Alright, with the Liberal majority, and what looks to be pretty wide-spread support for this, I just wanted to bump this thread with some thoughts.
How is this going to be implemented? How has it been done in other places? I'm thinking specifically how we move out the criminal aspect of it. It's different for the US, as they legalized it on state levels, which means they can legitimize businesses and those who want to remain in the criminal side of it can just move their operations to a different state. In Canada, it's going to have to be national, and I believe we likely have one of the larger marijuana production levels in the world (that's just a guess, but I don't doubt it). There are huge fields hidden away in BC that will need to be legitimized. How will this work? Give criminals the option to become legit businesses, but then do we forgive all previous crimes that were associated with the drug trade (extortion, assaults, murders)? What about groups like the Hell's Angels? What if criminals don't want to turn over their crops? Would there need to be an initial seizure of land? That would likely require a significant police presence to do so, and could potentially be violent.
These are honestly just questions. I can't see why criminals would want to remain so, even if it is likely more lucrative, the loss in profits should be offset by legitimization and the loss of violence in their business, but we also know how much the dollar means (heck, we have legitimate businesses that constantly do illegal things for the sake of profit as it is).
How did it work with alcohol prohibition? What was the process in a place like Portugal, or even the Netherlands?
What does it mean for BC? This is a multi-billion dollar boost to their GDP, but the market is only the rest of Canada. With Washington as a border state, will we be able to sell internationally to them? This opens a whole (very interesting) can of worms trade-wise.
Just interested in other's people's thoughts on how to implement, less so on whether or not you agree, as that's been discussed to death.
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