Politician Believes Legal Weed Will Spur A Communist Revolution

Anti-weed red-baiting? Retro!

November 30, 2017

There really is nothing like a gray-haired legislator rambling on about 17th century China, opium and youth trends to make a hard-line case for banning cannabis. It takes you back to those early days of marijuana prohibition, when the hysteria, ignorance and fear-mongering were so new and exciting. And who knows, maybe Canadian MLA Ron Orr stepped through a way-back portal on his way to the Alberta legislature on Wednesday, where he delivered a jeremiad against the cannabis-induced collapse of all societal values. Yes, this politician believes legal weed will spur a communist revolution in Canada.

This Politician Believes Legal Weed Will Spur A Communist Revolution In Canada

Ron Orr is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Canada, representing the Lacombe-Panoka district in central Alberta. He’s a staunch conservative who’s taken a scatter-shot approach to speaking out against legal cannabis.

Canada’s legal weed law mandates that individual provinces set specific rules and regulations for the cannabis industry. Which is why having a politician who believes legal weed will spur a communist revolution is kind of a problem.

Before he played his trump card in the Alberta legislature, Orr had brought up more conventional concerns about legal weed.

He expressed concern about high driving. Specifically, how much it would cost to train officers to detect cannabis intoxication in drivers.

“It’s going to cost a lot to get officers trained,” Orr said.

Orr also raised the issue of taxation. He may believe legal weed will bring about war and the collapse of civilization. But he’s also against taxing it too high.

“If you want to keep it out of the black market, you’ve got to keep taxes down,” Orr added.

But on Wednesday, Orr revealed some more eccentric thoughts about legal cannabis in Canada.

Orr isn’t just an MLA. He’s also Alberta’s official culture and tourism critic under United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney.

So it was while speaking in both capacities that Orr laid out his case for why legal weed = communism.

Try to keep up.

Legal Weed = Chinese Communism?

Let’s try to understand the logic behind Ron Orr’s argument.

First, you have to notice the “direct historical connection” between Canada’s well-regulated, modern legal cannabis program and the opium trade of 17th century China.

Then, you have to realize that cannabis is a flower people smoke, and “opium was just a flower” smoked “just like marijuana.”

Next, you have to understand that weed has become a “fashionable, refined pastime among the young.” And according to Orr, opium smoking was similarly à la mode amongst the youths in pre-industrial China.

Finally, you have to reduce the complex and multi-valent causes of the centuries of war that set the stage for the Chinese Cultural Revolution to conflicts over the opium trade. And there you have it. Legal weed = Chinese communism.

And it’s a road Orr is “not really willing to go down.” He fears a modern Canada with legal weed will repeat the same course of history as the proletariat of China.

All in all, a fairly generous summary of the argument. Here it is in Orr’s own words, with all their mangled incongruity:

Their whole society was so broken down and debilitated by [opium] that it contributed to the Chinese Cultural Revolution under the communists, the execution of thousands of people, dealers were executed, fields were plowed under and planted with real food and I, for one, am not really willing to go down this road.

And why not toss a little anti-weed moralism on top?

“Let me tell you something, it doesn’t lead to the good life. It’s an escape.” Orr said. “The human tragedy of what’s going to happen with this has yet to be revealed.”