1) Anyone caught smoking it goes to jail for life. Guaranteed no one will smoke it and the market dries up. Do you really think that this is realistic in Canada? It would halt the debate forever though!
2) Keep the status quo. Police spending limited resources on a battle that is already lost. Organized crime getting richer and richer, the courts being tied up time after time.
When I worked drugs we busted a dealer and the next one in the food chain took over. Marihuana is not a gateway to harder drugs.
Drug dealers are a gateway to harder drugs. When you buy pot from a drug dealer they have access to harder drugs.
As a police officer I attended numerous domestic assaults, beatings, robberies, stabbings and murders and not once was it the result of pot. 98% of the time it was alcohol related.
3) Legalize it. Government controls the grow-ops, sells it in the LCBO and taxes it. The billions in revenue can pay down the debt, go towards enhancing community based policing, fighting the real drugs like oxy’s, crystal meth and cocaine to name a few.
This will take huge revenues away from organized crime as well. Impaired driving charges can be laid for those that drive under the influence of pot, laws can be passed so that you can’t have it readily available in your vehicle and other safeguards could be put in place. These are my solutions.
I would love to hear positive solutions to this from anyone. Take care and stay safe out there!
Keith Hobbs
Mayor Thunder Bay
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