Source: 'Vice' magazine 
Pubdate: November '97
Editors note: Our newshawk and author writes: 'Vice' is one of those free
indie papers that people pick up in bars, record stores, etc. The
difference is that they have a circulation of 60,000 copies per month and
are distributed in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Atlanta,
Toronto, Hamilton, OttawaHull, Montreal and Halifax.

  

It is early October as I write this and the OntarioQuebec marijuana
harvest is just winding down. Not everyone had a great year. Unattended
crops were dwarfed from long summer dry spells. Theft was rampant this year
and although it is widely suspected that not all of those lowflying planes
and helicopters belonged to law enforcement officials, they too were out
seizing crops in record numbers. Hundreds of millions of our tax dollars
are spent annually on this futile attempt to eradicate a plant which like
it or not, pumps billions of dollars a year into the Canadian economy.
While the government may choose to miss their initial cut from what may
well be Canada's largest cash crop, they certainly benefit from the
millions of dollars collected in sales tax as growers enjoy the extra cash
that the harvest season brings. Since marijuana money is undeclared income,
growers can either stash it in a hollow log or use it to improve the
quality of their daily lives. Only the foolhardy will bank large sums of
undeclared cash so most folk just spend it and the retail sector benefits.
Let's face some facts here. If people could grow gold in their homes and
fields what is the likelihood that they wouldn't bother? They'd feel like
fools if they didn't. As the negative stigma attached to marijuana use
fades the number of seeds and clones exchanging hands has increased
dramatically. Simply because it's illegal, marijuana fetches a ridiculous
$2,000 to $3,000 a pound. One good outdoor plant can sometimes yield that
much herb. On the street, people pay up to fifteen dollars a gram. One
thing I can guarantee you is that people are not going to stop growing pot.

Anyone who follows this column or the decriminalization movement in general
knows that Ontario Court Justice, John McCart recently ruled that marijuana
may well be harmless but that it's up to parliament to change the law and
not the courts. God help us. Politicians live with their heads in the sand
and don't like to say or do anything that could interrupt feeding time at
the trough or their cushy indexed pensions. The current policy of the
Liberal government is that they have no plans to decriminalize marijuana in
spite of their own LeDain Commission, which recommended legalization some
28 years ago. It has somehow become a 'minor' issue. In the meantime, tens
of thousands of Canadians have been branded 'criminals' and had their
future career and travel prospects severely hampered. Hardly a minor issue
if you happen to be one of those citizens.

In the area of law enforcement, this year saw the bastardization of the
usually useful Crime Stoppers program. This is a program set up so that
citizens who might otherwise fear recrimination can dispatch important
information to the police department that the police might not otherwise
receive. Anonymity is guaranteed. It is usually used to track down armed
robbers, muggers and perpetrators of crimes that have victims. Some bozo
came up with the concept of using it to pit neighbours against each other
and doubled the standard $1,000 reward to $2,000 for anyone who turned in a
pot grower. Using Crime Stoppers to conduct a witch hunt based on fear and
ignorance is a disgrace to democracy. While they are in the minority these
days, there are still people out there who think that they are doing
society a favour by having pot smokers arrested. It is a credit to the
OttawaCarleton regional police that they opted not to use the Crime
Stoppers program in this manner. The same cannot be said for many Ontario
jurisdictions.

Every commissioned study comes up with the 'wrong' answer and shows
marijuana to be relatively harmless, so if reality and politics can not
reach a consensus, then the obvious answer is decriminalization. By not
bringing about flat out legalization, the politicians can enjoy their ivory
tower integrity, growers and users can still enjoy their buds and financial
independence, and police can focus their attention on more pressing
concerns. Who really wants to buy their pot from the government anyhow? God
knows they'd find a way to fuck it up. It would probably come premixed with
tobacco or something to make it addictive. Sometimes I think the entire
system is in need of a major overhaul. The emperor may be wearing no
clothes, but I for one am getting tired of looking at his fat ass.

A brief update here. Chris Clay (see last month's column) was sentenced to
three years probation and given a $750 fine. The $40,000 in inventory
seized from his store was not returned. He is moving to BC to assist
Vancouver activist Hillary Black with Vancouver's Compassion Club. Another
brave resident of London, Ontario, Lynn Harichy, who suffers from multiple
sclerosis, had herself arrested for using marijuana as medicine. A
constitutional challenge is being launched and will be argued by the same
legal team that defended Chris. More on this case next month. As always I
welcome your comments. You can email me at  or you can
visit me at Crosstown Traffic in Ottawa, Ontario