In Blog // on February 12th, 2013 // by westcoas // No comment

In the last few months, the US states Washington and Colorado have legalized medical marijuana trade and successfully have spread the awareness that marijuana activities are not productive for the general mass. Not only have these states, more than 12 countries around the world restricted giving rise to the criminalized pot smokers and controlled young people turning criminals by just decriminalizing the drug usage.

Bruce Owen, a Free Press reporter, had analyzed that Ottawa could save $2 billion and Manitoba, $ 600 million per year, had the Canadian government change the stuffy drug policies and taxes. This amount of money could have been applied for the health care, education and other social challenges that the society faces every day.

The Vancouver medical dispensaries have denoted that smoking marijuana is less harmful than consuming alcohol, chocolate doughnuts and cigarettes. Boozing was once banned, but now legalized again in order to spread the awareness of this being unproductive among the people.

According to the Forum Research of Toronto, its recent survey has found 65% of Canadians asking to legalize the trade and tax policies of the drug, or at least to decriminalize the same to a small extent.

Despite similar kinds of results repeatedly, the Prime Minister Stephen Harper has chosen to be firm enough not to change the policies, rather to be stricter regarding the penalties. This outdated mentality of the government body of Canada has actually made the country move backwards for about 40 years, according to a study.

The Commission of Inquiry for Non-Medical Use of Drugs has tried cancelling the laws regarding possession of medical cannabis in 1972. Led by Gerald Le Dain, the committee further proposed to legalize pot distribution. Though a progressive note, this issue was well avoided.

Another similar instance in 2002, the Senate and House committees recommended treating marijuana not as harder drugs, but like alcohol and tobacco. According to the committees, the penalties regarding possession of small amount of medical marijuana are definitely as harsh as the factor that marijuana is unhealthy.

A strategy was recommended then for the Justice and Health Ministers of Canada for legalizing the cultivation and possession of 30 grams of marijuana as far as personal use is concerned. Again this proposal was neglected, although the Liberal government has acted to ease the penalties for possession of pot.

While the senior and major Canadians are opposing the law, it is illogical that Harper and his colleagues are still determined not to bring changes for a more positive note. Their outdated mindset of solving the problems regarding health care with penalties and policies is actually increasing the rate of criminal offense all over the Canadian society.

The experts are finding in more difficult to realize that how the authorities are skipping out the factor that the concept of applying serious penalties and strict policies is already a failure. Time has come for the government bodies to act upon according to the personal interest and not stick to the failed concept for days.