The licensed producers, that is, the cannabis cartel set up by the Harper government, lobbied hard for the shut down of Toronto’s dispensaries.
Cam Battley, a member of Cannabis Canada (the LP association formerly known as CMCIA) said the attacks on Toronto dispensaries were “a long time coming.”
Bill Blair, the Liberal MP in charge of the legalization file, has openly and routinely decried dispensaries and peaceful cannabis farmers as a form of organized crime that should not be part of the new legal regime.
Instead, he prefers the LPs. Blair said: “The current licensed producers are competing with people who don’t care about the law, who don’t care about regulations, don’t care about kids, they don’t care about communities, don’t care about health of Canadians. They’re pretty reckless about it. And so they’re selling anything to make a fast buck before we get the regulations put in place.”
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
The LPs don’t care about any natural law recognizing homesteading rights. There are growers, extract crews, dispensary owners, and many others that have been part of this movement for decades. The LPs walked in under the Harper regime with good bureaucratic connections and a lot of money to throw their weight around.
It may be legal, but it sure isn’t lawful. Not in a John Lockean sense, and without Locke, what’s the point of this country?
The LPs don’t care about regulations. If the Toronto police are willing to raid dispensaries based on “unknown and unregulated amount of THC,” then why not arrest the LPs who have intentionally mislabeled their content?
And do we really need a reminder that THC has never harmed, let alone, killed anyone? That the existence of these dispensaries clearly indicated that the relationship between buyers and sellers was consensual and beneficial for everyone involved?
Do the LPs care about kids? Should they? Some kids need medical cannabis for their illness. Whether they purchase from an LP or a dispensary is the decision of the parent. The fallacious appeal to emotion (“won’t somebody please think of the children!?”) is irrelevant because children don’t belong to the state. This isn’t an issue for taxpayers.
If the LPs cared about communities and the health of Canadians, they would compete against their adversaries in a free-and-fair marketplace. Insomuch that LPs are regulated by Ottawa while “grey market” competitors are regulated by consumers, this only goes to show how inefficient and ineffective Ottawa is at doing anything useful.
The LPs should try working with their competitors for a free market, not calling for their destruction.
But Blair said the crony-capitalists will play a “very significant role” in the legalization process.
The former Toronto police chief is supportive of the LPs and dislikes dispensaries. You don’t have to go too far down the rabbit role to entertain the idea that there’s more to “Project Claudia” then what’s being reported on.
But, even if the Toronto raids were independent of LP and Blair influence, the end result is the same.
Legalization, according to the Liberals, is like Harper’s MMPR except with recreational consumers and instead of distributing through Canada Post, the LPs will use state-controlled liquor stores.
Any way you slice it, the police are mercenaries for the political-corporate elite. If they want to serve and protect our communities, then they best start disobeying orders.