Health Canadaās failures in the medical regime are evident. And recreational cannabis legalization wonāt fare any better. Just look at the proposed ā1-metreā rule for home-growing and its many flaws.
If thereās an Idiotās Guide to Growing Cannabis, I suggest sending a bunch of copies to politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa.
Growing cannabis from seed requires culling the male plants. And unless Iām mistaken, itās pretty much impossible to tell the difference between male and female seedlings until after they sprout, which is about one month.
Does Ottawa expect us to limit our seedlings to 4 plants? To buy expensive and sub par āfeminizedā seeds from their approved licensed producers (LPs)? To just play by the rules and hope for the best?
That is, remain ignorant about whether one is growing male or female plants until after they sprout?
What happens if my legal 4 seedlings turn out to be all males? According to the rules, Iād have to start all over again, weeks after planting.
I guess Iāll have to buy an LP starter kit. Itās already happening in the medical regime: LPs are selling live plants, essentially clones at $20 each, plus shipping and taxes.
Home-growing, like other aspects of legalization, is still a wolf in sheepās clothing.
If I start off with 10 or more seedlings, with every intention of culling back to four females, I could face fines up to $5000 and between 6 months and 14 years in jail.
So much for legalization.
Home-growing could be such a regulatory nightmare that itāll incentive Canadians to purchase clones from LPs.
Of course, Iām not going to do that, nor do I imagine most of the readers of this blog will find themselves in that position. But thatās the path weāre being led down.
The devil is always in the details. Especially with a government that has been reluctant to follow through on its legalization promise.
Of course, Canadians can look to Oregon, a legal state with a four-plant limit. They get around this rule by growing them large.
But since Canadaās legalization has a 1-metre height restriction, circumventing the rules may be a little more tricky.
But one can cultivate a cannabis plant that extends left and right but only 1-metre high.Ā Perhaps weāll perfect the art of the cannabis bonsai.
There will always be ways around the 1-metre rule.
For example, you could just grow it anyway, government bureaucracy be damned. Growing, consuming and selling cannabis has been illegal up until now and that hasnāt stopped anyone.