Pubdate: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Page: 6 HARPER'S SMOKY FEAR On the marijuana file, the Conservatives should be careful of blowback. It's all fun and games to try to paint Liberal leader Justin Trudeau as Marc Emery's best friend but there is risk for the Conservatives in overreacting (why isn't Harper focusing on the economy?) and in alienating the more libertarian arm of his own party (who cares if the neighbour smokes a little weed to help him sleep at night as long as it's not in front of my kids?). So far, however, the Conservative reaction is to tighten their ties another couple of notches and borrow the worst overheated rhetoric from the prohibition era. The Prime Minister's Office trotted out poor Steven Blaney, the federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, to sound positively 19th century in his reaction to Emery's return to Canada and Trudeau's willingness to modernize Canada's pot laws. "While the Liberals would try to make it easier for our children to access marijuana, Canadians can count on our government to put forward policies that keep drugs off our streets and keep our families safe," Blaney said. The only people who believe Trudeau is trying to put pot in the hands of kids are the Conservatives, because it serves their political purposes to say so, not because it's true. Trudeau sees what several American states have done with decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, as well as the law enforcement cost savings and the negative impact it could have on a lucrative revenue stream for organized crime. Furthermore, Trudeau is listening to Canada's police chiefs, who came out last year in favour of a ticket for a small amount of pot for personal use, rather than filing formal criminal charges. On the surface, it appears Emery's encouragement for his supporters to vote Liberal next fall, as well as his wife Jodie's plan to run as a Liberal candidate, is a potential embarrassment for Trudeau. After all, Trudeau is trying to demonstrate to Canadians that he's fit and ready to govern on all of the important issues, instead of being just a cool dude who thinks it's never too early for 4:20. Certainly the Conservatives want Canadians to think so and it's easy to hear the strident campaign slogans they'll trot out next fall that the Liberals are the party of convicted felons and that Trudeau would spark up a doobie in the West Block after Question Period if he were elected Prime Minister. Canadians might not be so accepting of that over-the-top reaction, particularly when they learn that Emery was sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison for the ghastly crime of selling marijuana seeds to American customers. Voters want cops and prosecutors sending killers, violent offenders, gang members, pedophiles and corporate crooks to prison. That's a better use of their time and a better use of prisons than to house a guy who dared police to arrest him for selling seeds so people could grow their own pot. That isn't necessarily what many people think of when they think of responsible government, which is the core Conservative argument for why they, and not Trudeau or Tom Mulcair's NDP, should continue to rule. The strident stance by the Conservatives on marijuana use exposes a potential Achilles heel for Mulcair and Trudeau to strike in the next election. It's not pot that keeps Stephen Harper and social conservatives fretting at night, it's the increasing legal recognition of individual rights. Look closer at Blaney's statement, no doubt written by a member of Harper's office. What it's really saying is that all individual rights should be second to the right of families to be safe, ignoring the possibility that pot smokers and safe families can exist under the same roof. Social conservatives see the rise of the Marc Emerys of the world as a sign of increasing anarchy and flagrant disrespect of traditional morals. His supporters think it's no concern of the government if there is lighting up in the bedrooms of the nation, to paraphrase a previous Trudeau. A growing number of residents, including police chiefs, are seeing how harmless Emery and his views are. By demonizing both him and Trudeau, however, the Conservatives could learn the hard way that when you blow smoke, sometimes it gets in your eyes. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt