IDEA GONE TO POT

Despite the hazy euphoria from marijuana advocates about the Senate
committee report recommending Canada legalize marijuana, this is definitely
a case of being careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

Because if the government of Canada does as the Senate committee suggests
and starts treating marijuana like liquor, we predict that in a decade or
so, the potheads who pushed so hard for legalization will be pining for the
good old days when they could toke in peace illegally.

The first thing the government would do is nationalize the marijuana
industry. The manufacturing and distribution of joints would be
fully-controlled and regulated by governments (even if private companies
were involved in the process, like they are for cigarettes and booze).

That would mean potheads still wouldn't be able to legally grow their own.
Oh sure, some do now and occasionally they get busted for it. But there are
still strict limitations on homebrewed beverages, and we don't know anyone
who has a backyard tobacco crop. Why would anyone think that the government
would be willing to share its lucrative pot monopoly?

And it would be lucrative because the product would be heavily taxed. A
quarter-ounce bag of pot that currently costs about $70 on the street and
makes 10 to 15 joints would probably cost in the neighbourhood of $315 in
the stores if governments tax pot the way they do tobacco.

Then there would be the social ramifications. Currently, marijuana smokers
are treated with benign neglect. But at the same time there is a supposed
social tolerance for smoking pot, there is increasing social intolerance
for smoking tobacco.

Simply put, that is one paradox that will quickly be eradicated, as
provincial and civic politicians would swiftly move to not only incorporate
pot smoking in their anti-smoking legislation, but would use the
opportunity to expand anti-smoking laws, period. No one should kid
themselves about this point either. There are serious pushes under way
across the continent to ban cigarette smoking in all public places. Some
anti-smoking advocates have proposed sanctions against parents who smoke in
front of their kids or in their own homes.

With marijuana, there would be even bigger restrictions placed on where,
when and how one could legally toke. Marijuana smokers, then, will go from
being people who were generally ignored to official social pariahs,
condemned by society to indulge in their legal, heavily-taxed habit in the
isolated solitude of their properly-ventilated backyard sheds.

We hope they enjoy it, as it is what they wanted.