Pubdate: Wed, 14 Aug 2013
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2013 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Marilyn Baker
Note: Marilyn Baker is a freelance writer in Richmond, B.C.

SMOKING IS LOSING TO TOKING

RICHMOND - Justin Trudeau, the latest new leader of the Liberal 
party, was out here in Vancouver in July to announce a policy plank 
in his party's platform. He has decided he is not in favour of 
decriminalizing pot. No. He is in favour of legalizing it so it can 
be taxed and regulated to keep our children safe. He was greeted with 
cheers and applause. At least that's what it sounded like on the 
radio clip I heard.

In other news, our city fathers in their infinite wisdom have banned 
cigarette smoking everywhere. It has been illegal to smoke inside for 
some time, and now it is illegal to smoke outside, in any public 
place including parks and beaches. There was even a rumour that a 
condo voted to ban owners from toking, oops, I mean smoking, inside 
their own apartments.

I think we're in the silly season, as John le Carre so aptly put it - 
the season when bureaucracy and government leaders and those in 
charge of us, go bonkers and completely flip their lids.

To crystallize this moment in time for casual observers, here's what we've got:

Downtown on the lawn of the old Courthouse (now the Vancouver Art 
Gallery, an elegant and stately edifice) the air is pungent with pot 
smoke. Pot smokers can light up with impunity, anywhere and any time 
under the very noses of the Vancouver police, who studiously examine 
their fingernails or stare up at the sky. Meanwhile, we have zealous 
city bylaw officers patrolling our public parks and beaches, pouncing 
out of bushes to ferret out tobacco smokers. Anyone caught with a 
cigarette will be given a $200 ticket on the spot. And don't even 
think of trying the "but sir I didn't inhale" defence. These guys 
don't have a sense of humour. Besides, that only works with pot and 
if your surname is Clinton.

As I see it, tobacco smokers have two options: Either mingle with 
potheads and pretend you are smoking marijuana, or start a petition 
to get tobacco declared illegal so you can smoke in peace.

But back to legalizing pot. Being a moderate libertarian, I am in 
favour of legalizing cannabis. It seems silly to outlaw a plant.

Trudeau fils has adeptly carved out a position on what he hopes will 
be a wedge issue in the election two years hence.

But, if he's serious about this, and serious about curbing kids' pot 
habits, then he needs to go much further. It's one thing to tax and 
regulate. It's quite another to achieve a lowering of drug usage 
among the population. (I assume this would be one of Trudeau's key objectives.)

Canada is very good at how it deals with legal drugs. We have more or 
less hit the sweet spot as far as tobacco is concerned. Smoking is at 
an all-time low and keeps going down. This is a good thing.

So, before we legalize pot, we need to address a few things. The 
first one is vital: Pot is a psychoactive, mind-altering drug that 
impairs thinking and motor function. For pot, we need an easily 
administered roadside test for impairment, similar to the 
breathalyzer test we have for alcohol. Colorado and Washington states 
have set pot blood-impairment levels at five nanograms per 
millilitre. Fine. Now they need to figure out how to test that 
legally and efficiently. Let's watch what they do.

Second, we need to put sufficient funding in place to treat those 
addicted to pot, as we do for gambling and alcohol. We also need 
funding to defray the extra cost to the health-care system due to 
pot's deleterious effect on the respiratory system, which is similar 
to tobacco.

Third, we need to implement propaganda in the school system, to 
counter the siren call of pot, just as we have done with tobacco and 
other addictive substances. The results for tobacco have been wildly 
successful. Shaming and blaming, disparagement, ostracizing, social 
isolation, ridicule, derision, widespread disapproval and other 
techniques have worked miracles.

We need teachers to send their little charges home, armed with 
anti-pot facts, stats and pamphlets designed to scare their parents 
into quitting their pot habit. Since more kids smoke pot now than 
cigarettes, this will have a good effect on the next generation, just 
as it's had with tobacco. Of course, it goes without saying large, 
evil multinational pot manufacturers wouldn't be allowed to advertise.

Those of us not suffering from memory loss due to pot-smoking might 
recall former Liberal minister Allan Rock railing against Big Tobacco 
even while continuing to reap a tidy profit from taxes on pot sales.

If Trudeau the Younger's pot initiative is successful, and the 
Liberals form the government in 2015, I look forward to hearing his 
health minister accuse Big Cannabis of putting private profit ahead 
of public health.

I also look forward to hearing, like, where he stands on other 
government stuff, yunno? Stuff like health care? Yah, and, like, the 
economy? Yah. Stuff like that.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom