Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?
A Mulroney talking to a Trudeau.
It’s not clear which one is dumb and which one is dumber, but you’re bound to lose a few IQ points listening to this interview between the prime minister and host Ben Mulroney.
Justin Trudeau gives the same rhetoric nonsense he always gives when speaking about cannabis legalization.
“One, it will make it harder for young people to access marijuana,” implying that government control and regulation is effective in any sense of the term.
“Two, we need to remove the criminal element – streets gangs, the organized crime – from the sale of marijuana.”
It’s this second aspect of legalization that puts Trudeau in the same category as Harper.
Harper was always concerned with “organized crime” in the cannabis industry. He mistreated the BC Bud community and attempted to wipe out the legal gardens that in some cases are supplying dispensaries and compassion clubs.
So far, in spite of his positive attitude, Trudeau’s actual policies resemble the previous government’s.
The large commercial producers are the only legal supply, the legalization czar praises them, and everyone else (including the unlicensed storefronts) are considered criminals who deserve prison for pot.
And yet, it’s based on semantics.
The BC Bud industry is organized crime because they are organized and because cannabis is in the criminal code.
That’s it.
Trudeau should be distinguishing “organized crime” from violent crime. But, if he did, he might find there isn’t much violence in the cannabis trade.
No doubt “street gangs” are involved, but they’re also involved with reselling stolen phones and bicycles. Should we over-regulate those items as well?
Should we put a cartel of bicycle manufacturers and sellers in charge because of an illicit market of stolen merchandise?
Trudeau will not decriminalize because, he says, decriminalization “does absolutely nothing on either of those two things.”
But neither does legalization.
Alcohol and cigarettes are legal, but young people get their hands on those items all the time. In my experience, parents will buy their kids alcohol.
Cigarettes are also easy to get, but, unsurprisingly, decades of anti-smoking propaganda (and the fact that tobacco is incredibly unhealthy) have done wonders to dissuade consumption.
If Justin wants to help out the kids, all he needs to do is launch a propaganda campaign (like Harper did).
Since kids are already forced into government-controlled schools, getting them to believe their brains will get fried from cannabis use should be easy.
“Decriminalize it,” Justin says, “you continue to have organized crime controlling marijuana.”
But again, the same can be said for legalization.
There is no larger criminal network than the state — sticking people in cages for plants and forcing everyone to pay for it.
They are expropriating the cannabis industry, from small farmers to large corporate producers.
That’s why Justin is against decriminalization. He doesn’t care about keeping innocent people out of jail, especially young people who are the victims of prohibition.
Justin Trudeau is doing to BC cannabis what his father did to Alberta’s oil: robbing a province of its natural resource and wealth and commandeering it all to Ottawa.