We’re legalizing cannabis? Who is we?
A bureaucratic enforcement apparatus following orders from politicians who are in charge because they won an election?
Why was cannabis illegal to begin with? The Liberals are silent on this matter, nevertheless, everything they say is a lie.
A military-sounding task force has been set up, headed by a former cabinet minister from the Chretien era.
Anne McLellan once called cannabis a “scourge,” a word synonymous with afflictions and plagues.
She also serves as Senior Advisor to Bennett Jones Law Firm. A Bay Street firm that also employs former Harper cabinet minister John Baird and former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge.
This is a powerful law firm with Ottawa connections. And, of course, the large licensed producers (LPs) of the ACMPR lobby through this firm.
Bennett Jones represents licensed producers such as Tweed (owned by Canopy Growth Corporation), and the government admits there are more.
An LP-cartel doesn’t require some kind of conspiracy. Financial motivations are universal for all human beings. There’s nothing wrong with profiting and becoming rich.
The problem arises when crony-capitalists undermine free markets, when banks use your deposits without your permission, when politicians become well-funded liars, and populist democrats start promoting thoroughly discredited socialism.
Civilization is built on markets, not political power. The latter is a hangover from the primitive, tribal parts of the mind. There is nothing benevolent about the state, it is trade that makes us human.
Government leaders say Anne McLellan’s appointment is nothing to worry about. Her financial interests are “indirect.”
This may be true, but her tribal interests are not.
Giving a chair to Chuck Rifici or Bruce Linton would be obvious to all Canadians. Corporations don’t like competition, they can use government to get the rules written in their favour.
So the fox is guarding the henhouse, McLellan decides what’s a conflict of interest.
Unsurprisingly, neither she nor Health Canada see any problem with the Bennett Jones connection.
But Mark Ware’s position at a non-profit cannabis organization promoting “evidence-based research and education” is a problem.
Ware thinks there’s a fundamental right to cannabis medicines. He once gave a public lecture about it.
Why is that a conflict of interest?
Why not Dr. Susan Boyd? She wrote a book debunking police and government propaganda about cannabis.
Of course, we can leave on all those cops and health care busy-bodies. They’re public servants who only act for the common good. They are the archetype of well-rounded citizens who are completely altruistic and never act selfishly or look to profit from their state privileges.
Clearly, the task force is a farce.
The government takes credit for civilization when it is entrepreneurs like those in the BC Bud industry making it happen.
The fact that the Government of Canada prohibited cannabis for nearly a century, without any justifiable reason, and now plans to legalize according to their standards, is a conflict of interest in itself.
The federal government has no business legalizing cannabis, or at this point, even existing.
Stephen Harper’s series of power grabs haven’t been reversed by the current Liberal government.
The tone of the state has changed, its propaganda is different (and more effective), but the concentration of wealth and power this country has experienced since the Great Depression and World War 2 continues unabated.
There’s a very good reason why British Columbia’s “boutique” industry will remain criminalized and it’s the same reason Americans feel disenfranchised with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
An Obama-style honeymoon with Justin will eventually subside and Canadians will be no better off than they were under Stephen Harper.
Bennett Jones is one of the reasons “we” are not the government.
“We” are not legalizing cannabis, they are