Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2012
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Canoe Inc
Contact:  http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Leo Knight

POT 'ALREADY TOLERATED' DESPITE POLITICAL TALK

So, the annual gabfest at the Union of BC Municipalities resolved to 
work for the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. Well, in 
the annals of historic futility, that motion may compete for top 
spot. Drug policy is federal jurisdiction and potholes and 
playgrounds are the purview of the elected officials and petty 
bureaucrats of the UBCM.

But the motion did get the talking heads going. On weekend talk 
radio, yet another lawyer and so-called 'expert,' trotted out the 
usual arguments to legalize marijuana starting with: It will deal a 
body blow to organized crime. A specious, but often-repeated argument.

First off, let me say I don't give a fig about marijuana, legalized 
or not. I have no skin in the game. But if the discussion is to be 
had, and it seems more and more that we must, can we at least stick 
to salient facts?

Organized crime, in all its guises, makes money off the marijuana 
trade. A lot of it. But so also do groups like the Hells Angels make 
money from hashish, cocaine, meth, ecstasy, steroids and even Viagra. 
And the mafia, in all its regional permutations, is squarely behind 
most of the heroin and cocaine sold in Canada and has been for 
decades. The bikers and good fellas also make money from pimping, 
people trafficking, extortion, gambling, loan-sharking, fraud and 
good old-fashioned stealing.

How exactly then is legalizing one illicit product going to do away 
with organized crime?

Here's another, if you and a pal spend Sunday afternoon on Kits Beach 
with a bottle of wine and police see you, you will lose your wine and 
get a ticket for public consumption of alcohol.

If the following Sunday you return with a few joints, spark up a 
fatty, and the police see you, they will likely as not ignore you. 
And if they engage, the worst that will happen is they seize the 
remainder of your pot. Marijuana is already tolerated for the most part.

Most people who use, begin smoking marijuana as a teenager. But, hang 
on, we as a society, don't allow teens to smoke cigarettes. Would the 
legalizers ban them from one smoke but not another? Of course not. 
So, about that black-market elimination then?

Legalizing - or its poor cousin, de-criminalizing - marijuana is not 
as cut and dried as many seem to think. Too many of the arguments for 
it go up in smoke.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom