Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jul 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Author: David Charbonneau
Page: C1
Cited: http://www.sensiblebc.ca

TORIES OFF COURSE ON POT LAW DIRECTION

The clock starts ticking in September. If 10 per cent of B.C. voters
sign a petition requesting a referendum on the decriminalization of
marijuana, then a vote on the referendum will take place next year.

It's no small task. There is only a 90-day window to collect more than
400,000 signatures and an army of volunteers will be needed. With hard
work and careful planning, Dana Larsen is confident it can be done.

Larsen is leading the initiative, called Sensible B.C. If the
referendum is passed, then according to the Referendum Act, the
government must introduce legislation at the next sitting.

The draft bill, the Sensible Policing Act, is deceptively simple. It
would direct police not to pursue arrests for possession of small
amounts of marijuana. Like all provinces, B.C. controls the operations
of its police, although, you wouldn't know it from looking at recent
arrests.

While British Columbians want fewer marijuana arrests, police have
been making more. Arrests have doubled since 2005 even as 61 per cent
of British Columbians favour legalization of marijuana according to a
2012 Angus Reid poll.

The province, not the federal government, has the responsibility to
direct the priorities and spending of police under B.C.'s Police Act.
It's hardly a radical idea. Provinces have done just that in the past.

For example, in 2003, the government of B.C. joined seven provinces in
directing police not to pursue arrests under the Long Gun Registry.
B.C.'s attorney general called the firearms registry is an
"unmitigated disaster" and directed police not to act unless
extenuating circumstances demanded.

The prohibition of marijuana has been an unmitigated disaster; not
because pot is a harmless drug but because abuse of it, like abuse of
all drugs, is a matter of health not criminal law.

The provincial government realizes this even if the feds don't. The
Harper government tried to shut down Vancouver's safe injection site,
InSite, and lost in a Supreme Court ruling. This federal government is
more regressive than ones in the past not only for its intention to
build more jails to hold greater numbers arrested for marijuana
possession but for its failure to see drug abuse as a medical, not
legal, problem.

Federal opinions were more progressive in the 1970s when I helped
establish the Alberta Legalization of Cannabis Committee in Calgary.

At the time, it seemed that the legal consequences of marijuana arrest
were more damaging than the health risks from its use. Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau agreed. In a letter to me, he said his government
wanted ". . . a proper balance between concerns over potential health
risks associated with cannabis and concerns over the personal and
social effects of penal laws at discouraging its use (Jan. 17,1978)."

Back when conservatives were progressive, Joe Clark wrote: "I do not
feel that Canadian law enforcement agencies should be burdened by this
continuing deluge of cases involving simple possession (May 17,
1978)." Ed Broadbent wrote: "The New Democratic Party believes that
Cannabis should be taken out of the Criminal Code and placed under the
Food and Drug Act (May 5, 1977)."

I hope the future will be guided by the wisdom of the past.
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MAP posted-by: Matt