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Hazy cloud hangs over marijuana legalization date

North Cowichan insists its costs will be higher and wants a share of the revenue
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The country is quite literally going to pot.

With the impending legalization of marijuana supposedly going into effect July 1 because that’s what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided, there is more haziness hanging over this date than the cloud above bud worshippers at a 4/20 smoke-out.

The Municipality of North Cowichan is the latest to blow some smoke over the issue, claiming it wants a share of the tax revenue. All of this should have been long decided about who gets what share of the pot, but it’s not.

The Muni, like the provinces, insists it will be incur additional social and policing costs following the legalization process and that’s certainly a fair assessment.

In Trudeau’s world, everything is going to be rosy and billions of dollars are going to waft in to government (but which governments are going to get what?) coffers because all the bad guys are sure to become good taxpaying citizens from now on and not do anything illegal anymore. As if.

The fact there’s still so much uncertainty about cost and sharing the revenue at this late date does not bode well for the Canada Day open season on marijuana that Trudeau seems so insistent about.

We’ve also made so much headway in this country with downgrading cigarette smoking and becoming a healthier society by reducing health care costs, it seems ridiculous to now embrace marijuana smoking in public. The second-hand smoke issue will now rear its ugly head again and those who don’t want to be inhaling it from passers-by are not going to be happy.

Medicinal marijuana is an entirely different issue. But associating the word recreation with any drug is clearly a contradiction in terms.

More time is definitely needed to sort this pending mess out, regardless of Trudeau’s desires.



Don Bodger

About the Author: Don Bodger

I've been a part of the newspaper industry since 1980 when I began on a part-time basis covering sports for the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle.
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