Marijuana: Liberals should learn from Colorado
By Letter to the Editor on November 25, 2017.
Trudeau’s Liberals have beenrushing their campaign promise to legalize marijuana in Canada while medical professionals, provinces, municipalities, Canada’s policing community and the Conservative Opposition have raised serious concerns on the timeline and the impacts. This week the Liberal government released an online consultation about their new regulations. They are repeating many of the mistakes recently highlighted as problems in Colorado. The Colorado Spring Gazette reported that after five years of legalized marijuana the negative community and youth impacts have been significant and problematic. High school drug violations were up 71 per cent along with an increase in school suspensions. Grade school children, kids aged 5-13, sawdrug violations increase 45 per cent. Marijuana use among Colorado youth was the highest in the United States, even though the legal age to purchase and possess is 21 years old. Deadly crashes where drivers tested positive for marijuana doubled in five years. Homelessness growth is among the top of their country. In fact, the legalization of marijuana has attracted many homeless to Colorado, putting strains on their supports systems. Higher impaired driving, increased dropouts, higher unemployment — the Gazette even notes the negative impact on tourism from the ever present scent of grow operations and processing plants. Colorado has now organized a large coalition of doctors, health care professionals, parents, and addiction recovery experts to try to combat what the article calls the “long-term effects of a commercial industry profiteering off of substance abuse.” This is not the Canada we want or need. We need supports for those with addiction and mental health challenges, not create more problems. We need to come together to end homelessness — as Medicine Hat has shown is possible. We need to provide each child with an opportunity to reach their full potential and lead the world in learning. I encourage everyone to send a clear message to the government by participating in the online survey (https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-proposed-approach-regulation-cannabis.html). Thegovernment has promised topublish the resultsonline. Let the Trudeau Liberals know that jobs, opportunities, and strong communities are Canadians’ priorities. The Liberal government would do well to learn from the mistakes of others. The legalization of marijuana will adversely impact public safety on our roads and workplaces, lead to increased drug abuse in our youth, amplify long-term health-care costs and will devastate lives and communities. Glen Motz Medicine Hat (The writer is Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner.) 10-9
Dave Van Kesteren MP stood in the House of Commons on November 22 and delivered a 20 minute speech ( all he was allowed – originally the Liberals had only allowed him 10 minutes ) and gave an intelligent, eloquent and passionate argument against legalization. He spoke to the Health Minister, the Justice Minister and others and reminded them of their responsibility. He spoke of the Health Canada document that reads as follows Cannabis should not be used if you:
are under the age of 25
are allergic to any cannabinoid or to smoke
have serious liver, kidney, heart or lung disease
have a personal or family history of serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, or bipolar disorder
are pregnant, are planning to get pregnant, or are breast-feeding
are a man who wishes to start a family
have a history of alcohol or drug abuse or substance dependence
Talk to your health care practitioner if you have any of these conditions. There may be other conditions where this product should not be used, but which are unknown due to limited scientific information.
No responsible government could legalize a drug with this list of contraindications.
In the new consultation document under the category of warnings some of these contraindications of use are listed but not all – they have been cherry picked. If some of these warnings are not included then the Canadian taxpayer could well be on the hook for litigation by those harmed and will be facing huge class action law suits and damage. Those responsible – the politicians who did this should be held personally responsible – but they won’t be and we the taxpayer and the non-using Canadian will be the ones saying sorry to a generation of ill-informed and the conned consumer in the years and deades to come. – unless we stop this from happening – now.
This is extremely serious and we have to get it stopped. A friend from Denver Colorado has been part of our morning coffee group for years and has a lot of friends and relatives still living there. Since it was legalized she has been telling us the horror stories, and now I have a cousin who moved there in September and he is very concerned also.
Glen and Pamela have made some very valid points but they don’t include what doctors, and druggists have recently been telling me. Retired doctor friends state that after what Ralph Klein did to this province by closing hospitals , closing hospital beds, and cutting 5,000 nursing positions they doubt doctors and nurses are going to allow another irresponsible government put them through another living hell, like Klein did and they will leave this province by the bus loads. The Albertan seniors could be in a terrible mess, not being able to get medical help when they need it. So I asked a young doctor what he thought and told him what the retired doctors had said. He told me that he was single, didn’t have a girl friend, all his family lived in eastern Canada ,he had no reason to stay working in Alberta and could very easily move to a warmer climate in the U.S. and be happy to do so.
On Thursday I had a good talk with four druggists to see what they thought and they want it stopped also. They all agreed that the doctors and nurses will likely leave. Why should they stay when they can work anywhere they want to? Their biggest concern was small children getting a hold of these Marijuana cookies they talk about. One of them went as far as to remind me that when Trudeau’s father was prime minister his wife Margaret always bragged about being a flower child from the 1960s , smoking pot with the best of them, maybe Justin was brought up on the stuff and that’s why he has such a hard time talking when he gives a speech. Maybe he’s right.
The truth is we can’t control drunk drivers from killing our people, so how are we going to control the drugged ones, we can’t.
I hope Glen and Pamela will put their comments in every major newspaper they can and I will try to put mine. We have got to get this stopped. My friends and I and the doctors have no problem with medical Marijuana controlled by doctors like any other drugs, but we don’t want to see people allowed to grow it, there is nothing stopping them from growing extra and selling it, or giving it to friends.