Pubdate: Tue, 15 Mar 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

LET'S ADMIT IT: POT PROHIBITION'S FAILED

As Long As The Marijuana Industry Is Underground, Society Has No Way To 
Regulate It

More and more, Canada's pot prohibition is revealed as a public policy 
disaster and a law enforcement nightmare.

The latest report -- Marihuana Growing Operations in B.C. Revisited (the 
authors use the legal spelling for pot) -- reinforces the conclusions 
reached last year by Fraser Institute senior scholar Stephen Easton.

The economist from Simon Fraser University said pot production in B.C. and 
Canada is too pervasive to be controlled by the police and courts.

Easton said it was time to legalize it. This newest study underscores that 
change as necessary.

The damage caused by prohibition is growing and the pernicious black market 
it spawns is expanding, eroding confidence in police and respect for the 
courts.

Pot production in the last seven years has more than tripled -- from an 
estimated 19,727 kilograms in 1997 to 79,817 kilos in 2003.

I called Easton about the latest numbers.

He estimated that based on the new figures, wholesale marijuana was worth 
about $2.2 billion to the B.C. economy in 2003 -- $7.7 billion retail if 
consumers pay top retail price. That's larger than the province's 
legitimate agricultural sector.

Across the country, Easton thought the industry was worth $5.7 billion 
wholesale and $19.5 billion if high-end retail pricing is assumed.

That's about the size of the cattle industry ($5.2 billion) or B.C.'s pulp 
and paper sector ($5.6 billion).

Easton said because the price of pot has dropped, the value hasn't changed 
much since his study even though there are more grow-ops producing more 
product.

"It hasn't grown as much as you would have thought," he said. "But here's 
the kicker -- the police are clearly changing their behaviour in that they 
are not responding to as many calls as they did before.

"The police have obviously reached an accommodation in their own mind. They 
have said, 'Look we could spend all our time on this and we could give up 
the kidnapping beat and quit investigating break-and-enters, you know, we 
could give up a lot and still not get to the end of these.' So they have 
prioritized and in a way that is very unfair."

Last year, more than 25,000 growing operations came to police attention but 
they investigated fewer than 17,000 and only about half of those were 
prosecuted.

The law is being capriciously enforced -- more than half the growing 
operations police raided over the last seven years resulted in seizures but 
no charges. Police are charging people in fewer and fewer cases and seem to 
be more and more reluctant to act at all.

Prosecutors and the judiciary also look like they are throwing up their hands.

Easton agreed: "The courts have said: 'We don't care.' "

Large numbers of these cases were dealt with via stays of proceedings and 
conditional-sentence-or-probation plea bargains.

Nearly half ended in conditional sentences, up from the roughly one in 10 
who received such a penalty in 1997.

Only one in 10 of the 3,364 convicted in 2003 were imprisoned and on 
average they were jailed for less than five months. That's about half the 
ratio of those jailed in 1997.

"One can see how you could easily slouch into legalization," Easton said. 
"You just slump into it in some sense. And that may ultimately be the most 
graceful way it could happen."

Consider that half of those convicted in B.C. would have been jailed for 
five years or more under sentencing guidelines in Washington state. Fully 
77 per cent of those convicted would have served at least three months in 
prison in the U.S.

The study authors -- Darryl Plecas, Aili Malm and Bryan Kinney, of the 
University College of the Fraser Valley -- observe that maybe that's why 
Washington state has fewer grow-ops.

The law in B.C. is no longer a risk to growers, it is an operating cost. I 
believe it's time to admit prohibition is a failure.

Taxpayers must deal with the problems of the illicit pot industry but 
receive no benefit and, as long as it's underground, we have no ability to 
regulate it.

Decriminalization, which is Ottawa's strategy, is a half-way house that 
makes users feel more relaxed but does nothing to eliminate the black 
market and its attendant horrors.

Stiffer sentences and more jail time are not a realistic answer even though 
the justice and public safety ministers want them. There are far too many 
people involved.

In 2003, police investigated more than 15,000 individuals -- mainly men in 
their 30s. If we assume they got one in 10 grow-ops, a generous assumption 
given the information here, that means there are possibly 150,000 people 
growing across B.C.

And, as Easton emphasized -- with the kind of profit pot promises -- there 
is a lineup of people wanting to get into this game.

In the face of such an obvious failure, I think it's time to legalize marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Beth