Crime

CRIME
Sheri Smith
April 22, 2016

The debate around decriminalization of marijuana is certainly heating up. Regardless of which side of the debate you are on, you might be interested to know the reason why it was criminalized in Canada in the first place. The only problem seems to be that no one really knows.

Researching and referencing article after article has turned up no real explanation. In 1923, an Act to Prohibit the Improper Use of Opium and other Drugs was introduced. It seems that cannabis ended up tagging along on the tail end of the bill, and without any kind of parliamentary debate, or even verbal mention of the word marijuana, the legislation was voted in by both the House of Commons and the Senate, giving life to the war on pot.

A book entitled “Panic and Indifference: The Politics of Canada’s Drug Laws” makes another interesting observation. Why was marijuana criminalized in Canada long before it emerged as a social problem? It was an obscure drug at the time, and didn’t gain popularity for another three decades when the Hippies showed up.

Ultimately then, regardless if the legislation eventually goes up in smoke, we can never really know why it was rolled into the law books in the first place.

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