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Trudeau’s bait and switch on legalization?
The Liberals promised to “legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana”, not create a consumer market.
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ByJenna Valleriani
December 4, 2016
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently expressed frustration around the current cannabis landscape, explaining, “Until we have brought in the proposed system… the current prohibition stands”, and encouraging police to enforce the law, particularly as it pertains to the continued expansion of medical cannabis dispensaries in major cities across Canada.
The response has been one of uniform frustration from many angles, but I don’t believe Justin Trudeau actually lied about the Liberal party’s intentions on the cannabis file.
From the very beginning, the emphasis has always been onrestrictingandregulatingaccess to cannabis. In 2014, Trudeau said his government would legalize andmake it more difficult — not easier — for children to get their hands on marijuana.In September 2015, Trudeau said he would not like to see cannabis sold at corner stores. As early as 2013, he was quoted saying, “Our government has no interest in seeing any of these drugs legalized or made more easily available to youth”, and more recently he has been reaffirming the intention that, “our approach on legalizing marijuana is not about creating a boutique industry or bringing in tax revenues.” The budget did not even include any mention of marijuana.
To claim now that Trudeau lied seems confusing – no government could really get away with a legalization ‘free for all’, but more importantly, a majority of Canadians don’t want that. While there is certainly more room to have an open conversation about job creation, tax revenue, and stimulating our economy, often many of these objectives, whether we want to admit it or not, can be at odds with a public health approach to legalization. When he says the government is not trying to “appease recreational users”, its in reference to a system that needs to work for both cannabis users and a majority of the population who are not actually regular cannabis users.
We will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.
Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition does not work. It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug.
Arresting and prosecuting these offenses is expensive for our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offenses. At the same time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs.
To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.
We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor vehicle while under its influence, and those who sell it outside of the new regulatory framework.
We will create a federal/provincial/territorial task force, and with input from experts in public health, substance abuse, and law enforcement, will design a new system of strict marijuana sales and distribution, with appropriate federal and provincial excise taxes applied.
I will agree that there has been a marked shift in how Justin Trudeauseemedto acknowledge the role of medical cannabis dispensaries early on – hinting that there may be room for them in an eventual legalized regime. Now that seems a bit hazier, where dispensaries, in most cases outside Victoria and Vancouver, have been pushed further away from participation in impending legalization. However, it’slikely that municipalities and provinces will be given some discretion to implement distribution modelsthat make sense in their jurisdictions. Victoria, as probably thebest exampleof how it could work, offers a lot of knowledge and experience in the case of making on site dispensing work under a recreational model.
The biggest mistake of the Liberal party in the lead up to legalization has certainly been the continued enforcement of cannabis laws. While Canadians have many opinions on how legalization should roll out, most would likely agree that the most pressing issue isthe ongoing criminalization of cannabis.
People simply don’t deserve to be punished under a law that is widely regarded as doing more harm than good to Canadian citizens. This didn’t have to mean “decriminalization” in the typical sense, it could have been simply an order to stop prosecuting possession charges and offer pardons.
While there is an argument to be made aboutthe difficulty of transitioning from a decriminalization-type system to legalization, models such as Portugal show decriminalization doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach – in their case, they’ve decriminalize the possession and use of a substance, and yet continue to enforce laws around trafficking and production of drugs.The possession of small quantities of those drugs was shifted to a public-health rather than criminal issue.When the possession of cannabis accounts for such a large majority of drug offenses in Canada, there is a very common sense argument to be made from many angles about immediately halting arrests.
But the plan has always been to “legalize, regulate, and restrict accessto marijuana” – while this brings up many questions about the right or best way to legalize cannabis in Canada (and we should be critical of what these plans mean)— it’s what the Liberals have always represented in their approach to cannabis legalization.
31 people found this helpful
8 people did not find this helpful
In this article
Jenna Valleriani
Jenna is a PhD Candidate in Sociology and the Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research looks at social movements, entrepreneurship and the emergence of new industries, focusing on the transition to the MMPR in Canada
Trudeau’s bait and switch on legalization?
