Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Source: Nanaimo Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Nanaimo Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1608
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Cited: Stop the Violence BC http://stoptheviolencebc.org/

REMOVE POT FROM BEING A CRIME, SAY PAST AGS

Four former B.C. attorneys general -one of whom served as premier 
- -have added their authoritative voices to calls for the 
decriminalization of marijuana.

Former NDP premier and federal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh, along 
with Geoff Plant, Colin Gabelmann and Graeme Bowbrick, added their 
experience as the province's top legal authority to legalization in a 
letter released Monday. Plant served in the Liberal government of 
former premier Gordon Campbell -Gabelmann and Bowbrick in earlier NDP 
governments.

"As former B.C. attorneys general, we are fully aware that British 
Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago," 
write the four, who collectively served as attorneys general from 
1991 to 2005, a critical period of time when public perception of pot 
smoking changed dramatically.

"The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana 
prohibition is airtight. The evidence? Massive profits for organized 
crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for 
our youth, reduced community safety and significant - and escalating 
- - costs to taxpayers."

The four say the Liberal government of B.C. Premier Christy Clark is 
wrong to support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's bid to have 
mandatory minimum sentences for minor pot charges.

"These misguided prosecutions will further strain an already clogged 
system, without reducing cannabis prohibition-related violence or 
rates of cannabis use," write the quartet.

They drew parallels to prohibition in the United States as a 
dangerous precursor of things to come.

Former Vancouver mayors Larry Campbell, Mike Harcourt, Sam Sullivan 
and Philip Owen made a similar call for pot decriminalization late last year.

- - Postmedia News
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom