Pubdate: Tue, 30 Dec 2014
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Page: B5
Copyright: 2014 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Sheryl Ubelacker

GOING TO POT

As Attitudes Mellow, Could Marijuana Legalization Be
Next?

TORONTO - Smoke it, toke it, vape it, eat it - marijuana, it seems, is
going mainstream.

Once widely reviled by society at large as the demon weed,
medical-grade cannabis is now available through federally licensed
growers with a doctor's prescription and even some highly respected
health organizations are calling for the herb to be legalized and sold
as a taxable commodity like alcohol, in government regulated outlets.

At the same time, Canadians also appear to be softening their
attitudes towards the drug.

"They see it as more normal," says Lorne Bozinoff, president and CEO
of Forum Research, which found in an August poll that 66 per cent of
almost 1,800 respondents across the country supported either complete
legalization or decriminalization for possession of small amounts.
Just 16 per cent wanted the laws left unchanged, while 14 per cent
champion the notion of stiffer penalties.

"We don't get numbers like that in polling, where two-thirds of
Canadians agree on the same thing," says Bozinoff.

"In any event, a huge, huge majority of people - excluding the prime
minister - are OK with either the legalization with taxation or
decriminalization of marijuana," he says, referring to the Harper
government's tough-on-drugs stance.

"So that's where the country's moved to, and this is a good social
barometer of where the country's at."

Some health groups have also shifted their attitude towards cannabis,
although their reasons are more about protecting Canadians' health.

Early this year, the chief medical officers of health for B.C.,
Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia called on Ottawa to rethink its marijuana
control strategy, including considering regulation and taxation.

"There is clear evidence to demonstrate that the so-called war on
drugs has not achieved its stated objectives of reducing rates of drug
use or drug availability," said B.C.'s Dr. Perry Kendall. "There are
alternative approaches that have proved more effective in protecting
public heath while not enriching organized crime and driving gang violence."

The Canadian Public Health Association echoed that sentiment in its
own policy statement, saying "Canada needs a public health approach to
managing illegal psychoactive substances that de-emphasizes
criminalization and stigma in favour of evidence-based strategies to
reduce harm."

In October, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) threw
its support behind legalization, saying a few select strains of
marijuana should be sold like beer, wine and spirits in outlets like
the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, with strict age limits to prevent
its purchase by minors.

"We are actually not favourable to what has been happening in Colorado
and Washington," said Jurgen Rehm, director of social and
epidemiological research at CAMH, referring to the first two U.S.
states to legalize weed (Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C., recently
followed suit.)

In Colorado, for instance, pot is sold in stores with few restrictions
and even advertised on TV, said Rehm, likening the state's wide-open
legalization to the Wild West.

CAMH wants to see only a few varieties sold in regulated outlets, and
only those that contain moderate levels of THC, the main psychoactive
substance in grass, said Rehm, noting that the drug carries a number
of dangers, including fatalities when stoned drivers get behind the
wheel and the risk of developing dependence.

"Let's do it correct from the beginning. Let's not say this is a
harmless drug, nothing will ever happen. No, it is a drug, it has
consequences. They may be less than with alcohol, but it's still a
pretty severe consequence."

Marc Emery, the self-styled "Prince of Pot" who returned to Canada in
August after more than four years serving a U.S. prison sentence for
selling cannabis seeds to Americans, says the city he calls home
offers a good model for the rest of the country.

"Vancouver right now is closest to how legalization would look in many
ways than any of the legal jurisdictions like Washington State or
Colorado or even Alaska and Oregon," he says.

"The reason I say that is because we have very little crime related to
marijuana use, and yet we have over 60 dispensaries now selling
marijuana and most of them sell 10 to 20 different varieties, and it's
priced cheaper in Vancouver than any other place in the western
hemisphere."

In Vancouver, a gram of weed sells for $5 on average; next-door in
Washington state, the same quantity goes for $28 in government
licensed stores, says Emery, whose Cannabis Culture store peddles pot
and related products.

"The results are in - there's very little social negative byproduct as
a rule of this proliferating marijuana market. It attracts nice
tourists, it attracts people from the rest of the province, it
provides a lot of cash to the neighbourhoods and everybody's very
well-behaved because no one wants to rock that boat."

Politically, the normalization of marijuana was also given a boost 
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