Quite a week for Canadian cannabis news
First, Quebec exhibited another reason why we should kick them out of Confederation. Other than the excessive equalization payments they receive, and a belief that governments can and should dictate what women wear, now they’re aiming to ban recreational cannabis home-growing.
Which begs the question — can they even do that? Growing is supposed to be federal jurisdiction, the provinces have been tasked with the distribution framework.
Quebec’s decision will likely result in court challenges, or at the very least, an influx of residents looking for medical licenses since growing for medical purposes is a constitutional protected right.
Meanwhile, in Alberta, the NDP proved themselves to be farther to the right than Ontario’s so-called centrist Liberals by allowing for private brick-and-mortar cannabis shops.
Which is pretty funny when you think about it.
Poor Ontario, they’ve under siege by radical leftists in the Ontario Liberal Party.
It’s quite irritating to see cops raid dispensaries in Kensington market. I mean, I understand (not really, but bear with me) raiding illegal dispensaries in other parts of the province… But Kensington market? That smelly, glorified yard-sale hippie village deserves every private dispensary the market can bear.
In BC, a group of landlords and doctors think the provincial government should ban home growing for the safety of everyone. Clearly, these people are unaware that people can and do brew their own beer or grow plants that are toxic to consume and won’t even get you high.
Worse, their reasons have already been debunked in a court of law.
Risk of fire? Nope.
Humidity and electrical problems? Bitch, please.
Use of hazardous chemicals such as pesticides? That area of expertise belongs to the LPs. Home-growers can put whatever they want on their plants. They’re the only ones consuming it, after all.
Lack of quality control regarding potency of the product? We’re not talking commercial products here, this is a private garden in a private residence, man.
Now, my libertarian values overrule certain appeals to emotion. That is to say, I don’t trust landlord associations recommending policy to the BC government, but I do support private property rights as sacrosanct.
If you’re renting and the landlord doesn’t want you growing cannabis (or brewing beer, or installing a bowling alley or listening to Frank Zappa) then that’s just too bad. It’s technically his or her property.
Work out those details in the rental agreement.
But, of course, that said, what the landlords are recommending originates from pure ignorance.
John Horgan should ignore it like he ignores Green Party leader Andrew Weaver.
And speaking of arguments from ignorance, there’s the New Brunswick government vowing to look back into their regulations demanding that cannabis be locked up at home like a gun.
Forgetting this gross violation of private property rights, there’s the fact that cannabis is the last thing one should worry about in their home.
Think of the easily accessible dish-cleaning fluids kept below the sink. Or laundry detergent. Alcohol. Kitchen knives. You could kill someone with household items. Nobody is going to die from cannabis.
If you ban recreational home-growing or severely restrict it, all you’ve done is incentive black markets and encourage people to register as medical patients, since, as before-mentioned, medical grows are constitutionally protected and not limited to these asinine restrictions on liberty.