Pubdate: Fri, 30 Mar 2012
Source: Alberni Valley Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Alberni Valley Times
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouverisland/albernivalleytimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4043
Author: Brett Bonderud
Referenced: Improving community health and safety in Canada through
evidence-based policies on illegal drugs: 
http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/501/455

CRIMINALIZING POT NOT WORKING: REPORT SAYS

Alberni Hemp Shop Owner Says Marijuana Is a Healthy Alternative to 
Drinking Alcohol and Smoking

Criminalizing marijuana use and other illicit drugs has not worked, 
and instead the product should be regulated and taxed, public health 
officials from across Canada says in a report published earlier this week.

Doctors from British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan 
paralleled the United States prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s to 
current drug policies in an article published in the journal of Open 
Medicine on Wednesday.

"Prohibition has proven remarkably resistant to law enforcement 
efforts, while unintended consequences have similarly emerged," the 
report said.

According to the report's findings, a recent World Health 
Organization study demonstrated that international rates of drug use 
were unrelated to how vigorously drug laws were enforced, concluding 
that "countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did 
not have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones."

According to a U.S. government study referenced in the journal 
article, the $1.4 billion advertising campaign in the U.S. had been 
ineffective at curtailing rates of drug use by youth and may actually 
have had the negative effect of inflating youths' perceptions 
regarding rates of drug use among their peers.

The report also stated "when the Office of the Auditor General of 
Canada last reviewed the country's drug strategy, in 2001, it 
estimated that of the $454 million spent annually on efforts to 
control illicit drugs, $426 million was devoted to law enforcement."

A police bust of an illegal grow op containing 100 marijuana plants 
translates on average into 100 hours spent by law enforcement, Port 
Alberni RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jen Allan said.

Three to four plants from that bust yield about a pound of marijuana. 
The street value is estimated at roughly $2,400, Allan said.

It is a product that could and should be taxed according to the report.

Frank Allen, owner of Port Alberni's West Coast Hemp Inc., said he 
was not adverse to a marijuana tax.

"Marijuana is a healthy alternative to alcohol and cigarettes and 
should be taxed if regulated," he said.

People come into his business to buy cannabis, but he sends them on their way.

"When they find out I don't sell it, I tell them to get a medical 
marijuana licence," he said.

There is no charge for a medical marijuana licence, marijuana 
activist Mik Mann said.

But governments not taxing the marijuana industry as a whole are 
"missing the boat" Mann said.

He said they should legalize and regulate the product.

"It is less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes," Allen said.

A recent Angus Reid poll estimated that 50% of Canadians already 
support legalization of cannabis.

Portugal decriminalized all drug use in 2001 and has seen no 
increases in drug-related harms, the report said. According to the 
report the country's decriminalization was followed by "reductions in 
problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice 
overcrowding," with rates of drug use remaining among the lowest in 
the European Union.

Something that does not surprise Mann.

"Legalize, regulate, educate and medicate," he said.

At press time Nanaimo-Alberni Conservative MP James Lunney was 
unavailable for comment.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom