The libertarian coast

Yesterday’s win for the Canadian Liberals was a huge win for libertarian policies in North America:

One other industry may gain from the Liberal landslide. Canadian marijuana stocks including Canopy Growth Corp., Aphria Inc. and Mettrum Health Corp. may gain as Trudeau has said he will legalize and regulate marijuana, Dundee Capital Markets analyst Aaron Salz said in a Tuesday note to clients.

“Trudeau’s vow to legalize and regulate marijuana the ‘right way’ has set in motion the single most important catalyst for the marijuana space,” Salz said.

Next year California will probably vote to legalize pot, creating a drugtopia on the coast of North America from San Diego all the way up to the Alaska/Russian border. Pot will be legal in a vast area of 5 million square miles, encompassing 90 to 120 million people (depending on the votes in other states.) And don’t forget that Mexico moved in the direction of legalizing pot a few years ago, but was dissuaded by the Bush administration.

Polls show that 60% of young Republicans favor pot legalization, which makes the momentum seem unstoppable.

In another big win for libertarianism, California recently adopted a right-to-die law. The Canadian Supreme Court created a similar right in 2015. Once again, there is a distinct West Coast bias towards libertarian policies (Alaska is still debating the issue):

Voters in my own state (Massachusetts) narrowly rejected a right-to-die law due to an odd alliance of the supposedly liberal Boston Globe and the Catholic Church. It had been expected to pass easily until a campaign of misinformation and scare tactics was mounted at the last minute.

The Economist has a very good article on how the right-to-die movement is progressing in many countries.