Q:Why isn’t marijuana legal and taxed? The government could make more revenue, and it isn’t as harmful as booze. What’s going on?
A:This is a huge question, not only legal in nature. The answer lies with Canada’s Parliament.
You have to assume laws are made by our elected officials because they reflect public feelings and sentiments.
For example, more crimes come with minimum sentences because there is a feeling out there that the people want law and order. Of course, they only want that if it’s not their spouse or child charged with a minimum sentence offence.
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The pro-legalization movement uses many arguments, a couple of which you have mentioned.
Estimates vary, but it is thought that the marijuana trade in British Columbia alone is worth more than $20 billion a year. Imagine taxing that.
The federal government currently receives approximately $5 billion a year from tobacco taxes.
Bills were introduced in Parliament in 2002 and 2004 that would have decriminalized at least small personal- use amounts of marijuana, but both failed.
Interestingly, the United States lobbied hard against Canada’s passage of the 2002 bill, even threatening to close the U.S.-Canada border if it was passed.
You can cast a vote for this if you are passionate about it.
Legalization is the official platform of the Marijuana party. While some dismiss it as a one-issue party, is it any different than the Bloc Quebecois?
As well, many prominent Canadians, such as David Suzuki, admit smoking it previously or using it now. They argue there is no logic to it being illegal.
An Angus Reid poll from a year ago suggests more than half of Canadians would support marijuana being legal, but not other drugs.
A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court struck a blow for legalization.
In mid-April, two important components of the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act , which ban production and possession of marijuana, were found to be unconstitutional and struck down.
Earlier in April, those provisions were held to be “invalid and of no force and effect” as a result of a challenge by Matthew Mernagh, a medical user and known marijuana legalization advocate.
The impugned portions of this law dealt with people’s access to medical marijuana and restricted who could grow it for medical purposes.
The court said not allowing people with a valid medical reason access to this substance was against the law, and any law doing that was void.
It allowed the complaining person to grow or buy his own product, and stayed charges against him for doing so.
However, he may yet face those charges. The government has 90 days to deal with the issue and could institute new regulations that would have to be challenged separately.
It is hard to imagine that the government will let this lie and presumably will appeal or re-regulate medical marijuana access.
Many Canadians still state they believe smoking marijuana is wrong, that it leads to stronger drugs and crime, and they simply do not want it to be legal.
It appears the bottom line is that Parliament does not yet believe the Canadian public is ready to see marijuana sold next to rye and vodka in government-controlled stores.
As with any topic, if you feel passionately about it, write your MP, get involved and deal with it in a legal and logical way.
Rick Danyliuk is a lawyer with McDougall Gauley LLP in Saskatoon.
