Today marks 1 Year of failed Cannabis Legalization in Canada
Years ago, I warned of a coming "legalization" of cannabis - a scam to monopolize the cannabis industry and increase prohibition against the free market. I was ridiculed and ignored, but I was completely right.
When Canada voted in the Liberal government's Justin Trudeau in 2015, promising to "legalize marijuana", MediKatie and I started the Vancouver 420 Farmers Market to keep him honest and make sure he did it right. We met with seasoned activists, vendors, and other enthusiasts every Saturday for over 2 years, on the sidewalks of downtown Vancouver! The market built up a reputation, and people came from far and wide to take advantage of the high quality and competitive pricing.
To make way for his coming corporate monopoly, Trudeau had our peaceful market raided by police in 2018. Demoralized (and some with criminal records), the activists finally lost ground in Vancouver, and patients who had come to rely on the market had to go without life-saving medicine they couldn't get anywhere else.
On "legalization day", October 17th 2018, I protested in our old spot to raise awareness that legalization was NOT what the people voted for, and that peaceful growers and sellers are still going to prison for being outside the "legalized" regime.
Since then, in the first year of legal cannabis:
- over 500 peaceful taxpaying businesses (dispensaries) have been raided and shut by police
- there's a snitch-line for reporting anyone growing or selling outside the legal regime
- many provinces and towns still prohibit growing personal cannabis plants
- renters can't grow personal cannabis plants
- farmers markets were made specifically illegal under legalization
- only dry bud is legal (extracts and edibles, required by most patients, remain completely illegal)
- the bud is harsh, extremely low quality, very expensive, routinely moldy and with bugs/feces, irradiated (not cured)
- some of the bud contains dangerous pesticides like Myclobutanil, the fungicide currently causing all the "vaping related" deaths in the USA
- anyone growing or selling outside the legal regime faces 14 years in prison per offense, much worse than before it became legal
- billions more dollars are being spent on law enforcement, blood/saliva testing, regulators, educational (disinformation) campaigns, and other wastes of resources
- the "CSU" (community safety unit) is rampaging across Canada, searching any building, person, or vehicle they believe may contain "illegal cannabis", with new powers of warrantless search and seizure
- government stores, despite having a monopoly with their competition raided and shut at every opportunity, are running product shortages, and yet have lost money during their first year
- patients with cannabis prescriptions, like my wife @MediKatie, have no legal supply for their medicine, and continue to be arrested and imprisoned
I was able to seemingly predict all of this years ago not because I had a crystal ball, but because it's all by design, and obvious to those paying close attention. Cannabis legalization was an inside job. It was meant to go the way it's going, despite it appearing to be a "shitshow" by almost all accounts. This is exactly how they planned it. The elites behind the curtain are getting their power grab.
So what's next? More crackdowns on the free market, raids on gardens, takedowns of the online dispensaries, whatever tactics they need to use in order to wage perpetual war against what they call the black market. It doesn't matter who we vote for, the result will be the same; more prohibition and less freedom. And this failed model will be touted by the media as a brilliant success, and pushed on other unsuspecting nations. "Legalization" will be one of the main tools of the elite to further their grip on humanity.
I've put together this graphic to help us visualize the situation:
Prohibition of cannabis and "legalization" of cannabis are just extremes on the same pendulum - and both very far away from Liberty.
Legalization is NOT freedom, it's another form of authoritarianism.
What we wanted all along is called decriminalization - the end of cannabis prohibition.
Legalization, just like prohibition itself, has been a lie all along.
One year into "legalization" of cannabis here in Canada, and we're one year further away from freedom.
If your state or country is considering the "legalization" of cannabis, please, look into the details. What you want is decriminalization, not a corporate monopoly and advancing police state like we got here in Canada.
DRutter
It's great that you've been following this story for so many years. You can link back to your own coverage and explanations of various issues. This post is a bit like a Wikipedia entry with all the supporting info.
The Liberals were elected to end the suffering of Canadians under the Conservative government's oppressive prohibition. We ended up getting prohibition on steroids under the Orwellian name "legalization".
There's really NO excuse for the disaster of legalization in Canada. It's nothing like what the people voted Trudeau in for. The puppetmasters want to control cannabis, not free it. :(
Upvoted and resteemed! I almost forgot that it was the one-year anniversary of this bullshit until a friend reminded me and you posted, haha. I'm glad our son wasn't born on this day.
I can't believe people are dumb enough to seriously be talking about voting again, people are so dumb and never learn. Nobody seems to acknowledge the fact that Justin Trudeau got in on the promise of legalisation, but didn't give us legalisation as the people intended it (decrim) and all they can think about is the stupid blackface scandal bs...which is probably just going to fuel the whole voting scheme cycle again because we gotta get Trudeau out people will be saying for the wrong reasons.
don't hate, sis! ;)
Legalization has been WORSE than a shitshow.... it's so ridiculous and incompetent you know it's designed to be this way... the black market is destined to stay strong, which is great for enforcement etc :/
Thanks for uploading this post. We've resteemed it to our followers. Shame on the profiteers and sellouts, legalization is a lie!
Is it already the one-year anniversary of legalisation?! We sruvived the first year of prohibition 2.0! Thanks for posting this much-needed and soon-to-be-linked-to summary with infographics.
true brother :)
I think most knew this is how it would be. Its the price of having it legalized. I don't think many thought the government was going to give free range. There's people that go to jail for selling tobacco and that's been sold for years.
Why are people being put in prison for growing tobacco? Do you see that as okay? You sure seem to.
Sounds like you've bowed to lick the hand that feeds you, but others remain free, and value that freedom. You're entitled to cower and kneel but you can't force anyone else to do so.
You are very wrong about "most knew this is how it would be". I was ridiculed for speaking this truth just 5 years ago, relentlessly, even from fellow hardcore activists who had been in the scene for 20+ years. Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw this coming. If you can find a single person other than myself who predicted this, please, introduce me to them, that would be very interesting for me.
Portugal and other countries decriminalized cannabis (and heroin and all other drugs) many years ago. Addiction has gone down, crime has gone down, health costs have gone down. They use education and treatment instead of prohibition and punishment. Their police force is half the size it used to be because they don't have to enforce against peaceful drug use. That's how it could and should have been done in Canada, not a corporate monopoly with peaceful gardeners still being put in prison.
Congratulations @drutter! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!