Pubdate: Sat, 23 Sep 2017 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://torontosun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: John Snobelen Page: 15 TRUDEAU'S POT PLAN GOES UP IN SMOKE Remember back when Justin Trudeau was cool? As a Liberal backbencher Trudeau had it all. Great hair. Nice car. As leader of the Liberal party, he spoke with the kind of delicious platitudes that only those who have never failed can embrace. Canadians loved the guy. He was going to solve our problems with a combination of moral superiority and celebrity chill. The budget would balance itself. Aboriginal problems would miraculously resolve themselves. The environment would heal under the soft stirring of his canoe paddle. Challenges that plagued lesser leaders for decades were nothing in the face of Trudeau's enlightened approach. When Trudeau swept the Liberals to a majority government, Canada was suddenly glowing in his reflective coolness. Camelot North. Nothing in his policy arsenal demonstrated cool better than his pledge to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Before the last election, the liberalization of marijuana didn't need much explanation. Heck, it was 2015. Fast-forward to 2017 and the Liberal approach doesn't look so cool anymore. True to form, the Trudeau government barely paused to consider the challenges of legalizing marijuana. They simply tossed the problems to the provinces. Which is how, in this ocean of coolness, we came to the embarrassingly uncool announcement that Ontario would only permit the sale of marijuana in a few special LCBO stores. The new pot stores won't look like the relative retail oases of the LCBO wine and alcohol stores today. They will be throwbacks to the 1950's when Ontarians skulked into a barren LCBO store, filled out a form and waited while a dutiful public servant retrieved the poison and put it in a brown paper bag. Premier Kathleen Wynne's approach to marijuana distribution recalls a line from a JJ Cale song, "Momma don't allow no reefer smoking round here." It might be legal, but by Gawd, it ain't gonna be easy. This is, of course, an attempt to protect Ontarians from the evil weed. You wouldn't want this stuff getting in the hands of children. Trouble is, the Liberal approach to marijuana is going to ensure the kids, and most adults, source their weed from a, dare I say it, cooler, source: Organized crime. It isn't difficult to get high quality marijuana in Canada. You can order it online and Canada Post will bring it to your home. This may shock our Liberal friends but children can get all the pot they can smoke. It's cheap and readily available. Organized criminals are good at this. Heck, they own the illegal cigarette business. Where will the Liberal approach to regulating pot consumption leave us? Folks will have to choose between fully taxed marijuana and the joys of a government retail experience (online or in store) or the more enticing and cheaper offerings from organized crime. The regulators will be in the impossible position of attempting to control a legal product that is distributed online and can be lawfully produced in any backyard. The cops will be armed with the highly subjective roadside sobriety test as the only barrier to driving stoned. Get ready for an onslaught of cars driving at 10 miles an hour down the 401, with empty Doritos bags flying out the windows. How cool is that? In this brave new world, the Liberals' attempts at regulation are laughable, which is a problem for Trudeau and Wynne. Last time I checked, it wasn't cool to be laughed at. - ------------------------------------------------------------- Snobelen was a cabinet minister in the Conservative government of Ontario premier Mike Harris from 1995 to 2002. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt