A growing chorus of calls across Canada for a year's delay in legalizing cannabis has reached Hay River.
A delay was suggested at a May 2 public meeting by a Legislative Assembly standing committee consulting on the GNWT's bill to implement legalization, once it is approved in Ottawa.
Nehendeh MLA Shane Thompson, chair of the standing committee, agreed with the call for a delay.
"We're not ready," said Thompson. "Unfortunately, the federal government is the one that's putting us on the spot right now."
There might be some good arguments to delay legislation, although we haven't heard them. Instead, there are much better reasons to go ahead as planned with legalization this coming summer.
Cannabis has been illegal in Canada for 95 years. That has been 95 years too long.
There were never good reasons to ban cannabis, and each year added to the prohibition is just a continuation of that stupidity.
A delay would also mean another year of people getting criminal records for simple possession, and another year of marijuana distribution remaining in the hands of criminals.
Some people and organizations feel there is not enough time to implement legalization and there should be more consultation.
We say enough is enough.
In the 2015 federal election, Justin Trudeau and his Liberals were very clear that one of their objectives was to legalize marijuana. They won the election, and they are following through on that commitment.
Federal legislation to legalize and regulate cannabis was introduced on April 13, 2017. You don't need a calculator to figure out that was over a year ago.
Legalization should not come as a surprise to anyone. People who are not ready for legalization really only have themselves to blame.
We are particularly disappointed that any representative of the GNWT could say that the territorial government is not going to be ready.
The GNWT has already targeted its organizational capability in the NWT Liquor Commission to distribute cannabis through liquor stores. Such a linkage of cannabis and alcohol is frowned upon by the federal government, but we've got no problem with it if that is the most logical way to legally sell cannabis in the NWT.
That leaves some decisions for the GNWT to make on such things as rules for use, transportation, smoking in public places and so on.
This is not rocket science. Our MLAs should take the input from the public and government experts, consider it and make political decisions like they're supposed to do. The GNWT legislation can always be amended in the future, if it needs to be.
More than anything, the GNWT should not join the calls for the federal government to delay legalization for a year.
Such calls have all the signs of a rearguard action – a counter-revolutionary effort, if you wish – by people who don't want cannabis to be legalized, and never will.
We respect that opinion, but we don't agree with it and neither does the majority of Canadians.
Cannabis has been illegal in Canada for far too long already, and it's time for that illogical prohibition to end without delay.