Pubdate: Thu, 03 Oct 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Author: Mike Youds
Page: 3

PETITION DRIVE ON TRACK, ADVOCATE SAYS

Sensible B.C. Hopes to Force a Referendum on Marijuana Decriminalization

Sensible B.C. says it already has about a third of the names required 
to meet the local threshold in a province wide petition drive to 
force a referendum on marijuana decriminalization.

Carl Anderson, a longtime advocate of medical marijuana use who is 
organizing the drive in the two Kamloops constituencies, said on 
Wednesday that they have so far obtained about 3,000 signatures.

If the initiative fails, Anderson holds out hope for a charter 
challenge of new federal policy that takes growing medical pot out of 
the hands of users and hands it to the private sector.

The B.C. petition campaign was launched Sept. 9 and has until Dec. 9 
to obtain about 400,000 signatures province wide. They need to reach 
15 per cent of the voters in each of 85 ridings in order to meet the 
minimum requirement for the select standing committee on legislative 
initiatives to consider the petition.

The committee would take 90 days to decide whether to recommend draft 
legislation to achieve decriminalization or refer to the chief 
electoral officer for an initiative vote.

"We're doing really well," Anderson said. "I think we're on track to 
hit the goal."

Anderson admitted the campaign hasn't been easy to organize due to a 
lack of volunteers to staff petition booths. Booths have been set up 
at Desert Hemp Hut and the Kamloops Farmers Market downtown as well 
as at The Lemonade Stand on Tranquille Road.

Lois Patch, owner of the Hemp Hut, said people have been coming in 
constantly, wondering if they can add their names, but often there is 
no one on hand to sign them up.

"It's too bad, because it's kind of a good cause," Patch said. She 
thinks petitioners should be out in the street more.

"I think they need to move around a little more."

While he's optimistic about reaching the goal here, Anderson is less 
confident about other regions of the province.

"Either way, it's a worthwhile endeavour and I'm glad to do it," he 
said. "Even if it fails, we are changing people's minds. We're 
talking to a lot of people."

At the same time, he is braced for the consequences of new federal 
policy that took effect Tuesday.

Health Canada is phasing out an older system that mostly relied on 
small-scale, homegrown medical marijuana of varying quality.

In its place, large indoor marijuana farms certified by health 
inspectors will produce, package and distribute a range of 
standardized weed, all of it sold for whatever price the market will 
bear. RCMP will also conduct criminal checks on prospective 
operators. The first sales are expected in the next few weeks, 
delivered directly by secure courier.

A Health Canada official described the new regime as a "whole other 
ball game," but medical marijuana users are crying foul.

"We're all criminals," said Anderson, who has grown pot legally under 
licence for the past decade. "We're all going to jail."

He sees it as bullying, a handout to private enterprise, which has 
estimated the cost of its product to be $9 to $12 a gram. That's more 
than four times what it costs licensed users to produce, a price many 
users will be unable to pay since many are sick and rely on fixed incomes.

"I'm not stopping producing my own marijuana. I'm not going to be 
paying $12 a gram to some company; I don't have it," Anderson said.

A constitutional challenge launched by a Fraser Valley group - the 
Coalition Against Repeal - represents another possibility in his eyes.

"Unfortunately, to challenge the law in this country, you have to be 
arrested and charged," he said. "It will probably be me, too, because 
I'm not going to stop growing."

A legal challenge could take up to three years, but coalition 
organizer Jason Wilcox said the first objective is to obtain an 
injunction from the federal court that would buy time by restraining 
the government from rescinding the existing medical pot rules. 
They've so far raised $35,000 toward the $100,000 cost of the initial step.

"Basically, it's a quarter-million-dollar case to protect what we 
have a right to consume," said Wilcox, who is HIV-positive and has 
use pot medically for 20 years.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom