Pubdate: Tue, 19 Nov 2013
Source: Maple Ridge Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc
Contact:  http://www.mrtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1372
Author: Troy Landreville
Cited: Sensible BC: http://www.sensiblebc.ca

FORMER COUNCILLOR PUSHING HARD TO LEGALIZE POT

A man who served for 12 years as a Maple Ridge councillor is
canvassing in the area for Sensible BC, a group working to
decriminalize pot in 2014.

"Get a job," a senior muttered to former Maple Ridge councillor Craig
Speirs Thursday afternoon.

"Excuse me! Hey! It doesn't cost a damn thing to be polite!" Speirs
yelled at the man, who strolled by on the sidewalk along 224th Street.
"I had a job! I'm retired. What are you doing!? Get a cause!"

Speirs - who served four terms on Maple Ridge Council from 1999 to
20111 - was collecting signatures for Sensible BC, a group with a goal
of decriminalizing marijuana possession in 2014. He plans on gathering
names in front of Memorial Peace Park every day until the end of November.

"This is our spot," he said with a laugh.

If Sensible BC can gather more than 400,000 signatures from folks
across the province between Sept. 9 and Dec. 5, there will be a B.C.
referendum to decriminalize marijuana possession in 2014.

To qualify for a referendum, Sensible BC needs to collect signatures
from 10 per cent of the registered voters in every electoral district
in B.C.

Sensible BC advocates are calling upon the provincial government to
pass the Sensible Policing Act, which will stop police from searching
or arresting individuals for possession of marijuana.

The Act also demands the federal government repeal marijuana
prohibition, and mandates the B.C. government to determine the rules
needed for what the organization describes as "a legal marijuana
system in B.C."

"We want to complete our goal, so that we can move our society
forward," Speirs said. "We have to change. We know prohibition doesn't
work, and we know it will never work. It's a dead end. We have to get
out of a dead end."

Speirs believes decriminalizing pot would, each year, immediately save
B.C. taxpayers $10.5 million, due to decreased policing and court costs.

"It's a huge saving and that rolls over every year," Speirs said,
noting that there were 16,000 marijuana-related arrests, 3,800
charges, and 1,600 convictions last year.

Marijuana should be treated the same way as tobacco is, in Speirs'
opinion.

"There are social limits on that, agreed upon on distances from
people, and stuff like that," he said. "You've got to remember that
tobacco has, like, 4,000 different chemicals in it. Pot has 400. It
doesn't have the same physical effect on your lungs, and it may smell
a little skunky, but it's not a toxic smoke."

Speirs said there are a few studies out of Israel ("North America is
not doing any [studies] because of the repressive political
atmosphere," he pointed out) that "prove that smoking pot actually
gives a blanket protection to cigarette smokers."

"So there's a decrease in lung cancer when people are poly, when they
smoke cigarettes and cannabis," he said. "So we've got to be real
about the science on it."

The "Cannabus," decorated with signatures and written well wishes,
parked briefly in front of the park before leaving for its next stop.
A passenger on the bus was Jim, who wouldn't give his last name.

"We go around and we support the local canvassers," Jim said. "People
say, 'Hey, the bus is here! Let's go see the "Cannabus!'"