Pubdate: Fri, 28 Sep 2012
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Black Press
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5n7vJzqp
Website: http://drugsense.org/url/zLXtMKI5
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: John Harding

A FUTILE VOTE?

At first glance, we had to question why a group of municipal 
politicians was trying to tackle what's clearly an issue for the 
federal government.

It was one of those moments of bewilderment - we believe the 
technical term for this is: "Huh?"

We were looking at the issue from a protect-the-public-purse angle, 
wondering why cities and towns like Parksville and Qualicum Beach 
were spending taxpayer dollars to send politicians and staff to the 
Union of B.C. Municipalities annual conference to debate the 
decriminalization of marijuana. Our journalistic default position of 
cynicism deduced this was just the UBCM's way of getting publicity 
for what can be a dry agenda focusing on things like the interest 
rates charged by municipal funding authorities (yawn).

We believe our motives for questioning the expense of this junket and 
its agenda were noble. However, upon further review, our initial 
response seems a tad narrow-minded. Sure, any change in the status of 
the criminality of marijuana will have to be legislated in Ottawa. 
That stated, the fallout of those changes will be felt on the 
streets, neighbourhoods, schools and workplaces in communities such 
as Nanoose Bay, Bowser, Parksville and Qualicum Beach.

We're not prepared to debate the merits or pitfalls of marijuana 
decriminalization in this space today (we welcome your letters on the 
subject, as always). But we recognize it is a local issue, and 
appropriate for municipal leaders to debate. The UBCM resolution 
called for the "appropriate government to decriminalize marijuana and 
research the regulation and taxation of marijuana."

On Wednesday, the resolution passed. Whether senior governments pay 
any attention to this remains to be seen. Many police chiefs in this 
country have said lifting the prohibition won't have much effect on 
the big picture of organized crime's role in distribution and the 
violent crime related to that side of the business.

So, was this a purposely-futile resolution put forward by the UBCM in 
order to increase the profile of their conference? If you have read 
this far, it apparently worked.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom