Pubdate: Wed, 04 Nov 2015
Source: Penticton Western (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Penticton Western
Contact:  http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310
Author: John Thompson

DANGERS OF LEGALIZING POT

Oh, the political perils of pot, let alone its health and safety
implications. All of those voters who went for Justin's legal pot
promise will have to remain underground for a while yet, but this
won't slow down the dedicated tokers one bit.

A recent Canadian Press article outlines some of the complications
with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and other U.S. states.
It isn't as easy as it seems at first blush. It's also worth
re-checking what Health Canada says about the hazards of pot. No
surprises there. It's at least as dangerous as tobacco, which we have
worked vigorously to suppress for the past 40 years, and considerably
worse. Imagine what the government warning label might look like on a
package of legal marijuana.

We may need to re-consider our signature on several major
international drug control agreements including The Single Convention
on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Drugs of
1971, and the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs
and Psychotropic Substances of 1988. These require signatories to
limit and even prohibit the possession, use, trade and distribution of
drugs outside of medical and scientific purposes. Backing away from
these would seem at odds with the Liberal's eagerness to sign on to
some of the other UN agreements. But hey, most of these UN conventions
are non-binding, aspirational declarations anyway. Sometimes it's a
sunny smile from world government, but sometimes it's an angry frown.
What to do?

The cynical among us might conclude that the whole marijuana thing was
a throwaway election promise in the first place, maybe just a
"smokescreen" to get the pot users vote. Recreational marijuana users
already have pretty much what they want; good supply and quality,
acceptable pricing, and virtually no-fault possession and use. All
that's missing is the blessing of big nanny government. There are
expectations of huge tax revenues from this, but maybe not. The
Colorado experience is showing that the net effect can be something of
a disappointment. Economics 101 says that government enterprises are
never profitable unless they enjoy a monopoly, and it's unlikely they
will ever quash the competition from "God's little acre".

Those who plan to roll their celebratory doobies with those yellow,
full-page Conservative election ads from last week need to know that
newsprint is full of harmful carcinogens. That darn Harper can still
bite.

John Thompson, Kaleden
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MAP posted-by: Matt