Sunday, July 28, 2013

What is Margaret Wente Drinking?



I ask this delicate question because the Globe's would be Marie Antoinette seems singularly obsessed with what Justin Trudeau is smoking.

As only she could. 

I’m not overly invested in the marijuana debate. My friends and I all smoked pot when we were young, but hardly any of us bother any more. In my circle, the drugs of choice are martinis and Chardonnay. Frankly, we consider stoners déclassé.

Putting down pot smokers, promoting booze, and making as much sense as if she was on GLUE.

For while she concedes that the marijuana laws are unfair, and that marijuana isn't a dangerous drug, she still thinks Trudeau is somehow wrong by proposing that it be legalized.

Claiming it could TRIPLE the number of smokers,

When people want something and you make it easier to get, demand generally goes up. Especially if the price goes down. And the price of legal marijuana would go way down.

When in fact it wouldn't be easier to get than it is right now. In countries where it has been legalized the number of smokers has gone down.

The strict controls over tobacco in this country have been very successful in reducing the number of cigarette smokers.

Governments would pile so many taxes on to every ounce, the price would probably remain the same as it is today.

And whatever Wente says about the situation in the U.S.

For one, the revenues from taxing pot wouldn’t be all that great, because even with a big increase in demand, marijuana is not that big a business. Nor would legalization in the U.S. drive the Mexican drug cartels out of business. That’s because pot doesn’t account for very much of their business, maybe 20 per cent. The real money’s in hard drugs.

In Canada marijuana is a BILLION dollar business, and legalizing it would put a big dent in the side of organized crime.



But the most depressing part is that Wente suggests that we should wait until we see how legalization works in the United States.

As if we can't figure things out ourselves, and where once we were leaders now we must meekly follow.

But then that's Con Canada eh? A grim place, with a tired old government that hasn't had an original idea in years.

With a maniac for a leader. Who thinks he can caricature Justin's proposal, make it sound like a priority, portray Justin as a girly man AND a pusher. 



The fact that one of Justin Trudeau’s first policy priorities is legalizing marijuana demonstrates once again that he does not have the judgement to be Prime Minister.

While sending even more mostly young Canadians to prison, for no good reason.

But who doesn't seem to understand the hunger in this country, especially among younger Canadians, for something new and different. Which is at the heart of Justin Trudeau's appeal.

Oh well, I can hardly wait to see Stephen Harper going after marijuana

While pushing his favourite drug...



The old lush.

And as for Wente, all I can say is she should really go easy on the Chardonnay.

I think it's starting to cloud her already dubious judgement eh?

Today she thinks she's Marie Antoinette.

Tomorrow she'll think she's Joan of Arc.

And Harper is Jesus...



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17 comments:

bcwaterboy said...

It is so far beyond comprehension that this foul government and its apologists cannot see the economic boom of legalizing marijuana, Heck in BC the tourism industry around it's use is already huge, imagine tours on par with the wine industry, it would be far surpassed, but these idiots would prefer to keep it illegal. Nice to see a national party leader finally take a stance, now we await to see it followed through, As for Wente, isn't she up for retirement soon?

thwap said...

Gawd, she's an idiot. I wish that she was irrelevant. I wish she didn't have a national newspaper column.

She's stupid. She's ill-informed. She's a liar and a plagiarist.

Obviously she's going to be wrong about this issue as she is wrong about every other issue.

Who gives a fuck what her and her stupid friends think or do? It boggles the mind; her idiotic narcissism.

Anonymous said...

The united states will never legalize pot at the federal level. There are too many "legislators" making tons of money off the phoney "war on drugs" to ever allow that to happen, not to mention the arms manufacturers who sell to both sides. The new god of the western world is profit and woe be unto anyone who stands in the way of that mighty god! Especially in 'murka. Amen.

lagatta à montréal said...

I think Harper is too much of a control freak to be a real beery guy; he isn't Rob Ford. He is just using beer as a "Joe Six-Pack" prop.

Wente doesn't need Chardonnay, glue or anything else to be vapid and silly.

I don't consume much marijuana anymore either (I don't smoke anything and haven't seen many hasch butter cookies hereabouts lately) but it is silly not to legalize it, which would also piss off the US, always a positive point.

Anonymous said...

I think Maggie should drop some window pane. I think that's the only substance which could clear her vision. And it might also have the added benefit of curing her of the plagiarism.

Edstock said...

Maggie, you ignorant trollop — pot has been Washington State's biggest cash crop for decades.

Anonymous said...

My curiosity about the topic was peaked by the title of the article but after reading it I see it is simply more personal bashing and is totally without facts or stats. to support its "argument". Vive Canada Libre.

Simon said...

hi bcwaterboy...yes it is nice to see a party leader take a stance, especially when so many Canadians are ahead of them on this issue. I can't believe that Wente doesn't realize how big the marijuana industry is, or how she shrugged off the effect it could have on keeping kids out of jail, or saddling them with a criminal record that could ruin their future prospects. And yes, Wente and all the others do seem so desperately tired, so mousy, and so boring. Retirement to a life of croquet and Chardonnay can't come soon enough...

Simon said...

hi thwap...I promised myself I would not react to another Wente column, but after reading that fatuous opening paragraph I just couldn't restrain myself. ;)
And the column itself was bizarre. It was if she set out to sneer at Justin Trudeau, but then forgot what she was planning to say. So in the end all she could come up with was that new ideas are dangerous. I think she should recycle herself as a restaurant critic. That way she could afford to eat at the most expensive places, and make snarky remarks about them all. I might enjoy that...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...you may be right. The U.S. has always used the Great War on Drugs for political purposes, and to give police an excuse to keep blacks and other poor people in check. And it is a mega industry and a big branch of the military industrial complex. However, times do change. We now have a combination of young people and old people who have used drugs like marijuana, so along with the states who have legalized weed, I believe there is still some hope for change even in Amerika...

Simon said...

hi lagatta...that may be so, I don't doubt he uses his beery photo-ops to cultivate the creepy notion that he is just an ordinary Joe. However, when you make a collage of those photo-ops, and superimpose the caption: Hey Kids !!! Say NO to DRUGS !!! it does make him look like a hypocrite.
As for Wente, that opening paragraph marked the moment I believe when she became a parody of herself. It was simply priceless. I toyed with the idea of portraying her as a booze hound, staggering down the street reading her latest column to anyone who was interested, and selling Globe subscriptions off the back of a pickup truck, but the reality was bad enough. ;)
As for moi, I can't afford a regular marijuana habit, but it's the only drug I consume, and from what I see all the time it's far superior to alcohol. It makes people peaceful, funny, and playful, instead of loud, aggressive and violent. And the only thing I fear about legalizing weed is that we would end up with a government monopoly that produced such a shitty strain we'd all die of boredom... :)


Simon said...

hi anonymous...It's funny you mention that. Because I had her column analyzed by scientists at a cutting edge facility, and their conclusion was that it could only have been produced under the influence of kava kava root. Which I think explains EVERYTHING... ;)

Simon said...

hi Edstock...yes I found her comments about the size of the marijuana industry totally bizarre. And since Canadians consume large quantities of marijuana, and most of it is now homegrown, it's obviously a big industry here as well. But as I said above, with an opening paragraph like that one, reason never had a chance...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...I hope you are talking about Wente's article and not my post. Because I did try to counter her fatuous scribblings with some contrary facts, while restraining my natural desire to simply call her an idiot.
I think she set out to slap down Justin Trudeau for daring to come up with a new idea, but after venturing into a forest of tangled logic, suddenly realized she didn't know where she was, and she didn't know what she was saying. I'd normally ignore such nonsense, but if we are going to have a Great Marijuana Debate, we need facts not shallow opinions...

e.a.f. said...

thwap, maggie windy, is already irrelevant and has been for some time. She just hasn't noticed. She may have a newspaper column, but who exactly is reading it?

e.a.f. said...

The U.S.A. isn't going to legalize pot because the two houses will not agree on much in this life time. Then there is the small matter of private prison corporations. They certainly don't want pot even decriminalized. They'd loose money. Canada has to go its own way and do what is best for its citizens. Legalizing pot is a much better idea. Back in the 60s and 70s I saw people I know go to jail while they were still kids for posessing pot. Their lives were ruined and so were their parents. Lets not go down that road ever again.

Once it is legalized, simply let farmers grow the stuff. Sell it to stores, much like booze and the government can tax it. Works for me. Wine tours and pot farm tours, sounds like a winner to me.

Right now with the gang wars over turf for drug dealing, its costing us too many lives and too much money. If pot is legalized, it takes away at least one of organized crimes profit making enterprises. In B.C. its most likely the largest cash crop in the province. I'd rather have pot farms than oil/tar pipelines.

Anonymous said...

I need a martini and a chardonnay (not necessarily in that order) before I can plow through the ridiculous crap she writes.