It's a Plant, Damnit!

So we read that the Harper government is reintroducing its omnibus crime bill, reportedly exactly as it existed back when he had a minority government and there was no hope in hell of it passing.

And now it will--pass, that is--simply because it can. Harper has his majority, and he can now do as he pleases.
To be fair, he was candid enough even before the election to broadcast his intentions. He said he would build new prisons, and lots of them. When people retorted that the crime rate in Canada was falling, and had been for years, Harper exhibited his usual disdain for statistics (read: reality). Speaking for the government, Stockwell Day invoked the chilly Orwellian spectre of "unreported crimes". It was unclear what exactly was meant. But now we are getting a look.

Amidst all the feel-good measures that seek to impose tougher sentences for a variety of offences (as if any good can come of sending criminals to criminal factories), we have this gem: According to Harper,  somebody growing pot in a rental unit deserves a longer sentence than a child rapist.

A man who coerces a child into watching pornography. or who exposes himself to children, would receive a mandatory minimum sentence of ninety days in prison. Whereas somebody growing six plants in their house would be on the hook for twice that: 180 days.

I'd like Harper to explain why he feels potheads are so much worse than pedophiles. I'd like to hear that explanation given to the entire country.

I've tried pot. Once. It's something I've written about a few times and I felt I really should have some kind of personal experience to draw on were I to write about it again. I've long thought of marijuana as alcohol you smoke, or eat. That's a fair characterization, in my (limited) experience, but there's more to pot than its trippy effect.
First off, pot is NOT addictive (whatever Harper might believe). The state it produces may be addictive to some people, but the same can be said for alcohol and even chocolate. Having tried pot, I have not the least desire to ever try it again. According to Harper, I should be looking to score some hash or coke--and that's beyond preposterous.
You want to know what it did? I found it almost impossible to put a sentence together. Time folded back on itself. All my thoughts were simultaneously profound and ludicrous. I found everything funny, but I couldn't say why, and that scared me.
And the searing pain in my knee that I've been living with for three months now?  Utterly and completely gone.
I went to bed an hour and a half into my "experience" because, quite frankly, I found it too much of an effort to devote attention to seeing, hearing AND thinking: I figured if I got into the dark and quiet, I could cope a little better. And I did. I went to sleep, woke up six hours later free of all effects, and I haven't looked back since.

So that's what I have to say about pot. Here's  what Harper had to say.  Be warned: it's so long-winded it's almost like he's stoned. I'll try to interject at points just to put some sobriety into the discussion.

...I have to say young children, I guess they’re now…Ben and Rachel are now getting pretty close to 14 and 11, but maybe they’re not that young, but they are at the age where, you know, they will increasingly come into contact with drug use  and I guess as a parent, you know, this is the last thing I want to see for my kids or anyone else’s children.

Well, good for you. There are many things I wouldn't want my children to get into. Some of them are even legal. That's why you talk to your kids, communicate with them, and guide them. I'm reminded here of how my stepfather repeatedly said to me (long before I was of legal drinking age) that if I ever wanted to get drunk, he'd much rather see me do it at home, where he could keep an eye on me.

Besides, Harper's talking about children here. What about adults? Shouldn't a true conservative be against legislating non-criminal behaviour? Oh, yeah, that's right, drugs are illegal because they're bad.



You know, I understand that people defend the use of drugs, but that said, I don’t think…I think I’ve been very fortunate to live a drug-free life, and I don’t meet many people who’ve led a drug-free life who regret it. Met a lot of people who haven’t, who’ve regretted it . So this is something that we want to encourage obviously for our children, for everybody’s children.


My mom, a cigarette smoker, never encouraged me to smoke. Smoking cigarettes is legal. In a perfect world, I wish they weren't...but people would just grow their own tobacco and roll their own joints smokes.

Now, I also want people to understand what we’re really talking about here when we’re talking about the drug trade. You know, when people say focus on violent crime instead of drugs, and yeah, you know, there’s lots of crimes a lot worse than, you know, casual use of marijuana. But when people are buying from the drug trade, they are not buying from their neighbour.


Interesting. I know of at least fifteen people who could get me some pot if I asked for it. All of them are somebody's neighbours.


They are buying from international cartels that are involved in unimaginable violence and intimidation and social disaster and catastrophe all across the world.


While it's true you can grow pot damn near anywhere, much of Canada's is quite local. I'd wager a whole hell of a lot that we get much more pot from British Columbia...


 All across the world. You know, and I just wish people would understand that, and not just on drugs. Even when people buy, you know, an illegal carton of cigarettes and they avoid tax, that they really understand the kind of criminal networks that they are supporting, and the damage they do.


So legalize it, and then there'd be no need for criminal involvement!


Now, you know, I know some people say if you just legalized it, you know, you’d get the money and all would be well (huh?). But I think that rests on the assumption that somehow drugs are bad because they’re illegal. The reason drugs…it’s not that. The reason drugs are illegal is because they are bad.


Says who? You? Cigarettes are bad: just ask any doctor. Why are they legal?
Aspirin's a drug. Is aspirin bad? Because I'll tell you, pot is one hell of a lot better than aspirin at killing pain.




And even if these things were legalized, I can predict with a lot of confidence that these would never be respectable businesses run by respectable people.


Oh, so the LCBO isn't run by respectable people? What about all those stores that sell cigarettes? Are they respectable businesses?


 Because the very nature of the dependency they create, the damage they create,  the social upheaval and catastrophe they create, particularly in third world countries…I mean, you look now, you look at Latin America, some of the countries to the south of us, and the damage the drug trade is doing, not just to people’s lives as drug users.


Since when do we import pot from South America? And you know something? As to the "dependency", the "damage", the "social upheaval and catastrophe", I could make every point a lot more forcefully about alcohol. Ask any of the many victims of drunk driving. Ask an alcoholic's family members about the "social upheaval". But alcohol is 100% legal to those of legal age.


 Look at the violence it’s creating in neighbourhoods, the destruction of social systems. of families,


--any pot-related violence is almost certain a result of prohibition. You know, kind of like Al Capone.


 of governmental institutions, the corruption of police forces, I mean, these are terrible, terrible organizations, and while I know people, you know, have different views, I must admit myself sometimes I’m frustrated by how little impact governments have been able to have on the drug trade internationally.


Sometimes I marvel that Harper has a degree in economics. This is called "supply and demand", and it's Eco 101.


 But we should not fool ourselves into thinking that if we somehow stopped trying to deal with it, it would suddenly turn into a nice, wholesome industry.


The way alcohol has.


 It will never be that. 


Or..isn't the alcohol industry wholesome? I'm confused.


And I think we all need to understand that, and we all need to make sure our kids understand, not just that our kids…hopefully not just understand the damage drugs can do to them, but they understand as well the wider social disaster they are contributing to if they, through use of their money, fund organizations that produce and deliver illicit narcotics.


It's a plant, Steve. It makes people feel good. It also kills pain, including pain that many high-powered narcotics won't touch. Yet you deem it worse than the rape of children. I think you owe Canadians an explanation. A real one, this time.

I'm waiting.