Pubdate: Tue, 06 Aug 2013
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Gordon Gibson

THE GRASS DOESN'T GROW UNDER JUSTIN'S FEET

The issue of legalization has been revived by another Trudeau, 
fittingly enough, and it will surely have more traction this time around

The decision by the young Mr. Trudeau to advocate for the 
legalization of marijuana brings to mind a once-told but still 
wonderful story about his father. To set the scene, it was the early 
1970s. I was then assistant to the prime minister, travelling with 
him, and we had instituted a series of "regional tours" to show the 
political flag in all parts of the country.

Southwestern Ontario was the target on this occasion, and so it came 
to pass that we arrived in the town of Guelph. Of course, local 
industry needs must be recognized, and so we found ourselves in a 
bull semen factory, where the product was extracted in ways still 
unknown to me and then shipped to lucky cows throughout North America.

This particular plant activity was the butt of much ribald humour by 
the 20 or so reporters along, but they had another thing on their 
minds that day. This surfaced at the daily tour press conference, 
which was fortuitously held in the boardroom of the factory.

That morning had arrived the long-awaited report of the Le Dain 
Commission on the non-medical use of drugs. Gerald Le Dain - a friend 
of the prime minister and eventually a Supreme Court judge - had 
recommended the decriminalization of marijuana, quite a bombshell in 
those days. Thus, the first question had little to do to do with 
rutting animals in the barnyard and everything to do with a young 
generation of humans sucking the smoke of "weed," or "grass," as the 
substance was commonly known in those days.

So here it came: "Mr. Prime Minister, what do you think of the Le 
Dain recommendation on marijuana?" Trudeau pere was nothing if not 
quick, but his response startled even a long-time observer. He looked 
around the room and saw a blackboard. It was blank save for a 
permanent painting of Elsie the Cow, a well-known commercial image 
quite at home in this particular setting.

He walked over to the board, picked up a piece of chalk and drew a 
cartoonist's speech balloon out of the cow's mouth. Therein he wrote 
the following words: "I ... like ... grass." And then said, "Next question."

The room exploded in laughter. The prime minister was thought by many 
to be a secret smoker, though in many travels with him I saw not the 
slightest evidence of that. But the reply was hilariously consistent 
with the myth, in a way that could not be proven. The conference 
moved on to other matters, and in a longer time frame, the Le Dain 
report was of little effect, although prior to the 1980 election, Mr. 
Trudeau did put into the platform some minor promises that 
disappeared after his defeat by Joe Clark.

Now the issue is back, revived by another Trudeau, fittingly enough, 
and it will surely have more traction this time around. My guess is 
that, unless the Tories and New Democrats are clever, legalization 
will become one of the defining issues of the next election. But the 
Tories are trapped by their social conservative ideology, dead set 
against. This, of course, is perfectly of a piece with the rest of 
their antediluvian views on crime and punishment and quite out of 
touch with the public view.

The New Democrats by contrast have taken the "safe" route of some 
sort of soft decriminalization of possession, but - ahem - certainly 
not soft on drugs, "gateway" or otherwise. But Canadians have moved 
past that. So Justin Trudeau has jumped them all and carved out a 
clever and distinguishing niche policy. This also has for him the 
merit of suggesting he has the smarts to take into account other 
vaguely imagined reform aspirations of the public too little 
appreciated by the political class.

Until recently, the realpolitik thought has been that Canada cannot 
do the sensible thing with marijuana because the Americans, drug 
warriors to the point of insanity, would make us pay heavily. They 
surely have ways of doing this in NAFTA-proof ways, seriously slowing 
down border crossings by detailed inspections seeking the dreaded 
weed, for example.

That has now changed. One could not want more evidence than the 
relaxed reaction of the Obama administration to the legalization of 
the substance in Washington state and Colorado. The American public 
generally has reached the same conclusion as those two states, and a 
bit of Canadian leadership here is now internationally affordable.

So I think the Conservatives have this choice: They can change their 
drug policy. Or this issue, and others of a similar sort, will be a 
significant part of why Canadians change their government in 2015.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom