Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2009
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 The Georgia Straight
Contact:  http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Marc Emery
Note: Marc Emery is the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party.

B.C. LIBERALS, NDP CAN'T STOP GANG VIOLENCE WITH PROHIBITION

The B.C. Marijuana Party was formed in 2001 because the B.C. NDP and
B.C. Liberals both were enforcing the prohibition of marijuana and
other substances with increased gusto. In 2001, both the Ujjal Dosanjh
NDP government and Gordon Campbell's Liberals wanted more police on
the streets, longer sentences, more convictions, more raids, more
"Grow Buster" teams, more anti-gang integrated units.

How did that work for British Columbia? What any scientist of
prohibition would have predicted. The more marijuana growers and drug
dealers the government and their police put in jail, the more the
violence in the street increases as young people and others fight over
the vacuum created by the arrest of the dealer, producer, or consumer
of illegal substances.

Today, in 2009, we have dozens of crime gangs, crime gang violence,
and murders like never before (since alcohol prohibition, anyway). The
gangs run all the jails, and every young person sent to jail for any
crime is pressured and given incentives in jail to join a gang. More
gang members come out of jail than go in. Jails are the number-one
recruiting centre for gangs; in fact, the Red Scorpions gang was
formed in jails of the Lower Mainland.

To maintain a prisoner in a Canadian federal prison costs the Canadian
taxpayer $75,000 a year. It cost tens of thousands to convict him. Yet
it does nothing to prevent the crimes from continuing. If prohibition
did not exist, drugs and marijuana would have no particular value
above their cost of production. There would be no money in it. Young
men are attracted to gangs and drug dealing precisely because there is
a huge amount of money in it. A young man can be assured of flashy
clothes, a great car with lavish rims, drugs, women, and ready cash
once he adopts the gangster life. So can we change human nature that
seeks material things or can we change the law so we no longer
manufacture crime?

Since 2001, over a thousand more police have been hired in the Lower
Mainland, but gang crime still carries on unabated. Marijuana and
drugs are still dealt with in the black market, the taxpayer has spent
billions on incarceration, police are everywhere in Vancouver but
cannot prevent the crimes, and the B.C. NDP and B.C. Liberals are
helpless in dealing with the gangs. Mike Farnworth of the NDP has
explicitly called for longer sentences, more police, more jails, and
more enforcement of the drug laws-but those are precisely the reasons
we are in a greater problem than ever before.

The more the drug laws are enforced, the more gang violence there is.
The more young people sent to jail, the more gangs recruit more
members and introduce them to violence, and then their membership in
the gang continues when they are on the outside. The more we enforce
the drug laws, the higher the price of drugs remain, and so invariably
that is the leading recruitment incentive to join a gang. The more we
enforce the drug laws, the more police budgets explode and take up
more of the public's treasury. The more we enforce the drug laws, the
more police corruption there is. The more we enforce the drug war, the
more we see an end to our civil rights and constitutional law. We get
asset forfeiture of homes of pot growers, "safety" inspection teams
snooping in every home based on electrical use, cops stopping any
young person with a nice car or coloured skin.

In fact, enforcing the drug war brings us the worst of all
worlds.

After running 79 candidates in 2001, and 45 candidates in 2005, the
B.C. Marijuana Party is endorsing B.C.'s third party, the B.C. Green
party, for this election. I have met B.C. Green party leader Jane
Sterk and she is a wise and compassionate advocate for the party's
principles, calling for social justice, nonviolence, diversity and
sustainability. On page 39 of the Green Book, the B.C. Green party
platform, is a policy calling for the repeal of marijuana prohibition
and regulating substance use. The B.C. Greens don't just make it a
policy, they actually advocate it and mean it. It has been a
centerpiece of their election campaign currently underway. They have
appointed my wife, Vancouver-Fraserview Green candidate Jodie Emery,
the policing and prohibition critic of the party. Sterk is comfortable
explaining the policy of repealing prohibition to the people of
British Columbia, because it is a rational and fact-based policy and
will actually resolve the problem of gang violence.

For this reason, as president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, I am
extremely delighted and excited to declare that all of our support is
behind seeing B.C. Green party leader Jane Sterk elected, and to call
on all supporters of the BCMP in elections past to vote, volunteer,
and donate to the B.C. Greens in the May 12 election.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake