The reasons for the government to stay away from the medical marijuana production racket are many. Here are four categorized reasons: administrative, judicial, financial and moral.
From an administrative standpoint, implementing the new regulations will be a nightmare.
Currently – thanks to a court injunction, delaying the government’s grand plan – medical marijuana patients are allowed to grow their own medication.
The new regulations, which were to have kicked in April 1, state that prescriptions must be purchased – through the mail, no less – from a government-approved grow-op.
Home growers were to cease and desist all operations and destroy all remaining marijuana. Police will be around to check.
Well, the first flaw in that plan is that the police began balking at the notion. Law enforcement officers have more important things to do than to knock on the door of 70-year-old glaucoma-afflicted grandmas to ensure that the thyme they have in their garden is not laced with THC. Bravo to all the police departments that said “thanks, but no thanks” to that chore.
Did the government not learn anything from the long gun registration fiasco? Quit trying to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals.
Financially, while the bean-counters in Ottawa might see this new plan as a score for them, it’s a devastating hit to those with medical marijuana prescriptions.
The proposed costs are out of this world, dude.
While trying to get straight answers from the government when enquiring about the costs of pot is almost as hard as trying to get a straight answer from someone smoking pot, here’s what I understand.
Health Canada will get $5 per gram. Then there is the producer’s fee. Even at half of that, the price is now $7.50. Add a dollar per gram for shipping and it’s now $8.50 per gram.
Not outrageous, you say?
That, of course, depends on the prescription, which, according to reports, can be as large as 10 grams per day. (The absurdity of a 10-gram-per-day marijuana prescription is a column in itself.)
So now we are talking about an $85-per-day prescription.
For what? A weed that can be – and until now, has been – growing in grandma’s garden.
Morally, this is an atrocity. Preying on the weak and ill is something done in the wild, by savage beasts. I thought we, the people, were more civilized than that.
The judicial crap-storm the government is getting itself into with this plan borders on hilarity.
Does the government actually believe by eliminating the home growing, it will eliminate, or even shrink, the crime factor associated with marijuana?
Au contraire, mon ami.
The crime factor will increase, for a number of reasons.
First of all, if people can get it for cheaper on the black market, they will. Whether it is currently cheaper than $8.50 per gram on the street, I can’t tell you. But I can assure you that the price of black market marijuana will drop to below whatever price the government sets.
That’s just economics 101. Even criminals understand that.
And people will go for the cheap stuff.
That’s economics 102.
It’s human nature to buy low. If it weren’t, discount department stores would not be so popular.
But the biggest crime factor is one the government is setting up itself, by bringing Canada Post into the fray. Cash cow for the national mail company? Not without its headaches.
Remember, Canada Post has just recently announced that door-to-door service in the Great White North will cease, effective as soon as there are sufficient “super boxes” installed to be an inconvenience to everyone in the country.
Theft from super boxes is becoming more prevalent every month. Now, imagine what will happen on “delivery day”.
Cops will be investigating super box smash and grabs so regularly, it will make distracted driving seem like a non-issue.
So, who exactly, drew up this new scheme of the government’s? And more to the point, what were they smoking at the time?
Butt out, Feds. Your time will come to make billions off marijuana. Now is not that time.
