We’re all equal but some are more equal than others. In the public lexicon since George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a novella satirizing the Russian Revolution and its murderous regime, the lesson can be applied universally, including cannabis legalization.
Durham cops turn a blind eye to an unlicensed cannabis dispensary, formerly co-owned by one of their own.
The Living On dispensary, co-owned by a police officer, is nothing to worry about.
It’s like Richard Nixon said — no, not that bit about starting the drug war to demonize blacks and hippies. That other quote where, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
When you or I grow, sell, or share cannabis without Health Canada’s approval, we’re criminals who belong in jail.
When a cop does it, that means it is not illegal.
I’m sure the Durham Regional Police Service wouldn’t agree, but they’re not talking to the media right now.
We can trust the police, can’t we? Even though the officer in question, Constable Phil Edgar, has engaged in cannabis busts, it’s okay that he owns a dispensary.
“From my view everything Living On was doing was ethical and legal. If we’re helping people, and it’s all ethical and legal, then I have no problem with it,” Edgar told the media.
Of course, that’s what all dispensary owners say. But since they lack guns and badges, they must be lying.
To make matters worse, the Durham police force must approve what officers do on the side, whether it’s a second job or ownership in a company.
The point of this rule is to root out any conflict of interest.
Edgar, a Durham cop for 22 years, was approved to be a co-owner of this dispensary.
Adding insult to injury, Edgar has apparently received awards for seizing over $530,000 of cannabis.
But he reminds us that there is a difference between medical dispensary cannabis and street cannabis.
“People are talking about marijuana like it’s a poison to society. People who are using medicinal marijuana are people who are looking for an alternative to the pharmaceutical drugs that aren’t working or are causing negative side effects,” he said.
Again, this isn’t any different from what any other dispensary owner or cannabis connoisseur would say.
But police are adamant about how we’re not sanctioned by Big Brother Health Canada and so “untested” cannabis poses a risk to adults, who, apparently, can’t make their own rational decisions.
Are the edibles in Living On tested? Does it matter?
Edgar has since left the business since his co-ownership inevitably garnered bad publicity.
For cannabis activists across Canada, this is just another brick in the wall that is Trudeau’s Prohibition 2.0.
And while the federal government warns that cannabis poses “a risk of overdose,” and how, “untested, unregulated” cannabis may be “unsafe,” giving police the go-ahead raid peaceful entrepreneurs based on an unlawful drug war — the real criminals here are the pigs who maintain that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.