Marijuana movement endorses Conservative Scott Reid
Canada's two largest marijuana reform groups have different strategies this election, but have both endorsed Conservative MP Scott Reid.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada (NORML Canada) is putting all their efforts behind the Liberals in this election, praising Trudeau for his open support of full legalization and calling for cannabis-friendly Canadians to support the Liberal candidate in their riding. But in the case of Scott Reid, Conservative candidate in Ontario, they are making one exception.
"Scott Reid has been a remarkable voice for cannabis reform in Parliament," said Craig Jones, NORML’s Executive Director. "Reid supports small government and individual liberty, and understands that cannabis prohibition is a big government intervention that wastes taxpayer money while treating adults like children. We endorse Scott Reid in his riding and wish there were more small government / individual liberty Conservatives in Harper’s caucus.”
Cannabis reform group Sensible BC is focusing their election efforts on their home province, where they are promoting an "Anybody But Conservative" campaign of strategic voting. But they have also put out a list of endorsements for selected ridings across Canada, and the only Conservative they are endorsing is Scott Reid.
"I first met Scott Reid at an event hosted by NDP MP Libby Davies," said Dana Larsen, Sensible BC Director. "He spoke passionately about the need to end the drug war and legalize all banned drugs, starting with marijuana. I wish more Conservative MPs were as intelligent and principled as Scott Reid. Sensible BC endorses Scott Reid in Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston."
Scott Reid has openly defied his party on the marijuana and drug prohibition issue for many years.
Speaking to High School students in 2013, Reid explained that marijuana was safer than alcohol or tobacco. "The most significant gateway drug is cigarettes, and the drug that does the most damage is alcohol, and they are both legal," said Reid.
Reid also bragged about standing against his own party's harsh anti-drug laws. "I was the only one in my party who voted against that legislation," he said.
In 2001, Reid wrote a long essay in Policy Options called "Should We End Prohibition?" Reid reposted this article to his website in October 2014.
Here are some excerpts from Reid's essay, where he calls most prohibitionist claims against illegal drugs "demonstrably false," concludes that all drugs should be legalized, and says that Canadians are ready for first steps, including decriminalization of marijuana, legalizing heroin for pain relief, and "other liberalizing measures."
"There is no evidence at all that illegal drugs as a group induce behaviors that are any worse than those induced by legal mood-altering drugs."
"The distinction between legal and illegal substances is clearly arbitrary, and would seem to be based on nothing more substantial than the fact that some drugs have a long history in our culture and therefore are more socially acceptable than others."
"The parallel between Capone’s reign of terror and the deaths in recent years of innocent bystanders in the battle between the Hell’s Angels and the Rock Machine for control of the illegal drug trade in Quebec is instructive."
"The expansion of police powers and the resulting destruction of civil liberties has been far worse... than it was in the 1920s [during alcohol prohibition]."
"The prohibition of both drugs and alcohol is based on the belief that governments ought to dictate personal conduct. Citizens are treated as children, incapable of making intelligent personal decisions. The capitalist economy is treated as if had the capacity to fulfill irresponsible demands, but not to respond to the demand for safer products."
"Direct democracy was therefore the key to allowing for the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Perhaps it is time to consider allowing Canadians to use some version of the same mechanism in determining the legal status of other drugs."
"Some form of local-option balloting would be the most effective method of reflecting in Canadian law our culturally based, and therefore evolving, views towards drugs."
You can find Scott Reid's complete essay, Should We End Prohibition? at: www.scottreid.ca/should-we-end-prohibition/
Dana Larsen, Sensible BC Director: [email protected]; 604-812-4372
Craig Jones, Executive Director, NORML Canada, [email protected]; 613-546-6266
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