Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jul 2013
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Neil Godbout
Page: 6
Cited: http://sensiblebc.ca/

UP IN SMOKE

Decriminalizing marijuana is the equivalent of opening the barn door
wider after the horses all ran away to let out the last horse that
decided to stay behind.

As anyone in law enforcement will admit when they're out of uniform,
the Canadian public made its decision about marijuana use decades ago
and the law hasn't caught up yet. Many adults simply ignore the law
and indulge in a puff or two at their personal discretion. More
importantly, these adults and even the ones who don't smoke up from
time to time don't see this activity as breaking the law.

When a law has become that irrelevant to the lives of most of the
adult population and when it's disregarded with open disdain, it's
time to revisit the law.

Residents will have 90 days to support or ignore an Elections B.C.
petition starting on Sept. 9 that, if it gets signatures from 10 per
cent of the registered voters in each electoral district, would ask
the provincial government to consider passing the Sensible Policing
Act. The suggested law would instruct police forces to stop enforcing
the current laws regarding the simple possession of pot and to make
the rules the same as for alcohol - it can't be consumed while
driving, being stoned behind the wheel could cost you your licence,
and it can't be used by minors or sold to them.

If the petition passes the 10 per cent threshold, the provincial
government would also be asked for the federal marijuana law to be
repealed or for B.C. to get an exemption, which would then allow the
province to tax and regulate its sale, just like it currently does for
booze and regular smokes.

If the petition fails, however, it won't be because people don't want
pot decriminalized, it will be because most people already think the
law is ludicrous and ignore it. In other words, what's the point of
decriminalizing behaviour that the majority of Canadian adults already
find acceptable?

This also makes the findings of a new study linking pot use to
increased cancer rates interesting but somewhat irrelevant. The study
by Dr. Russ Callaghan and two Swedish researchers only looked at heavy
marijuana use in adolescence and young adult males and how frequently
cancer manifested itself over 40 years. Callaghan is the first to
admit that tobacco and alcohol demonstrably cause much greater
physical harm. Furthermore, it would be difficult if not impossible to
find a test population that only smoked pot and didn't also use some
or a lot of tobacco and alcohol in the past or at present. Some of the
variables could be factored into the results but they could be
significant enough to skew the results.

Every Canadian adult knows that smoking and even being around tobacco
smoke is hazardous to health and costs the economy billions in lost
productivity and all taxpayers through healthcare spending. Alcohol
consumption is more socially acceptable than smoking now but alcohol
also comes with health ramifications, particularly from heavy use over
an extended period of time, as well as the obvious risk drunk drivers
pose to public safety.

Despite billions of reasons per year to outlaw smoking and alcohol
use, the government does not because it would lose a major source of
tax revenue and nobody would follow the law anyway.

Canadian adults have already worked through this logic but the federal
and provincial government still have not. At least decriminalization
of marijuana possession and use would allow more direct government
control over its sale and consumption, not to mention the tax income.
The current system simply makes lawbreakers out of a significant
portion of the adult population and gives organized crime most of the
business proceeds.

The horses are out of the barn and they're not going back in but maybe
they can still be found in the field and saddled up.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt