Pubdate: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2013 Postmedia Network Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.theprovince.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 POT-LAW ENFORCEMENT WASTE OF TIME, MONEY A Simon Fraser University study has confirmed what's fast becoming obvious to taxpayers across North America: The war on pot is a losing proposition. Or at least it's prohibitively expensive and ethically questionable. The study, by SFU criminology Prof. Neil Boyd, shows B.C. taxpayers shell out around $10.5 million a year for criminal convictions for simple pot possession - or a whopping $8,750 per conviction. Yes, despite claims that B.C. cops turn a blind eye to pot smoking, charges for marijuana possession have more than doubled in six years. That level of enforcement, in our view, is largely a waste of time and money, especially as it appears so inconsistent, spotty and just plain unfair. As reporter Gord McIntyre noted in Sunday's paper, charges for pot possession fell in the City of Vancouver to about 30 per 100,000 residents between 2005 and 2010. In just about everywhere else in the province, however, the rate of charges increased. In Nelson, for example, possession charges rose to 300 per 100,000 people ... and, in Tofino, to a mind-blowing 588. In addition to hefty justice-system costs, the mounting toll of criminal convictions exacts a heavy human toll - by imposing serious employment and travel restrictions on those whom most of us wouldn't normally consider criminals. Sensible B.C., which is campaigning for a referendum on pot decriminalization, wants marijuana to be treated like alcohol and tobacco under a Sensible Policing Act. We agree that this is a sensible proposition, especially given the recent passage of pot-decriminalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington state. A more modern Canadian marijuana law would mean less of a hassle for the occasional pot user and less of a burden for the average B.C. taxpayer. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom