Pubdate: Fri, 28 Sep 2012
Source: Peninsula News Review (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/x9fPSyOK
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1373

POT VOTE WILL OPEN DEBATE

Don't expect British Columbia or any other provincial jurisdiction in
Canada to legalize marijuana any time soon.

Despite a vote this week to decriminalize the personal use of pot (and
perhaps eventually its cultivation) by a majority of B.C.'s municipal
leaders at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention held in
Victoria, there's unlikely to be any movement on the matter by the
province or the federal government.

The vote is a largely symbolic gesture, with some municipal mayors and
councillors calling for pot to be legalized and regulated - much the
same as tobacco, gambling and alcohol, vices that society already
embraces (and taxes) to varying degrees.

Their resolution, which changes nothing right now - so don't all rush
out hoping to score an easy doob - sounds good on the surface. What
this will do is spark more debate, but there are plenty of other
arguments in the way against the legalization of marijuana. And
whether most people agree with legalization or not, it's going to take
a willing federal government to change Canada's laws. That's unlikely
under Stephen Harper's Conservatives and their embrace of the United
States' war on drugs.

Canadian police forces, too, are generally opposed, yet there are many
examples of personal amounts of pot not leading to arrests or charges,
simply because the courts won't hear the small-scale stuff.

Without getting into the myriad of arguments for or against the
decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, any change is going to
come down to political willpower.

And while some politicians' decision-making abilities make it seem
they're already on the wacky-tobaccy, party politics at this point
dictates that any move to change the nation's pot laws will go, well,
up in smoke.
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MAP posted-by: Matt