Wasted: How a Nation Lost Millions in the Legalization of Cannabis

WASTED is an aptly titled non-fictional account of the legalization of cannabis in Canada. The first element of ’waste’ is the millions of tax dollars thrown away by incompetent government bureaucrats who failed to realize the economics of the legalization process. Each provincial jurisdiction is evaluated and the greed induced by anticipated tax wealth flowing towards the government private interests exposed. These officials had no concept of the realities of the cannabis industry they were intent on controlling, and it blew up in their face.

The second element of ’waste’ is the failure to grasp the opportunity to grow prosperity in the provinces and the country as a whole. This opportunity was completely missed by the bureaucrats in charge of the process of legalizing the cannabis market place.

The third element of ’waste’ is the damaging effect of criminalizing cannabis in the first place. Thousands of lives were negatively impacted by the prosecution of young people across this vast country for crimes relating to the recreational use of a plant that we now acknowledge is significantly less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

All the above errors are outlined in the history of the legalization that opens each chapter. It is written to provide a source of the press accounts and interviews with politicians that describe the historic discussions and public mumblings of the leaders of our country as they wrestled with the legalization of the sale of cannabis for recreational use. The second section of each chapter takes the reader through the economic lessons and laws of commercial behavior that govern any real economic activity. The lessons are presented in an academic style that can provide a basis for debate and illustration of how an economy functions and what ill conceived policies can do to a free market. Economic thinkers are quoted and principles of free markets are described with emphasis on those ’intrinsic’ laws of commercial behavior that can not be broken. Additionally there are examples and easy insights into why the legalization rollout failed on so many levels.

Finally, in what we hope will be a gentle chuckle we try to enlighten the reader with a ’grass roots’, ’tongue in cheek’ dialogue that brings the whole matter full circle to the common sense conclusion that says, if you want to make a mess ask the government to strike a committee.

Informative and historically significant with a bold position on the violation of economics throughout the process of legalization, this book can be a valuable resource for future researchers in political science, history and economic departments across Canada and the world as they review what happened here and how to do it better when it happens again somewhere else. Special interest groups also can use this book as a resource as they develop policy positions that will improve how the legalization of cannabis can finally move towards the potential that this bold government reversal offers.