If you're the kind of person who defines a politician as a someone who couldn't organize a two-car funeral, you'll find proof aplenty in the cannabis legalization saga. There wasn't exactly a public outcry in favour of legal weed before the last election. There was support for the smaller step of decriminalization, but Justin Trudeau decided to go all the way.
It turned out to be much harder than he expected, because the junior levels of government (Provinces and municipalities) weren't actually supportive. They recognized that the costs, both financial and social, would largely be borne by them in the shape of added burdens on their law enforcement and medical systems. In true Canadian style, there was a wrangle over who would get the benefit of the tax revenue on newly-legalized ganja.
Even with the tax issue settled, the Provinces kept stalling and asking for legalization to be delayed. As a result a policy that was supposed to be implemented during 2017 was pushed back to October 17, 2018, and some Provinces are still saying they're not really ready. To get them onside, Ottawa had to allow each Province to set some of its own rules within the general context of legalization. As a result Quebec has opted for a minimum age limit of 21 versus the national standard of 19, possession of small amounts by a minor is a punishable offence in some Provinces and not in others, and so on.
The election of Doug Ford as Premier of Ontario threw a last minute monkey wrench in the works. The previous Wynne government planned to open a chain of preternaturally dull, publicly-operated cannabis stores across the Province, a step that would have virtually guaranteed the continuing success of the existing illegal distribution system. True to his free enterprise principles, Ford scrapped that idiotic notion with a plan to issue licenses to private operators.
One small problem, though: there was no time to get potential sellers vetted and licensed by the big day. As a result, would-be tokers in Canada's largest province will only be able to score their weed online until April 2019 -- a step that seems to virtually guarantee the continuing success of the existing illegal distribution system. The eventual proliferation of small pot outlets also seems likely to lead to a lot more petty crime than Wynne's scheme would have.
There's going to be an almighty shake-out, and probably sooner rather than later. There are reportedly 135 marijuana enterprises listed on public stock exchanges, plus who knows how many more private companies. Oversupply looms, then, right? Wrong! Reportedly the expected amount of legal maryjane available in the first year of legalization will be only about one-third of projected demand. Evidently, a good proportion of the new firms are get-rich-quick schemes that may never actually get any product to market before either failing or getting bought out.
The media are going to need something else to write about once the fuss dies down. Both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail have been obsessing about pot for months. The Star website has had a "countdown to cannabis" clock on display for most of this year and is choc-a-bloc with weed stories. Today's (i.e. October 16's) print edition has three pot stories in the first four pages of the main paper, another on the first page of the business section...and a separate cannabis section running to several pages!
This whole business is important to my local area, and possibly not in a good way. Niagara has one of the more benign growing climates in Canada, and a high proportion of Canada's highest-grade agricultural land. In the past it was Canada's fruit belt, playing an honourable role in the Second World War by providing enormous quantities of canned fruit that helped protect allied troops from scurvy. Some of that has given way to wineries, but there is still a flourishing greenhouse sector providing much of Ontario's vegetable crop during the warmer months.
Greenhouses are now being converted to grow ops. These give off an appalling smell if not properly managed -- there's a reason marijuana is known as skunk -- and there are real concerns that the odour will affect the flavour of other crops in the region, especially grapes. Given that you can grow weed in your basement, it makes absolutely no sense to waste some of Canada's best agricultural land on this rather nasty crop, but that's where the money is perceived to be, so that's what's happening.
Oh well. It's going to happen whether I like it or not. So let's give the last word to the late, great Peter Tosh, who had a few strong ideas of his own on the subject.
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