Pubdate: Fri, 19 Oct 2007
Source: Republic, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Republic
Contact:  http://republic-news.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3518
Author: Kevin Potvin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

CHOOSE YOUR POISON

The Conservative's Promised Crackdown on Marijuana Could Unleash a 
Great Deal More Harm Than What It Intends to Address

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced last week his Conservative 
government will introduce legislation calling for mandatory, and much 
tougher, sentences for illicit drug producers and traffickers, and 
more resources for police to identify and close down marijuana farms.

It might be a good idea for one of his trusted BC MPs to sit down 
with him, behind closed doors of course, and explain to him the 
hazards of any truly effective anti-marijuana farming and consuming policies.

On the farming side, any policy that successfully reduces the 
production of marijuana to a significant degree will utterly crash 
the economy of most of the interior of British Columbia. Mining, 
fishing, forestry and food farming, the mainstays of the interior 
economy, home to two million, have all been in inexorable decline for 
decades. The only thing keeping most families afloat is production of 
marijuana or jobs in retail and other industries supported by the 
proceeds of sales of marijuana by the growers. The size of the 
industry has been widely estimated at around $7 billion per year. 
Employing standard spin-off multipliers, the marijuana farming 
industry is worth something like $56 billion to the British Columbia 
economy. Any policy that successfully put a dent in that industry 
would cause a widespread exodus out of the interior, a collapse of 
housing markets, and a train of economic refugees to the Lower Mainland.

So much for the supply side. The social ramifications of 
marijuana-free streets and parks in Vancouver, Victoria and other 
large urban areas are almost impossible to imagine. It is only 
widely-available marijuana among young men in particular that is to 
account for the relative peace and order we enjoy today.

Young people, and young men in particular, seem to have an innate 
human need to alter their minds, and they will do so with whatever 
substance is most easily available and most free of penalties. Take 
marijuana away from the cities and crack down on the harder drugs at 
the same time, and all that will be left will be alcohol. In terms of 
substances that cause the most harm directly and lead to the most 
social disorder and lawlessness, not to mention injuries and deaths, 
nothing comes close to alcohol in all its forms. Sexual assaults, 
rapes, beatings, fights, and serious car crashes are routinely 
alcohol-induced. If all marijuana ingestion was overnight switched to 
alcohol ingestion, these crimes and hazards would skyrocket.

So just as the one policy, if at all effective, crashes the economy 
in the interior and floods the big cities with busloads of newly 
dispossessed refugees, the other policy, if effective, turns the 
cities into alcohol-flooded arenas of violence and mayhem.

While the Conservatives may not be able to bring themselves to 
legalize or at least decriminalize marijuana, they should have a 
second look at maintaining the status quo and turning a blind eye to 
both production and consumption of the stuff. Just ask the police. 
Whom do they prefer dealing with? Young men high on pot rolling 
around in the park and banging drums, or young men drunk on rye 
rolling around in their cars and banging on each other? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake