Long time comin'

Finally. After waiting for too many years -- at least since 1972, when the LeDain Commission recommended it -- marijuana has been made legal in Canada.

The move is certainly not without problems, and is already starting to create some new ones without even trying. Distribution is one of the biggest, especially here in BC where there is currently only one official store. It's in Kamloops, about a four-hour drive for most of us who live in the Lower Mainland. The government has established an online supply source, though I don't understand how deliveries will be made, as the government liquor stores don't deliver, but clearly this 'store' must.

Differences in how the law is being interpreted in various provinces present yet another set of complications. While most of us will be allowed to grow four plants per household (poor timing though, as this isn't exactly the season for throwing seeds into the ground), some provinces have banned the practice.

So even though I'm not about to run out into the street to smoke a big fat joint, I am going to breathe more easily, firm in the belief that as a society we've taken a step towards becoming more grown-up and civilized. As for what comes next, we'll just have to wait and see.

Pot is on the table

At last! It was 1969 that the LeDain Commission was called -- an official government inquiry into the non-medical use of marijuana.

Over the course of the early 1970s their findings were reported, and -- surprise, surprise -- even back then, their conclusions were that it was time for marijuana laws to change.

Finally, with Thursday's Cannabis Act, Canada has begun to move forward towards legalization.

Sure, there are still kinks to work out. I plan to follow as this process unfolds. I'm just hoping there isn't any back-pedaling from the government. Considering how they've backed out of other promises they've made, I'm going to pay close attention.

One thing I am sure of is that next week's 4/20 events will truly have cause to be celebrations!

Snow job

It was sunny here on Thursday, Groundhog Day, so I suppose the little critter saw his shadow and ran back inside. Even though snowdrops were blooming in the garden, I guess I should have expected 'six more weeks of winter' -- just as the local groundhog must have predicted,

Still, when the snow started falling on Friday morning, I was less than enthusiastic. Mostly I've taken comfort in the fact that I don't really have to go anyplace this weekend, so I can stay home and hunker down for a few days. Besides, I can blame it on the groundhog.

If only I could blame the other snow job on a character as innocuous as a groundhog.

I'm talking about the second of the big campaign promises that have been dashed by our prime minister, who once seemed like such a beacon of hope.

Many British Columbians must have voted for Liberal candidates on the basis of promises made on that party's behalf by its leader, Mr Trudeau.

Elements of their policy platform (still posted as least as of today's blog posting) include the promise of electoral reform -- in other words, as they put it: We will make every vote count, with Trudeau telling us many times that the 2015 election would the last we'd see of the first-past-the-post system.

People believed the Liberal promises in the last election, as evidenced by the fact that the party's dismal results in 2011 (when only 34 Liberal MPs were elected) were more than reversed by their resounding success in 2015 (with 184 elected, 17 of them from here in B.C.).

But electoral reform isn't the only promise that's already been put aside.

Trudeau campaigned on protecting BCs coastal waters. There was even a proposed moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic. Apparently that sort of ban doesn't apply to the waters of Burrard Inlet or the Strait of Georgia, as another broken promise came when Trudeau approval the Kinder Morgan pipeline plan.

The third big promise was the plan to legalize and regulate marijuana. At the rate he's been going with breaking his commitments to the citizens of Canada, I fully expect this one too will turn out to be too difficult for him to follow through on.

A snow job from the skies above? I can pretend to blame it on a rodent. A snow job from the government? I object.

A day for many celebrations

These flowers arrived yesterday, from an as-yet-undetermined person whom I can only think of as a 'secret pal' for now. Still, they look great on the table as I go forward in this day for so many celebrations.

The first, already starting to happen, is the annual observance of 4/20. This year Vancouver will see two such celebrations. One, the 'official' one at the always-beautiful Sunset Beach. The other, traditional but not sanctioned this year, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

It seems most appropriate (and yet another cause for celebration) that our Health Minister, Jane Philpott, spoke to the United Nations today, offering Canada's plans to legalize marijuana with legislation to be presented in spring of 2017. And yes, Philpott is her real name, as is Jane. And who knows, maybe her actual first name is Mary? Joking aside, the sound-bite they pulled for the news was powerful -- a promise that the law would keep "...marijuana out of the hands of children..." and even more importantly, "and profits out of the hands out criminals." Exactly. To which I can only say 'about time' and yes, time to rejoice.

A celebration that's going on locally tonight is the Finale event for the Double Exposure photography exhibit, a show that's been on all month. To complement the exhibition, there's been a poetry 'challenge' -- one where poets took inspiration from an image in the show and wrote something based on it. Winners will be announced tonight, with presentations (and a reading) by Surrey's Poet Laureate, Renee Sarojini Saklikar. This, a National Poetry Month event, is her first official event down here in Surrey's south end, so I am very much looking forward to it.

Not to be forgotten is my dear little Honda Fit, who got her first car wash for the spring. She was soooo covered in pollen (and likely will be again by later this afternoon), parts of her were starting to turn green. While this may have been just in time for Earth Day, green is not a particularly good colour for a car to wear, unless that's the colour of its original paint -- and in my car's case, that's a not. Happy car, one that's at least for now, shiny.

Salish Sea-change

Today is the day that new laws in Washington state come into effect.

 Last month, voters from that state took a stand on some (I believe) important issues -- same-sex marriage and marijuana laws.

The photo may be puzzling. I offer it only as a small indication of a different sort of attitude I've noticed down there. It's a picture I took on a ferry when we were travelling in Washington over the long weekend in November.

The run from Coupeville to Port Townsend isn't a long haul -- only about half-an-hour. Enough time to sort out a few pieces of a puzzle before heading back down to your car to drive off and go on your way.

The unfinished puzzle was just lying on the table and I couldn't resist. I couldn't walk past without matching up a couple of shapes. And then, like everyone else had before me, I left it for the next passerby to add to, or not.

And that's something I like. An atmosphere that allows me to do something if I want to.

The new marriage laws in Washington aren't telling me I have to marry someone of my own sex. Maybe that's why I love the approach in the wording of the proposal: Marriage for All.

Exactly. Why not be able to marry if you want to. 

And the new pot laws there don't force me to smoke up.

The thing that's so great is that if I want to do these things, I can. And, unlike in so many other places, I won't be arrested or sent to jail for having done so.

That day again

Let’s face it. The war on drugs has spawned a nation of addicts. Had the laws restricting marijuana been eased way back in the ‘70s when the LeDain Commission came up with that very recommendation, I’m convinced there wouldn’t now be all these crack-heads and smack freaks filling our downtown cores and prisons.

If pot had been available only in liquor stores (or, places known by some catchier title that meant ‘outlets for controlled substances’) I suspect organized crime wouldn’t have managed such a stranglehold on selling this with-us-since-time-began weed.

The situation would never have risen where a person looking for a toke was posed the question that’s changed too many lives: “Wanna try some crack instead?”

These controlled-substances outlets might have even been able to take over distribution of tobacco, one of our deadliest (and most addictive) drugs.

Here it is 4/20 again – and once again, the protestors are on the streets, smoking and listening to music and speeches.

Yet Steve Harper, despite calls from all levels of police – even heads of state – continues to keep his greying head in the sand of denial. Oh, sigh. Looks as the gangs will continue to be the only ones winning this ridiculous ‘war’.