The Town of Olds has agreed to move forward to collect research to see if the municipality should consider a way to control, monitor or even prohibit businesses that sell merchandise related to the drug culture.
It is an initiative prompted by a letter received from the City of St. Albert, and it is one that is best put on the back burner, and even abandoned altogether.
If this is pursued with the vigour already shown by St. Albert the town then risks being swallowed up in long-term litigation with little or no chance for the town to win.
Moreover, if Olds council should accept any suggestion to ride on a high moral horse and create a bylaw that unfairly targets a group based on suspicion and hysteria it further risks getting caught in its own quagmire of intolerance not witnessed since the immediate days and weeks following 9/11.
Locally, the issue centres on the operations of Chad's Smokeshop 420, a company that has been the subject of a past criminal investigation. Earlier this year police raids in both Olds and Sylvan Lake resulted in criminal charges and the revoking of the business licence in the resort town.
That and plenty of suspicion was enough for St. Albert to proceed with a bizarre and hysterical provincewide call for input into its current process of finding a means to control or prohibit businesses that sell products that are “related” to the drug culture. Related is a key word of interest here because it has never been proven in any court of law that the businesses as a group had or are “directly” tied to the drug culture, which of course is grounds for full police investigation and prosecutorial action. We must remember that “related” just doesn't cut it in any court of law. It is asking reasonable minds to leap over the notion of “proof”, or at the very least evidence of wrongdoing that a properly instructed jury or court of law could weigh.
“Without businesses like this, I'm sure drug use wouldn't be as high,” said St. Albert councillor Cam MacKay.
That statement is of course purely subjective and without any foundation of fact. It is just another example of what happens when hysteria is used to galvanize public approval for action without any due consideration to the law as we understand it, as well as what is just and fair under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Thankfully, we do know that guilt by association is a Charter violation.
So far the only statements from St. Albert that have had a modicum of reason are coming from the police. They have said publicly that while they do not approve of the merchandise being used for illegal purposes they also serve to have legal functions as well. If we challenge the suspected illegalities of these businesses are we not automatically trampling on the legalities?
What everyone is talking about here is bongs and pipes, which once again are “related” to the drug culture. But if we want to go further it is a well-known fact that soda pop cans are used legally by citizens as well, and illegally when marijuana users often manipulate them to consume drugs in smoke form. Should we then begin considering a way to control or prohibit pop cans?
I am not for a second supporting any notion that those who are caught committing an illegal activity with merchandise sold at Chad's Smokeshop 420 or their competitors should not face the full weight of the law. On the contrary, I believe police should move on anyone or any business quickly and decisively if any illegal act is provable. I just don't believe that any law or program should be made in this country or in this municipality that specifically targets one group, especially when there is only a suspicion and tars them with guilt by association.
Olds council has a chance at this point to go a different road, one that turns away from unreasonable suspicion and moves towards greater respect for justice and fairness.
