Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has had occasion to indulge in a little reefer by the pool since he became MP. Ooh. Ah. Justin’s smoked pot. Stephen Harper, could barely mask his disdain when asked about it while on a tour of the Far North, deliberately pausing to take a long drink from the glass of water on the dais beside him before remarking that the pot revelations “speak for themselves.”
Conservative trolls were all over the news reported by Huffington Post Canada Thursday. The moral outrage online from the frat boys who populate Harp’s base and backrooms, was swift. The guy who wants to be PM smoked an “illegal” substance. Scandalous! Personally, I prefer my political leaders smoke crack and get close to fall down drunk in public.
I’m being sarcastic, of course, but that seemed to be lost on the lawyer friend of the PM’s in Ottawa (nailed by the Law Society for professional misconduct, it turns out) who was particularly busy on Twitter with pearls of derision over the Trudeau smoke signals. That’s the thing with some conservatives. They can do no wrong, even when they’re fixing elections, or proroguing Parliament yet again to keep scandals like Senators lining their pockets at taxpayers’ expense out of the headlines.
They’re the masters of blowing smoke. The PM doesn’t puff (not even cigs) or drink, which makes him a stand up guy. The pot, meanwhile, explains why Trudeau is a little light between the ears, or so goes the spin. The other one being that Trudeau’s gay. But let’s not go there again.
Yes. Conservatives are a superior – and hypocritical – bunch. They don’t want their kids having easy access to legal reefer, they’ll argue, apparently oblivious to the harm caused by booze and smokes – both of which are costing our taxpayer-funded health care system, the same one they say is becoming increasingly unaffordable, untold billions. In fact, the costs associated with alcohol and tobacco abuse are almost twice as those for illegal drugs.
But who’s keeping score? Apparently not the justice minister, Peter MacKay, who issued a self-righteous statement to capitalize on the pseudo controversy to the effect that Trudeau showed a “profound lack of judgment… by flouting the laws of Canada while holding elected office he shows he is a poor example for all Canadians, particularly young ones.”
That would be the same MacKay who has been snapped in a previous life binge drinking from a beer bong. Guess the spinners in the PMO were a little slow on the uptake on that attempted hit, unaware of the other news on the pot front Thursday morning. That from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
The CACP says it’s time for police forces to start thinking about ticketing for simple pot possession instead of wasting taxpayers’ (there’s that word again) time and money dragging young people through the courts – not to mention saddling them with a criminal record for something as benign as a little reefer.
To quote the CACP’s official statement: “The current process of sending all simple possession of cannabis cases to criminal court is placing a significant burden on the entire justice system.”
The Globe, which can’t be accused of being a Liberal organ, reacted to the CACP’s statement with an editorial on the need for the feds to find “a workable middle ground in the heated and drawn-out debate over the decriminalization of pot.”
The Globe editorial ends on a critical note. “The police chiefs’ proposal,” it says, “reinforces that it is the federal government, not the Canadian public, that is out of step with the times.”
That’s an understatement. The right-wing think tank Fraser Institute called for legalized pot as far back as 2004, noting many of the same arguments being made now by legalize it advocates.
Under the HarperCons, however, the misguided war on drugs has morphed into a war on marijuana. Read it and weep.
There were 57,429 pot possession charges reported in Canada in 2012. That’s roughly 14,000 more possession charges than when the Conservatives took office in 2006. But 2012 wasn’t even the high mark – or low point depending on your perspective. In 2011, cops laid a record 61,764 pot possession charges.
Pot possession charges alone make up a staggering 60 per cent of all drug arrests in Canada. And, according to Statistics Canada, about half of those are stayed, withdrawn or dismissed when they get to court. All of which adds up to a mind boggling and colossal was of time, money and effort busting folks for small amounts. Not surprisingly, more minors (between 12 and 17) are getting pinched.
To add to the reefer madness, the exponential rise in pot possession charges has been happening at the same time as crime in all other major categories (murder etc…) has been going down across Canada, in most cases, by double digits.
Police budgets, meanwhile, have been ballooning, a fact, ironically enough, not lost on the HarperCons.
Earlier this year, at the Summit on the Economics of Policing in Ottawa the then minister of public safety, Vic Toews, was blunt about the need for police services “finding more effective and innovative ways to address criminality and disorder.” He said the public is no longer willing to accept steady increases in police budgets without question.
“Police services face two options,” Toews said. “They can do nothing and eventually be forced to cut drastically… or they can get ahead of the curve implementing meaningful structural reforms.”
How about more attention on financial and commercial law breakers, cyber threats and organized crime instead? The Toronto police force doesn’t seem to be heeding the advice. TPS has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to pot enforcement, which conflicts with the strategy advocated by other chiefs across Canada.
While the CACP does not support decriminalization or legalization or marijuana, it advocates a balanced approached when it comes to policing weed, encouraging the exercise of discretion in simple possession cases.
To quote: the CACP “believes there should be emphasis on enforcement against possession/illegal use of drugs where (and here’s the kicker) the users are engaged in behaviours that harm or interfere in the lawful use or enjoyment of public or private property and contribute to street disorder.”
Is the legalization being espoused by Trudeau the answer? The Lib leader may have found a wedge issue that may encourage more young people to vote, as the issue has in recent U.S. elections. B.C. is a particularly fertile ground for pro-pot votes.
But when it comes to drugs, pot is the least of our problems. The real buzz kill is that more kids are turning to their parents’ medicine cabinets than the street corner for kicks. We have a full-blown prescription drug crisis in this country, according to the CACP.
Fact: Canada ranks just below the U.S. as the world’s second largest per capita consumer of prescription opioids.
Fact: The rate of opioid use in Canada has increased by 203 per cent, or quadrupled, over the last decade.
Fact: Prescription opioid-related deaths doubled in just over 10 years in Ontario, from 13.7 deaths per million people in 1991 to 27.2 deaths per million people in 2004.
Earlier this year, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse launched a 10-year strategy “to address the devastating harms associated with prescription drugs.”
Time for HarperCons to take a pill when it comes to pot.
enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo
