Pubdate: Thu, 25 Oct 2012
Source: Pique Newsmagazine (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Pique Publishing Inc.
Contact:  http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2356
Author: G. D. Maxwell

HIGH TIME IT WAS LEGALIZED

I don't know what they've been smoking in Victoria... but I wish
they'd roll some more and pass it around a bit more freely.

Our very own outgoing MLA, Joan McIntyre, has, belatedly, come out in
favour of legalizing British Columbia's unofficial herb, marijuana.

Tempting as it may be to make a joke about deathbed conversions, I'll
gladly take any support this common sense movement can garner. Funny
though, why is it that when Joan was actively holding office her lips
were sealed and the only thing she was inhaling was the stale air of
Liberal doublespeak?

Joan says she's felt this way for a long time and was moved to speak
out after former Solicitor General, Kash Heed, joined forces with Stop
the Violence BC to urge legalization last week. Unfortunately, she
wasn't as moved, or perhaps suffered short-term memory loss, when
Gregor Robertson, Mike Harcourt, Ujjal Dosanjh and Geoff Plant urged
the government to legalize pot about a year ago. At that time, Cristy
Clark, Premier - insert quacking sound of lame duck here - of B.C.
shrugged her shoulders, put on her best Sgt. Schultz face and said it
was a federal issue, nothing to see here, folks. At that opportunity,
Joan said, " ."

Whatever, I don't expect my sitting politicians to have the stones to
take Quixotic positions, regardless of how persuasively correct they
may be.

Which was why I was pleasantly surprised when the Union of British
Columbia Municipalities passed their resolution earlier this fall
urging the decriminalization and regulation of marijuana. Admittedly,
the UBCM is the most junior of the three levels of government and
their resolutions are often - okay, always - ignored by senior levels,
their resolution nonetheless represents a watershed moment in the
decades long fight to bring some intelligence to the war on drugs.

And in case you've been sleeping for the past few decades, let me
bring you up to speed on that skirmish. Drugs won.

Short and to the point, the UBCM resolution acknowledges the obvious,
that pot prohibition is a "failed policy which has cost millions
(should read hundreds of millions and probably billions) of dollars in
police, court, jail and social costs." It goes on to say
decriminalization and regulation would provide tax dollars. I think
that's the carrot part.

It then says UBCM should call on the appropriate government to
decriminalize pot and research the regulation and taxation thereof.

Okay, you lost me there.

While I might long for an ideal world, one where some amount of common
sense occasionally won out, one where tough decisions were not swayed
by antiquated, moralistic arguments, where fact-based models carried
the day, where self-interest was relegated to the common good, I
grudgingly understand the need to compromise.

But really, folks, the appropriate government? At the moment, that
would be the Harper government, since, arguably, the criminal
regulation of pot is a federal matter. The chances this Conservative
government, the one bent on fighting imaginary crime, building more
prisons, bringing in tougher sentences on lifestyle choices, ignoring
and muzzling their own scientists, protecting religious zealots and
labelling environmentalists terrorists would ever consider softening
their lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach to potheads is far
less likely than Earth being overrun by aliens.

Hey, wait just a minute. A takeover by malevolent aliens may be the
best explanation of the Harper government.

The other part of the UBCM resolution that leaves me cold is the
recommendation to decriminalize marijuana. Decriminalizing means
making it less criminal. It usually means allowing people to skate
when they're caught with small amounts of pot. Frankly, that's not
good enough. Decriminalization is just prohibition-lite. It doesn't
address how those people possessing small amounts have come by them,
how whatever they're going to regulate and tax has been produced, and
how, socially, we might deal with the few negative side effects of a
toked-out populace.

The only solution to prohibition is legalization.

Alcohol is legal. Tobacco is legal. Prescription drugs are legal. Each
and every one of those substances does more harm and costs the economy
more than pot does or ever will if it's legal.

Legalizing pot is the only way we ever have a hope of dealing with it
in a rational manner. The current legal grey zone of "medicinal"
marijuana is, pardon the pun, a smokescreen. And not a very successful
one at that. Supply doesn't meet demand. Quality is often sub par to
the bodacious bud sold on the street. And jumping through the
medical-legal hoops to prove you need pot as medicine is a farce and
charade.

Make it legal. Let the best farmers - many of whom live among us -
grow it, the best processors roll it for those too lazy to roll their
own, let Mr. Christie make it into cookies, Sara Lee make it into
brownies, 7-Eleven sell it over the counter to anyone old enough to
buy a Kokanee, and tax the bejesus out of it.

Underwrite actual, scientific studies to determine the blood-THC level
that constitutes too stoned to get behind the wheel of a car. If we
can do it for alcohol, we can certainly do it for pot.

What's the upside of legalization?

As the UBCM noted, the "marijuana industry" is currently operated by
criminal gangs. Now, obviously not all pot production is under control
of the gangs. But enough is to make a difference. Most B.C. Bud is
apparently exported to the U.S. The gangs trade what should rightfully
be ours for guns and cocaine, the latter of which should also be legal
but that's a different column and a harder fight.

Prohibition enriches both organized and disorganized crime.
Prohibition costs billions in wasted police efforts. Like all
lucrative graft and corruption, it also infiltrates police departments
and turns good cops bad. It clogs courts with needless cases while
real crime benefits from the delays and congestion. It ruins lives by
needlessly branding people criminals because they'd rather relax with
a puff than with a drink. It brings the law and law enforcement into
disrepute.

With the increased tax revenue and the decreased costs of policing,
court costs and jail costs, the economic benefit of ending prohibition
would be massive. Hell, even the Fraser Institute recognizes the
economic benefits of ending pot prohibition.

The best hope of actually seeing this happen in our lifetime may get
underway next year when Sensible B.C. launches an effort to get a
provincewide initiative vote in 2014 to reform marijuana laws called
the Sensible Policing Act.

It would see possession decriminalized for adults and require the
province to formally call on the federal government to allow B.C. to
begin legally taxing and regulating cannabis much like alcohol and
tobacco.

In the meantime....
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt