IS THIS REALLY THE BEST WE CAN DO?

Governing, by its very nature, is a reactive, not a proactive, affair.
Politicians and bureaucrats, as much as they like to think of themselves as
civic leaders, spend much of their time trying to implement the best of
several unpalatable options.

Sometimes this is due to lack of resources, but often it is simply due to
the impossibility of trying to please everybody, or at least a majority of
registered voters, all the time.

Or at least often enough that they only remember the good stuff leading up
to an election.

In the past few weeks there have been a couple of classic examples of
politicians trying to cash in on the public mood.

The first was the possibility of raising the speed limit on 400 series
highways. The second was the talk of decriminalizing simple possession of
marijuana.

As a daily commuter on the lovely Highway 401, I can certainly attest to
the fact that the 100 km/h speed limit exists only as a figment of
somebody's imagination.

Or for the benefit of those petrified old fogies who drive 100 km/h in the
centre lane, their knuckles clutching the steering wheel, as white as the
remaining hair on their heads.

Everybody else goes way, way faster. Even when the cops undertake a
crackdown on speeders, they go so far as to announce they will be looking
for drivers exceeding the limit by 25 km/h or more, thus sanctioning the
safe breaking of the law by 20 or less.

The rationale for increasing the speed limit goes something like this:

Drivers are exceeding the speed limit on a regular basis, putting them
afoul of the law, and causing them to feel guilty.

By increasing the speed limit, people will be able to drive as fast as ever
and not lose any sleep.

Problem solved.

Unless, of course, drivers exceed the new speed limits by 25km/h as well.

The decriminalization of marijuana possession is another tricky one for
politicians.

It seems a majority of Canadians have broken the law by puffing on a joint
at least once in their lives. The police and courts spend an inordinate
amount of time prosecuting these petty offenders, who end up with criminal
records as a result.

Years of academic studies have shown no long-lasting effects from smoking
marijuana, especially when compared to the deleterious effects of alcohol
consumption, the drug of choice for most Canadians.

The feds already licence about 250 citizens for medical marijuana use, so
they are in a bit of a bind. If it's beneficial for some, how come others
end up in jail?

The only really solid objection to decriminalizing dope that anyone can
come up with is the argument that marijuana leads to harder drugs.

As a former substance abuser, I can certainly attest to that being true in
my case. However, this is most likely due to the fact that buying grass
puts you into contact with serious bad guys, who have a strong financial
interest in seeing you move up the ladder to pricier, far more addictive drugs.

In order to counteract this argument, though, they would have to go further
than decriminalizing simple possession.

They would have to legalize, and possibly regulate, the sales and
distribution networks as well, taking the casual user out of contact with
the organized criminals who control those products now.

Our politicians seem convinced that changing the law because the majority
of us are breaking it anyway is a perfectly acceptable method of governing.
True, it is important to keep up with the changing mores of society, but
both of these examples smack of moral relativism, not enlightened leadership.

A proactive approach to the driving conditions on Highway 401 might be to
invest heavily in high-speed public transit. Well-used public transit is a
standard in all truly progressive cultures.

A positive approach to curtailing substance abuse, be it marijuana,
alcohol, or gasoline in a plastic garbage bag, might be to invest heavily
in arts-related education and activities for young people.

Well-balanced and creatively driven individuals have little time or
interest in mind altering drugs, they simply don't need them.

That comes when people are disillusioned, and see no productive future.

By all means, lets do something about the horrendous driving conditions in
Southern Ontario. Lets do something about substance abuse. But really, we
can be more creative than this. Can't we?