The Modern State of Cannabis
“We’ve come a long, long way together, through the hard times and the good,” sang Norman Cook of Fatboy Slim. His words could just as soon be applied to humanities ubiquitous relationship with a plant called marijuana. It’s been deemed illegal by many countries including our own, but such efforts have done little to diminish its relevance to popular culture. Marijuana is among the most recognizable plants in the world, and whether you agree with its use or find it offensive to even speak of legalization, chances are you can pick it out of a line up. To say marijuana is everywhere is perhaps assuming too much, but it occupies a unique corner of our humanity that nearly everyone has an opinion on. From prohibition in 1923, to near decriminalization in 2004, our collective idea of marijuana has changed drastically. Some of these changes have been for the better, but there are still strict rules in place that we should all be aware of.
Yes, it’s still illegal
Despite increased acceptance, marijuana is still illegal by Canadian law. In 2002 and 2004 Canada introduced identical bills that would have decriminalized marijuana, making possession of small amounts (15 grams or less) punishable by fine. These bills failed, partially due to pressure from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, which allegedly threatened to close the border to prevent smuggling.
“It’s still a criminal offence to possess or traffic [in any amount]” said officer Doug Pflug of the Guelph Police Department. He recalls the brief moment when cannabis was almost legal, and the freedom some smokers exhibited as a result. Then the Conservative party was voted to government in 2006, and any hopes of reforming marijuana laws went up in smoke.
“For a while it was under review and the rules were what some perceived to be relaxed, but in the end it went back to the way it normally was,” said Pflug.
Still there is a lot of support for legalization of marijuana, or at least softer laws. In a recent survey involving U of G students and others outside the community, a majority of respondents answered they would like to see marijuana laws relaxed.
“I say yes,” replied a female student of legalization but who wished to remain anonymous. “Everyone does it, so it might as well be legal.” Her view was seconded, and third-ed, time and again.
“The government can make money through taxing something that a lot of people already do,” responded a third-year Criminology student at Carleton. The argument for government taxation seems a popular one, most supporters of reform agreeing the government is missing out on taxing a product a sizeable percentage of the population already uses. Citizens opting for taxation? This might be a first.
Not only is the government missing out on valuable tax dollars, but keeping marijuana illegal forces money into mediums that work against the countries interest. Geoff Welch, an enthusiast of the Royal City and owner of an Alberta grocery store sees the business opportunities being avoided by the country as purely uneconomical. What’s more, he’s a firm non-smoker.
“If it was controlled by the government there would be more money in the country, whereas now it’s controlled by underground organizations. The money is never seen and only devalues our dollar,” said Welch.
The strength of his statement was supported in a recent article published by Toronto magazine Now.
“Canada spends $2.3 billion on [drug] enforcement every year,” read the article.
A CBC fact sheet estimates the industry is worth approximately $20 billion annually. You don’t need a math degree to…Well, you get it.
While many citizens support reform, especially those in the university population, the point of view of law enforcement paints a different picture. Officers of the Guelph Police Department face marijuana related crimes daily. They see the grittier parts of the underground enterprise it has bred, witnessing little of the free-spirited, harmless plant that so many advocates speak of.
“When you look at marijuana you have to look at the broader spectrum; you’ve got grow ops, you’ve got weapons in those grow ops, people robbing each other,” said Pflug. “One of the [raids] we had in recent years had seven illegal weapons in it.”
Organized crime gives marijuana a bad name. The millions of dollars it draws every year creates stiff competition for sales and territory, often leading to violence.
There’s no guarantee that legalization would do away with all these crimes. Businesses selling marijuana products would need to gather resources from somewhere, and the potential for further, possibly aggressive competition in this lucrative business would still be high, but that doesn’t stop some from feeling a legalized state would be an improvement.
“Buyers would not have to find random sellers, or meet them in places away from the home at all hours of the night,” stated another student anonymously. There seems to be truth in her words, and we need look no further for the possible benefits of legalization than alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, which few will deny created more problems than it solved.
Regardless of where you stand, or how harmless you see it, marijuana is still very much illegal, so don’t expect leniency from police officers the next time you’re busted in the park.
“Basically whatever the rules are, we’ll enforce them,” said Officer Pflug. “If the rules change, we’ll of course have to revisit that.”
Smoking or non?
Though no longer a question heard when entering a restaurant, the distinction is valuable when applied to marijuana and contemporary culture. Those who partake of the drug rarely occupy the worn out image of dazed hippies dancing on hills. Though admirable, and fitting for the 1960s social movement, smokers of today tend to be rather indistinguishable from the average citizen. This says one of two things: either marijuana users are a scheming group, getting better at concealing their dangerous habits, or that marijuana is becoming normalized, ridding itself of unnecessary and inaccurate stereotypes that have followed it throughout the past century.
More than likely it’s the latter. Apart from the smell, even today’s non-smokers often have no problem sharing a room with those who smoke. Today’s marijuana user is often a university student, or a fully employed contributing citizen, who only occasionally takes part in hilltop dances. They’re also usually conscious of marijuana’s effects.
“I think it’s really important to know what you’re putting in your body. Whether it’s drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana, you should know what’s gonna happen,” said Mark Armstrong, university student and marijuana enthusiast. Well versed and well read, Armstrong has no problem articulating himself or speaking of his marijuana use informatively, sounding more intelligent and measured than dazed and confused. He has no illusions about the effects marijuana may be having on his body, or his mind.
“I occasionally smoke joints or pipes, but that’s my least common way. It’s heavy smoke, and it’s bad for you. 90 per cent of the time I smoke out of a [bong]. It draws smoke through the water, and filters out around 98 per cent of the heavy matter and makes it a lot cleaner to smoke,” said Armstrong.
Another option for today’s health conscious smoker is what’s known as a vaporizer, which avoids creating smoke by heating the marijuana instead of combusting. This creates a THC rich vapor, which in theory is far less damaging to the body.
Yet another alternative is to consumer your marijuana via baked goods. By creating marijuana infused butter, substituting that for the usual butter serving of any recipe, your favourite cookies could have you under the influence for hours. This cuts outs any of the harmful smoke that can lead to various cancers, saving your lungs while delivering the desired effects.
“It’s a much longer lasting high, but it’s difficult to tell where the concentration of resin butter will be in the baked goods,” said Armstrong.
This is a potential problem that can be solved by making sure you mix thoroughly, and spread your butter through accordingly.
Armstrong also identifies himself as having a mental illness, but places none of the blame for such conditions marijuana use.
“I’m a drug user who is mentally ill. I have bi-polar, but I don’t believe it facilitated my psychosis. I believe drug use uncovers pre-existing mental illness. When you read the studies with an unbiased view that’s what the science actually says,” said Armstrong.
Whether this makes the (decidedly low) risk acceptable or not is a personal decision, but it never hurts to follow Armstrong’s example in informing oneself before using any substance.
There are of course those who steer clear of any such use. Former M.Sc student Peter Seaby was exposed to marijuana throughout his university career, but was never appealed to by the drug or its effects.
“I have good friends that do it all the time. I’ll voice my concerns to them. I’ll recommend to them not to do it, or to do it less often, but it’s their choice,” said Seaby.
His friends who partake are hardly the “enablers” one might picture. They keep their habits to themselves, making no attempt to push their lifestyle on Seaby or any of his other acquaintances that opt out.
Co-existence is possible, and in today’s world it’s becoming the norm. Most marijuana smokers are perceived as peaceful, more likely to attack your cupboards than anything. They are not the deranged fiends old films would have you think. As society sheds flawed stereotypes, a clearer picture is painted, allowing for informed decisions and the opportunity for a clear stance, whether you’re smoking or non.
