When Justin Trudeau announced to a crowd in B.C. that he supported the legalization of marijuana, he took a brave, yet proper stance on the wasteful, and tyrannical war on marijuana. Marijuana criminalization has ruined lives, and has distracted law enforcement into wasting their time and resources on a personal activity that shouldn't be a crime. Trudeau is on the side of common sense while the Conservatives are on the side of insanity, ignorance, and foolishness.
When the Conservative Party writes on their website, "These drugs are illegal because of the harmful effect they have on users and on society," they are spewing lies to the Canadian people. Marijuana has not directly killed any user of the drug. As DEA Judge Francis L Young wrote in 1988, "in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette." He added, "A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response." Marijuana is clearly not a drug that should be classified the way heroin is. No pothead, no matter how much weed he or she smokes, will be able to smoke 1500 pounds of marijuana in fifteen minutes.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the resident MD of CNN has been studying marijuana for a year, and has placed himself on the side of Trudeau, the side with the right facts, and the right stance. He noted on Piers Morgan, "Every 19 minutes someone dies of a prescription drug overdose - [it] doesn't happen with marijuana." Gupta also revealed 9 per cent of marijuana users show signs of dependence, six percent less than those who show dependence on alcohol. The addiction rate of marijuana is low, prescription drugs and alcohol are far more deadly, yet marijuana is the drug that is demonized.
In the National Post, Tom Blackwell noted prescription drug use in Canada is now at a rate topped only by Americans, and deaths due to prescription drugs have risen. In Ontario, the deaths of the prescription drug Fentanyl rose from 34 in 2005, to 57 in 2009. Pharmaceutical companies are producing deadly drugs, marijuana can't kill anyone, yet it is "irresponsible" to call for the legalization of marijuana.
When the Conservative Party posts a message on their website citing quotes from police that claim, "There's no doubt that [legalizing marijuana] would be an absolutely stupid thing to do," they are showing a vast amount of ignorance that translates into telling normal, working class Canadians that they can't regulate their own bodies, and they should be tossed into jail for using a substance that has killed less people than Fentanyl.
The Conservative Party is in trouble. By Trudeau taking his pro-weed stance the lead he has now will lead him to Sussex Drive in 2015. Sixty per cent of Canadians support the legalization of marijuana which means Trudeau is playing a smart hand, while Stephen Harper is packing his bags. It is time for marijuana to get off the black market, and it is time to stop throwing people in jail because they chose to smoke a substance so many people are ignorant about.
Trudeau is simply taking the lead in Ottawa, by telling the truth about marijuana. It is far less harmful than alcohol, and prescription drugs, and law enforcement has better things to do than toss cannabis smokers in jail, simply because they prefer weed over alcohol. Stop the insanity, stop ruining lives, and legalize marijuana already.
