At Parliament Hill this week, police made it obvious how crazy they are about the drug war.
If we look to the American legal states, we already see there is nothing to fear from cannabis legalization. People around the world have been growing and consuming cannabis for centuries. The plant itself isn’t violent. And commerce is fundamentally peaceful.
The only social harm associated with cannabis is prohibition.
Only the morally repulsive recommend the drug war. The silent majority “just following orders,” are equally guilty.
But how will police detect impaired drivers under the influence of cannabis?
Cannabis stays in your system for a long time. Fatty cells full of the psychoactive THC must constitute some kind of impairment, right?
Therefore, police need all new training and equipment, so goes the argument.
I say, privatize the highways, roads, streets, sidewalks, pathways, waterways, avenues, boulevards, and every other thoroughfare in the country.
Providing security and safety from impaired drivers (or distracted drivers) depends on an efficient police force.
Why? For every police officer, the taxpayer is forking over lifetimes of salaries, benefits, and pensions. This is economically unsustainable.
Drivers apt to run over children and ignore red-lights are normally detected beforehand by their previous malfeasance. Security forces, whether private or public, apprehend these people before serious harm can be done.
An inherited English common law system provides fairness for said drivers, lest their rights are violated.
Economic calculation in a free market eclipses taxation and government bureaucracy every single time. Name examples where this isn’t true.
Political tyranny has no place in a free society, however petty it may be. Prohibition mentality from Canadian police forces, and the weight given to them, practically guarantees a screwed-up legalization.
And by screwing up legalization, they are trampling on the civil liberties of both cannabis-consuming and non-consuming Canadians.
Worst is Ontario, where not even entrepreneurship is permitted. Provided the provincial Liberals are still in power next summer.
If there is any threat to public health and safety (bear with me here) let’s assume it’s cannabis edibles.
Lessons from legal U.S. states indicate that this is a popular product. Undermining the “black market” while keeping edibles out of the legal regime is a contradiction in terms. By ignoring the edibles market, Justin’s Liberals are putting producers and consumers at risk. Consumers because it is a supposed “unregulated” product and they don’t know any better. And producers are at the risk of law enforcement raids.
How can the Liberals claim to work for the health and safety of everyone while ignoring the edibles market?
But who is harmed by “overdosing” on an edible? While no doubt unpleasant, rarely does it require a hospital visit. Preexisting conditions are usually to blame. Such as being a child and unaware of the unique properties of mommy’s special gummy bear.
If the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, then why even let them in the front door? The state has no place in the private household.
No one questions the separation of church and state, but gladly accept the merging of state institutions with the economy, banking, education, and the family household.
No, Canadian police don’t need any fancy equipment, and barely any new training. A police officer will clearly recognize a car driven by someone baked out of his or her skull.
Canadian cops are acting as if cannabis is a whole new problem, a brand-new drug with unknown consequences and uncertainty up the yin-yang.
The only social harm associated with cannabis is prohibition.
So long as the roads and law enforcement remain under “public ownership,” the only thing cops have to worry about is impaired driving.
And only a minuscule number of cannabis consumers are driving around impaired. Alcohol still remains a larger problem, even when one isn’t behind the wheel.
If the cops want a drug war, focus on that instead.