The Liberals promised to “legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana”, not create a consumer market.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
FacebookTwitterLinkedInGoogleEmail
ByJenna Valleriani
December 4, 2016
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently expressed frustration around the current cannabis landscape, explaining, “Until we have brought in the proposed system… the current prohibition stands”, and encouraging police to enforce the law, particularly as it pertains to the continued expansion of medical cannabis dispensaries in major cities across Canada.
The response has been one of uniform frustration from many angles, but I don’t believe Justin Trudeau actually lied about the Liberal party’s intentions on the cannabis file.
From the very beginning, the emphasis has always been onrestrictingandregulatingaccess to cannabis. In 2014, Trudeau said his government would legalize andmake it more difficult — not easier — for children to get their hands on marijuana.In September 2015, Trudeau said he would not like to see cannabis sold at corner stores. As early as 2013, he was quoted saying, “Our government has no interest in seeing any of these drugs legalized or made more easily available to youth”, and more recently he has been reaffirming the intention that, “our approach on legalizing marijuana is not about creating a boutique industry or bringing in tax revenues.” The budget did not even include any mention of marijuana.
To claim now that Trudeau lied seems confusing – no government could really get away with a legalization ‘free for all’, but more importantly, a majority of Canadians don’t want that. While there is certainly more room to have an open conversation about job creation, tax revenue, and stimulating our economy, often many of these objectives, whether we want to admit it or not, can be at odds with a public health approach to legalization. When he says the government is not trying to “appease recreational users”, its in reference to a system that needs to work for both cannabis users and a majority of the population who are not actually regular cannabis users.
We will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.
Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition does not work. It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug.
Arresting and prosecuting these offenses is expensive for our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offenses. At the same time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs.
To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.
We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor vehicle while under its influence, and those who sell it outside of the new regulatory framework.
We will create a federal/provincial/territorial task force, and with input from experts in public health, substance abuse, and law enforcement, will design a new system of strict marijuana sales and distribution, with appropriate federal and provincial excise taxes applied.
I will agree that there has been a marked shift in how Justin Trudeauseemedto acknowledge the role of medical cannabis dispensaries early on – hinting that there may be room for them in an eventual legalized regime. Now that seems a bit hazier, where dispensaries, in most cases outside Victoria and Vancouver, have been pushed further away from participation in impending legalization. However, it’slikely that municipalities and provinces will be given some discretion to implement distribution modelsthat make sense in their jurisdictions. Victoria, as probably thebest exampleof how it could work, offers a lot of knowledge and experience in the case of making on site dispensing work under a recreational model.
The biggest mistake of the Liberal party in the lead up to legalization has certainly been the continued enforcement of cannabis laws. While Canadians have many opinions on how legalization should roll out, most would likely agree that the most pressing issue isthe ongoing criminalization of cannabis.
People simply don’t deserve to be punished under a law that is widely regarded as doing more harm than good to Canadian citizens. This didn’t have to mean “decriminalization” in the typical sense, it could have been simply an order to stop prosecuting possession charges and offer pardons.
While there is an argument to be made aboutthe difficulty of transitioning from a decriminalization-type system to legalization, models such as Portugal show decriminalization doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach – in their case, they’ve decriminalize the possession and use of a substance, and yet continue to enforce laws around trafficking and production of drugs.The possession of small quantities of those drugs was shifted to a public-health rather than criminal issue.When the possession of cannabis accounts for such a large majority of drug offenses in Canada, there is a very common sense argument to be made from many angles about immediately halting arrests.
But the plan has always been to “legalize, regulate, and restrict accessto marijuana” – while this brings up many questions about the right or best way to legalize cannabis in Canada (and we should be critical of what these plans mean)— it’s what the Liberals have always represented in their approach to cannabis legalization.
31 people found this helpful
8 people did not find this helpful
In this article
Jenna Valleriani
Jenna is a PhD Candidate in Sociology and the Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research looks at social movements, entrepreneurship and the emergence of new industries, focusing on the transition to the MMPR in Canada
