Fixing Harper - Part 4 - Ending the War on Pot

Changing the laws that make growing and using pot (marijuana, weed, whatever) may seem like focusing on a trivial matter, especially when considered against other weighty matters of state, but, believe me, it's not.  Not trivial at all, and there are historical precedents.

For decades now, pot has been illegal to grow and to use.  Substantial police resources over the years have been devoted to enforcing this ban.  Many have ended up in jail.  And although sentences and police attention have both been reduced in recent years, pot still isn't legal, it's not regulated and it's not taxed.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When I was a university student, it was apparently easier (and legally much safer) to get gallon jugs of pure ethanol from the chemistry lab to fuel parties than to score pot.  (I led a sheltered life and so only pass this information in the belief that it's true).  However, I do recall quite clearly a situation that happened where I was working for the summer back in the late 1960s.  More or less unbeknownst to most of us, one of the student engineers was selling pot from the bunkhouse.  He was caught, arrested and left his job.  I don't know what the outcome was, but it probably didn't end well for him (criminal record, unable to join certain professions because of that, and so on).  So most of us stuck to booze.  Even though we were mostly all younger than the legal drinking age of 21 at the time, it was far, far safer.  Any legal consequences were trivial.  And in Nova Scotia at the time, you could buy beer in cases of quart bottles.  Life was good.

Canada never had Prohibition as they did in the USA.  South of the 49th, the 18th Amendment came into effect January 17, 1920.  America went dry.  It lasted until 1933, when Congress passed the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th.  There were several reasons for this reversal.  First, Prohibition really wasn't working.  It did reduce alcohol consumption, but it spawned a huge underground criminal market for the stuff, organized crime flourished, there were more "speakeasies" in central NYC (about 2500) than there are bars there now.  About 75% of the government's tax revenue disappeared (only partly replaced by the 16th Amendment - income tax - in 1913).  And a future president, FDR, seemed to like moonshine and supposedly bought it (or just drank what was given to him - stories vary), thus violating that part of the Constitution.  And therein lies the story.  NPR's Planet Money ran a story about this called The Moonshine Stimulus.  You can download it as a podcast or listen on-line.

That explains the following image of a float in an anti-Prohibition parade in 1925.  Note the slogans: "Give Us Beer", "Balance the Budget", "Beer for Prosperity" and "Very Few Working"

Once Prohibition was repealed, the beer industry boomed with thousands employed, breweries constructed and, significantly for this post, vast increases in tax revenue.

The real story for Canada has, however, to do with pot.  The former Conservative administration adamantly refused to even consider de-criminalization of the pot laws or especially legalization.  

Despite the drug antics of one of Harper's supporters, despite the evidence....  Although most courts in the country have been handing out lighter sentences in recent years, pot's illegal status hasn't changed.  

Despite the USA's "War on Drugs" (a war that has failed spectacularly) and recent moves by a few states (Colorado, Washington, etc) to legalize pot, Canada has remained firmly in the pot prohibition camp.  

Until now, however.

The current Liberal administration has vowed to change the laws on pot.  It's unclear when or how, exactly, but the idea is, at the very least, to regulate and tax the stuff, taking a page from the way governments have treated, and profited, from booze.

Save Your Prayers

In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in America, more meaningless words, more expressions of sadness, the offering of prayers.... but, once again, no action.

The Senator from Sandy Hook made his feelings about such meaningless tripe quite clear in comments made following the San Bernardino shootings on December 2nd.  

Your "thoughts" should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your "prayers" should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again.

The Guardian ran a lengthy article that showed, in graphic form, all the mass shootings that have occurred in the USA over the past 3 years. The article was titled: "1052 Mass Shootings in 1066 Days. This is What America's Gun Crisis Looks Like".

America obviously has a gun crisis, as the graph above clearly shows. Mass shootings are only one part of the problem. The Gun Violence Archive has much of the data, but the yearly numbers tell as much of the story as is needed. In 2015 (so far) there have been 12,282 gun-related deaths. In 2014, there were 12,469 deaths. Each day, in 2013, there were about 30 deaths.

A report by NBC laid out the shocking statistics this way.

And of course, these are only the deaths.  Each year, over 100,000 people are shot.

These are figures that would be "normal" in a Third World Country, or perhaps a war zone.  Not in a so-called First World Country like the USA.  

It boggles the mind that, faced with this crisis, that there hasn't been an enraged public driving American legislators to do something.  But that hasn't happened.  Even the President seems to be resigned to the sorry situation.  Perhaps the main reason why inaction has been the policy is illustrated by this image:

One source has listed all the members of Congress who have basically been bought off by the NRA.  The gun lobby bleats on about 2nd Amendment Rights, or "God Given Rights", or that "guns don't kill people.  People kill people."  Obviously following this flawed logic, the Senate just recently defeated a bill that would have tightened up background checks and made it more difficult for individuals on "terrorist watch lists" to obtain guns.

Of course, there has been plenty of talk about terrorists.  Especially Muslim terrorists.  Especially those supposedly hiding among masses of Syrian refugees.  

It is a sorry state of affairs when the images above really, truly, represent the reality in America today.

Don't keep telling us that gun controls don't work.  They obviously do work.  Just take a look at Japan, at Australia .... so many examples.

What gives America?  Are your citizens worth so little?

NOTE:  There have been many stories about gun violence in the USA.  Some recent ones include this one from the CBC, and this personal account from a CBC journalist.