Canada will become only the second country in the world to officially legalize the substance after Uruguay.
Sure, there are other countries like Holland and Spain that have a policy of ignoring the sale and distribution of pot but this level of legalization is breaking some new ground.
It takes a lot of political capital and some boldness to tackle this subject; it's been on the fringes of legislation for decades. Official prohibition came right around the time of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s.
The massive economic, and therefore political power, that the distillers and brewers had made prohibition of alcohol in Canada very short lived.
The fact that politicians and business titans imbibed from time to time likely played a role as well. Marijuana got forgotten when alcohol was legalized probably because mostly immigrants and the working class of the 1920s were the primary users.
Fast forward to today. Statistics Canada finds that over five million Canadians admit to using marijuana at least once a month and about 30 per cent of Canadians admit to using it. These numbers are rather high (no pun intended). The real problem is that is creates a dangerous black market that has no standards or regulations (such as selling to youth) and makes criminals of citizens, resulting in lasting negative effects on their ability to be employable. This creates a social and legal burden on all of us and our systems, and to what end?
In other words, what we have been doing by criminalizing something that millions of citizens are doing anyway has had zero effect on its level of use and a negative effect on our social and legal apparatus.
It's distracted resources from more important issues such as healthcare, community safety, and education.
Just about every argument against legalization is the same as those that arose against legalizing alcohol in the ‘20s in Canada and ’30s in the United States: children may get hold of it, decay of moral values and it’s a gateway drug. Well…kids get their hands on it now because it's on the black market, legislating morality is a HUGE mistake and we definitely know that according the National Institute on Drug Abuse “the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, ‘harder’ substances.”
The tricky part will come at the local level.
When July 1 hits, how will our Council manage designated smoking areas?
Will the same rules apply to pot smokers as cigarette smokers? Where will it be sold and what zoning will be put in place, if any, to control concentration of its sale in a given area?
It will likely happen fast and locally our Council, school boards, law enforcement and health care services need to be prepared. Will they?
