Harper’s Youtube Political Dilemma: Cannabis Legalization

“It sounded like a good idea at the time”. I fully expect those to be the words beginning to thrum in the mind of Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, following his announced acceptance of Google’s offer to stream his response to the throne speech today, and to answer YouTubers’ questions on YouTube next Tuesday, March 16th. It is a decision that has put him in an uncomfortable spot with respect to the issue of marijuana legalization.

Until Sunday, March 14th, the public will have the ability both to submit a question and to rank all of the questions submitted. The questions are not edited, so the whole process lacks the protection usually afforded by the mainstream media: Harper faces questions that concern the public, rather than questions designed to highlight the concerns or agendas of media interests.
The most shocking result, so far: all three of the three most popular questions so far – by a landslide – all deal with…cannabis legalization. I reproduce, below, the top three questions and their rankings (as of 6:05 PM on March 11, 2010), together with the fourth, which is not cannabis related.

“A majority of Canadians when polled say they believe marijuana should be legal for adults and taxes like alcohol. Why don’t you end the war on drugs and focus on violent criminals.”
Dan Grice, Langley
Like: 731
Dislike:95

“When over 45% of Canadians admit to smoking cannabis at least once in their lives, as well as 14% using it monthly, isn’t it time to stop putting people in jail for victimless crimes and start to take the drug trade away from the black market?”
Francais McKellan, Edmonton, Alberta
Like: 651
Dislike: 114

“PM Harper, marijuana is one of BC’s largest exports.This rumored $B. industry goes untaxed. Why not legalize, & tax the drug that statistically is less harmful than Tobacco and Alcohol? Has your gov. discussed controlled legalization? What can we do?”
Mark Radford, Toronto
Like: 281
Dislike:63

Fourth most popular question:
Why is the government not more open about the Afghan detainee issue? Every time a legitimate question is asked, the response is that we should “support our troops” and look the other way.”
Like: 300
Dislike: 114

Read the rest of the article here