BC Govt Kills BC Bud With Civil Forfeiture Act – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

The BC government will soon use a tougher Civil Forfeiture Act to put a nail in the coffin of BC Bud’s cannabis farmers.

BC Bud is the slang term for thousands of underground cannabis growers, vendors, and other related cannabis service providers.

Before legalization, these people engaged in civil disobedience. If Canada was ever legalized, people believed the government would bring this community into the mainstream.

What else does legalization mean?

Well we found out. After the Trudeau government pledged to legalize it, BC Bud became “organized crime.” Even to the BC government.

Instead of taking over BC Bud’s economic output, the NDP-BC government has done everything it can to collectivize it into a corporate state model.

Why “illegal” BC Bud is justified

The cannabis ban is unfair. Point. Therefore, the cultivation, sale and transformation of cannabis flower into consumable products is a basic human right.

Many in BC Bud voted for the Liberal Party in 2015. Many expected Justin Trudeau to end the crony capitalism of Stephen Harper’s medicinal cannabis market.

They expected legalization.

What happened instead was corporatization. They needed deep pockets to be successful. Cannabis in Canada was about selling stocks, not weed. And now we are faced with the failure of this system.

Meanwhile, BC Bud was slowly (and reluctantly) given a path to legitimacy. It’s just a lot of money and paperwork brought to you by bureaucratic regulators.

The institution that enthusiastically threw you in a cage to grow a flower is the same contraption that tells you how to produce it.

Thanks to Justin Trudeau’s “public health and safety” approach to legalizing cannabis (which will no doubt be adopted by the British Columbia government), a vast sum of the BC Bud community remains excluded from the legal regime.

They either have to make unrealistic sacrifices for their current business model or raise additional capital to satisfy government bureaucrats’ demands.

(That last point, requiring a certain amount of capital to be considered legitimate, hurts many industries. It’s one of many ways Canada’s “officials” make the rich get richer at the expense of the middle class and poor .)

Instead of trying to work with BC Bud, the NDP BC government went looking for blood. First, by setting up the “Community Safety Unit” which has threatened and raided long-standing, respected pharmacies.

And now the BC government wants to kill BC Bud with Bill 21. The Civil Forfeiture Amendment Act of 2023.

BC government kills BC Bud with Civil Forfeiture Act

Civil forfeiture occurs when governments seize property and other assets from individuals suspected of having committed a crime. Its origins date back to the 1980s in the United States as an attempt to curb organized crime.

Of course, organized crime got its big breakthrough with the alcohol ban.

In the English common law system, to which the US and Canada belong, foreclosure has traditionally been a power vested in the criminal courts.

These courts require clear evidence – another example of how a decentralized network of courts and legal experts protects our rights.

Consider the reaction of lawmakers.

Because clever criminals can successfully disguise ownership of assets, governments have responded with civil confiscation. Namely, the initiation of civil proceedings against persons and organizations suspected of being involved in criminal activities.

That means allowing the government to seize property through civil courts instead of criminal courts. The civil forfeiture shifts the burden of proof from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to a “balance of probabilities”.

Instead of providing hard evidence, governments can seize assets on the basis of “reasonable suspicion”.

The use of civil courts in this matter is contrary to our common law traditions and our concept of liberty.

Suppose the British Columbia government charged you with buying a house or car with the proceeds you made from selling cannabis (ie selling cannabis without your proper government papers).

You do not prove your innocence in a criminal proceeding. You are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In civil forfeiture proceedings, the state requires you to show that you obtained the assets in question in a lawful and legitimate manner.

It turns the whole “innocent until proven guilty” concept on its head.

How BC will use the Civil Forfeiture Act to kill BC Bud

The BC government’s changes to the Civil Forfeiture Act will kill BC Bud.

The propaganda, which is expected to pass the third reading and receive royal assent, is about “making gang life unprofitable”.

With regard to cannabis, the changes include invoking civil forfeiture for possession of 20 or more cannabis plants.

(Technically five times the legal limit. So if you have a medicinal license for 20 plants, then if you produce 100 your assets will be sued in civil court).

As part of the Let’s Kill BC Bud By Civil Forfeiture plan is the creation of “Unresolved Asset Orders” or UWOs. UWOs streamline the process so the government can more effectively demand how you acquired your wealth if they suspect you of being part of the BC Bud market.

The government calls it a “powerful tool” to undermine money-laundering techniques like “hiding assets from family members.”

Bill 21 will also eliminate statutes of limitations, make it easier to target financed vehicles and access information from private entities like real estate agencies.

Of course, the BC government is cracking down on all organized crime, not just cannabis, which is a little late as anyone familiar with BC casinos knows.

But in case you think I’m exaggerating, here’s a direct quote from the BC Government’s media release:

The changes are based on recommendations from the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia, published in June 2022. Other changes include… targeting the illicit cannabis market.

What about First Nations?

British Columbia Secretary of Public Health and Safety Mike Farnworth debated with the opposition shadow minister at Provincial House. Farnworth said the new rules would not apply to First Nations land.

Of course, Farnworth is not to be trusted there, because he also said that about CSU raids. However, because First Nation lands are federally controlled, provincial civil forfeiture rules cannot apply.

However, if police suspect a First Nations community is illegally growing cannabis, they can isolate individuals on the reservation. Once a parishioner departs in a vehicle and crosses BC territory, police can arrest them under civil forfeitures laws.

First Nations cannabis cultivation was controversial in BC. A group of legitimate retailers are suing the provincial government over what they believe is a lack of enforcement.

On the other hand, First Nation groups say they have intrinsic rights to the land and its resources, including cannabis cultivation.

Many commend BC First Nations for keeping the spirit of BC Bud alive after eight years of systematic efforts by federal and provincial governments to eradicate the culture.

Why does the BC NDP hate BC Bud?

You’d think a left-wing party like the NDP would support a working-class and middle-class struggle against the corporatization of a natural herb.

But on the other hand, today’s NDP parties are nothing like they were then.

During the Great Depression, workers marched to Ottawa to protest. The RCMP stopped them in Regina. One cannot read Canada’s left working-class history without at least one entire chapter occupied by the On-to-Ottawa Trek.

But in 2022, when a similar fight broke out? When working truckers drove their trucks to Ottawa? The chairman of the federal party NDP called them racists and accused them of arson and violence.

Meanwhile, BC’s NDP government is stepping up civil forfeiture laws to kill BC Bud. They have also authorized their extrajudicial CSU to attack online cannabis dealers (those that government bureaucrats have not arbitrarily sanctioned).

Public health busybodies always say, “Today’s cannabis is nothing like your grandparents’.” Likewise, today’s NDP is not your grandparents’ NDP.

A proper left party would support BC Bud. Don’t group them with criminals.

A pro-working class NDP would have challenged Ottawa’s collectivization of BC Bud. They protested that Health Canada, of all people, regulated the cultivation of an agricultural herb.

The NDP-BC government should rescind these civil forfeiture amendments and champion BC Bud. Not because of British Columbia’s unique cannabis culture. And not because cannabis is good for the economy, the environment, or public health.

But because it’s the right thing to do. Cannabis belongs in a free and fair market. The only role governments have to play is to keep them out of the penal code.