Editing Official Position on Cannabis (section)

===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. 

   


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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