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Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3
Question: How would Canada legalize pot?
How did they do it in the states where each State had a vote? Was it because of a civilian petition, or did it come from the State government giving the voters an option to vote to legalize it?
Because with Harper and the conservatives in charge, decriminalization won't happen, let alone it being completely legal.
Would there need to be a petition of like 100,000 people (for example) sign it to legalize it or take it to a vote? How could Alberta do it and not Canada?
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Canada legalizing pot would probably have to happen similar to how the US is doing it. Municipalities, cities & provinces, would have to legalize it even though it would be illegal at the Federal level. It will force the Federal government to spend so many resources in fighting it themselves it would be near impossible for them to enforce.
Just like alcohol prohibition in 1920 it only took 3 years for the first state, New York, to vote to legalize alcohol. It was still illegal on the Federal level but state wide they were not enforcing it. By the time 1933 came around when the Federal government legalized it again, 17 states had already stopped the criminalization of it so the Federal government basically gave up because it became too much to enforce without the help of local law enforcement. And this is completely legal as was decided back in 1923 that states are not required to enforce federal laws.
Just like marijuana today, alcohol arrests were 90% local law enforcement, so when that helped disappeared (just like it hopefully will for marijuana) they had no choice but to come to a rationale decision to legalize it as there was no stopping it, no matter how much money they throw at it.
The problem for Canada is we are too afraid of what the US might do if we legalize it. I hear all these crazy stories about them shutting down trade or closing the border. But I just ask, where is California and other states going to get their power and water from if they do that?
For the US it will be a slow change as the main focus for the start of marijuana being illegal is to keep a certain segment of the population down. And as we have seen from these voter ID laws being put into place they still have a long ways to go. But they took a step in the right direction with Colorado and Washington, so it will be interesting to see how the Federal government reacts to it.