Pubdate: Thu, 03 May 2012
Source: Mission City Record (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 The Mission City Record
Contact:  http://www.missioncityrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1305
Authors: Adrian MacNair and Jeff Nagel
Cited: Stop the Violence BC: http://stoptheviolencebc.org/

LICENSE LEGAL GROW OPS AS A BUSINESS: ADLEM

Eight B.C. mayors have joined a coordinated campaign to legalize, 
regulate and tax marijuana to combat gang violence and other 
drug-related crime, but Mission's top municipal politician disagrees 
with his colleagues.

Three of the mayors are from the Lower Mainland - Vancouver's Gregor 
Robertson, Burnaby's Derek Corrigan and North Vancouver City's 
Darrell Mussatto - while the other cities represented are Vernon, 
Armstrong, Enderby, Lake Country and the District of Metchosin.

"It is time to tax and strictly regulate marijuana under a public 
health framework," the mayors said in a letter distributed by the 
Stop The Violence BC campaign addressed to Premier Christy Clark, NDP 
leader Adrian Dix and BC Conservative leader John Cummins.

It notes pot is more readily available to youth than tobacco, while 
smoking rates have been cut through public health regulation, not prohibition.

"Regulating marijuana would allow the government to rationally 
address the health concerns of marijuana, raise government tax 
revenue and eliminate the huge profits from the marijuana industry 
that flow directly to organized crime."

But Mission Mayor Ted Adlem isn't buying that argument, saying 
Robertson and Corrigan are playing a political game, hoping that 
legalization will solve the crime problem.

"I understand there are a ton of people that use it but if you 
support legalization of marijuana based on the fact that you're 
trying to eliminate the crime involved, you're barking up the wrong 
tree," he said, adding that will only lead to arguments that every 
illicit drug should be legalized.

Adlem said the bigger problem in Mission is the large number of legal 
medical marijuana grow-ops operating without a business licence, 
calling the largely unregulated practice "a scary situation."

Adlem would like to see the grow-ops licensed as a business, pay 
taxes, and be subjected to the same two fire inspections each year as 
any other business.

The eight mayors expressed concern that their cities will face higher 
policing costs due to "inflexible" federal policies like mandatory 
minimum sentences for drug offences.

Several city councils have also passed supportive motions.

But Adlem said the balance of B.C. mayors evidently do not support 
legalization since only eight signatures appear on the letter.

The Stop the Violence BC coalition has previously released 
endorsements from various academic, legal, law enforcement and health 
experts. B.C.'s chief medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall was 
one of the latest to endorse a health-based approach to marijuana 
policy. In February, four former B.C. attorneys-general also backed 
pot legalization.

Premier Clark has deferred the issue of marijuana policy reform to 
the federal government.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom