Canada's New Drug Culture: Neocon Style

Don’t you miss the indecisive, vacillation of a federal Liberal government. Their ability to take the middle of the road on any issue, do nothing and try to maintain the status quo. Not so much indecisiveness with our New Neocon government, they have a plan.

Where the Liberals would wait for an overwhelming majority of Canadians to demand that they finally take action one way or the other, you know sort of let the people demand change (at least until that sycophant Martin did his stint). However, to our new Neocon government, it is more a matter of implementation. They already know what they want to do.

To the reformers, old conservatives or whoever actually supports these neoconservative ideologies, who claim that this is nothing more than the baseless “secret agenda” scare tactic used in the past, here is an example.

The recent abundance of Pot articles in the news this last month has jogged my still functioning brain cells and reminded me of the evils of these Neocon ideologues. To set the framework here’s a few quotes from a Maclean’s article back in October of last year, where Steve is explaining some of the changes he expects to make to Canada’s culture with his new large scale anti-drug strategy.

"We are up against ... a culture that since the 1960s has at the minimum not discouraged drug use and often romanticized it, or made it cool," Harper said... "My son is listening to my Beatles records and asking me what all these lyrics mean ... I love these records. I'm not putting them away ... But we have to change the culture."

"It's time to be straight with Canadians," he said, "so Canadians who use drugs can get straight." So far, being "straight with Canadians" has meant a sharp rise in the number of pot-related arrests in Canadian cities. Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax saw some of the biggest jumps in 2006, with the number of arrests up as much as 50 per cent from the previous year."

And here are some more recent Neocon changes in action:

A Post article about doctors having to increase the dosage of medical prescribed government grown pot, because the potency is not as high as the pot available on the street. Of course that is the Post argument that goes along with the Neocon “super potency” frame that the Pot of today is not like the harmless drug that we smoked in the 60s. The reality is that the Pot grown in a mind shaft in Manitoba is crap.

A CNEWS article explains how a new ruling from a federal judge granted licensed medical marijuana users more freedom in picking their own grower and allows growers to supply the drug to more than one patient, which was the stipulation previously. It provides wider access to the higher potency that the doctors above claim are required.

Again from the Globe we learn that the government is now owed more than $500,000 in delinquent payments from the licensed Marijuana users. In most cases medical users are prescribed marijuana to combat nausea and pain associated with chronic ailments, resulting from such infections as HIV and hepatitis C, after standard medicines fail. 

These people are impoverished, unable to work, and basically survive on disability payments, provincial drug plans and charity. However since Medical marijuana has never been assigned official drug status by Health Canada, it is therefore not covered by pharmacare programs and these patients (let’s call them that) have to pay the full pop. And what a price they pay. Apparently the government is selling their dope at a 1,500% markup

And here is the kicker in all this new culture getting straight strategy...

This article entitled “Wanted: Pot Grower” explains how Health Canada is looking for someone to grow government-approved weed. To date the only source of government grown medical marijuana is from Prairie Plant Systems Inc. who has been paid $10-million to cultivate the inferior dope in a mine shaft in Flin Flon, Manitoba. With the new licensees Government has said it plans to eventually end its licensing of home-grown marijuana – forcing all medical users to buy their supplies directly from government sources.

And finally we have Marc Emery a well known marijuana activist for decades in Canada, who has been openly selling BC seeds through the mail (and in fact regularly sending his catalogues to our members of parliament) gets labelled by the US as North Americas premiere drug king pin. He has been up for extradition to the US where he could be facing life imprisonment, has finally worked out a deal with the DEA to serve only five years with most of the time to be served in Canada. The US has agreed to the deal but as this article from CNEWs and Emery’s own site explains our new government has refused to go along with it.

There you have it folks, our new Canadian culture, neoconservative style.

Even though our doctors are reporting that they have to increase the dosages on the low quality government supplied pain relieving medicine (because that is what it is to these patients). And our Federal courts have realized this and are trying to increase availability to higher quality home grown medicine. The Necons are looking for ways to increase production of their inferior product, and eventually cut off the access to home grown pot while continuing to force patients who can’t afford it to pay exorbitant prices.

Oh and that romantic Marc Emery, he is simply being made an example of.

I really can’t believe that Steve listened to any Beatle albums after Rubber Soul and as far as explaining the lyrics to his children, they would be better off figuring them out on their own.

Listening to Steve talk about marijuana reminds me of a brilliant Sam Gross cartoon about two burly cops walking down the street. One cop says to the other “I tried marijuana once. It made me want to rape and kill.”

PS: One last pot related article from the Globe Midlife pot smoking on the rise.

Happy 420 day.