Roadside advertising.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Justin Trudeau was leader of the Liberal Party in 2013 but wasn’t considered by anyone to be a threat for Prime Minister. So when he pulled into Kelowna near the end of a cross-country tour in a crappy RV and told a few dozen supporters and a few reporters he would not just decriminalize cannabis, but legalize it, no one took it seriously.

It was vintage Trudeau: Bright idea without any thought behind it. And sadly there hasn't been much thought since then either.

You’d think that before embarking on such a society-bending shift, they might have been prepared to measure its impacts. Will it impact human health? What about second hand smoke? Would kids be more likely to use it? Can we restrict their access better? What about measuring impairment on driving? Stopping impaired drivers? Will there be more ‘unexplained’ accidents on roads? etc. etc.

Five years after legalization, much of this data is still unavailable. My newsroom tried after two years to determine if anyone was studying it at all and found nothing.

Full disclosure: yes, I like my cannabis. I think we’re far better off with the mess of legalization than without. I also presume that’s why all those guys with their pickup trucks want to fornicate with Trudeau, but I could be wrong about that.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

I simply expected what was promised: legal, safe cannabis.

Instead everything about legalization is Trudeau’d. Just look at the business regime and all that initial investment cash that went, well, up in smoke (yeah I said it, you expected better?). Way too many producers suffering through ridiculous and expensive requirements only to watch the pot market crash through the floor.

Part of the reason it crashed is because there’s still a massive black market. That was supposed to be one of the rationales for the entire initiative, get it away from organized crime. Remember that?

Before legalization you could get an ounce of weed for roughly $150 from the black market. Now they’re advertising $60 ounces on the Green Mile on the Okanagan Indian Band.

Stores on reserves operate entirely outside the law. It’s a completely open marketplace where gummies aren’t kid-proofed, no limits on purchases, few if any restrictions for minors. Look around enough, you’ll even find magic mushrooms.

All of which I am fine with, so long as kids can't get it. But that's a pretty unfair advantage. And the government knows it. It’s tough to blame Trudeau for this, BC has botched it just as badly.

Earlier this year, someone sent a freedom of information 'regarding the number of illegal cannabis stores are operating within a 15km radius of Penticton'.

The government sent them a list of nine retail stores. NINE!

You can’t make this stuff up. And they do nothing about it.

The Orwellian ‘Community Safety Unit’ will tear legal stores to shreds over minor infractions, yet for reasons I have yet to find, they will not enforce the law on reserve lands. This isn’t to get into what I presume is very sticky politics, just to say that the end result is absolutely ridiculous and surely foreseeable. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who got into retail cannabis expecting a level playing field.

If you've benefited from legalization in any way, you should probably consider all these issues and get involved in mitigation. 

Because if the polls are right and the Liberals are soon to be gone — just imagine how Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives will try to fix it.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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