Pubdate: Fri, 09 Aug 2013
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2013 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact: http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Les MacPherson

A COSTLY BUZZ KILL

By promising to legalize marijuana, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau 
seeks to capture the all-important stoner vote. Stoners will want to 
think twice, however, before they power down the Xbox, haul 
themselves off the couch, brush the Oreo crumbs off their chests and 
rush out to vote for Trudeau's Liberals.

Trudeau says marijuana should be legalized so it can be regulated and 
taxed by government. The result almost certainly will be higher 
prices, lower quality and reduced availability. The opposite of what 
stoners want, in other words.

They should consider how the government taxes and regulates tobacco. 
Taxes are so extortionately high as to make cigarettes all but unaffordable.

Hardcore, low-income smokers thus are reduced to picking butts and 
begging for cigarettes. Ask these poor shlubs about taxes and regulation.

As for quality, consider what has happened without government involvement.

Thanks to the efforts of clandestine horticulturalists, today's 
domestically produced bud is orders of magnitude better than the 
Mexican stinkweed of the 1960s. To achieve the desired effect takes 
about a tenth as much product. Prices are up too, of course, but not 
by nearly as much.

Marijuana is more affordable, better and more easily available now 
than it has ever been. This in spite of the vast and stupendously 
expensive government apparatus devoted to stamping it out.

The better way to stamp it out is to let government tax and regulate 
it. The potency of marijuana would be quickly reduced to levels 
barely higher than those found in oregano, while prices soared, all 
in the name of health and protecting innocent children. Never mind if 
Junior now needs 10 or 15 throat-searing joints to get any kind of buzz.

Remember when the government tried a few years ago to grow medical 
marijuana? Patients who got their prescriptions filled compared it to 
shredded green toilet paper. With the whole industry under government 
control, this will be considered primo bud.

Stoners might think: So what? If government weed is crazy expensive 
for all twigs and seeds, we'll go back to our old dealers. Except the 
old dealers and the grow ops that supplied them will be out of 
business. To protect a government racket worth billions of dollars, 
authorities will go after them as never before. It is one thing to 
evade police. It is quite another thing to evade taxes and revenuers. 
The incentive then for suppliers will be to move into product lines 
like meth or crack that do not encroach on government turf.

Stoners will be tempted to grow their own and smoke it at home with 
the blinds down. But where, then, is the advantage in legalization?

As it is, marijuana is widely and easily available. The quality is 
consistent and better than ever. The chance of getting busted for the 
discrete, retail consumer is pretty close to zero. Of taxes and 
regulations, there are none. The price is high, but not outrageously 
so. In terms of price per unit of buzz, beer is more expensive. None 
of this is going to improve with government pulling the strings.

Besides, Trudeau, given the chance, would not legalize marijuana anyway.

Liberals have for decades portrayed themselves as the with-it, 
hipster party that was okay with Canadians smoking a joint, but in 
government, they presided over more busts than any other party. With 
respect to recreational drugs, their record of hypocritically 
embracing the status quo is unblemished.

Stephen Harper's Conservatives at least don't pretend they are going 
to do anything about marijuana laws. For stoners, that could be the 
best possible outcome.

The real drive for legal marijuana in Canada is coming, not from the 
Liberals, but from the U.S. Two states, Washington and Colorado, have 
voted in binding referendums to legalize marijuana while a number of 
others states have decriminalized possession of small amounts. 
American federal authorities are resisting, but with ever decreasing 
vigour. They eventually will come around.

That's when Justin Trudeau can safely make his move.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom