[fatigues]

On Tuesday, July 23, 2013, Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (yes, he is the eldest son of the late Pierre Trudeau) announced in Kelowna B.C. that he is no longer in favour of decriminalization. Trudeau came out lock, stock and two smoking bongs in favour of FULL LEGALIZATION.

Legalize, Tax and Regulate. In Canada, that will inevitably mean that marijuana is destined to be sold by crown corporations owned and operated by the various provincial governments in their liquor stores. All hard spirits in Canada are sold in liquor stores operated as state run monopolies owned by the Provincial governments. (There are no privately owned liquor stores in Canada other than in the far North).

While it's all government run and Canadians universally complain about the high cost of booze compared to the USA, the stores are generally top-shelf retail space, brightly lit and well maintained. This is a pre-existing government controlled prime retail channel that is deeply imbedded into the Canadian marketplace. It's a brain-dead easy choice for the government to make and comparatively easy to sell to voters. When they say "we will check for ID and make sure we don't sell to kids" - voters will believe them.

It also means that, because the government will be doing the buying - they will control who they will be buying from (and what they will be selling). This may not be so good if you live in Alberta, but if you live elsewhere in Canada, -- it probably means an assortment of corporate packaged marijuana the likes of which nobody has ever seen before -- anywhere. This will be a legitimate target for investment by Big Business. Expect Seagrams, brewers like Molsons/Coors, and Imperial Tobacco to jump in with both feet.

This is a big deal, because Trudeau is currently safely ahead in the polls. Moreover, as the next election draws nigh in 2015, the Conservatives will by that time have been in power for nine years. That's generally the length of time that parties in federal politics stay in power until Canadians agree it's time for a change.

So not only is he currently ahead, Trudeau is a moderate to "quite likely" favorite to win. The NDP will support legalization, so even if Trudeau only wins a minority government, this is still likely to become law.

Nothing is for sure, but the odds are more likely than not that if the Liberals win the next Canadian federal election, sometime in 2016, Canada will withdraw from that part of the UN Treaty on Drugs that governs cannabis and will go fully legal, to buy, sell, possess (and grow for personal use) - all subject to provincial regulation and taxation. For REAL.

The video of Justin Trudeau's speech is here (The Link is to YouTube).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BetOS0y9mNg

Trudeau was later offered a chance to "clarify" his views by the Globe and Mail (Essentially, Canada's New York Times) and Trudeau doubled down on it a few days ago. He's not kidding. He means it.

Justin Trudeau clarified his stance on marijuana Thursday, saying legalizing the drug is a "very responsible thing to look at and to do."

The Liberal leader explained his shift in opinion on the controversial issue during a stop in Vancouver, saying he has "evolved" in his opinion about legalization.

“I have evolved in my own thinking. I was more hesitant to even decriminalize not so much as five years ago. But I did a lot of listening, a lot of reading, and a lot of paying attention to the very serious studies that have come out and I realize that going the road of legalization is actually a responsible thing to look at and to do,” he said, according to the Globe and Mail.

In the past, Trudeau has expressed support for decriminalization, but held back from supporting legalization. In his comments to the crowd at Vancouver's English Bay, he said that isn't enough.

"Decriminalization just removes the criminal penalties that are applied to people for having consumed, or owning marijuana, and that tends to bog down the legal system, and keeps the gangs, basically and the criminal elements that are profiting from marijuana."

Canadians currently favour legalization with 56-58% in support. Importantly, the issue is a significant policy winner in B.C. with support in that region at 60% (especially popular in the south part of the province - which is why Trudeau announced it in Kelowna) and will probably tip the scales in favour of the Liberals in many of those ridings. Legalization is smart and savvy politics which Trudeau hopes to use to secure victory in the lower mainland of BC - enough to form a majority government.

Conversely, the regions of Canada where legalization is not quite a majority opinion among likely voters are regions where the Liberals rarely win at the polls. There is essentially little downside to Trudeau's sticking to this policy -- with plenty of upside, especially in B.C. and in the Atlantic provinces of Canada, where the Liberals currently enjoy an overwhelming 45% support of all voters - a 20 point lead over their next closest opponent. In Atlantic Canada, support for legalization is at 64%.

Delegates to the Liberal Party of Canada in its last national convention voted 77.5% in favour of legalization as part of the Liberal Party's national policy platform. While this is not binding on the party leader, it is clear that Trudeau has the enthusiastic support of the party faithful - and he's going for it.

To be clear to international readers, the Liberal Party is not a fringe party in Canada. It is a moderate centre-left party which considers itself Canada's "natural governing party". The Liberals have been in power in Ottawa more often than any other party in the history of the country -- indeed, with more years in power in the 20th century than any other political party in any developed country.

This is akin to Barack Obama saying he will legalize cannabis by executive order without having a congressional vote of any sort to get in the way of it and mess it up, and without any of the fifty states being able to still make cannabis illegal for purposes of state law.

In Canada's Parliamentary system, the Prime Minister and Cabinet rule the roost - and practically speaking, with control of Parliament, the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet have complete power over all amendments to the Criminal Code. Further, there is no concurrent provincial jurisdiction over the criminal law in Canada. If Trudeau legalizes cannabis federally, it's legal for all purposes coast-to-coast and no provincial statute can override it. However, as a legal product, the provincial governments would control how it is sold, what is sold, who supplies the product and, if sold through a government monopoly like Ontario's LCBO, the ultimate price at which it would be sold. Provinces also control the age at which someone can purchase cigarettes, alcohol and, presumably, cannabis. Depending on the particular province, the so-called "age of majority" for purchasing alcohol is 18 or 19 - not 21.

So we're not kidding around here. Trudeau's announcement is, to date, the single greatest sign that full legalization of cannabis is soon coming to a Western nation.

I've been predicting this for a while now. People have been scoffing at me for a while now, too. Please, continue to scoff until it happens -- but understandably, we're pretty chuffed.

[SeedsOfFreedom]

Uruguay might beat us to it, but we would happily be second to legalize! As long as we get Harper out in November 2015 this is going to end prohibition of Cannabis in Canada. Great post, Trudeau coming out and saying this was big news !

[Drift13]

kakuwedding and your spam!

[Highcountry]

Awesome! About damn time!!

[fatigues]

Today, the Liberal Party of Canada added a PETITION to Legalize and Regulate Cannabis to the MAIN WEBSITE of the Liberal Party of Canada.

To put this into perspective, imagine if Barack Obama had the absolute and unfettered control to approve of a candidate running as a Democrat in a national election for the House of Reps and Senate in the US Congress. If Obama signs "no" beside your nomination, you don't get to run as a Democrat in the next election. That would give him a helluva lot of domestic political power, wouldn't it?

That's the kind of political power the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada has over the electoral process in Canada. And Trudeau just adopted legalization as his national party policy under his leadership. You don't get to publicly dissent from the leadership's policy in the Canadian system. This is for real.

Given that more than two weeks has now passed since Trudeau's July 23 policy announcement went viral, the LPC has had a chance to do polling and they clearly like the numbers that they've seen.

So Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of cannabis was clearly not a throwaway comment. Trudeau means it. He's doubled down on it.

We live in interesting times.

https://petition.liberal.ca/end-prohi...juana-petition

Huffington Post Canada says: (original link here: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/08...n_3733598.html )

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau got tongues wagging when he expressed his support for marijuana legalization during a recent swing through British Columbia.

Though he didn’t really say anything new — Trudeau announced as early as January he favoured pot legalization — his seemingly impromptu remarks during a question and answer session quickly went viral.

"I’m actually not in favour of decriminalizing cannabis – I’m in favour of legalizing it," he said. "Tax and regulate. It’s one of the only ways to keep it out of the hands of our kids because the current war on drugs, the current model isn’t working."

Many HuffPost Canada readers were pleased with Trudeau's position, some were less than impressed, but more than a few expressed doubt the Liberal leader would actually do anything about cannabis if the Grits win power in 2015.

"Another Liberal leader, another empty promise on pot," wrote reader ‘maple matters.’ "Half a century of the same sales pitch."

"Just like his opposition to/support for long gun control he says one thing in the west and another in the east!" wrote ‘CCFer.’

But it appears Liberals are serious about making marijuana legalization a priority.



A petition on the party website is inviting Canadians to end the "costly and unsafe" marijuana prohibition.

From the petition's website:

Marijuana prohibition is costly and unsafe. That’s why the Liberal Party supports legalizing and regulating marijuana.

Stephen Harper keeps fighting a failed war on drugs that has resulted in more than 475,000 Canadians being arrested on marijuana-related charges.

And while gangsters and thugs get rich dealing marijuana, prohibition has cost Canadian taxpayers more than $500 million (est.) since 2006.

Liberals believe in a smart on crime approach, targeting real criminals instead of ordinary Canadians.

The Conservative government pounced on Trudeau's pot remarks in July, suggesting it is further proof he is, as their ads suggest, in over his head.

"The fact that one of Justin Trudeau's first policy priorities is legalizing marijuana demonstrates once again that he does not have the judgement to be Prime Minister," a party press release reads. "These drugs are illegal because of the harmful effect they have on users and on society. We will continue protecting the interests of families across this country."

To support their argument, the Conservatives cited statements from the Canadian Police Association, a former RCMP commissioner, the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, and a criminologist from the University of the Fraser Valley.

Could this be a legitimate election issue for 2015?

[shavluk]

fatigues you are obviously from here in canada

I should tell you I had to supposedly blackmail justin with my spy camera obtained video from the convention to make all this happen

Lots on the net about it

and for any that care maybe please just read the unedited version for the Resolution itself as its now not at the liberals own site because of what I had to do with justin

they were deleting my words so I demanded every word I ever uttered be removed

As usual its a long story but see here please

https://shavluk.com/?page_id=195


Thanks for posting canadian news too eh