Not surprisingly, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are not very impressed with Stephen Harper’s plans to intensify the war against cannabis and its derivatives. They noted earlier this week that the Prime Minister appears to have his head up George Bush’s butt (they are speaking metaphorically, I assume); their advice is characteristically blunt, “Wise up, you douchebag”.
In these days of public sector restraint there is one realm of waste that is often neglected – the planned and pointless expenditure of billions of tax dollars on new provincial and federal prisons, the consequence of a series of Conservative crime bills.
In 1910 Winston Churchill stated that one of the “unfailing tests” of a civilization lies in how it treats crime and criminals. In 1967 Pierre Trudeau told Canadians that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.
There is probably no better statement of the need for electoral reform than the now familiar slogan that a Labour-Liberal Democrat Coalition in the United Kingdom would have been a “coalition of losers”. The Vancouver Sun splashed the headline from the Daily Telegraph across its electronic edition.
The market value of a commodity always says something interesting about our culture. You can, for example, buy a Spanish Cava for about $15, but a bottle of French Champagne will set you back more than $50. Is the difference in taste and experience substantial enough to justify the greater expense? Let the debate begin.
My first foray into marijuana research began 40 years ago, in the spring of 1970. It was what sociologists call participant observation research; I smoked some hashish with my friends in my final year of high school, and observed its effects on my behaviour. I noticed that the experience enhanced my appreciation of music, increased my appetite, and made me laugh at things that I might not ordinarily think were very funny. In sum, not a bad way to spend an evening in a small town in Ontario. Not as wild and crazy as an alcohol-fueled evening, but not entirely disappointing either.
Handguns are potentially dangerous commodities, though gun advocates will also insist that they are more protective than dangerous – tools for the protection of home, family and personal property.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has thrown down a challenge to millions of computer savvy Canadians, inviting their questions through the medium of YouTube. And Canadians have complied, throwing a horde of complaints, quizzes and diatribes at the Prime Minister, on topics ranging from climate change to prorogation. Perhaps surprisingly, the most common questions focus on his government’s approach to the control of marijuana. We will hear from the Prime Minister on Tuesday, but I thought it might be helpful to provide him with a little advice before he puts his fingers to the keyboard. Here are two of the more popular questions, and my suggested responses.
“Mr. Harper. Why aren’t we keeping marijuana away from children by controlling it as we control alcohol and tobacco? Why are we encouraging gangs & crime by making marijuana so profitable? Why are you ignoring how ineffectual the current policy is?
There is no shortage of potential issues of protest in Vancouver and beyond – a lack of support for homelessness, mental illness and addiction, the missing and murdered women of the downtown eastside, a dearth of affordable housing, an increasing gap between the rich and poor in Canada; all of these problems come quickly to mind.
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