Pubdate: Thu, 11 Oct 2012
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Abbotsford News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/BkAJKrUD
Website: http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155

PONDERING POT PROBLEM

Marijuana is expensive.

Not only to those who indulge in the occasional, or regular, toke. But
also in law enforcement and social costs.

Growing, distributing and possessing pot are all illegal in Canada.
Much of the growing and distribution are controlled by organized
crime. Police, court and municipal authorities spend hundreds of
millions of dollars a year enforcing Canada's pot laws.

For the most part, it's a cat-and-mouse chase that just ends up moving
the problem around rather than eradicating it outright. Even a former
B.C. attorney general, Geoff Plant, says the prohibition of marijuana
has been a "disastrous failure of public policy."

Last month, the Union of B.C. Municipalities passed a resolution
calling for marijuana to be decriminalized. They'd rather the weed be
regulated and taxed, much like alcohol.

That's good news and bad news for the province's 585,000 regular pot
users. They'd no longer be considered criminals, but they'd pay the
price with taxes that have a way of always increasing.

But decriminalizing marijuana likely won't save enforcement costs.
That's because most of the money in marijuana made by the drug trade
comes from producing it for export. As long as pot is still illegal
the United States, there will be organized groups looking to cash in.
And there will still be pressure on authorities to shut those groups
down.

The drug trade and its accompanying violence won't go away with a
resolution or the stroke of a pen through existing
legislation.

- - Black Press
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MAP posted-by: Matt