Give senate credit for trying on legalization bill

They didn’t get it all right, but they tried to iron out some major wrinkles

It’s hard to gauge just how much marijuana legalization is going to change Canada. Some cities have already acquired a uniquely pungent perfume, and pot is remarkably easy to get, though edibles — rather appealing for those less keen on sucking flaming leaves into their lungs — will remain illegal at first.

What’s clear is that this whole kerfuffle has been the sort of overcomplicated big-government hullabaloo that would’ve made fine satire.

But progress: On Thursday night, with a vote of 56-30, the Senate passed the government’s pot-legalization bill, albeit with some 45 amendments, most of which are insubstantial. But they represent, in sum, the Senate trying to make sense of a muddled Liberal government strategy that’s going to have muddled consequences.

Oh sure, there will be a series of serious consequences from some of the silly decisions that politicians seem determinedly committed to: cops will still suit up in riot gear and drag off hapless budtenders from illegal pot shops; impaired driving will be heavily policed in the absence of objective testing, leading to a fantastic boon for criminal defence lawyers; and the black market will trundle along, perhaps diminished but certainly potent, as yet another series of government decisions helps ensure an inadequate legal market.

Then there’s everything else: petty fights with landlords and neighbours over various rank odours; ticketing and wasted resources for those who smoke in public, a comically Victorian prohibition; and further members of the local constabulary booting down other doors to measure the size of Uncle Bill’s home-grown pot repository. (Not all of these, to be sure, are strictly the federal government’s fault: the ban on public smoking is — was? — an Ontario Liberal policy. But the direction of pot policy, with so much left to lower jurisdictions, has created a chaotic potpourri of policy.)

But hey — bless the Senate for at least trying to iron out some of it. The Liberals’ original bill contained an inconceivably draconian 14 years in prison for giving marijuana to a minor, but the Senate wisely recognized that pot, being a social drug, could be shared among friends of a similar age who traverse the age of majority. Their solution, a reasonable one, is to make giving less than five grams to a minor a ticketable offence. Given that at least part of legalization’s point is to chuck fewer people in the chokey, this makes sense.

Another reasonable proposal is an amendment to allow provinces to prohibit home-growing, as Manitoba and Quebec are set to do (I disagree but think provinces should probably get to make decisions about this.)

Between the separate impaired driving bill — where senators pushed back hard against the end of reasonable suspicion on breathalyzer testing, meaning police could test drivers for alcohol without suspecting they’d had a drink — and the marijuana legalization bill, the Senate has done its level best to do precisely what it exists to do: scrutinize a bill and make it better.

An exception to that is the amendment that would propose to ban marijuana swag, such as T-shirts, greatly reducing the ability of the legal industry to build brands. This is both a freespeech issue and a practical one: having a visible cannabis industry is a key step in successfully eliminating an entrenched black market.

All told, the Senate was right to push its concerns; the government’s enthusiasm on the justice file has led to some careless policy-making.

Nothing can impair marijuana legalization quite as much as legislation that makes things worse. That, surely, isn’t the legacy Justin Trudeau wants. He should seriously consider the senators’ amendments.