i really think we need some fact-based analysis here.
1) most people don't buy pot from cartels. they buy it from local growers.
this is useful reading:
http://www.theweedblog.com/how-can-you-tell-if-your-marijuana-comes-from-a-cartel/
2) your kids' hook-up ultimately probably comes from somebody's dad, or somebody's older sibling, and not from organized crime.
3) marijuana is not addictive.
4) because marijuana is not addictive, pushers don't push it. they push speed. meth. it's big business, and run by smart business people. if you can create a speed addict, you're going to get steady revenue streams from that person - regularly, multiple times a week. if you get a marijuana customer, you'll get sporadic sales every once in a while. so, they don't focus on pot because it's not in their self-interest to.
i've had these discussions with street-level dealers, and a lot of the time they don't even know where to find pot - despite having a knapsack full of speed that they're selling on the corner. you ask them for pot, and they try and push you speed and then tell you to get lost.
i'm not opposed to putting some of the money towards treatment centres. but, it would be better spent on treatment for actually damaging and actually addictive substances. the most damaging, addictive substance in our society is alcohol.
www.cbc.ca/news/politics/legal-marijuana-taxes-1.3370358
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as i mentioned, marijuana is not addictive. acid isn't either, and i wouldn't be opposed to legalizing it, although i'm not about to strenuously argue the point, either. the thing about hallucinogenics is that you'd have to set a higher legal age, but the truth is that people mostly grow out of them by the age of 21.
the gangs push speed and meth, mostly. they don't start with pot. they jump right to the stuff that hooks them; pot is useless in hooking them. it's all about pills. and, it's actually a very different subculture, too. you would be targeting very different kinds of kids that would go for popping a pill to get an upper than kids that want to smoke a joint and chill out.
also: kids don't do heroin. it's an adult drug
i remember watching kids pop speed pills on the school bus when i was 13. nobody in that group had ever tried or knew how to get pot. i don't even think any of them had smoked a cigarette. and, i think that observation is pretty normal.
they weren't the outcast kids, either. they were the popular kids - the in crowd.
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anglophile
No one will buy pot from a Gov't outlet. It will be expensive, much like cigars, or more. Once the substance is legal, pot smokers will simply grow it in their backyards, even if it is less potent. There will be no legal means to prevent this from happening. Also, remember that pot can't be used without abusing it. only a few "tokes" will have you completely inebriated. Unlike alcohol, it can't be used responsibly. A "casual" pot user, would be equivalent to an excessive drinker. One can enjoy a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, and still be legal to drive home, or supervise their children. Parents who smoke at home might find that they are putting their children at risk, if they smoke a joint only to find they have to rush the kid to the hospital for some reason. Their judgment would be so impaired that they might not even recognize a serious situation. Also, pot will be the chosen drug for kids at school. A few tokes between classes will get you stoned, while the same high might requires 7 or 8 beer, which would be hard to carry around, or consume inconspicuously.
jessica murray
i'm not going to comment on your conclusions regarding how marijuana users behave, but i want to point that you're half right about effects.
marijuana tolerance increases as you smoke. i'm a light, sporadic and social smoker - i only need a three toke pass to get stoned for the night, and into the morning. that wouldn't be true if i smoked regularly, but it is true because i don't smoke regularly. so, you're right that you don't need a lot, if you don't use a lot.
the flip side of that is that marijuana does a fraction to you of what alcohol does, and plateaus at a fairly low point. you will never blackout and forget what you did last night due to marijuana use. you won't spontaneously pass out. "as stoned as you can get" is roughly equivalent to the immediate buzz you get after talking 2-3 shots at the same time and it lasts for several hours - but then you can't get more stoned than that, and you don't deal with the effects of drunkenness.
so, it's faster, yes. and you need less. but it's also impossible to overdo it.
it's common sense that one should not drive stoned. but, the reality is that you're never going to see any stoned person stumbling all over the place, slurring words, cursing, unable to walk straight. marijuana just doesn't have the ability to create that effect, or at least not on it's own.
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AlanWilliams
This will only drive the drug dealers to push harder more dangerous substances into the market. They will plan to adapt in order to maintain their market share and profits. This will result in even more people in addictive states unable to function in a sustainable lifestyle. The liberals are only doing this to protect the rich kids of Toronto (Rosedale) from getting a criminal record! They don't care about the devastating results although they say the money will go into addiction programs. Why not just criminalize pot as a deterrent and save lives???
jessica murray
actual drug dealers - bikers and whatnot - already mostly ignore pot, because you can't build dependence on it. they don't bother selling it as a gateway or whatever. they just jump right to selling speed in candy wrappers. and that's something that people should actually be concerned about.
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captain canada
I can just see the fun at the border when Canada legalizes pot . Get ready to wait while US customs searches for that one joint your kid left in the back seat of the car and you end up in jail for smuggling pot to the USA .
jessica murray
bernie is claiming he'll drop the federal restriction. if he doesn't win, i can't see it being more than 4-8 years away.