Just finished reading an article about a Grade 11 student given a three-day suspension on registration day in September because a vice-principal smelled pot. Any protest by the student as he offered his backpack for inspection and even a request for them to smell up close was rejected. They just sent him home saying he was under the influence of drugs based on smelling pot in the general area alone.
Just what do we expect will happen when pot is legalized? Just because we were told that legalization would help prevent kids under 18 from purchasing and therefore smoking marijuana, this article just proves that promise was just a puff of smoke. They promised the same thing while introducing the age limit for alcohol.
Just watching the frenzied actions of a lot of folks anticipating the “millions” to be made has been an eye opener. That we should have any politician give assurances of the control they have on this issue is about the same as telling us that we will receive only “sunny days” and nice mild weather all the way through to March.
Air Canada has also set a restriction both on and off the job for some of its key personnel. How long before they will be met with a court challenge on that ruling? How can a company assert and maintain those kinds of rules when the provincial governments that they operate under allow pot smoking in the same spaces as cigarettes (something which was inevitable)?
The National presented a short documentary on the states in America that legalized pot about two or three years ago. The one statement that stood out was when an official stated that “if you are going to legalize pot, make absolutely sure that you have all your laws and enforcements in place. If you don’t you will have lost any control you ever thought you might have had.” That comes from a voice of experience dealing with an expanded and uncontrollable black market.
I know that most government officials have been trying desperately to put rules and laws like that in place, but in Canada you have ten provinces making ten sets of rules and laws. It all sounds so official and promising and we will just accept it, thinking they have it all under control. I believe we are in for a sad surprise. What might be legal in B.C. could be punishable in Alberta, I think you get my drift.
We have yet to experience the depths of marijuana’s Pandora’s Box. It will be a difficult road for many, especially for young families whose children are the most vulnerable to the influences of pot users. Companies and businesses will have to find a way of dealing with another legal substance that will in all likelihood result in lost production hours much the same or worse than cigarettes and alcohol; all of them legal substances.
What we are facing was inevitable from the get-go, so now we have to find ways of dealing with the fallout. I still believe that we have to find the root causes for people’s intense desire to get high on a new product. With all of the pertinent studies as to the effects of misuse of pot, will we be facing a whole new set of legal, medical and social issues? Will we be ready and able to deal with these issues?
Regardless of your stand on this divisive topic, that it will have a major impact on all of our society is without question. Oct. 17 is here, and so it begins.
Chris Salomons is a Retired Red Deer Resident with a concern for the Downtrodden