Official Position on Cannabis

This is an OLP OFFICIAL POSITION. It does not have enough meat, to stand on it's own as a plank. In certain circles, these are important issues, but in others they don't get mentioned. It should have our Official Position, supporting arguments, and references. An "Our Plan" which is some form of an actionable pathfoward is necessary in order for it to be approved. One line to "end" any debate, is suggested.

Legal & Controlled:Cannabis

Right now, Cannabis is consuming legal resources, funding violent crimes, being sold in dangerous environments and can destroy a person’s career if they get caught with it. It’s hard to imagine any change to cannabis legislation not being an improvement in the libertarian view. The main options include:

• Uniquely regulated & uniquely taxed, in a perverse way, is better than the current situation.
• Controlled like tobacco & taxed like any other product in Ontario, with only HST, would be the easiest step to accomplish legislatively
• Legal, untaxed, and uncontrolled would be ideal.

Our Plan

The Ontario Libertarian party acknowledges the second, making marijuana controlled like tobacco, except taxed like any other product, has sufficient benefit for the majority of stakeholders, and acknowledges that more information is needed prior to being able to make a decision to support the third option. Governments make poor decisions, even with large amounts of planning, let alone rushed or drastic. A quick and unplanned legalization of Cannabis is unlikely to be any different than other changes in governmental scope.

Additional notes:

-The party should be careful about the terminology used on this subject. Always remember that the English word is 'Cannabis', and this is the word we should use universally, covering both hemp and 'weed'. The word 'Marihuana' should not be used as it is a Spanish term, originally used to incite racism in the debate (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/14/weed-all-about-ittheoriginsofthewordamarijuanaaintheus.html), nor should the term 'weed' be used, as it has negative connotations. Cannabis covers all sub verities(Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, Cannabis Ruderalis), is an English word with positive connotations, and is scientifically correct.

-The party must always stress the economic benefits of legalization. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/companies-and-industries/marijuana-inc/

-possible propaganda slogan "Balancing the budget by legalizing life" "balancing the budget on the backs of potheads"

-remember legalization means lower expenses on prisons, police and restricting freedom, while increasing revenues to pay off debts and fund liberty. "Funding liberty with gardens" "Dont you want to grow a sustainable liberty garden?"

Turning Cannabis into a legal Consumer product is not the only end goal of the legalization movement (nor should it be ours):

-It must be legal to grow Cannabis for personal use like homemade wine/beer (Many jurisdictions ban the home growing of tobacco for instance) This is not only because individuals have the "right to garden" (perhaps a good propaganda slogan) but also because religious users likely would not want to purchase their holy sacrament from a giant pseudo-pharmaceutical company.

-All nonviolent drug offenders (or nonviolent cannabis offenders, if full legalization of drug use is not being advocated)should be pardoned and freed

-People convicted of such nonviolent crimes should be specifically recognized as legally allowed to enter the Cannabis industry as a line of work. This is an absolutely critical point to make explicit from the beginning. Major illicit Cannabis industrialists campaign against legalization attempts (sometimes very successfully http://www.mintpressnews.com/growers-the-surprising-opponents-of-marijuana-legalization/38043/ ) because they currently hold a government enforced monopoly. Even more than a monopoly, they face complete removal and specific exclusion from the only livelihood they've ever had upon legalization. These people may not come to our side, but we may be able to seem less threatening to the current large illicit growers.

This document is in preparation. It will stay here, until a preparer nominates it for approval by changing the "InPreparation" tag to "NominatedForApproval"

Most government inquiries into the subject of illegal drugs indicate the abject failure of all prohibitive policies. Many document produced also claim that legalization and regulation are the only viable changes. This is not only our parties policy, it is also the recommendation of experts, and government bureaucrats. The Senate Subcommittee on Illegal Drugs 2002 is one such important document. see specifically "Public policy based on guiding principles" and "Le Dain –thirty years ago Already" http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/sen/committee/371/ille/rep/summary-e.htm

further sources and argument can be found here http://wiki.ontariolibertarian.ca/index.php?title=And_toward_the_Harm_Reduction_Model#The_following_is_an_Essay_The_Author_submitted_in_University_on_this_exact_subject..._Received_a_grade_over_80.25