NEW YORK TIMES: OTTAWA — Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Thursday to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada.
Many nations have either decriminalized marijuana, allowed it to be prescribed medically or effectively stopped enforcing laws against it. But when Mr. Trudeau’s bill passes as expected, Canada will become only the second nation, after Uruguay, to completely legalize marijuana as a consumer product.
“Criminal prohibition has failed to protect our kids and our communities,” said Bill Blair, a lawmaker and former Toronto police chief whom Mr. Trudeau appointed to manage the legislation… (more)
REF‘S COMMENT: I have apparently lived long enough to see a battle that a score of us pioneered come to a success end.
I don’t smoke pot or indulge in illegal drugs. It isn’t out of conviction or temerity, but because I prefer a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. (Full disclosure, occasionally I take a shot of bourbon with my beer.)
But from my college days forward, I could not understand why the United States was making the same miking the same disastrous mistake concerning marijuana that it had with alcohol prohibition, preventing so man people from benefiting from this relatively benign product (about as dangerous as coffee) and often putting people in prison for being caught with it.
I have lost many of my battles for justice, particularly in Lancaster, but it feels good to have helped to achieve at least one big one.
