Canadian Cannabis Crackdown
Because cannabis was illegal before any sort of scientific testing was done, there has been precious little modern scientific study of the substance. What little study there has been suggests negative effects of cannabis are less harmful than many other substances that can be purchased openly and legally by anyone. Like aspirin. People can kill themselves with aspirin. But it is physically impossible for anyone to kill themselves with cannabis.
The worst health risks with cannabis centre around the fact that it is most often smoked in combination with tobacco, and we now know tobacco is hazardous to our health. And yet the Canadian Government only allowed patients access to edibles after another Supreme Court challenge.
“We believe, however, that the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself or the regulated marketing of the substance. In addition, we believe that the continued criminalization of cannabis undermines the fundamental values set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and confirmed in the history of a country based on diversity and tolerance.”
— Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs (2002)
REPORT OF THE SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ILLEGAL DRUGS
And yet the Canadian Government promising cannabis legalization has increased it’s war on cannabis even more. They are cracking down on cannabis at a frantic pace in the lead up to legalization.
The loudest and most effective cannabis activists in Canadian history are Marc and Jodie Emery. Today, they accepted probation and hefty fines in a plea deal to allow 17 others to walk free.
This makes no sense. Or does it?
Credits
Jodie Emery quotation from “Cannabis Culture dispensaries: What I did, and why” by Jodie Emery; Photograph by Cannabis Culture editor Jeremiah Vandermeer, released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.