Pubdate: Thu, 22 Dec 2011
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Cassidy Olivier, Postmedia News 
Cited: Stop the Violence BC: http://stoptheviolencebc.org/

B.C. MEDICAL GROUP URGES LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Some B.C. medical health officials are advocating for the legalization 
of marijuana, arguing that the government's costly enforcement 
activities are making little difference.

The Health Officers' Council of B.C., which represents B.C.'s medical 
health officers and other physicians, researchers and consultants, is 
endorsing a report being released today that suggests a direct link 
between the province's $7-billion illegal cannabis industry and the 
increase in gang-related homicides in B.C. from 1997 to 2009.

The report, based on Canadian and U.S. data, finds that Canada's 
anti-marijuana enforcement strategies are failing to keep pot out of 
the hands of teens, who said it is relatively easy to locate a 
supplier willing to sell them a bag of the increasingly potent grass.

The report has been compiled by Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of 
B.C. law enforcement officials, health experts and academics 
advocating marijuana law reform.

Geared toward "debunking" the government's argument that current 
anti-drug measures are working, the report, titled "How not to protect 
health and safety: What the government's own data say about the 
effects of cannabis prohibition," assesses the effects of both U.S. 
and Canadian anti-drug funding on marijuana supply, potency and use.

The report said that despite expenditure of an estimated $260 million 
in drug-law enforcement since 2007, pot smoking among Canadian youth 
(defined as being 15 to 24 years old) increased considerably since the 1990s.

In B.C., 27 per cent of youth said they had smoked pot "at least once" 
in the past year, according to a 2009 study cited in the report.

This compares to the 20 per cent of Ontario high school students who 
responded "Yes" to the same question in 2009, a doubling of the 10 per 
cent who did so in 1991.

Dr. Evan Wood, a Vancouver physician and founder of Stop the Violence 
B.C., said the report provides a strong argument against the federal 
government's current "blanket prohibition" policy on pot, which he 
said has contributed to a "range of serious unintended consequences in 
terms of organized crime and gang violence."

"By every metric, this policy is failing to meet its objectives," Wood 
said. "Why wouldn't we [look at a regulating model] when we know that 
what we are doing now is both ineffective and harmful?"
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.