TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF CRIMINALIZATION ABOUT TO BE REVERSED, YET AGAIN?

Let's see now: Decriminalizing homosexuality, marijuana use, topless women, and now maybe drug and opiate users. What the heck is next? Hmm maybe we've got to enact some more stupid laws before we can decriminalize more behaviour. Got it, let's criminalize farting in public. Geez even making a joke about it could backfire with the braintrusts (politicians) we have in charge. Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following story titled "Jailing addicts fixes nothing Kitchener defence lawyers say". The arguments in favour of decriminalizing drug users have been around for a very long time. The same goes for those other formerly illegal acts. Are we seeing some sort of Wallmart "rollback" going on in Canada?

I always like to ask myself: "What is the impetus behind this action?" "Who benefits?" Perhaps the hint is near the end of the article. "With Covid-19 creating a backlog in the court system, there is no better time to meaningfully address these changes." The backlog they are referring to is because our courts have been shut down for a while. Judges and lawyers certainly don't want to get infected by any of the "riff raff" that the system depends on to pay the bills. Bills like cars, boats, cottages, and university educations for their children. Let's be honest here. Marijuana useage paid for the lifestyle of many in the legal system. The "harder" drugs have done the same. But for the plethora of criminal charges with likely jail time to follow, how many lawyers would be forced to discount their hourly prices? Can you imagine judges not being paid so far in excess of a mere six figures per year, that they could no longer afford either annual or even twice a year trips either to Europe or to warmer climates each year? The judicial system would lose it's allure as a lovely place to soak up everlasting millions of taxpayers dollars with the vast bulk going to wages and salaries for the lucky participants.

The problem of course is that the system has been greedy. More adjournments, more delays, more court appearances, more time for lawyers to bill clients for more Motions, more police charges, more, more, more. The system was too successful in manufacturing their own very profitable business. Our courts have been clogged and plugged for so long that not even a heavy duty plumber could clean out the crap and unnecessary red tape in the system. So perhaps the easiest way to reduce the once again, very profitable, volume of work is to decriminalize certain behaviours that are not in the public's interest to be seen as requiring police and judicial system intervention. After all if the judicial system can't clean up the court and judicial mess that we've been in for decades (i.e. too expensive and too time consuming), then some enterprising politicians just might do it for them. Of course they should have done it a very long time ago.