Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2012
Source: Nelson Star (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/4kNvY8sy
Website: http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/nelsonstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4866
Author: Robin Cherbo
Note: Robin Cherbo is a Nelson city councillor who shares Wednesday 
this space with his colleagues around the table.

COUNCIL TAKES ON TOUGH ISSUES

Continuing into summer with our ongoing City workload, our council 
has dealt with a couple of controversial issues.

First we saw the tabling of a motion for the "adoption of a public 
health-based, regulatory approach to cannabis taxation and control" 
as proposed by the group, Stop the Violence BC. Then, council passed 
the motion to oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project 
and support the Kootenay to Kitimat Caravan.

The proposed legalization of cannabis to "stop the violence" involved 
in the drug trade appears on the surface to be a "motherhood apple 
pie solution," which at first seems to be a good idea. There is 
however a whole raft of problems involved with this proposal.

Would it stop the violence if people were allowed to grow cannabis 
for their own use? Probably not. From police information, only 
approximate 15 per cent of cannabis is used domestically. The vast 
major is used in the cross border drug trade, which involves million 
of dollars.

Also, there is the health concern of second hand smoke, where the 
majority of society does not want smoking of anything in public. In 
addition, along with the adverse public health effects, there is 
concern about the cost to the already overburden health care system. 
Then there is the matter of impaired driving which is an ongoing 
problem already with alcohol and street drug abuse.

While I support decriminalization of cannabis in principle, I look 
forward to the debate on this topic at the Union of BC Municipalities 
convention in late September.

The other issue involves the majority of council voting on behalf of 
the City of Nelson to oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline 
Project. While Nelson is a long ways from the project, the 
apprehension for the well being of the environment is a universal issue.

With two recent oil pipeline ruptures in Alberta, along with the 
Enbridge oil pipeline rupture in Michigan, the unease is real. From 
The Province newspaper: "The US National Transportation Safety Board 
issued a report Tuesday into a July 2010 spill that saw more than 
three million litres of crude oil spill into Michigan's Kalamazoo 
River and nearby wetlands. The board concluded Enbridge failed to fix 
a defect discovered five years earlier and then responded poorly when 
the spill occurred." Therefore it seems to be sensible and prudent to 
oppose this project if we wish to protect the environment in BC.

There are many questions about this whole project, such as why there 
is a plan to send crude "diluted bitumen" oil in a pipeline to the 
coast and increase oil tanker traffic when it could be, with new 
technologies, refined in Alberta and/or Saskatchewan providing 
hundreds of Canadian jobs.

We still need to refine oil for gasoline, unless more people start 
using synthetic oil in their vehicles, which is another viable 
solution. Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical 
compounds that are artificially made (synthesized). Synthetic 
lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum 
components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized 
from other raw materials.

So the continued reliability on crude oil is something that needs 
further study if we wish to have a cleaner planet never mind piping 
it across pristine wilderness to the coast of BC.

All municipal councils are sometimes criticized for getting involved 
in global issues. Nevertheless anything that affects our environment, 
along with health and safety, is a real concern for everyone no 
matter where they live.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom