone else. If you bother someone else, the police can use one of the many existing laws to protect others and put you in your place.
My point is this: let’s stop trying to guilt everyone into following our own personal moral code, and let’s have a rational, educated conversation about drugs in Canada.
If the current government won’t have this conversation, then we need to shake things up on Parliament Hill. We need leaders who can find and fulfill creative solutions. We only need to look at the successes south of the border to see that this is possible.
Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana last year; residents can buy up to an ounce at a time, but visitors are limited to a quarter ounce. The product is electronically traceable and imprinted with bar codes. You’ll be fined if you smoke in public, but that’s it—no more non-violent pot smokers going to prison with rapists and murderers.
Colorado’s licensed retailers brought in more than $2 million in tax revenue from pot sales in the first month alone, according to a Forbes report. Experts estimate the mile-high state could earn upwards of $150 million this year.
By comparison, Colorado makes $40 million a year from alcohol taxes.
And you can’t beat the savings: the War on Drugs has cost our friends to the south nearly $45 billion over the past three decades.
In Canada, the Fraser Institute – a libertarian-conservative think tank – estimates legalization would generate $2 billion a year based on conservative consumption estimates.
Now, let's consider we Canadians smoke a lot of pot.
In 2007, the United Nations’ World Drug Report found Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the developed world's leader in cannabis consumption (and Pink Floyd fans).
Keep in mind our government spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to prevent this exact thing from happening, but it can’t seem to succeed.
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the government spends $500 million a year trying to keep you from consuming cannabis. The article claims legalization could return about $550 to every Canadian household each year while doubling federal arts funding and student-loan forgiveness—and we’d still have enough left over to provide food, clothing, housing and mental health services to each person experiencing homelessness in this country.
POT FOR A 'PROSPEROUS
& FAIR PROVINCE'
We should explore a marijuana strategy like we’re exploring a beer strategy.
Like booze, marijuana could play a vital role in the government’s plan to make Ontario a “prosperous and fair province.”
We know how prosperous the pot industry is, but what about its fairness?
Well, prohibition is anything but fair.
Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper took office in 2006, about 367,000 Canadians have been arrested on pot-related charges. More than 170,000 of these people were eventually charged with cannabis possession, which can land first-time offenders a $1,000 fine, six months in jail and a criminal record. Owing to the Conservative government’s Safe Streets and Communities Act, which introduced mandatory minimum sentences in 2012, growing pot can now land you a 14-year jail sentence.
According to Statistics Canada, pot-related arrests have risen for most of the past 20 years. The cost of incarcerating each of these prisoners is more than $110,000 a year.
And consider this fact: every dollar spent on trying to prevent you from smoking pot (as well as every dollar spent on throwing you in a cage when you inevitably do smoke pot) is another dollar ripped away from health care, education, infrastructure and other public services.
Despite the absurdity of the global drug war, our feds continue to push things in the wrong direction. The Safe Streets and Communities Act increases enforcement spending and over-incarcerates non-violent users—both costly consequences of an objectively bad drug policy. Locking non-violent drug users in a cage at a tremendous expense to taxpayers is not a solution; it’s a morally reprehensible policy failure.
All the while, support for drug policy reform increases. Last year, a Forum Research poll found more than two-thirds of Canadians support either legalization or decriminalization. Politically, the federal Liberal Party supports legalization while the left-leaning New Democratic Party supports decriminalization. Organizations such as Legalize Canada have also started lobbying for legalization.
The wheels are in motion: things are happening even as we speak.
So whether you think Trudeau is "dope" or "a dope," let’s make marijuana a key issue in next year’s election. Enough with the bullshit.
It’s not about getting high. It’s about doing what you want with your own body and mind.
It’s not about enabling drug users. It’s about making evidence-based drug policies focused on public health.
It’s not about the pot. It’s about giving people what they want and balancing the budget in the process.
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