New ‘Serious Offence’ Language Includes Marijuana
(Students For Sensible Drug Policy, www.cannabisculture.com, August 8, 2010)

“The ‘Regulations Prescribing Certain Offences to be Serious Offences’ came into effect July 13, 2010, and was publically enacted by the Federal Government early in August 2010…”

“The new regulations expand the definition of ‘serious offence’ under the Criminal Code. By designating an offence a ‘serious offence’, someone convicted would potentially face a longer period of time than if caught under the offence generally. The new regulations include a number of new offences which, if carried out in relation to organized crime, carry a 5 year prison sentence. The designation also increases police powers during investigation, such as wiretaps and warrants. There is also greater seizure of proceeds and assets provisions, as well as changes to bail provisions…”

“So if three or more people are trading a few grams of marijuana amongst themselves, this is now potentially a ‘serious offence’, and these people are facing 5 years in jail….”

“These regulations instead increase the criminalization of drugs and drug users in Canadian communities. Low level, non-violent offenders are the easy prey of these regulations…”

From the government: Regulations Prescribing Certain Offences to be Serious Offences (http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2010/2010-08-04/html/sor-dors161-eng.html)
(canadagazette.gc.ca, Vol. 144, No. 16 — August 4, 2010)

“Expanding the availability of the criminal organization provisions creates the possibility that individuals may be subjected to longer periods of incarceration because it makes the use of the criminal organization offences possible.”

And they are proud of that!  Filling the prisons is a good thing for these “tough-on-crime” poseurs.

And it’s amazing how they can update the meaning of the word “serious” too.

Gambling-related and some prostitution-related offences are also included in the changes.

What about justice against theft, murder, fraud and sex slavery?  What about concern for real victims of real criminal abuse?   Just like drug use, since so many prostitution-related offences (http://www.torontocriminaldefence.com/articles/EEAFZllkEEfGCBJCfp.php) are illegal, there is less protection for those caught up in it.

Criminalizing drugs drives the profits up for criminals, and intensifies violence and crime.  Even the Mexican president has called for a debate on ending the drug war, given the incredible number of “28,000” “drug war-related murders”.  But the Canadian government wants to go in the opposite direction!

People need to assert their rights  – their property rights, and freedoms.  And they need a voice with all legislation and they need to be involved in proper systems of justice –  so they can more effectively protect themselves and their families from harmful influences.  Instead, the government keeps ratcheting up its power!

Canadians don’t need to have their children and themselves scared to death of the police and other officials.  Authoritarian domination, which is growing with so many other laws, doesn’t empower ordinary people and make them more responsible for their lives!

It’s too big a subject, but certain questions need to be asked about which organizations are profiting the most from the drug war.  The documentary, Invisible Empire: A New World Order Defined, touches on this with respect to other drugs.

All these drugs used to be legal in the past (but I’m sure that those who abused drugs weren’t happier for it).  The war on drugs has served the purpose of making the State more and more totalitarian and paving the way for more invasions of property rights, unjust asset forfeitures, and adding large numbers of people to the U.S. prison economy.

Big Brother is already here in the form of the drug war.  In Canada, we have infra-red surveillance of our homes, as well other privacy invasion through monitoring of our electricity usage.   These are violations of our natural rights, violations that some of us make excuses for.   The drug war establishes the precedents,  and we have been indoctrinated for years – via the entertainment media especially – to accept ever-increasing authoritarianism.

You see how the Conservatives play this “tough-on-crime” right-left game?  Same old story.  So the Conservatives get more support from one section of the public, while the other section of the public imagines the Liberals are better on rights.    And this sort of thing goes on and on for years.  These parties are just there to MANAGE us.  They don’t want to make things work, because their bosses want a new order out of the chaos, and have kicked out the stops that protect us, including Canadian sovereignty.

I think Canadians tend to be peaceful and get along with each other, but I wish that would continue even when times get tougher.

This is an ominous change, but I hope that more people will see that this is part of a bigger picture where there are and have been many laws and efforts at social control that are threatening our freedoms and our future.  Marc Emery went to prison taking a heroic and defiant political stand for freedom.  That’s how I see what he did.   His activism that eventually led to his arrest was  purposeful and conscious.

I hope that more people will see that there is an orchestrated effort to take away all freedoms and replace our current flawed system with a totalitarian system.  No matter what age you are, you should stop dividing along the fake left-right spectrum, which has errors on both sides, and you should stop falling for other types of anti-freedom propaganda.

There are too many distractions also.   So many people think it’s business as usual, fun and games.  But tyranny is being pushed over a long period of time by an active and determined group (see the movie “Invisible Empire” mentioned above).  The potential escalation of war in the Middle East is one of many possible sparks that could bring down freedom completely as everyone falls in line.

And if we don’t see how all these different freedom and rights issues are connected, and the bankster fraud, etc., we’re not going to empathize with others when they fall afoul of some new restriction, from government directly, or via their employer or other seemingly “private” source, or when they try to take a stand on some issue.

And we’re just going to blame each other and find fault, and make excuses, and everything is just going to collapse.  We need to find some level of empathy and common shared principles even if we never thought about the word “freedom” before.

We can’t just keep consenting to the authoritarian changes and letting others all around us fall away as casualties, being driven into poverty by the system, or being put in jail for some new restriction, or being bombed in the Middle East.

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