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Harper’s government yes men for the US when it comes to war on drugs
By Hempology | July 17, 2007
Packet & Times, ON
16 Jul 2007
EXPECT NO CHANGE IN POT POLITICS
Decriminalization of marijuana will not happen in our lifetime. Not at this rate.
Liberal Senator Larry Campbell restated his preference this week to regulate and control pot, just as alcohol production and distribution is governed.
Then “tax the hell out of it,” Campbell urged, adding revenues could be rolled into underfunded priorities like health care.
Too much is spent on enforcement and justice with too little gained, he rightly said. And it’s hard to imagine any government move that would do more to kick the stuffing out of organized crime, which is thriving on this growth industry, just as it did on the prohibition of alcohol in an earlier era.
Debate was sparked this week when the United Nations reported there are more Canadian tokers now than ever before, as far as its 2007 study on worldwide drug use is concerned.
Among developed nations, our citizens apparently rank highest when it comes to telling pollsters they smoked marijuana in 2004.
The 16.8 per cent who admitted breaking the law beat out the Americans by more than four percentage points, and easily outpaced residents of Britain, France and Germany.
Of course, that was the year Canadians thought Paul Martin was serious when he started pushing through the Grit decriminalization law.
The legislation soon died on the vine, and it’s highly unlikely Prime Minister Stephen Harper will lead a Conservative charge to make getting stoned any easier.
In fact, police charges for marijuana possession jumped 20 per cent since the Grit law went up in smoke.
And Harper’s people have let it be known they’re capable of adopting American approaches. The marijuana issue, don’t forget, acts as a poker chip in a larger political gambit.
And, let’s face it, the Harper government hasn’t won a lot of its hands with George W. Bush in power. Bickering over resources, philosophical differences about security, and the meagre availability of our military somehow gets in the way.
Only our bravery in Afghanistan impresses our southerly neighbours. But the war on drugs is something Harper can embrace full throttle, one of those win-win situations if one wants to impress a trading partner while serving his party and constituents.
Think of it as Harper’s way to keep our kids at home, the youth outmigration problem solved by giving a higher percentage of its citizens criminal records.
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