Marc Emery: In Canada, cannabis regulation is the new prohibition
By: Marc Emery on November 19th, 2015 at 2:05 PM After 50 years of oppression by three levels of Canadian governments (1965 being the first year for a notable number of marijuana arrests in Canada) and bullying Big Brother the United States looking over its shoulder for compliance, these same oppressors are now implementing “regulations” to achieve the goals of prohibition in the era of legalization.
Make no mistake, every elected Liberal member of Parliament, including cabinet ministers, is on record supporting legalization. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed his Minister of Justice in a public mandate to implement this goal by the end of his first term. “Legalization” is going happen, and Canada appears to be the first democracy in the world where a government was elected campaigning on a promise to legalize marijuana and is going to follow through.
But if legalization is the inevitable and unanimous policy of the governing body, why is it illegal now?
The policy of legalization is the result of the acknowledgement of the colossal failure of marijuana prohibition and the War on Drugs. In other words, marijuana prohibition is morally wrong, it is counterproductive, and it's an injustice to the entire Canadian cannabis culture, which numbers in the millions. It corrupts law enforcement, it lures tens of thousands of young people into marijuana dealing and selling each year, introducing them to the opportunities in gangs, black markets, and other prohibition incentives.
There was no useful public policy resulting from prohibition at all unless you consider the stigma that has been applied to us for 50 years. I see that as the primary policy goal of marijuana prohibition in Canada: to make members of the cannabis culture feel on the defensive; third-class citizens who can have their children, homes, possessions, bank accounts, and jobs taken away at any moment should the "system" decide to make their marijuana lifestyle an issue.
The inference is still there, even from politicians advocating legalization, that marijuana use is unhealthy, inadvisable, a moral failing, corrupting of children, it makes you stupid, it's dangerous, and that we need to have non-cannabis authorities restrict our culture for our own good and charge whopping license fees and taxes, which get passed on to the cannabis consumer.
All those stigmas are inherent in the regulations being enacted in Canada, particularly in the City of Vancouver
Beer and alcohol are dangerous, but any Canadian—with or without a criminal record—can brew beer in their home or in brew places. You can personally possess hundreds of cases of beer in your home. You can start a microbrewery or a craft beer brewery. You can drink alcoholic beverages in any one of thousands of alcohol lounges known as pubs, taverns, and restaurants. Yet the damage caused to society by alcohol—just going from our homes to the pub and back is a tremendous cause of carnage—is undeniable and so enormous in criminogenic behaviour, relationship abuse, traffic accidents, and fatalities that few people fully comprehend the pervasive damage to every aspect of life that alcohol consumption causes.
The presumption is, however, that as long as you peacefully use alcohol, you can do so without stigma or punishment.
Peaceful honest lifestyles should be legal. Canada's Liberal government was elected saying prohibition was a failure and therefore marijuana should be legal. Implicit in that complete change in direction is the clear belief that marijuana prohibition creates victims, is unjustifiable in any way, and is wrong.
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