Pubdate: Fri, 17 Feb 2012
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2012 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Pete McMartin

THEY KNEW DRUG WAR WAS WRONG

VANCOUVER -- Oh, band of brothers! Four former B.C. attorneys general 
- -- Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant -- 
have platooned together to fight the war against the war on drugs.

They want to see the legalization and state control of marijuana.

They even released to the public a letter saying so, as if to stiffen 
their message with the starch of officialdom.

They then mailed that letter to B.C. Premier Christy Clark and NDP 
Opposition leader Adrian Dix with the expectation that a letter from 
four former AGs is not so easily tossed in the circular file, as 
yours or mine would be.

"As former B.C. Attorneys General," their letter began, "we are fully 
aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana 
industry many years ago. The case demonstrating the failure and harms 
of marijuana prohibition is airtight. The evidence? Massive profits 
for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal 
cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety, and significant -- 
and escalating -- costs to taxpayers."

Well, no kidding.

Yet the critical phrase in that passage is "many years ago." There is 
an admission that this wasn't a light that just recently went off in 
their heads.

It also means, I'd suggest, that if they weren't already "fully 
aware" of the problem while in office as the province's top cops, 
they were either (a) pitifully briefed, which is doubtful, or (b) 
profoundly thick, which none of them is.

This is a war that has encompassed all four of their terms. Who 
better to be fully aware of the utter futility of that war than an AG?

So where were their voices when the weight of their office might have 
had real, and changing, impact?

Let's look at the record.

In 2002, when Plant was AG, he stated flatly that the 
decriminalization of marijuana was not a provincial concern.

"This is a matter for the federal government. It is not a matter on 
which the government of British Columbia has a position and not a 
matter on which I have an opinion."

This is an impeccable legal position; it just isn't a brave or frank 
one. It observes the niceties of governance -- far be it from him to 
trespass on federal property. But it isn't leadership, it's deflection.

Plant softened that stance a couple of months later by saying that, 
while reiterating he still had no official stance on 
decriminalization, he questioned spending police resources going 
after petty possession when large grow-ops were funding organized crime.

This, I guess, was progress. At least he entertained enough private 
doubts to offer a public question. But as for the link between 
decriminalization and the effect it might have on the proliferation 
of large grow-ups and the violence and criminality they gave rise to, 
he did not say.

As for Bowbrick, a lawyer like Plant, he was AG for only a year, from 
2000-01. The Vancouver Sun's research staff could find no statement 
of his on decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. My 
apologies to him if we somehow missed it.

Dosanjh's record on the issue was, like Plant's, mixed.

He was AG from 1995-2000. During his term, he said he was not averse 
to having a debate on the issue. And in 1997, he was quoted in the 
Sun as saying: "If we reach a national consensus to exclude marijuana 
from tougher sentences, so be it. But if it's currently illegal and 
you have someone growing or smuggling large quantities, I, as 
attorney general, can't ignore that violation of the law."

And he wasn't about to have anything to do with changing the law. In 
this, Dosanjh parted ways with his federal NDP counterparts at the 
time, who were in favour of decriminalization (as is the provincial 
NDP now). In 1996, he was quoted as saying: "I don't believe one can 
conclude we ought to decriminalize marijuana. I don't think, as the 
attorney general, I can argue for the decriminalization of marijuana."

Once he went to Ottawa as an MP, however, he fell in line with the 
federal NDP policy with which he had previously disagreed. He voted 
in favour of a bill that would allow small amounts of marijuana to be 
grown for personal use -- which was, of course, defeated in the 
House. Welcome to opposition politics and oblivion.

Gabelmann was the first among the quartet to grapple with the issue. 
Responding to a report by B.C. chief coroner Vince Cain that 
concluded the war on drugs was an "expensive failure" -- a report 
commissioned by his department -- Gabelmann promised to raise the 
matter of decriminalization with his federal counterpart.

So there's that.

Which brings us to today and right back to where we started.

When asked about the AGs' letter, Clark fell back on the position 
that the issue was a federal one and that she would leave it up to 
the feds. The premier also refused to answer any questions about her 
own personal drug use, as if any admission somehow might hurt her. 
(It's my inclination to mistrust anyone who hasn't tried a drug of some sort.)

"People," Dosanjh told me Wednesday, "have the right to change their 
minds, don't they?"
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom