Pubdate: Tue, 25 Sep 2012
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Bill Cleverley

DISCLOSURE WANTED ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Decriminalization Debate a Lively One

Commercial marijuana grow ops masquerading as medical grow operations 
are a growing problem for B.C. municipalities, a panel of experts 
debating decriminalization was told Monday.

"It's very prevalent in my community. Those are the grow-ops and 
they're under the disguise of medical marijuana operations," Sechelt 
Coun. Doug Hockley told an expert panel at the Union of B.C. 
Municipalities Convention in Victoria.

Hockley said RCMP are not informed when a medical marijuana grow 
licence is issued by the federal government.

"Consequently, our first responders, whether they be fire or whether 
they be police, are walking into a situation where they have no idea 
of what's going on in that house because they can't get the 
information," Hockley said during a question-and-answer session.

"It's incumbent on the federal government to impose stringent 
regulations," he said.

Darryl Plecas, RCMP university research chair in crime reduction at 
University College of the Fraser Valley's School of Criminology, 
argued against decriminalization of marijuana.

Plecas called Health Canada's treatment of medical marijuana "a gong 
show," and said Health Canada does not have a single inspector of 
medical grow operations in B.C.

"They have de facto decriminalized grow-ops in Canada. There's just 
no question about that," Plecas said.

Panel members seemed to agree existing marijuana laws are not 
working, but disagreed on the solution.

Dr. Evan Wood, of Stop the Violence B.C., argued in favour of 
decriminalization and regulation of marijuana, saying prohibition 
hasn't worked.

"Because it is a commodity like any other, any effort to reduce the 
supply of it will have the perverse effect of incentivizing new 
suppliers," he said.

"If you support prohibition, you essentially support a violent, 
unregulated market whose motive is profit - and that's why its market 
is young people. We don't know what regulation will look like, but it 
will be researched and it will be so much better than the status 
quo," Wood said.

But Plecas, along with Sgt. Dave Williams of the RCMP drug 
enforcement branch and Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish regional 
drug and gang task force in Washington state, pointed out that 
marijuana is traded internationally. Because of that, they said, 
decriminalizing possession would not stop gang violence on B.C. streets.

The black market for marijuana would not disappear if possession were 
decriminalized, Plecas said.

"We don't have violence because people are using marijuana," he said. 
"Our problem with gangs and violence in B.C. is related to the 
production of marijuana and the export of marijuana."

An estimated 585,000 people in B.C. consume about 83,900 kilograms of 
marijuana a year. But B.C. is producing 680,400 kilograms a year, Plecas said.

"Seventy per cent, minimum, is exported to the United States - and 
that's where the violence comes."

Geoff Plant, a lawyer and former B.C. attorney general, said there 
appears to be growing consensus that the status quo is a failure.

"I think we have to rid ourselves [of] the legacy of this 
multi-generational fixation with 'reefer madness,' " Plant said. "And 
we need to work collaboratively with public policy makers on both 
sides of the border towards a regime that's based on regulation and 
taxation, rather than criminalization."

Later this week, delegates to the convention will debate a motion put 
forward by Metchosin to decriminalize marijuana and research its 
regulation and taxation.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom