Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2012
Source: Chief, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Whistler Printing & Publishing
Website: http://www.squamishchief.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2414
Author: Steven Hill

A JOINT EFFORT ON MARIJUANA

As this column is being written, mayors and councillors from across
the province are at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM)
convention debating a call for the decriminalization of marijuana.

Don't take out your bongs and blunts in celebration just yet - it is
only a debate, but it's at least getting the subject and arguments out
in the open.

The times are a-changing, to be sure, and to quote Bob Dylan - which
is totally appropriate... and also because I couldn't find a way to
work a Bob Marley song lyric in there. In the past, the pro-marijuana
side consisted mainly of those in the counterculture (read: unwashed,
long-haired stoners, students and the like) who led protests and
demonstrations, but otherwise couldn't really affect change.

Let's face it: A guy in an anarchy T-shirt with 15 piercings in his
face is not the right spokesman to change the mainstream's
perceptions. There've been some serious efforts to push for
decriminalization, like from Vancouver's Marc Emery, but his work got
him busted and sent to a prison in the U.S.

However, now we have mayors and councillors (including those from our
own little burg) debating the issues, and not just from the "all drugs
are bad" point of view. Speaking at the convention will be members of
Stop the Violence, a coalition of health, education and justice
experts - including four former B.C. attorneys general - who all
support the legal regulation and sale of pot under a public health
framework. They argue that marijuana prohibition means big profits for
organized crime, gang violence, and a clogging of the justice system.

The bottom line, they say from the front lines, is that the so-called
war on drugs is a losing battle - just like alcohol prohibition was.

According to some statistics, more than 400,000 British Columbians
regularly partake of the ganja, despite it being illegal. These people
are lawyers, doctors, executives, journalists, politicians - not just
students and unwashed stoners. So, pot use has actually moved from the
so-called counterculture and fringe to mainstream use among
professionals. The kids of the 1960s are the leaders of today, and
they never bought into the whole "Reefer Madness" propaganda of the
50s=C2=85 which is why pot regulation is being discussed both here in
Canada and across the border in the U.S. in places like the states of
Washington and California.

Again, don't spark 'em up just yet. It will still be a while before
those who partake can do so legally in this province - maybe even a
long while, even though it's a step in the right direction.

But you never know. So, maybe have something celebratory pre-rolled,
just in case.
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MAP posted-by: Matt