# What happens when Canada decriminalizes pot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037 "2003-05-13T20:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/21 "2003-05-15T03:34:04Z")
Canada’s kind of a dream destination for me, too. Pot aside, I loved the scenes in Bowling For Columbine where he went to Canada and kept going up to people and asking “Aren’t you scared?” and they were like “Of what?” No wonder, if pot’ll be legal. ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/22 "2003-05-15T05:40:27Z")
no sites barred on this post but isn’t Canada legalizing HEMP production too? Rope and soap besides dope. hawaii is looking at the legalization of HEMP to re-cultivate the now dimized sugar and pineapple fields. For Hemp products and to keep down the dust. In the Phillipines they grew the fast growing, friendly Hemp plant where the mudslides wiped out their part of the earth. The only reason growing HEMP in the USA is illegal is because of the Dupont Company, with patents siezed from Post-ww2- Losing Germany. The most important one being PLASTIC which is a by-product of oil. Still pisses me off. Just think how much further and clean the world would be if we were running AND sustaining on a bio-degradable, earth friendly product. Instead, making it illegal for production. Go Canada! Show the World How to do it right! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/23 "2003-05-15T06:55:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > **What is going to happen when this law is passed? Are users still going to have to go to their dealers to buy, or will Coffee Shops, ala Amsterdam, open up? Will the government try to control the sales like it does/did with alcohol? In Alberta, would it be up to private business like it is now with liquor?** You know, I think all the answers to your question are in the news story you cited: > [@](#): > > The proposed bill to decriminalize marijuana, which **Mr. Cauchon said will be more strict on drug traffickers** but less harsh on those who use the drug in small quantities, could be tabled in Parliament as draft legislation as early as the end of this week. > … > The Prime Minister said after the cabinet meeting that the new bill means “modernizing the sentences.” **It does not mean legalizing the use of marijuana, he said.** > … > Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said **the new bill will actually mean heavier penalties for trafficking,** calling it a “sensible policy.” > … > Sources told Canadian Press on Monday that possession of 15 grams of marijuana will likely be met with only a fine under new legislation, but that **Ottawa will exact harsher penalties on traffickers and growers.** Section 2 of the [Controlled Drugs and Substances Act](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-38.8/35884.html#rid-35893) defines “traffic” as follows: > [@](#): > > “traffic” means, in respect of a substance included in any of Schedules I to IV, > > (a) to sell, administer, give, transfer, transport, send or deliver the substance By this definition, running a “coffee shop” to sell cannabis (a Schedule II substance) would likely be considered trafficking. If the bill will increase penalties for trafficking, I can’t see “coffee shops” springing up. We’ll just have to wait for it to be tabled to know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/24 "2003-05-15T07:02:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yola \* > **The only reason growing HEMP in the USA is illegal is because of the Dupont Company, with patents siezed from Post-ww2- Losing Germany. The most important one being PLASTIC which is a by-product of oil. Still pisses me off. Just think how much further and clean the world would be if we were running AND sustaining on a bio-degradable, earth friendly product. Instead, making it illegal for production.** [The Master disagrees with you](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_131.html): > [@](#): > > The suppression of hemp wasn’t, as some have alleged, the result of an unholy conspiracy between federal narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, the Du Pont corporation, and William Randolph Hearst. No question, Anslinger was a zealot who thought marijuana was a menace to society, and Hearst’s newspapers had done their best to whip up antihemp hysteria. But so had everybody else in the press. Lurid antimarijuana stories appeared in the New Yorker, for God’s sake. > > The hemp industry didn’t pose a significant threat to Du Pont and its new synthetic product, nylon. The most widely publicized early use of nylon was for women’s stockings. Hemp wasn’t used for this purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/25 "2003-05-15T15:16:55Z")
C’mon, Piper, you’re runing a perfectly good conspiracy theory. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/26 "2003-05-15T15:23:27Z")
I dunno. I think it was the “Amsterdam” and “private business” bits. 😃 I don’t really see how you can tax something that’s not legal. Speeding is kinda similar: I don’t go to jail, but I pay a fine. I can’t buy a “speeding licence” or anything. That’s just what I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/27 "2003-05-15T19:49:58Z")
I for one hope it causes at least some people to realize that pot is not the human crisis the anti-drug people would have you believe. If nothing else its pissing them off which brings me great joy. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/28 "2003-05-15T20:23:25Z")
No offense meant, **yola** , but what is with the eccentric capitalization? Are you thinking hemp is an acronym? (It isn’t, it’s related to the German _Hanf_ which comes from the Greek _kannabis_.) **Cecil Adams** (courtesy of **Northern Piper** ) has criticized the Du Pont conspiracy theory, but I am still wondering if anyone ever took him up on > [@](#): > > I’ve yet to see any credible evidence for the alleged Anslinger/Hearst/Mellon/Du Pont antidope cabal. Is there any objective material? By “objective” I don’t mean “perfect”, I am just wondering if there is anything at all here other than point-blank assertions with the usual lack of contemporary documentation (c.f. “[Colonel Sanders] puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly.”) ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/29 "2003-05-15T20:28:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yola \* > \*\*no sites barred on this post but isn’t Canada legalizing HEMP production too? Rope and soap besides dope. > > The only reason growing HEMP in the USA is illegal is because of the Dupont Company, with patents siezed from Post-ww2- Losing Germany. The most important one being PLASTIC which is a by-product of oil. Still pisses me off. Just think how much further and clean the world would be if we were running AND sustaining on a bio-degradable, earth friendly product. Instead, making it illegal for production. > \*\* Sheesh, tow the party line much? Hemp’s already legal in most places (including, f’rinstance, the US), and its not all that popular. Why? Is it a huge conspiracy? Nah, its just that hemp isn’t all that useful. Yeah, it finds its way into birdseed, and hemp rope is probably still made, but most other uses (clothing, say) are already better served by man-made (or other natural) sources. I’m quite pro-legalization, myself. And I think the hemp “movement” is a bit silly and disingenuous. When I see a similar movement for other unsung miracle plants that can’t also double as a recreational drug (and yeah, I’m aware that hemp fiber doesn’t come from cannabis plants grown for smokin’), I’ll consider it a bit more credible. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/30 "2003-05-20T22:28:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GMRyujin \* > \*\*C’mon, Piper, you’re runing a perfectly good conspiracy theory. \*\* That’s part of the vision statement: “Fighting ignorance since 1973” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037/31 "2003-05-21T00:07:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\*That’s part of the vision statement: “Fighting ignorance since 1973” > > 😃 \*\* I suppose next you’re going to tell me the pyramid on the back of the one dollar bill has nothing to do with the Masons and the lizardmen that secretly control the world. Psh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-canada-decriminalizes-pot/175037.md?page=1)