Why the Marijuana Party is Not the Answer

Ok everyone knows I am pro legalization of marijuana. So why then am I writing an article that slams the Marijuana Party, simply put they can never and will never achieve their goals, at best they will assist others in achieving it.

Most critics of the marijuana party claim they are a one trick pony and have no platform other than the legalization of marijuana, and while this may be true in some ridings, for the most part this is not true. I have spoken with various candidates for the marijuana party, they are always intelligent, articulate, and politically aware beyond just the marijuana issue. Really they should be the the ones to take the fight to Ottawa, but they won't, not as long as they are members of the Marijuana Party. As long as the Marijauna party remains as it is they will never become a political player, and unfortunately thats the way the party seems to want it. They think its a good thing that the are a party they are decentralized, it is not.

In order for a party to bring forward marijuana two things must occur, they must be centralized, organized, and act like a political party, and the second thing (oh so simple) have a name that does not pick on any one specific issue.

Beyond the Marijuana party being a disorganized brood of smaller political riding association based parties the very name takes the power out of the party. People see the name and think of the Marijuana party and its members as a one trick pony, they want legalization of marijuana and nothing else. It doesn't matter how wonderfully written the platform of an individual candidate is, the party will drag that candidate down.

What Canada needs is more political activists that actually get involved in politics. We need people to join parties, change views become candidates and work the system within. We need serious candidates in serious parties to bring forth the matter of legalizing marijuana and changing all the laws in Canada that have no logical purpose. What Canada needs is for Canadians to give a damn about politics again, what Canada needs is a charismatic political leader with the power to inspire change. Who can this leader be? Its not Layton, its not Ignatieff, its certainly not Harper, so who is it? Is it you?

Blind Leading the Blind

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, and guess what folks, we are living in the land of the blind, but we have no king, our leaders are as blind as us. I am not just talking about drug prohibition here, I am talking about our legal system in its entirety. Now I know Justice is supposed to be blind, however that is supposed to be blind to who it is focused on, not blind to facts. However for too long we have allowed the moral minority to overshadow the laws because they were full righteous bravado. Laws by the ignorant for the masses. We all know this, we cry against nanny state while allowing the government to mandate our actions, to tell us what is good for us, and to forbid us to do what is bad for us. Why do we allow it? Canadians are an apathetic people, that's why. We are content to allow our leaders to be pushed around by the bully that is U.S.A., and not only do we not demand they stand up for it we shrug our shoulders and re-elect them saying at least they aren't the NDP, or Green, or some other fringe group.

I am a proud Canadian, proud to call this land home, but ashamed of our leaders, and even more so ashamed of the voters that continually support them, and ashamed of myself for not having the courage to step forward and do more to cast the moral minority out of government. This blog is the best I can do, so I do it. Legalizing marijuana is only one thing I believe in however. I think our laws need a complete rewriting, from the ground up. Laws based on logic and reason and not morality. Laws with punishment based on harms done to others and not some moral fortitude.

Don't get me wrong I am not against morality, I just think morality is just to hard to nail down. Morality varies from person to person, my sense of morality is different than yours. When laws are based on morality alone they get ridiculous. Laws banning prostitution, gambling, drugs, are all examples of laws based on morality and not logic. They tend to do more damage to society then good. They encourage black market trade and organized crime, while doing little to nothing to prevent the actions themselves. Despite laws banning prostitution, the sex trade is alive and thriving. Despite laws prohibiting marijuana it is one of Canada's biggest cash crops. These industries are controlled by criminals instead of upstanding citizens, and hundreds of thousands of citizens are turned into criminals just by doing something which causes no harm to anyone else.

Laws should be based on the damage (or potential damage) the perpetrator does to others. A drunk or drugged driver driving on the roads is a danger to everyone else on the road, it is logical to make this an offense. Theft does damage to the owner of the property stolen, this should be an offense. Rape, Murder, Assault, all obviously damaging to the victim, all logically illegal. Drug use hurts only the user, it should not be illegal. Prostitution hurts no one, except if the prostitute is forced in any way, and this only occurs when prostitution is illegal.

I know what some people are thinking while reading this, drug use hurts the family of the user. True, many people are hurt watching the self destructive behavior of someone who is going out of their way to pollute their system (I am not talking marijuana here as there is no such thing as a marijuana addict, and there is no long term health effects to using marijuana). The problem is, people with self destructive tendencies are going to do it legal or not, are we really helping them by incarcerating them? Would it not be better to spend the money we would spend keeping them in jail to promote drug addiction counseling.

Even if you agree with me, you are probably thinking that you can't make a difference. The fact is history is made by one person who, at the right time, stood forth and challenged the status quo. So now we need a person of vision to lead us, a one eyed man to be our king. Who will be this person to lead us out of darkness into a new age of enlightenment where laws make sense and the government does not coddle us.

(Wow this rant is one heck of a soap box speech, sorry for that folks just kind of came out in one streaming thought process)