Happy 4/20, Bakefield.
Or should I say unhappy 4/20?
While stoners across the province were puffing in celebration of the unofficial cannabis holiday on April 20, the Quebec government was puffing its chest after winning its case against homegrown cannabis growers at the Supreme Court.
The court ruled on April 14 that Quebec’s ban on possessing and cultivating cannabis plants for personal purposes is constitutional, giving cops the power to hand out fines between $250 and $750 to illegal growers.
In the unanimous ruling, Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote that Quebec’s ban on homegrown plants is “a means of steering consumers to the only source of supply considered to be reliable and safe.”
This argument is weaker than most homegrown pot. Was Canada’s high court high when they rendered this decision?
If this is the best reason the Supreme Court can come up with to uphold Quebec’s ban on homegrown weed, then the question needs to be asked why the same rules aren’t set around alcohol.
While homegrown weed growers will get slapped with small fines for growing, wine and beer-lovers have free rein to make their homebrew in basements or garages. Why the discrepancy?
With the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA’s) new guidelines on alcohol consumption, which recommend drinking no more than two drinks a week to reduce cancer, heart disease and stroke risks, why didn’t we see sweeping new legislation with a ban on homemade wine and beer kits?
And the big question is, how will this be enforced? Anybody who has paid attention to the way Quebec’s language police works knows where this is going. The Office québécois de la langue française has built a culture of snitching in Quebec and it’s highly unlikely that cops will be cruising the Hills in search of the four pot plants on your deck, so it will come down to neighbours snitching on neighbours. Yuck.
What’s so dangerous about growing your own weed at home anyways? What can go so wrong that the weed would become unreliable and unsafe? It’s a weed.
The only thing that would be unsafe about growing your own cannabis at home is the amount of Doritos you may eat after lighting up your first joint.
Quebec’s ban on homegrown weed has nothing to do with safety or unreliability; it’s just another CAQ power grab for the already puissant party.
When you’re finished reading this, roll it up and pass it to the left.