Members of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party called on the government to decriminalize the consumption and possession of all illegal drugs.
The call was made as an opioid epidemic rocked the country and the number of opioid-related deaths continues to rise. Canada’s Public Health Agency estimated that around 4,000 people died from opioids last year.
Lawmakers have been taking a proactive approach to combating Canada’s opioid epidemic, greenlighting the opening of new supervised and safe injection facilities. In March, Canada’s federal government announced $150 million in emergency funding to increase access to drug treatment around the country.
That’ll be a way to open up housing for the muzzie hordes, yes!
Build the northern wall.
Hell, maybe our druggies will invade Canada and get the hell out of here.
Hell, *I* support legalizing all drugs. One too many….? …make it a health issue, like alcohol. Take the money out of it for the cartels.
At what point do we realize doing the same thing over and over, expecting a new result, ain’t gonna work? …..Lady in Red
Hey, let’s legalize murder! That’ll solve the murder problem!
Oh, right…PP.
Progressives have a knack for coming up with the final solution for all social problems.
Let me guess, Vermont will tax those moving to Canada ….
With liberals in office we need drugs!
We’re terribly sorry,..
Our previous management just left the back door wide open to all kinds of illegal and nefarious dealings
http://theweek.com/articles/451688/why-heroin-cheap
It was as if the obama administration didn’t care…
I am all for stopping the wasteful and lost war on drugs, legalizing everything, and letting the serious druggies fry their brains and die. This war on drugs led to civil forfeiture and other all too convenient police “tools” that can be quickly turned against all citizens. Don’t agree to a search at a random traffic stop? Then you much be a terrorist or a drug dealer and your rights fly out the window. The war on drugs is a large reason we have a militarized police force.
Let the flaming begin.
They ought to set up Government O.D. Centers! A place where you can come in, get all the drugs you want, and – since you’re an imbecile with no self restraint – quickly overdose, ridding society of the likes of you once and for all.
I do not consider it to be a good idea, I almost lost my son to a heroin overdose 10 years ago. Fortunately for him he was able to turn it around after rehab but it was awful close. I have never seen him so scared shitless as when the day he called me to let me know he had almost OD’d. I could’ve become a murderer because I knew his so called friend who turned him onto smack if he had died, I would’ve wanted to kill the bastard.
I agree with Lady in Red and Cherrybark. Prohibition does two major things, which we can clearly see today: it incentivizes criminals to get into it because of the insane profits, also leading to far more violent crime; and it leads to more highly-concentrated drugs.
Legalize, whether from a libertarian or a humanitarian perspective. If you think people like to destroy their lives for recreational purposes then you can continue to think that, but it will make access to help more available, take the profit out of the industry, and will lead to lighter versions of drugs which is what most of the recreational drug users want.
I say this having buried a dear young friend, who died 3 years ago today from a heroin overdose, her ‘boyfriend’ not willing to call for help because he might be criminally implicated.
This will definitely fix stupid.
No “safe injection facilities”. If those degenerate druggies want to use drugs then they can OD and stop being the oxygen thieving wastes of space that they are.
Grace Slick ‘white rabbit’ new Canadian anthem
I hate White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. If I even hear the first notes of it I immediately turn it off.
@Lady in Red and Cherry Bark: We actually HAVE tried legalization; 150 years ago, everything was legal! The problem with legalization, and the reason drugs were criminalized in the first place is the peripheral damage they cause; neglected children, useless people that society had to care for, etc. If the only person harmed was the addict, I would tend to agree with you, but you might feel different if some shithead high on heroin or khat or meth ran a red light and killed an innocent loved one of yours. It still happens, but will be far worse when society sanctions drug use/abuse. Treat it as a health issue? At whose expense? Not the druggie; they can’t hold a job. Let’s see how your idea works in California since now possession and dealing has been decriminalized.
I understand people’s dissatisfaction with the ‘war on drugs’.
There is no war, because the consequences aren’t painful enough for the criminals.
I just can’t see legalizing all drugs will help society.
Canada is number 1 on my shit list, even though I was born there. When I no longer cheer for their teams in international hockey tournaments, I know my feelings for it have hit rock bottom.
USA is Number 1 in my heart.
Not surprising, considering Agenda 21 involves culling the herd to a manageable population.
Just enough to support the elites, but not enough to raise a rebellion, is the plan.
Let’s legalize fast driving so we’ll have less fast drivers on the road.
Let’s legalize driving while drinking so we’ll have less people murdered on the road.
Let’s legalize shoplifting so we’ll have less people stealing things.
Some people here need to retake that logical & critical thinking class.
You criminalize the impact on others, that is the libertarian way.
No driving under the influence because it endangers others. No care of children while under the influence because it endangers them. Your employer can mandate no drug use if they feel it impacts your ability to work (which it likely does). But if someone wants to take drugs in a way that doesn’t endanger others then it shouldn’t be our problem.
And if anyone thinks that those addicts are doing it because they want to then you clearly haven’t made an effort to understand them at all. Look at Vietnam – about 20% of US soldiers were addicted to heroin over there, yet when they returned fewer than 5% continued. Why would that be? Look at the current growth of abuse – what is causing that, and do you really think it would increase with legalization? Open your damn eyes.
