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When the tone was mocking, you could at least hope the Tories were leaving enough wiggle room to eventually do the right thing (or at least decriminalize). The SCC ruling produced a much darker reaction, however.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was “outraged” at a ruling “which now means that we have again this message that normalizes a drug where there is no clear clinical evidence that it is quote-unquote a medicine” — never mind that it’s asinine to tell people already using medicinal pot that they must consume it in its most harmful form. Then came more aggressive anti-Trudeau attacks. In a statement, Ambrose claimed “this expansion of a pre-existing court-imposed program to now include cookies and candies makes marijuana more attractive and accessible to youth and reflects Justin Trudeau’s campaign to legalize and normalize marijuana.”

The Conservatives have no doubt noticed all those polls saying they’ve lost the support of all but their most ardent supporters, many of whom legitimately worry that REEFER MADNESS will overtake our elementary schools and playgrounds if the devil weed isn’t suppressed (better to have it safely in the hands of organized crime syndicates and street dealers, I guess).

It’s desperate and, in a lot of ways, the opposite of what you’d expect from supposed fiscal conservatives.

We may not all buy illegal marijuana, but we sure as hell pay for it. We pay police to police it, we pay prosecutors to prosecute those who produce and smoke it, we pay legislators to use it as a political tool, and we pay the $300,000-plus salaries of the Supreme Court justices who’ve been forced to bring some common sense to the discussion.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the government is reaping tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, most of which is earmarked for school construction and repairs. The state hasn’t, as of this writing, been consumed by chaos and hellfire.

Canadian politicians should stop wasting our time and money already. Just legalize the damn stuff and let’s move on.

James Gordon is a member of the Citizen’s editorial board.