The “War on Drugs”, the ridiculous notion that you can suppress a person’s desire for mind altering substances by prohibiting them and arresting the consumers has proven to be a costly failure in the United States. They have 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prison population, and are on the verge of economic collapse.
Since 2006 Stephen Harper has been trying to import this failed policy to Canada. The latest attempt, Bill C-10 the so called “Safe Streets & Communities Act” packages together such atrocious acts as violence against children, and human smuggling with the “serious” crime of growing 6 pot plants. That’s right, 6 tiny little plants growing in your closet is a crime as serious as child kidnapping in the eyes of Stephen Harper. In fact, the maximum penalty for a large scale garden is higher than the maximum handed out to the worst cases of harming a child.
C-10 is going to pass; there is almost nothing that can be done to change that. When it does, growing 6 plants will carry a MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCE of 6 months in jail, you can add on another 6 months if your closet grow box is in a home where children live or in the vicinity of a school or a variety of other “health and safety” concerns.
What does that mean to you? Well if you’re growing, your risk is about to go way up, and you’re looking at some serious time in jail if you get caught. What about the small consumer? You’re not growing or selling cannabis, you just like to smoke a little now and then. Well get ready for a price increase. 
When the risk of production goes up, the cost follows. The small time growers are going to close up shop in a lot of cases, the risk will outweigh the benefit. When the mom and pop shops close, guess where all of your cannabis is going to come from? Drug cartels and organized crime groups will dominate the market.
It sounds hopeless, what can we do about this? We can organize; we can band together and form a cohesive voice against our oppressors. Norml Canada has been working since 1978 in Canada to bring about freedom for the cannabis community. Canada has come close, and we’ve had our victories, we almost won this war before Harper took control, but we need to do more, and we need your help.
With the help and support of you the cannabis consumer, and stores like Hot Box Café, Norml Canada can and will lobby for change. If we can’t change the government policy, then we’ll work to change the government. The MAJORITY of Canadians support the legalization and regulation of cannabis; it’s time we all came together. Groups like Norml Canada, Beyond Prohibition, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) need your voice and your support. Join us, and together we will make change.
