Pubdate: Mon, 02 Nov 2015
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Page: 4
Note: Editorial from Victoria Times Colonist

CHANGE MARIJUANA LAW, BUT GO CAREFULLY

Almost 15 per cent of tobacco products used in B.C. are contraband, 
costing the provincial treasury an estimated $100 million a year in 
lost tax revenue. It's a glimpse of what awaits governments in a 
legalized-marijuana world.

Legalized - or at least decriminalized - marijuana is inevitable. Its 
widespread use demands that governments regulate, tax and monitor the 
use of the drug, just as they do tobacco and alcohol. To do otherwise 
makes no sense.

The war on marijuana is a failure. It comes with high costs and 
collateral damage, and has done nothing to curb the use. Yes, 
criminality and violence are associated with marijuana, but those 
aspects arise from the drug's illegality, not its effects on the human body.

You do not have to endorse the use of marijuana - and we do not - to 
see sound reasons for changing the law.

Some worry the decriminalization will be seen as a stamp of approval, 
encouraging young people to take up marijuana use. Yet a 2002 Senate 
report concludes: "We have not legalized cannabis and we have one of 
the highest rates [of use] in the world. Countries adopting a more 
liberal policy have, for the most part, rates of usage lower than 
ours, which stabilized after a short period of growth."

The high level of marijuana use by younger Canadians is just one 
unintended consequence of current drug laws, says the Canadian Drug 
Policy Coalition in a report called Getting to Tomorrow.

"Prohibition abdicated responsibility for regulating drug markets to 
organized crime, and abandons public-health measures like age 
restrictions and dosing controls," says the report.

Marijuana was not made illegal for scientific reasons. Says the 2002 
Senate committee report: "Early drug legislation was largely based on 
a moral panic, racist sentiment and a notorious absence of debate."

With the Liberals forming a majority government, it appears certain 
Canada is headed toward legalization of marijuana. It's time to have 
that rational, science-based debate and strip the issue of its emotionalism.

One of the arguments for legalization is that it will bring in 
revenues for governments. There's already a well-established, 
complex, illegal system of producing and distributing pot, run by 
people well-versed in circumventing the law. They won't suddenly 
vanish, and they will not willingly give up control.

Governments will be required to ensure quality, consistency and 
dosages, as well as levying substantial taxes on the product, as they 
do with alcohol and tobacco. Those factors will be added to the price 
of the product.

That will give an advantage to pot bootleggers, just as high taxes on 
tobacco have created opportunities for the gangs that deal in 
contraband cigarettes.

Regulations will be needed to keep marijuana out of the easy reach of 
minors, and to deal with edible products that contain marijuana or 
its derivatives. Scientific research is needed on marijuana to get 
solid facts on the harms and benefits of its use.

The road to legalization won't be smooth, and it shouldn't be 
travelled hastily.

"It's going to be a lot harder to implement than you think," says 
Lewis Koski, director of the Marijuana Enforcement Division in 
Colorado, where recreational pot has been legal since 2012. "It's 
going to take a lot longer to do it. And it's going to cost more than 
you think."

The Liberals have pledged to "legalize, regulate and restrict access 
to marijuana."

Now they need to tell us how they are going to do it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom