Veblen-Inspired Reflections on the Recent Federal Anti-Drug Campaign If you’re not already acquainted, allow me to introduce you to Thorstein Veblen, an early 20th century economist who provided a biting analysis of upper middle class and wealthy citizens in modern nations. He called them the leisure class. They’re also the governing class. In Veblen’s view, […]
A 1972 report on cannabis first commissioned, and then rejected, by drug war hawk, Richard Nixon, was titled Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding. That sounds about right for Justin Trudeau’s Cannabis Act, Bill C-45, which might better be called, Cannabis: A Signal of Willful Ignorance. Why ignorance? To begin, its use of oppressive penalties is […]
Ending my fantastic career as a cannabis activist by interviewing the mayor of Victoria, Lisa Helps, has been a perfect encore performance. After 22 years of struggling, this very friendly conversation about the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, the city licensing dispensaries, smoking lounges and April 20 clearly shows how far our movement has progressed in […]
