First, I must agree with PBI that this current thread has little, if anything, to do with that anti-social wack job in Alberta.
I must admit to being seriously conflicted on this issue- because it is not a simple one.
I have had a sneaking suspicion for years that the "war on drugs" has been an abject failure. Most of the so-called war has been focussed on removing supply, rather than attacking demand. Yet, despite years of effort, prices for most drugs have fallen and availability has grown. In BC, there is quite literally at least one grow op on each city block. It is estimated that the crop is worth $ 7 BILLION dollars/year (source: Global news BC, last night). Much of the crop goes to the US, (in exchange for illegal weapons, cash and cocaine) but alot of it stays here. You cannot walk downtown Victoria and not see people openly smoking Pot. The cops do not even bother stopping it, because the prosecutors won't go to court over simple possession. So why not attack the buyers? Well, the buyers are you and me (well, not literally- no one on this board would smoke pot, right
) and we are voters and that would not do. No government would last it's term if they went after everyone who smoked pot. I suspect (I have never used pot) that people who use pot are much like those who use alcohol- there are those who have limits and those do not. I think that those who are going to abuse a substance may either be genetically pre-disposed to an addiction or may have some sort of emotional or other problem that they are trying to mask (think sexual abuse or PTSD- something like that). If I am right in my supposition, it would be incredibly complicated to "heal" everyone who abused a substance- but I think that this is where the real root of almost all the problems that our society faces.
So much for theory- now the practicalities. Pot is illegal in the US. Will remain so for the forseeable future. I suspect that if we full-on legalized pot up here (you know- Labatts and Moosehead selling the stuff under their brand name), the border would almost completely snap shut, at least in the short term, with us having the most to lose, economically. I think it would also put us in violation of several UN drug eradication and trafficking agreements that we have signed (recent opponents of our participation in missile defence take note! You can't have it both ways!).
To legalize pot, we would need to have a reliable road side test. After we have spent the last 20 years fight drunk driving, I do not want to share the road with those so stoned that it would take them 30 seconds or more to decide to hit the brake at a stop sign.
I think the jury is still out on the relative health risk (long and short term) of pot. It would seem a bit hypocritical to me for the goverment to continue running ads against smoking and drinking while at the same time legalizing another substance like pot. That said, we would still have to have prohibitions against people like pilots, professional drivers, heavy equipment operators, soldiers, etc for consuming pot because we cannot have a situation where THC gets re-released into a 747 pilot's booldstream during in a stressful situation.
Would we really get rid of organized crime by legalizing pot? The US experience with Prohibition suggest to me that they would just change games. Once alcohol was re-legalized in the US, did the mob not just turn back to gambling, extortion and prostitution? What would stop our organized crime syndicates from just moving into methy or something like that?
Having something illegal that is this widely used anyway just promotes cynicism and a lack of respect for all laws in general. Maybe this stuff should be made legal (and taxed) and brought out into the open. On the other hand, I hate legalized gambling in BC, because I see it as a tax on the stupid and the poor.
We need a full debate on this issue in this country. Not one where 15 second sound bites get thrown around, but a real one. I still can't make up my mind...
Cheers!