Pubdate: Fri, 06 Feb 2004
Source: Surrey Leader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Surrey Leader
Contact:  http://www.surreyleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1236
Author: Chris Foulds
Note: Chris Foulds is a reporter with the Abbotsford News, a sister paper 
to The Leader.

THE DINOSAUR ROARS AGAIN

For a short time last Friday, it appeared as though Solicitor General Rich 
Coleman would be the focus of much fury when various Vancouver media 
outlets began reporting that his ministry was contemplating a move to 
"decriminalize" drunk driving.

However, the "news" was actually information pulled from a months-old 
discussion paper on his ministry's website.

(www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/legisla tion/drinking-driving/index.htm)

Included in the discussion paper is a proposal that would allow motorists 
who have been given two or more roadside suspensions without being 
convicted of a Criminal Code offence to keep driving to and from work - 
provided they pay $1,000 to install a breath-activated ignition system 
which disables a car if alcohol is detected.

Coleman reacted to the budding controversy by confirming the proposal is 
being considered, but said it would not amount to decriminalizing drunk 
driving because it doesn't alter any of the existing Criminal Code 
provisions that deal with impaired drivers.

While the initial media reports prompted much outrage, recent comments by 
Coleman on the topic of marijuana grow-ops should have elicited as much 
public scorn.

While fending off the drinking and driving story, Coleman stepped back into 
his failed war-on-drugs mantra, vowing to get even tougher with those who 
grow marijuana in B.C.

Coleman said almost all crime can be linked to marijuana grow-ops, added 
that his government will be looking at legislation that focuses more on the 
proceeds of crime and urged Canadians to pressure Ottawa to enact tougher 
sentences for pot growers.

Coleman, who refrained from flying in Nancy Reagan to have the former first 
lady tell us to "just say no," said he will use "every tool possible" to 
shut down the pot trade in B.C.

Well, Coleman can have access to every tool imaginable, but he will never 
shut down the pot trade as long as he continues with this obsolete, 
prohibitionist thinking; an approach that only makes the pot trade that 
much more lucrative.

Coleman is simply the latest in a near-century-long list of public 
officials who think they can eliminate marijuana use. And he won't be the 
last to leave office wondering why the marijuana trade continues to boom, 
unabated. (And to those who argue that decriminalization or legalization 
will make pot more accessible? Wrong. Anybody who wants pot now is getting 
it. Government regulation will only make it more inaccessible, especially 
to youth).

Until failed, Reagan-era, war-on-drugs thinking like Coleman's is retired, 
this costly battle will continue.

And we will all continue to be the losers in a war that shouldn't be.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman