Reeferlogic

America’s appetite for discussing hot button topics is quite high these days - thanks in no small part to the Obama Administration’s vow to bring change to America.

Included in the great change debate is whether or not marijuana should remain illegal. Obviously readers of my blog know where I stand on the issue, even if they don’t actually know who I am. Isn’t having to hide your identity from the authorities over something as stupid as a hunger and laughter inducing plant fun? sigh.

Anyway…this week Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN has been running a special on cannabis legalization. The pro’s and con’s.

As usual the guests on Anderson’s show who support marijuana legalization use facts and common sense to support their position while the prohibitionists use fear mongering and morality issues to justify their stance.

I taped his Tuesday show for your viewing pleasure and posted it to youtube. I taped it in HD so make sure you click the HD button on the youtube viewer. And pardon my taping of live TV - it was the best I could do on short notice.

I don’t agree with 100% of the comments made in these clips - but all in all I think this coverage is a really good thing. Now that this debate has started I estimate that we are about 10 years away from seeing a completely different way of dealing with pot in our society.

Why did I just get a strange deja vu feeling all of a sudden?

This week Health Canada, under the guidance of the Conservative Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, changed the Canadian Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR).

The MMAR had a rule that stated that an exemptee to Canada’s drug laws (someone who qualifies under the MMAR) could select a person to grow their cannabis for them if they were unable to do so for themselves. However, there was a constraint placed on the grower that said they could only grow marijuana for one MMAR exemptee.

The B.C. Supreme Court struck that rule down stating that it was arbitrary and unconstitutional - basically it caused unnecessary burdens on those involved and was not in the best interest of the MMAR exemptee’s. Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg gave Ottawa one year to change the rules so people could run a common marijuana-growing operation supporting many exemptee’s.

Of course our Federal Conservative government has screamed bloody murder over this decision. Even though this judges decision is legally sound and compassionate towards the sick Stephen Harper couldn’t help himself but counter this decision with typical ideological zeal. What did he do you ask to make this law not arbitrary and in instead make it in the interest of the sick?

He changed the law so that a grower could grow for two people, not just one.

Fuck me - is he serious? I’ve already started the countdown for the court date when this law will be struck down just like the first one. Up to two people from one?? And that’s less arbitrary than the first rule that allowed only one person??? Talk about playing ideological games and wasting our tax dollars. This will certainly be back in court and struck down within the year.

To understand this move by our neo-con Prime Minister you have to think about what might happen if people could grow as much marijuana as the sick people in this Country actually need. Do you know what would happen? A much larger legal market for medicinal marijuana would be created and commercial growers would move in to meet the demand. Now most would think that a Conservative government would be in support of this type of thing - enhance civil liberties, remove government interference from artificially restricting a viable market, create jobs, enhance the economy. Sigh, if only the product wasn’t cannabis.

The Conservatives know that if a commercial producer of cannabis started to churn out medicinal cannabis on a commercial scale research would start to get done in earnest and before long our failed cannabis laws would be struck down entirely. They just wouldn’t be able to justify the prohibition any longer. It would only be a matter of time before the inevitable facts start to show that cannabis is a safe product - especially in light of current legal intoxicants - alcohol and tobacco. People will demand that our marijuana laws be changed. The demands have already started and are getting louder. These futile actions by Harper are a last ditch attempt at keeping cannabis prohibition in place.

Too little, too late Mr. Harper. Too little, too late.

Canada’s injured war vets now have a really good reason to spark a fatty. In fact so do I.

Canada’s heroic veterans of war can now get medical marijuana for free from The Government of Canada, or more accurately, Veterans Affairs.

Obviously I think this decision is an excellent one. There is ample evidence that cannabis is an effective treatment for pain, nausea, stress, anxiety…the list goes on.

I can’t think of anyone who would deserve to use this plant medicinally more than our war vets. The injury and trauma that they have to deal with is incredible, and they sacrificed themselves to protect my freedoms, my right to type this blog! I say let our brave vets smoke whatever they want, they’ve earned it. And since cannabis will help them its only right that they shouldn’t have to pay for it either.

Big thanks to Veterans Affairs for having the courage to act compassionately instead of ideologically. It’s good to know you’re there to support our soldiers when they return from battle.