Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jan 2018
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2018 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Page: 12

POT PLAN REEKS OF CONDESCENSION

City hall bureaucrats don't think poor people should have access to
legal marijuana.

Of course, in making that request to the LCBO subsidiary that will run
legal pot shops, Ottawa's bureaucrats couched it in more palatable
language.

City staff asked the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, which is
currently looking for areas to open pot stores, to please avoid areas
"experiencing socio-economic stress."

What, precisely, that means is not defined. And no neighbourhood names
are attached to that request. But we can all guess what areas they're
talking about - say, Vanier.

City hall bureaucrats, whose salaries we pay - the poor help pay them,
too - think that less well-off folks can't make decisions about what
they do and how they spend their money.

Politicians and eggheads have always sneered at the
poor.

They argue, for example, that if they were just given money, instead
of applying for it through an elaborate welfare apparatus, they'd just
toss it away. Former Paul Martin aide Scott Reid infamously once said
that the poor, if given childcare money, would just blow it on "beer
and popcorn."

This is just another sign that bureaucrats and politicians may very
well screw up marijuana legalization in practice. Sure, pot shops - as
the government's proposing - shouldn't be near schools.

But otherwise, adults can make choices for themselves.

The shops - if they're going to drive away the black market - need to
go where folks are going to be buying pot.

If legal pot shops are only placed where the wealthy hobnob, dealers
and sleazy pot shops will just move to poorer areas to fill the void
not served by legal shops. If they're already there, they'll stay put.

That's the last thing an area "experiencing socio-economic stress"
would need.

It's the sort of mess only government could concoct.

All adults are able to make their own decisions about what substances
they'll imbibe.

Just because someone's rich and lives in Westboro doesn't make them
more competent than someone living in a less-posh part of town. It's
scandalous condescension.

People shouldn't stand for it - our politicians should put an end to
the request, and then work at getting staff in line.
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MAP posted-by: Matt