Pubdate: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2012 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun FIGHTING THE WAR AGAINST THE WAR ON DRUGS ... LATE IN THE DAY Four Former B. C. Attorneys-General Have Taken a Stronger Position On Legalization of Marijuana Than They Ventured When They Were in Office Oh, brave band of brothers! Four former B. C. attorneys general - Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant - have platooned together to fight the war against the war on drugs. They want to see the legalization and state control of marijuana. They even released to the public a letter saying so, as if to stiffen their message with the starch of officialdom. They then mailed that letter to Premier Christy Clark and opposition leader Adrian Dix with the expectation that a letter from four former A- Gs is not so easily tossed in the circular file, as yours or mine would be. "As former BC Attorneys General," their letter began, "we are fully aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago. 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." Well, no kidding. Yet the critical phrase in that passage is "many years ago." Theirs is an admission that this wasn't a light that just recently went on in their heads. This war encompassed all four of their terms. So where were their voices when the weight of their office might have had real, and changing, impact? Let's look at the record. In 2002, when Plant was A- G, he stated flatly that decriminalization of marijuana was not a provincial concern. "This is a matter for the federal government. It is not a matter on which the government of British Columbia has a position and not a matter on which I have an opinion." This is an impeccable legal position, it just isn't a brave or frank one. It observes the niceties of governance - far be it from him to trespass on federal property. But it isn't leadership. It's deflection. Plant softened that stance a couple of months later by saying that, while reiterating he still had no official stance on decriminalization, he questioned spending police resources going after petty possession when large grow ops were funding organized crime. This, I guess, was progress. At least he entertained enough private doubts to offer up a public question. But as for the link between decriminalization and the effect it might have on the proliferation of large grow-ups, and the violence and criminality they gave rise to, he did not mention it. As for Bowbrick, a lawyer like Plant, he was A- G for only a year, from 2000- 2001. The Sun's research staff could find no statement of his on decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. My apologies to him if we somehow missed it. Dosanjh's record on the issue was, like Plant's, mixed. He was A- G from 1995- 2000. During his term, he said he was not averse to having a debate on the issue. And in 1997, he was quoted in The Sun as saying: "If we reach a national consensus to exclude marijuana from tougher sentences, so be it. But if it's currently illegal and you have someone growing or smuggling large quantities, I as attorney-general can't ignore that violation of the law." And he wasn't about to have anything to do with changing the law. In this, Dosanjh parted ways with his federal NDP counterparts at the time, who were in favour of decriminalization ( as is the provincial NDP now). In 1996, he was quoted as saying: "I don't believe one can conclude we ought to decriminalize marijuana. I don't think, as the attorney-general, I can argue for the decriminalization of marijuana." Once he went to Ottawa as an MP, however, he fell in line with the federal NDP policy with which he had previously disagreed. "People," he told me yesterday, "have the right to change their minds, don't they?" And so he voted in favour of a bill that would allow small amounts of marijuana to be grown for personal use - which had no chance, of course, of being passed into law. Gabelmann was the first among the quartet to grapple with the issue in the early 1990s. Responding to a report by B. C. chief coroner Vince Cain that concluded way back then that the war on drugs was already an "expensive failure" - a report commissioned by his department - Gabelmann promised to raise the matter of decriminalization with his federal counterpart. So there's, um, that. Which brings us to today, which looks a lot like yesterday. When asked about the A- Gs' letter, Premier Clark fell back on the position that the issue was a federal one. She would leave it to the feds, she said. Brave. So very brave. People are getting whacked in public, the province is awash in dirty money, but, you know, it's Ottawa's problem. Here's hoping she continues to take her cues from our former A- Gs, who after all these years have finally found their voice, and who wrote in their letter to her: "While it is easier to take a leadership position on controversial issues once one is out of public office ... " I'll stop right there. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.