Pubdate: Thu, 26 Dec 2013
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: James Keller
Page: A14

MEDIA, POLICE NOT TALKING STRAIGHT ON POT, SAYS B.C. RESEARCHER

VANCOUVER - In Canada, on the same 2012 day two U.S. states were
approving initiative to legalize marijuana, provisions of a new
federal law came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums
for drug-related crimes, including growing pot.

The contrast, says University of Victoria professor Susan Boyd, could
not have been greater.

"This new law and our revived war on drugs in Canada is so contrary to
what's going on around the world," says Boyd, who specializes in drug
law and drug policy. "It seemed like Canada was veering towards a very
punitive model while the rest of the world was taking a closer look at
mandatory minimums and abandoning them."

But the revisions to Canada's drug laws - contained in the Safe
Streets and Communities Act - did not happen in a vacuum, says Boyd.

Instead, Boyd argues in a forthcoming book that Canada's recent
toughon-crime approach to drugs is, in part, the product of decades of
skewed media coverage and police messaging that has routinely
exaggerated the dangers of the marijuana industry and its connection
to organized crime.

For the book, titled Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and 
Justice, Boyd examined 2,500 articles from four major daily newspapers 
in British Columbia from 1995 to 2009.

She found news coverage about cannabis enforcement in B.C. frequently
contained inaccurate information or exaggerated claims about the size
and scope of the underground marijuana industry, the sorts of people
associated with grow-ops, and the industry's connection to gangs.
Assertions by police - particularly the RCMP, which is responsible for
policing in much of B.C. - were left unchallenged, she says, and
politicians, in turn, relied on such misinformation to push for
stricter drug laws.

The news articles she examined repeatedly asserted marijuana grow-ops
are inextricably linked to gangs and other criminal organizations.
Police spokespeople were frequently quoted explaining that modern-day
grow-ops are not "mom and pop" operations.

Boyd says the federal government's own research does not support that
claim. She cited a Justice Department study that was completed in
2011, obtained by a reporter through an access to information request,
that examined a random sample of 500 marijuana grow operations. Of
those, just five per cent had apparent links to gangs or organized
crime.

"This study wasn't released by our federal government, and you could
see why," says Boyd. "It doesn't fit with their Safe Streets and
Communities Act, which frames marijuana grow-ops as always being
associated with organized crime and gangs. I would say it's probably
the reverse."
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