Pubdate: Tue, 20 Nov 2012
Source: Alberni Valley Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Alberni Valley Times
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouverisland/albernivalleytimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4043
Author: Les Leyne

WASHINGTON VOTE BOOSTS CHANGE IN PROVINCE

Liberal MLA Doug Horne will be in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, today
representing B.C. at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference.
It's a regular meeting of western provinces and states where officials
talk about common concerns.

Marijuana is not on the agenda, Horne said, and he has no plans to
bring it up.

But you can bet some hallway chatter will be about the ground breaking
Washington state initiative vote last week that effectively legalizes
the recreational use of up to one ounce of pot by adults.

It's the biggest new cross-border issue since the end of Prohibition.
It tells you something about how far ahead voters are of their
governments that it's not on the PNWER agenda.

The impact from the decision is already being felt. State prosecutors
this week started dismissing simple-possession charges, even before
that aspect of the initiative takes legal effect on Dec. 9.

Barring a challenge from the U.S. government, the full effect will
take hold a year from now, when Washington state is required to have a
commercial marijuana distribution system up and running, complete with
a taxation system.

B.C. pot advocate Dana Larsen said that's the date to watch for the
birth of a brand-new industry in Washington - marijuana tourism.

There's not much advantage now to travelling south to smoke pot. It's
still illegal to consume publicly there. And although simple
possession charges are up in B.C., it's blamed on police using that as
a fallback charge to roust people suspected of other offences.

As far as recreational users who abide by most other laws are
concerned, there isn't a big enough enforcement difference now to
drive B.C. pot smokers across the border.

Larsen said that will change a year from now, when B.C. visitors can
experience the novelty of walking into a government-regulated store to
legally buy a small amount of pot.

In the meantime, Larsen - who ran unsuccessfully for the B.C. NDP
leadership in 2011 - is trying to emulate the Washington organizers of
the initiative drive.

He filed an initiative petition with Elections B.C. and got it
certified in September. Larsen said an earlier one was ruled invalid,
but the "Sensible Policing Act" has been validated for a petition
drive starting next week.

But Larsen filed it just to get the approval. Now he is going to
withdraw it while he spends the next year building a network of
volunteer canvassers. He plans to resubmit the identical bill next
summer and start canvassing in September 2013.

The draft bill is an end-run around the fact that federal law dictates
pot policy. It would amend the provincial Police Act to stipulate that
police resources will no longer be used to enforce the law against
simple possession and use of pot by adults.

Under the proposed law, if police resources were used on pot
possession, they would have to report the circumstances to the
Minister of Justice, who would be required to make the report public.

The bill would also require B.C. to demand that the federal government
repeal the pot prohibition, or give B.C. an exemption, "such that B.C.
is able to tax and regulate cannabis similar to the regulation of
alcohol and tobacco."

It also requires a commission to devise a legal, regulated model for
production and use of pot by adults.

The Washington process required 240,000 signatures on the petition to
put the idea to an initiative vote. Advocates collected more than
350,000 names and a random-sample audit confirmed 278,000 were
properly signed.

B.C. requires signatures from 10 per cent of the registered voters in
all 85 ridings, which amounts to about 320,000. The successful
petition in 2010 to repeal the HST easily surpassed that, with 560,000
names.

Meanwhile, a separate campaign run by Stop the Violence B.C. is
continuing.

That group has won endorsements from former politicians, police
officers and academics. The next round of validation is expected to
come from B.C. business leaders. The group is also keen to make
marijuana legalization an issue in two different arenas - the next
provincial election and the federal Liberal leadership race.

Larsen's petition and Stop the Violence B.C.'s push are pursuing the
same goal through different means. But the Washington initiative is a
huge boost for both.
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MAP posted-by: Matt