Ottawa

Reefer badness

Perhaps it is time to have MPs pee into cups

If Justin Trudeau had had that puff in Halifax and been caught by a police officer in the act of puffing, he probably wouldn’t have been thrown in prison.

Police officers generally don’t charge people who are caught smoking a joint, said Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. Pierre Bourdages. “There’s very often cases where the officer would basically just destroy what was there. It would be an educational experience,” he said.

Meanwhile, in that same story, Thomas Mulcair says it would be a problem if any NDP MP is found to have smoked marijuana since being elected.

On that note, and in the interests of accountability, transparency and Open Government, I suggest that one of the committees room along Centre Block’s main hall—perhaps the Railway Room with the grand portrait of the Fathers of Confederation looming over the proceedings—be set aside in October for the procuring of urine samples from all 308 MPs. Each MP could stop by on his or her way to the Senate to hear the Throne Speech. MPs would also be made to disclose how many Snoop Dogg songs they have downloaded since being elected.

According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 survey of drug use, 9.1% of respondents admitted to “cannabis use” in the previous year. By that math, you could expect that in a room full of 308 people, somewhere between 27 and 28 have partaken. Indeed, in the interests of true representative democracy, shouldn’t we demand that there must be 27 or 28 MPs who have smoked marijuana in the past year?

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