You criminalize the pushing and the cartels’ activities too. But legalization will make them go away. Completely. Look at the liquor industry – with legalization of drugs the drug industry would be comparable and would have laws ensuring safety at the same levels as alcohol, as is currently happening with marijuana in the states that have allowed its use.
Fentanyl would be a good one to start with.
“Legalize” may not mean exactly what you think it means.
Alcohol is still “CONTROLLED”.
No one under 21, can’t sell after x hours, and so on and so on.
Look at all the local & home brewed brands.
And look at the societal problems associated with drinking even though it is “legal” (CONTROLLED).
Making drugs “legal” as per the liberals wet-dream means “safe houses” where government workers supply the drugs and supplies (i.e. paid for by tax-payers).
How is that fiscally conservative?
So you enable an entire group of people to stay drugged up by the government (ala “Soma” from Brave New World) and you can claim moral superiority by taking money and power away from the mob, gangs and cartels?
Wow, let’s legalize gambling so that the mob will no longer have control.
Now the government is raking in billions of dollars from PowerBall and I can live smugly knowing that the mob no longer controls Las Vegas.
Or on the other hand, as you said, since people are now legally brewing in their own homes then by “legalizing” drugs people will then be able to start manufacturing their own drugs as well, as long as it is controlled by the state it will be safe.
Wow.
Allow an entire generation to think that it’s okay to blow away your life.
“OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES”
Yeah, my eyes were opened when several family members overdosed.
The first one I was 16, I looked down the road, saw a bunch of emergency vehicles, and told my mom. She walked down about 4 houses because she knew her brother would go over there for his fix. I still remember watching her walk there and back. She came home and started calling all the family to give them the news. Pretty big eye opener, wouldn’t you say?
Yes, I do believe that “legalizing” it would lead to more use. Just like kids have too much easy access to alcohol even with all the controls, and we’re still scraping them off the highways today after 40 years of “don’t drink and drive” media blitzes.
No, I don’t think more people should have to lose a family member just because fighting mobs and cartels is too difficult to do in other arenas.
I do agree with treatment rather than prison for the users as “punishment” for keeping it illegal to use.
And for the makers and pushers, they know full well they are peddling death, so I support the death penalty for them.
Maybe if Canada makes drugs legal they won’t feel the need to have tax dollars pay for free injection sites. In BC, bars and restaurants have to buy their booze at provincial liquor stores — at retail. I was at a casino for a company Christmas party: there was a sign that said, in essence, “we charge you through the nose for your drinks to make you think twice about getting smashed and losing this month’s rent by gambling because you are drunk.” Oh, but let’s have free, safe injection sites.
I think the problem with alcohol is that, to paraphrase Churchill, you will be sober in the morning. Government would rather you be in a stupor all the time so you will quietly submit to whatever it is they want to do.
I have no problem with legalization, or de-criminalization, or prohibition, or whatever dumb scheme the gov’t comes up with.
Drugs, alcohol- whatever – are INDIVIDUAL problems and only become societal problems because someone wants to profit from the suffering of anonymous, useless, worthless, individual addicts.
The Lawyers; the Judges; the Cops; the DEA; the Cartels; the Politicians; the Rehabilitation Folks; the Growers; the Importers.
Hold the INDIVIDUAL responsible for his actions.
If he smokes weed and is still a successful basement dweller; who gives a fuck?
If he drinks and drives into a family of four, put him to death.
If he guzzles beer while watching some stupid shit on TV, who gives a fuck?
If he gets girls high so that he can sell their ass, put him to death.
If the girls continue to get high and sell their ass, what?
It ain’t a disease; it’s a choice.
izlamo delenda est …
Menotu – you create a structure that does not exist and then insist that we accept it will happen that way. All I am saying is that simple decriminalization will lead to less crime, less potent drugs, and less stigma which allows for more treatment of those in need. It doesn’t need to be government treatment, there are plenty of private organizations who would reach out.
Also, what Tim said. But while it may be a choice, it is often one of despair. These are people in need – as the Vietnam numbers I referenced prove.
What structure did I create that doesn’t exist?
Cigarettes are legal and we have people peddling them outside of convenience stores in NY (which is illegal, yeah I know “stupid” right?).
Removing the social stigma from alcohol hasn’t made it less available, it is now brewed anywhere and everywhere (I know people who have brewing parties at their homes, this month at As house brewing Honey Oak, next month at Bs brewing Giant Tire and then they all split the 100s of bottles 8 ways).
All of this drug legalization talk is nothing more than a way for more government everything.
You say that there will be less use by decriminalizing. I call bullshit.
Everything in society shows us daily that alcohol use has not declined by legalizing it.
Making drugs legal won’t make drugs or drug problems go away, as we have seen with legalizing alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.
Making drugs illegal won’t make drugs or drug problems go away either, as we have seen with Prohibition and the current War on Drugs.
Thus we can see that the ultimate solution to drug use and its corresponding problems lies not in the legal system, but in the moral values that are held and taught at home, in schools, and by society as a whole. Without those, you can pass all the laws you want and there will be little or no effect, other than to fill our jails and penitentiaries.