Jump to content
Jambands.ca

Harper scraps pot decriminalization plan...


Basher

Recommended Posts

Real shocker here...

Canada scraps plan to decriminalize marijuana use

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

Canada's new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation which would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The legislation, drawn up by the previous Liberal government, alarmed police officials in Canada and the neighboring United States who said it would only encourage the already booming trade in pot.

Once the Liberals lost the January 23 election after 12 years in power, the bill looked to be in deep trouble. One of Harper's five priorities is to clamp down on crime.

"We will not be reintroducing the Liberal government's marijuana decriminalization legislation," he told a meeting of the Canadian Professional Police Association.

"I thought we might find a receptive audience here," he told his audience after winning a round of applause.

Under the Liberal bill, people found with small amounts of marijuana would have been fined but would not have received a criminal record.

Canadian police complain that judges often hand down lenient sentences on people found guilty of running operations to grow marijuana illegally.

Estimates for the value of Canada's booming pot business trade vary widely and some experts say it is worth C$10 billion ($8.5 billion) a year. The main center is the Pacific province of British Columbia, where criminals export potent marijuana, known as BC Bud, to the United States.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think most of our lives will pretty much remain the same as they've always been. no squad team is going to be scaling your siding to find your quarter ounce.

the good thing us pot users have on our side is a complete lack of police funding to do any kind of substantial damage to the small-timers.

edit to add: the real thing to watch is the budget and how much money is thrown under the policing umbrella.. that's when you should be scared.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I thought we might find a receptive audience here," he told his audience after winning a round of applause.

This quotation is taken out of context (not by you Basher). The round of applause came after he talked about getting rid of the faint hope clause. See the CBC article:

Harper's get-tough speech draws warm reception from police association

Harper received sustained applause when he spoke of his government's intention to repeal the so-called faint hope clause – a section of the Criminal Code that allows a criminal serving a life sentence to apply for early parole.

"I thought we might find a responsive audience here," the PM quipped.

I still think Harper's a dick but let's be fair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good lord, I really hope Canadians don't view marijuana as a "Drug" like many Americans seem to. Am I really that out of touch with the majority that I think pot is completely benign and less harmful than alcohol, when viewed on a macro scale? What a horribly clear example of the inefficiency experienced by multi-party governments. Is a couple grams of pot really worth this much debate? What a fucking waste of my taxes. I'm supporting a government that doesn't coincide with my philosophies at all. I gotta find me a good old fashioned black market job. I'm good at sales, anyone hiring?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think its awesome as I do about him shutting reporters out as I do a bunch of slimey things he's doing....keep pissing everyone off dude....get voted out next time and hopefully we won't see another conservative gov for a long time coming. Also hopefully all the other freaky polis will have learned they can't fuck around so much and will do what they say there gonna do rather than just creating illusions.

who knows....mabey this is what will happen.

Gotta have some hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so live in toronto, where your day to day life isn't going to change THAT much is it?

Considering no one in this town voted in a Conservative MP, Harpur can renege on many agreements for funding that were coming our way. Not that we were getting much by way of what we gave ($26 000 decrepency per person in Toronto bewteen what we pay in taxes and what we receive in funding as of 2005) There will always be those cops who cannot wait to bust pot smokers. If they think the feds might have their back if they do, its open season.

to be fair though, most TO cops will take your weed (no matter how much under an ounze) and throw it down the nearest sewer and tell you to piss off. If you back talk, or talk shit to them, they'll write you a ticket for $400 as well. but I have yet to hear of anyone in TO actually being booked for posession under an ounze.

Sorry I forgot to edit in that the above applies if your skin is white. Otherwise, you may get busted and the shit beaten out of you. TO cops are racist, and yes I mean generally speaking many TO cops.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What gets me the most is that I have a hard time accepting that I partake (daily) in something that would actually be characterized as CRIMINAL

I (and I am sure many of you) try to live my life positively. I like to think that as much as possible I treat people the way that I would like to be treated, I respect my environment, and my fellow being. I try to keep politically informed, and civically engaged, and to be branded as "criminal" is insulting, and disheartening.

It is so hard to believe that our politicians are even REMOTELY focused on marijuana consumption when we have pervasive social and environmental injustice everywhere we turn. I'm sick to death of being governed by people with such blindly narrowed vision, that have their self-righteous heads shoved so far up their ass in search of the almighty dollar...

Will it effect my daily habits? Hell no, but it pisses me off to be characterized as criminal...

Rant, rant, rant, rant, rant....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad the bill was shot down. I found it troubling when it was introduced.

Why?

Because I think a big reason that marijuana use is ignored by police is because of the beaurocratic hassle involved in busting users. If the hassle is reduced to a $105 fine, then handing out tickets would be a breeze. For example, ever been outside between sets at a show and see a cop car drive by? They never stop, though they probably know what people are doing - too much hassle. Now imagine the cops see not a bunch of people passing a joint, but instead they see it as a group of fines they can easily hand out.

Same thing when a cop walks by a pot cafe, of which there are several in Canada.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same thing when a cop walks by a pot cafe, of which there are several in Canada.

I see your point Velvet, but as we know, now with Harper in power, the police are starting to use a law brought in by Harris that allows the Attorney General of Ontario to seek forfeiture of money or other property (Remedies for Organized Crime and Other Unlawful Activities Act). Worst part is a person doesn't need to be found guilty or even charged with committing a crime for the property to be seized.

This has occured in Hamilton (although the bar needed to be shut down in my opinion), but then within the same week the Up In smoke cafe, a couple doors away and open for a few years without incident only a block away from central police station was busted, then busted again and threatened with this law.

As for folks smoking joints outside a club, in Hamilton anyway, I have seen the police stop on many occasions and even bust folks (myself included), as well heard horror stories of the police putting the squeeze on bar owners about their patrons smoking joints outisde during set breaks. I know that the old La Lunas back during the mid 90s was threatened with alot because of the patrons smoking outside or inside the club.

Personally, I find the alternatives to the decrriminalization much more troubling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks NDP!

I've got my back up pretty hard against the NDP now... joined their mailing list a few years back as I liked a lot of their platforms and was interested, though I still supported the Liberals as I believed in their ability to govern more

since the Liberals were over-thrown, with the help of the NDP, every time the Conservatives announce their plans on anything I get an emotional e-mail from the NDP exclaiming that the Conservative plans must be stopped at all costs... pretty sad and ridiculous... in my opinion they screwed the country to up their own chances of gaining power... that kind of politics doesnt' win my vote

people don't want legalization because that puts the government in charge of deciding what pot can be sold, who can grow it and how much to charge for it (which'd be large you'd figure)... given the government's track record of growing unsmokable medicinal weed this wouldn't be good at all, so people would still resort to the black market... like with anything, people who produce the best quality product are people who appreciate what goes into making a good quality product because they themselves appreciate such a product

Link to comment
Share on other sites

people don't want legalization because that puts the government in charge of deciding what pot can be sold, who can grow it and how much to charge for it (which'd be large you'd figure)... given the government's track record of growing unsmokable medicinal weed this wouldn't be good at all, so people would still resort to the black market... like with anything, people who produce the best quality product are people who appreciate what goes into making a good quality product because they themselves appreciate such a product

I don't buy that argument. If the government went to legalisation their main goals would be to eliminate the black market and make lots of money. They could only do this by being competitive.

The gov't makes big money on tobacco, and cigarettes retail for about forty cents a gram.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

people don't want legalization because that puts the government in charge of deciding what pot can be sold, who can grow it and how much to charge for it (which'd be large you'd figure)... given the government's track record of growing unsmokable medicinal weed this wouldn't be good at all, so people would still resort to the black market... like with anything, people who produce the best quality product are people who appreciate what goes into making a good quality product because they themselves appreciate such a product

Very good point Pais, when I was in Amsterdam at the cannabis cup in 1997, during one of the 420 gatherings/lectures hosted by Stephen Gaskins, he touched on pretty much the same thing. Explaining how complete legalization, although good for the smokers in the sense you wouldn't be charged for possesion or simply smoking, the penalities for growing would more then likely increase with stricter jail terms for doing so, as well for selling marijuana and this would apply right down to small amounts. He talked about gov't regulations on how it is grown, potency levels where its grown and who can grow it etc, basically like alcohol it would be tightly controlled.

Ideally, he said legalization would be great but in the end we don't live in an ideal world, so we need to take small steps forward,like starting out with decriminalization, reducing jail terms and most of all, educating. He did think that an age of majority was a good idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah, relating it close as I remember to the way it was told to me, not sure if I buy it either...

I simply wish it wasn't such a big deal, as I don't see it as one... like edger brought up, I know tons of people who could in no other way be considered criminals... but could be criminally charged because of how they choose to enjoy their free time... if people can't choose what they want to choose, how can you call it a free country?

as far as the topic goes, if the Conservatives were drawing up the legislation on decriminalization I don't think I'd be comfortable anyways... tragic news for people who use pot for medication though... hope cops and courts will still try to go soft on those folks

edit to add: thanks for the elaboration Esau... knew there was more to it than my foggy mind today was remembering... its always been difficult to buy "American Spirit" tobacco, which makes tailor mades taste like junk and is organically produced by natives

lets say I had some sweet land and grew a strain of great tasting tobacco that I had found out natives used for centuries and it rarely caused cancer... if I took that tobacco and tried to sell it at the market I'd be shut down and charged... though tobacco is legal, its not legal for me to produce or distribute it (is growing tobacco for personal use illegal? think so)

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing I think is pretty funny is that weed seems to be such an issue but people completely ignore it in music, movies, tv, etc. I don't mean depictions of it, I mean the artists using it. Sure they get charged but how many musicians, actors, or artsy folk of any kind do you know that don't smoke, at least on occaision, not to mention dabble in other fine products. I bet if Stephen Harper listens to music, the bands he listens to smoke at least a bit (he probably doesn't listen at all though). Same for police and judges, etc, etc. How much music, how many movies and tv shows, how many canvases have been created under the influence of some sort of drug. I guess it's easy to ignore but it's plainly obvious. I don't have any facts or anything like that to back this up, it's entirely assumption based but I don't think it's a bad assumption.

Hell, Carl Sagan was credited with 7 unique discoveries and he smoked weed for inspiration. We're talking someone who has defined laws of physics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

either velvet and freak already have a criminal record, and dont care if they further it, or they simply dont care if they have one in the first place....

when changing it from a criminal offense to a ticketable offense is a bad thing (cash grab), i dont know what to say....

you ask ANYONE who is going through the courts for a pot charge, where they are looking at getting a criminal record, and see if they would rather of had a ticket written....

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...