Now about 2 weeks into Canada's cannabis "legalization", a severe shortage of legal cannabis is deepening, after most stores sold out on day 1.
Here in B.C. there's only a single legal store to buy from - up in Kamloops - and that store is essentially sold out.
It's the same with legal online sales - sold out. If you're able to find any bud to buy, there's a Canada Post strike on with no resolution in sight, so you can't get your order anyway.
Add to this fiasco: medical patients, many being kept alive by cannabis, are now being forced to compete for supply with this "legalized" recreational market. These patients are, for the first time ever, coming up empty-handed in their search for the medicine they're legally entitled to, and desperately need.
Patients have already come forward saying their lives are in danger because there's simply no legal source of cannabis in the country, and certainly not the special formulas and strains they require for optimum chances of survival. One activist in Nova Scotia has begun a hunger strike over the issue of medicinal access.
Meanwhile, all dispensaries in Canada have been ordered by the government to close, and remain shut, until they receive all levels of permission (building owner, municipal, provincial, federal, etc). This will take years in most cases. Any dispensary that sells without all licences and inspections will never be welcomed into the legal system, threatened Bill Blair. He's the person Trudeau put in charge of legalization. (Blair was the top cop responsible for the police state attacks on activists at G20 Toronto in 2010.)
Here in Vancouver, most 'gray market' dispensaries are closed - either permanently, or hoping to get a license to join the 'white market' (and start collecting 40% taxes). The only cannabis available here right now is from the 'black market'. Which is no problem for us, because that's how it has always been. It's safe, strong, cheap, and delicious - some of the best in the world. The issue? Threat of enforcement by the new "Community Safety Unit" (CSU).
The CSU
The 'Community Safety Unit' in B.C. consists (thus far) of 44 employees of the 'Ministry of Safety'. They will be in plainclothes, and backed up by armed police whenever necessary. They will be checking documents, licenses, receipts, devices, bank accounts, inventories, glove boxes, pockets, bloodstreams - anything they want - in their search for illegal cannabis (anything not specifically legalized by the regime).
They have new powers previously unavailable to government in Canada - warrantless search & seizure. This means they only need to suspect the presence of unauthorized cannabinoids, and they can go to any length necessary to bring anyone involved 'to justice'.
And if that's all a bit creepy and Orwellian, don't let it show. You'll be called paranoid (and they'll insinuate it's probably because of the weed).
Cannabis Crisis, meet Opioid Crisis
Unless you've been off-planet this decade, you know that overdoses of opiate drugs have skyrocketed recently, and that hundreds of Canadians are dying this way every month. The stats just get worse, and worse, and worse.
The pharmaceutical companies and doctors keep pumping out easy access to drugs like Tylenol #3 and Percoset. Insurance companies cover these addictive and dangerous drugs. Health Canada sanctions it all. Billions in profits, millions addicted, hundreds of thousands dead.
A holocaust of victims, suffering and dying before our eyes. And it's legal.
Cannabis, the antidote to MANY people's opiate addiction, remains extremely difficult to obtain, and the authorities seem to be doing everything in their power to keep it that way.
They're seizing cannabis intended for opioid addicts in Vancouver's DTES (downtown East-side). Patients ask "how many of us have to die?"
As part of the Vancouver 420 Farmers Markets for 3 years, I've seen addicts to hardcore heavy street drugs get clean because of edibles like brownies. I've seen someone take a dab of cannabis oil, and stay clean for 24 hours for the first time in years. It works, and it saves lives.
Today, scientific studies from around the world are piling up, showing us how cannabinoids reduce addiction and are a gateway AWAY from dangerous illegal drugs. It's even a better medicine than many dangerous LEGAL drugs.
Why is there no "Safety Unit" going after any other drugs - not even fentanyl, which is killing thousands yearly? Why does cannabis, which has never killed anyone, suddenly need so much attention? Why so many new government agents? Why all the extra armed police officers in each province, and millions more in every city's police budget? Why the millions spent on handheld devices that measure cannabis in people's body fluids?
