By Jon Hiltz

 

The longstanding lie employed by anti-pot Canadian politicians over the years has been that if Canada legalizes or decriminalizes marijuana, our security-fixated big brother to the South would get mighty steamed, and this would cause major issues at the Canada-U.S. border. This ruse was further revealed when Bruce Heyman, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, publicly stated last week that the U.S. has no problems with Canada’s plan to legalize marijuana.

“Each country is going to have to decide their own drug policy,” Heyman said as reported in the Globe and Mail. He also insisted that any border issues could be worked out and cited the fact that the United States have already legalized recreational marijuana in some states.

The Ambassador went on to add that he has never had any high-level discussions on Canada’s legalization plans or its potential impact on the border. “Look, if Canada sets a certain set of laws, we will work with Canada to try and make sure [it works].”

Marijuana.com contacted the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. for their thoughts on Ambassador Heyman’s comments, and Deputy Spokesperson Hanna Wajda issued this statement:

The Government of Canada has committed to legalizing, regulating, and restricting access of marijuana and will introduce legislation in Spring 2017 that ensures we keep marijuana out of the hands of children and profits out of the hands of criminals. Canada has established a task force to advise on the design of a new system of strict marijuana sales and distribution with input from experts in public health, substance abuse and law enforcement. Canada will be engaging with our international colleagues to seek their perspectives, and we are particularly interested in the U.S. domestic experience with legalization in several U.S. states.

Also due to changes in marijuana policy within the US over the last few years, any negative response in regards to legal marijuana in Canada would carry little weight. To federally make pot legal in the Great White North we will need to pull out of three major international drug policy treaties. In the past the U.S. has been the go-to enforcer of these treaties but now they are busy explaining why four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana. Their official argument is that although these states have legalized, it’s still illegal at the federal level so they are not breaking any treaties. That’s like munching on Cocoa Puffs for breakfast in front of a group of people you’ve just forced to eat grapefruit. If the feds in America were to comment on Canada’s intentions at this point, the public hypocrisy would be too great, even for the United States.

The Ambassador’s words are more than likely very welcome to the cannabis community in Canada, as the United States is our biggest international influence and closest ally. Perhaps when Canada finally legalizes, the many American citizens who will flock here to buy weed will be a catalyst for all the border states to go the way of recreational pot, just to even the playing field. It would be a welcome change for border security to ask how much marijuana we have on us and not be reaching for their handcuffs at the same time.