Marijuana Medicine
While the idea may still seem foreign to the recreational smoker, some people use marijuana as medicine. Marijuana is known for its analgesic and anti-nausea effects, making it ideal for those undergoing chemotherapy and suffering from certain forms of arthritis. In Canada and select States within America, having a disease or ailment can be cause for you to be prescribed marijuana medicinally. In Canada, applications to use marijuana medicinally are sorted by the category of the ailment.
“Category one is for what’s generally considered more severe conditions, which include HIV, cancer, MS, spinal disease, severe arthritis and epilepsy. For those conditions, any medical practitioner can sign up a patient,” said Scott Gilbert, formerly of Guelph and now Director for the Hamilton Medical Marijuana Centre. These conditions have long qualified as reason for legitimate prescription, and most people agree that those suffering from such illnesses should be allowed access.
Category two cases open the door to a much broader collection of illnesses and symptoms, from back spasms to muscle pain, and anything along the way. It’s actually quite a lenient system in that regard, Gilbert suggests. The real difficulty is in getting your case approved, which depending on the case can sometimes be a lost cause. While having a Category one condition means any doctor can fill out a prescription and send you on your way to a seed bank or local grower, Category two conditions require the approval of a specialist. In these cases your family doctor has little power other than to refer you to someone with the proper credentials.
“The difficulty is in finding the specialist. You could probably get a prescription for a hangnail if you wanted, but you’d have to get a hangnail specialist to prescribe it,” adds Gilbert, his frustration in the system barely disguised by his humour. “There’s some conditions where there happens to only be two or three specialists in Canada, while there’s other conditions where there might be thousands of specialists. It’s really not a fair access program for some patients.”
While making things difficult for the average physical labourer to acquire a fully legal prescription, its obvious this is done as a protection measure. Without the insistence on specialists there would be little between the relatively controlled state of Canada’s medical marijuana program, and open floodgates of states like California and Colorado. Here marijuana prescriptions are handed out to virtually anyone with a reasonable medical claim. By reasonable I mean anyone claiming back spasms, real or otherwise, can get a “card.” Once a card is obtained showing the patient can legally use marijuana, the next step is much like visiting a small-scale marijuana bulk barn, where different varieties are laid out in air tight jars with labels depicting names like, “O.G. Kush,” and “NY Sour Diesel.” It’s not quite Amsterdam, but it’s a long way from five years ago.
The Canadian system borrows little from the California or Colorado model of free commerce, placing far more restrictions on the patient and distributor.
“[A patient] can either purchase from the government, grow it themselves, or designate a friend to grow it for them. Anyone designated to grow can grow for a maximum of two people,” said Gilbert.
Like the requirement of specialists, these regulations are put in place to avoid abuse. It’s true that these measures have been affective. Along the strip of Venice Beach, Los Angeles, advertisements proclaiming, “The Kush Doctor is in,” suggest roadside prescriptions may be removing the legitimacy from what is in legal terms considered a medicinal industry. But in a state where legalization was barely defeated in Proposition 19 this past summer, perhaps calling pot “medicinal” and handing out prescriptions was always a pretty thin veil. It doesn’t take a tarot card to read into this future, which at least on the West Coast points to legalization. Once one state legalizes, it’s only a matter of time before places like Oregon, Colorado and Nevada – all of which have decriminalized marijuana – follow suit.
Conclusion
Since Canada tends to borrow policy decisions such as these from our southern neighbours, and already shows a system considered rather “lax” by many standards, Vancouver might not be far from the Amsterdam of the future. It’s already shown signs of this behaviour, with the occasional mock “coffee shop” popping up, allowing patrons to use cannabis pretty openly. This isn’t legal by federal standards, but given the progress marijuana has made this past century, it might not be far off. Police have conveyed an “observe, but don’t intervene” stance towards events like April 20 on the Johnston green, or Queen’s Park’s Marijuana march. This suggests recognition that cannabis use may be a personal choice with minimal potential for outside harm. You may not agree with the way things are going, but perhaps its time we re-evaluate our stance on the little green plant that won’t go away.
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