Champagne corks were popping across the nation as criminals in Canada cheered the recently revised marijuana laws.
This now forces tens of thousands of law abiding citizens with valid medicinal marijuana prescriptions to seek ‘alternative’ sources for their favorite bud because of the actions of a handful who broke the rules. The Canadian government claims that by reversing its medical marijuana laws, now forbidding people to grow their own marijuana for medicinal use, it will improve the current ‘situation’. However, opponents say that the revisions will only force thousands of good, law abiding people to illegally do what they medically need to do.
An Angus Reid poll in 2012, found national support for the decriminalization of marijuana was 57% in favor. Today groups of former police officers, prosecutors and judges, all across Canada, are appealing to the government to decriminalize pot, but strangely, the government refuses to follow the wishes of the majority. In fact, the current Conservative government has stepped up the prosecution of pot, so that when added together, all marijuana offences—possession, growing and trafficking—accounted for a record 78,000 arrests in 2011, or 69% of all drug offences in Canada. Simple pot possession represented 54 per cent of the horrendous crime police that managed to uncover.
Over 30,000 Canadians currently authorized to use dried marijuana will now have to rely on pricier government-sanctioned growers for their medication, rather than growing it themselves or relying on a designated grower. The former cost of $1.80-a-gram for government supplied marijuana is now expected to reach $8.80 a gram. But, the vast majority of people who are legally able to purchase marijuana from the government refuse to buy from it, because the quality of the product is horrible. In fact, only 13% of those eligible to purchase it actually do, with the balance claiming that the product is so pathetically poor it is a waste of time, effort and money. Of the 15 people with valid prescriptions for marijuana that participated in our survey, 15 stated they now will have to find ‘alternative’ suppliers to meet their needs.
Using the excuse of ‘public safety concerns’, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq rolled out Canada’s new medical-marijuana rules, stating that the overwhelming growth in medical-marijuana users is reason to ban patients from growing their own. In fact, the ‘overwhelming growth’ is only from 500 medical-marijuana users in 2001, to just over 30,000 twelve years later, or less than .01% of the nation’s population. Without citing a single instance of alleged threats, her ministry said, “This rapid increase has had unintended consequences for public health, safety and security as a result of allowing individuals to produce marijuana in their homes. Under the new regulations, production will no longer take place in homes, and municipal zoning laws will need to be respected, which will further enhance public safety.”
However, the government’s move is quizzical, as the revised rules will now cost taxpayers many times more than any revenue that may result from the revisions. The question that the government’s odd actions now raises, is if organized crime is the only real beneficiary of the government’s actions, is the government involved with organized crime? And if so, just how deeply? As the current government’s loyal aging hard core right wing political supporters die by the thousands each week, is a certain political party aligning itself to tap the deep pockets of criminals for funding? It seems to be the only thing to make any sense.
