Orr made the surprising statement in the Alberta legislature Wednesday as an argument against legalization of cannabis. Orr added that the “human, social cost of this is going to be astronomical,” but “nobody’s taken a moment to think about it.”
So he showed everyone how to think about it. First, Orr noted that the “direct historical connection” with the use of opium in “seventeenth century China,.” Opium, he noted, “was just a flower, and it was smoked, just like marijuana was smoked.”
Ok, here comes the import of Orr’s “historical parallels.” Opium use triggered wars and then led to “the Chinese Cultural Revolution under the communists.” That, he insists, is not a road he’s “really willing to go down”:
“Their whole society was so broken down and debilitated by it 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. The human tragedy of what’s going to happen with this has yet to be revealed. Yes, opium smoking like marijuana was a fashionable refined pastime especially among the young – but I’ll tell you something, it doesn’t lead to the good life. It’s an escape.”
