Pubdate: Wed, 06 May 2015
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Mike Howell

FEDS JUMP INTO POT SHOP POLITICS

Let me begin with a message from the Government of Canada.

"Like the vast majority of Canadians, the government expects that 
police will enforce the laws of Canada as written."

I pulled that quote out of a letter sent April 28 to city councillors 
from federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose and Public Safety Minister 
Steven Blaney.

The topic: Marijuana dispensaries, which openly sell cannabis, 
hashish, hash oil and products such as cookies, brownies and butter, 
all of which contain the herb.

The concern from the feds: That marijuana is bad and the City of 
Vancouver's proposal to regulate pot shops - about 85 at last count - 
will lead to more use of the drug and addiction problems.

"While some in Canada seek to make marijuana available in stores, 
just like alcohol and cigarettes, this irresponsible approach sends a 
terrible message to our youth and would make it easier for them to 
buy and smoke marijuana," the letter said. "Storefront sales of 
marijuana are illegal and under our government, will remain illegal."

The next sentence was the quote I pulled to begin this piece. Go 
back, read it again. What do you think?

Quite amazing, really. And somewhat unprecedented for two federal 
ministers to point fingers at the Vancouver Police Department, which 
hasn't exactly been in the crosshairs of the Harper government.

But there it is, in this letter.

Can you say election year?

The VPD obviously got some good PR advice not to fire back at the 
political tag-team of Ambrose and Blaney. But they're not shutting up 
about it, either.

In a scrum with reporters this week, Supt. Mike Porteous, who 
oversees the VPD's major crime section, which includes the drug 
squad, pointed out what the department has said for several years: 
That pot shops are not a priority when violent gun-toting drug 
dealers engaged in the heroin and cocaine trade continue to prey on 
people, hurt them, shoot them and, sometimes, kill them.

"My people are focused on that," he said, noting his officers and 
others from the RCMP and the Combined Special Forces Unit recently 
arrested eight people operating a large-scale drug ring involved 
largely in the trade of fentanyl, a synthetic opiod or painkiller 
similar to heroin.

"We had 44 people overdose on fentanyl in one weekend," he added. "So 
that's why we prioritize. You're not seeing 44 people overdose on 
marijuana, generally speaking."

Back in October 2013, when I wrote a story about the VPD not cracking 
down on what was then 29 pot shops, I quoted from a report authored 
by Sgt. Jim Prasobsin.

Here's what he wrote:

"It is the view of the VPD that police enforcement against marijuana 
dispensaries in the first instance would generally be a 
disproportionate use of police resources and the criminal law. The 
issue requires a balanced enforcement strategy that considers a 
continuum of responses from education to warnings, to bylaw 
enforcement, to enforcement of the criminal law, when warranted."

The VPD has yet to waver from that position and Porteous told us - 
much to the chagrin of Ambrose and Blaney, no doubt - "any kind of 
regulation helps." He added, "because it's completely the Wild West right now."

No date has been set for a public hearing on council's move this week 
to give the public a say on a proposal to regulate the pot shops.

And by regulate, the city means a $30,000 annual licence fee, 
criminal record checks and prohibiting shops from opening within 300 
metres of a school or community centre.

Curious who will show up from the feds to speak to council.

If memory serves, the last federal minister to get an audience at 
city hall was Conservative MP James Moore, who is Harper's go-to 
minister on the West Coast. He was there in 2009 to support a motion 
to ensure Vancouver would host a mixed-martial arts fight at Rogers Arena.

Everyone, it seems, has priorities.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom