Large Fierce Mammal

“How much do you trust your government?

“It’s the eternal American question, but one Canadians should be asking themselves, too.

“Because in a few months, we will presumably all wake up free — for the first time in any of our lives — to legally possess recreational cannabis.

“And with that new freedom will come a new relationship with government. Government, which has for generations policed and prosecuted cannabis use, now wants become (sic) our dealer, too, with tools to learn and record every detail of our consumption habits.

“Legalization is only sensible. It was good to hear former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, now a Liberal MP and Justin Trudeau’s point man on the file, tell me flatly that there is no evidence cannabis is a “gateway drug,” the canard authorities have used for so long to justify ruining so many people’s lives.”

What you just read is an excerpt from an article published yesterday to CBC News under the title Can you trust a government pot dealer?: Neil Macdonald. He’s talking about Canada’s impending Cannabis Act brought to you by the same government that is at once working to push through Bill C-71, An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms that passed first reading in the House of Commons on 20 March 2018. It’s being sold to the non-gun owning public as a solution to the rising problem of gang violence described in another CBC piece posted 7 March 2018 titled Gang murders bucking trend toward a less violent Canada, summit told, Fewer Canadians are shooting each other than a generation ago — but gang life is as violent as ever.

As quoted above in the matter of marijuana, “Legalization is only sensible. It was good to hear former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, now a Liberal MP and Justin Trudeau’s point man on the file, tell me flatly that there is no evidence cannabis is a “gateway drug,” the canard authorities have used for so long to justify ruining so many people’s lives.”

That’s a pretty clear statement that as far as the Government of Canada is concerned, consumers of marijuana will no longer be viewed or treated as users, possessors, or purveyors of heavier drugs, whether by intent, act, or potentiality, unless they actually are found to be users, possessors, or purveyors of heavier drugs. You see, we already have laws on the books for that, and the fact that they, not unlike those that brought us the noble experiment of Prohibition, have no real influence on stopping use of, and trafficking in, hard drugs is beside the point.

In application though, we see a template being applied to the legalization of marijuana that has parallels with the way the measures of Bill C-71 are being described  — the legal activities of law abiding citizens come wrapped in a heavy dose of furrowed brow and wagging finger because, without that, we’d all go off the rez at the drop of a hat. Wouldn’t we?

Nevertheless, quite an enlightened move to admit that smoking a joint doesn’t make one a junky. Any more, I might add, than having a firearm makes you a mass murderer, having a penis makes you a rapist, a vagina makes you understanding and nurturing, having a driver’s license and a motor vehicle makes you a speeder, buying or possessing alcohol makes you an impaired driver, or having a child makers you a parent.

“Because regardless of political intent, the machinery of government and enforcement can be a dull-witted hive, entirely capable of ugly, unintended consequences ….

“Exactly how the government outlets will operate is still being sorted out, but it’s a safe bet that the dazzling array of strains and choices available to consumers in certain American states won’t be permitted. There won’t likely be the pot equivalent of wine sommeliers, either. The government clerks will be there to sternly enforce and regulate, not to encourage. (emphasis added)”

“Will customers have to identify themselves? Will their purchases be recorded? Perhaps, says Blair, but that data would be protected by privacy laws, and never divulged.

“Again, a matter of trust.” ~ Can you trust a government pot dealer?: Neil Macdonald

I do not have, nor ever had, an interest in consuming marijuana personally, but I am in favour of a clean legal path for those who wish to. I am a licensed firearms owner and shooting instructor of many years standing though, and I find no small amount of irony in the contrast in sales technique being used by the same government to at once decriminalize a long demonized substance while it acts to once again move the always shifting line of gun ownership further under the shadow of suspicion and criminalization. In both cases we have smiling Justin Trudeau bestowing his long promised gifts upon the hooples, fraught with parental conditions.

One set of measures doesn’t go far enough — much could be learned from the liquor and tobacco laws now extant upon the land that have already dealt with the issues of possession, purveyance, and situations of consumption those drafting cannabis legislation seem to think are somehow different.

The other set of measures is a waste of time and treasure with embedded inroads into creating vulnerabilities to breaches of security. It will accomplish nothing, and as John Robson put it in his 27 March 2018 National Post article, Don’t mock the kids, but don’t let nonsense count as profound, either:

“Further annoying the law-abiding won’t help.”