Article content continued

The only question is who.

Last week, the House of Commons health committee heard from witnesses on the marijuana bill, among them, police, who were extremely blunt in their assessment of the circumstances. “Canadian police services will not be equipped to provide officers with the training and resources necessary to enforce the new regime within the existing contemplated timeframe,” said a brief from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

At the heart of this is a fairly serious conundrum: If criminalizing pot use is wrong, then day by day it becomes less and less morally defensible to enforce those laws and use them to press Canadians through the legal system.

That means it makes wonderful ethical sense (not to mention political, as this isn’t a promise the Liberals want to fail on) to legalize marijuana with all haste. It just might not make practical sense, especially when it’s police who are worried.

“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” says Macbeth, a useful axiom, except that, in the case of pot, it won’t be done when it’s done. Legalization will be merely the beginning of whatever comes next, legally and socially.

Yes, the pot bill does legalize marijuana, but it also maintains a criminal regime. Strict rules are set on how much pot one can have on them (30 grams), how many plants can be grown in a home (four) and drug-impaired driving. Police are going to be responsible for dealing with this, and, if they’re not confident they can enforce it, that means there’s trouble ahead.