What's so expensive about legalizing a plant?
Most people thought we could save money and resources by legalizing cannabis. No more lengthy court battles, no more arrests, no more investigations, no more ruined lives, no more broken families, and so on.
But some of us realized, for years, that legalization was a scam, a trick to be played on the people of Canada, and then, the world.
Not sure? Have a look what the people who are involved are saying about it. Cannabis legalization will touch 500 billion dollars in markets.
If they're brazenly willing to admit they just hijacked half a trillion dollars in markets, it's actually much bigger. Even if it's 'only' 500 billion, that's a society-changing amount. This isn't foolin-around money.
Please watch this short clip:
Legalization, all along, has been a money and power grab, by the already rich and powerful. It's about stealing a trillion-dollar industry, killing off a deep and peaceful culture, and nipping a powerful Tree of Liberty branch in the bud.
It has long been said that the prohibition of cannabis is one of the most glaring examples that we aren't free. As prohibition doubles down with legalization, the glaring example only shines brighter than ever.
We are not free - and it's getting even worse.
But I don't believe the story is over. The black market (the FREE market) in B.C. is massive, and strong. It has existed in spite of laws to the contrary for generations. New laws against it won't change much.
The only thing which might have an effect is the level of enforcement. If they're willing to not only raid, beat, and steal from their competition, but also imprison them for 14 years, then even more of us will go into hiding. The worse the punishments they're dishing out, the harsher their control, the higher the price of cannabis goes. And that higher price leads to more patients suffering because they can't get it, or can't get enough of it. Higher prices also lead to more incentive for people to break the law and join the black market.
And so it goes, around and around.
The state profits off both sides of this war, which is why it's a war meant never to be won - only to be waged. Prohibition isn't ending, because prohibition creates jobs for cops, lawyers, judges, and prison guards. Cannabis prohibition keeps opioid addicts on their hard street drugs, and dying on sidewalks. It drains us all through our tax resources, clogging the legal system with people who grew or sold plants - something the state is now guilty of itself. It fosters mistrust of government and disdain for laws. Prohibition is a failed, dangerous, and corrupt policy!
And here it comes...
A few days ago, it was announced that the CSU is almost ready.
funded by taxpayers and by revenues from legal pot sales."
Do we not have the right to peacefully and publicly break unjust laws, or has fascism become absolute?
"The quantity doesn't really matter", says the Attorney General. They intend to silence their critics, violently if necessary.
Along with my wife @MediKatie, I will keep opposing cannabis prohibition - until it ends. I'll keep telling people that legalization is a lie, and has been a scam all along. I'll keep protesting, keep educating the public, and keep doing peaceful civil disobedience of harmful unjust laws!
And I will never stop fighting for those still in prison for doing nothing but growing cannabis!
#legalizationisalie #powertothepatients #illegallyhealing #endcannabisprohibition #cannabiscurescancer #noprisonforplants #freeandfairmarket
DRutter
Excellent article. A wealth of information. What is with those plain-clothes officers with extra-judicial powers that aren't police but do police dirty work? What a bastardized shady shit show! Canada is starting to look like modernized Nazi Germany or something. Let's just be real, c-45/46 is our patriot act, it has nothing to do with cannabis except that they're throwing us crumbs so we don't revolt. But those crumbs are GMO and irradiated and don't got the dank!
I miss the Markets so much! I wish that the Vancouver PD had told me when they came to visit sick kids at the Ronald McDonald House in the late 90s/early 2000s that the "bad guys" they talk about catching would be me, and it's because I would need medicine after being poisoned (by radiation). I realize now that a lot of those "bad guys" are just addicts that were abused by their families and fucked over by the sytem.
One of your best articles yet!
upvoted 100% <3
What a great article. A lot of excellent links.
Resteeming to my outstanding followers!!
"The Ministry of Safety" coming to beat you senseless and throw you in prison. Nothing Orwellian about that...
You two take care of yourselves. Thanks for your efforts, I hope you live to see it all pay off in the form of TRUE decriminalization.