We didn’t need Bill Blair, so who needs Anne McLellan?
The former Liberal government cabinet minister has been appointed the head of the federal government’s legalization task-force.
Anne will report to Bill Blair, who is not a member of the task-force.
It’s just endless federal bureaucracy for an issue the Senate already reported on in 2002.
Who cares that McLellan called cannabis “dangerous,” that it is “irrefutable” or scientific to call it more carcinogenic than tobacco.
That’s the pseudo-liberal intelligentsia way of calling cannabis, “Infinitely worse than tobacco,” because while the cabinets may come and go, the bureaus remain.
Prohibitionists are still in charge.
Prohibition is still lucrative business for the state. There hasn’t been any realization of self-ownership, that people should be free to grow and consume a nontoxic plant on their own property.
The state wants the money. For years money was wasted and jobs were created by waging the drug war.
Now that cannabis prohibition has little-to-no support among Canadians, the state needs to get in on the game. Legalize and tax, meaning, regulate and tax.
Bill Blair said: “Canada is not merely proposing to legalize marijuana. We’re proposing instead to replace the current criminal sanction with an effective regulatory scheme.”
McLellan’s task-force, even if completely free and fair, would be at the discretion of Bill Blair.
The police don’t want to give up the drug war, and bureaucrats need to stay busy, regardless of the reasons why.
McLellan’s task-force is another bureaucratic hurdle to ensure Blair’s vision manifests.
Liberal Legalization will look like a bipartisan effort to successfully deal with criminal elements of cannabis in a humane, regulatory way.
Rather than a criminal problem, cannabis use will be a mental illness.
Cannabis will still be seen as a vice, like alcohol and tobacco, subject to excise taxes and top-down regulatory control.
Bill Blair said: “We’re looking at replacing the criminal sanctions with a very strict, regulatory regime. We intend to control production, distribution, and consumption of marijuana.”
Well, if that’s the end result, who needs Anne McLellan’s task-force?
Just sell licensed producer weed through the state-controlled liquor stores already, and continue busting small-business owners and independent farmers for doing what they love.
But if a “wine model” can be preserved, and public opinion in BC may demand it, then there’s no reason to fear Blair, McLellan or any of the LP yahoos who voice an opinion about keeping cannabis out of the hands of children and organized crime.
Calling for the elimination of competitors and cries and warnings about “unknown” supply and quality amount to calling consumers idiots when they act without the parental approval of government.
But in the end, the police will have to physically eliminate cannabis production from BC, an industry worth nearly $5 billion.
The sheer manpower and resource allocation that entails, in addition to a scrutinizing media and enraged citizens, will make any effective shut down of BC Bud impossible.
So who needs Anne McLellan and her task-force?
If Bill Blair wants to play bully, we’ll be in the schoolyard waiting for him.