Pubdate: 04 Sep 2001 Source: Business In Vancouver (CN BC) Issue: September 4-10. 2001 Copyright: 2003 BIV Publications Ltd. Contact: http://www.biv.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2458 Author: Peter Ladner Note: Peter Ladner is president, Business in Vancouver Media Group LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT: BENEFITS OF DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA SHOULD MAKE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SMILE The latest hit to the forest industry in B.C. -- an estimated 14,000 jobs lost for an indefinite period -- has sobered outlooks and prospects across the business spectrum. Now, more than ever, some entrepreneurs in this province will be drawn to an industry that ranks among the three or four biggest in the province, one in which we are reputed to be world leaders: growing and exporting high-quality marijuana. It's an industry that exemplifies what has long been advocated for the forest industry. Through ingenuity and research, B.C. growers have developed strains that enable them to charge premium prices for a commodity otherwise widely available. As our story on self-proclaimed Prince of Pot Marc Emery revealed (Dope seeds spur growth, August 14-20, 2001), at least one of those entrepreneurs has come out of the closet to champion his industry. His is a galling story only because he is openly flouting the law, mocking a legal structure that distinguishes Canada from less law-abiding jurisdictions where "business risk" has a whole other meaning. Emery is flouting the law because prohibition of marijuana is misguided and futile. An increasing number of citizens, politicians and police officers are coming to that conclusion, recognizing that the worst thing about the marijuana business is the law against it. Make it legal and, on balance, we would be better off. Economically, we could unlock the potential of thousands of British Columbians who are now trapped in an illegal underworld. Without the protection of the law, they are forced to create their own means of enforcing contracts. An industry of uncontrolled enforcers with ties to much fouler deeds has grown up, some of whom openly boast of their power to escape incarceration. The RCMP estimates 20 homicides in B.C. last year were related to pot disputes. After years of working in an illegal industry, it becomes difficult for people from the marijuana industry to surface into legitimate work. They're tainted by an unexplained gap in their resumes and a network of contacts who live outside the law. The easiest avenues open to them are other, less desirable, illegal activities. As the underworld revenues multiply and the legitimate economy continues to sag, B.C. plays into the hands of organized criminals. These perversions can only develop when a significant proportion of the population supports or at least accepts the marijuana business. (Other drugs have other complications outside this discussion.) That is the case with pot in British Columbia, as it is with coca-growing in the other Colombia. Small town B.C. mayors, car dealers and retailers are well aware of the importance of pot growing for their local economies. Most people in B.C. understand that damage to health is a non-issue: the respected medical journal The Lancet recently concluded that "moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill effect on health, and decisions to ban or to legalize cannabis should be based on other considerations." On the addiction spectrum, the percentage of pot users who are "dependent," according to 1999 U.S. Food and Drug Administration data, is around 12 per cent. That's higher than alcohol and pain relievers, but below stimulants, sedatives and the big one, nicotine (80 per cent of its users are dependent). Conservative leader Joe Clark advocates marijuana decriminalization. Outgoing chief inspector of prisons in the U.K. Sir David Ramsbotham, former U.K. minister for social security and Conservative deputy leader Peter Lilley and former B.C. chief coroner Vince Cain back legalization. And when they and 34 per cent of Americans recently polled by USA Today advocate legalization of marijuana, they are generally agreed on some key points: - it would reduce crime; - restrictions on its production, sale and use while driving would be necessary, as they are for alcohol, nicotine, sedatives and stimulants; - it would break the supply link between marijuana and hard drugs; - tax revenues would be substantial; - it would save millions now being spent on enforcement and incarceration; - it would improve respect for the law among young people; and - it would allow people freedom to control their own bodies and minds. One of the benefits of B.C.'s lax enforcement -- grow-house operators in Vancouver aren't even being charged -- is that our marijuana industry is gaining brains from the U.S. The penalties there are so ridiculous that jails are crammed with nonviolent drug offenders. Forty per cent of U.S. drug arrests are for possession of marijuana, a crime without a victim, a substance deemed medicinal in Canada. Some of the growers profiled in recent media accounts acknowledge they moved here from the U.S. because it's a better, safer environment for their business, although most B.C. growers appear to be small-time entrepreneurs acting out of economic desperation and good old capitalist greed. Bringing those brains out into the open, protecting them from underworld enforcers and taxing their exports would be a big economic boost for this beleaguered province. It's not that different from what we have done with gambling over the past decade. Without denying its harmful addictive properties, we've made the revenues legitimate and turned it from an underworld activity into a controlled source of significant public funding.