Young Trudeau, that is, with his admission this week that he has tried ……….hold it…….. Marijuana.
Imagine – just like many – dare I say most – Canadians.
The oldsters – are aghast.
But even though I fit in that category ..in this case.. I am on YT’s side in his wish to see the drug legalized.
In truth I support the interim step of decriminalization but only in the sense that it would be a temporary stop leading to full legalization.
I am not so sure that Harper – given his following ambiguous statement, does not believe as I do but I leave that assessment for another time.
He said upon learning of YT’s statement – this revelation speaks for itself. Whatever that was intended to mean.
In past Blogs I have spoken out against the criminalization of MJ for the main reason dear reader – is that it does not work. Anymore than prohibition did the dirty thirties.
Again I say, the War on Drugs was lost a long time ago.
That does not mean I will run out and buy a dimes worth any time soon – I abhor its use and would be most disturbed if any of my friends or love ones got into it.
And for the record – I, unlike YT, have never tried the stuff.
But thanks to its current criminalization – it is so easy to obtain.
Criminals are making a bundle off of the MJ trade and the Cops are also able to pad their ranks in their futile attempts at stamping it out.
So the winners in the current criminal regime are the bad guys and the good guys.
The losers are the rest of us - the users and if you will – the taxpayers since we lose out on the major tax revenues that could be reaped in a legalized regime – cigarettes and booze anyone.
Users, I believe, would be much better off since with legalization, the focus would turn to treatment and advertising the ill effects of drug use and heaven knows with the monies saved on wasted policing and lost tax revenues – their would be plenty of dough around to do the job.
Moreover, bringing the issue out in the open would allow society to bring its influence to bear on users much the same way it has in ostracizing cigarette smokers.
Simply stated, it will become far less cool to inhale dirty smoke if it becomes legal to do so.
As you know, I am at heart a Libertarian so if in the end someone wants to impair their life via the use of marijuana – well that’s their decision – they are only hurting themselves.
In addition, there are so many areas where we need good policing such as with regard to Human Trafficking.
Young Trudeau is on to something here but it is just about the only thing he has said with which I agree.
As I see it…
‘K.D. Galagher’
