Pubdate: Thu, 01 Aug 2013
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 The Georgia Straight
Contact:  http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Carlito Pablo
Cited: Sensible BC: http://www.sensiblebc.ca

MARIJUANA LAWS INCONSISTENTLY APPLIED IN B.C.

FORMER MLA AND ex-Vancouver police officer Kash Heed expects the 
courts to eventually deal with the inconsistent application of 
marijuana laws in B.C.

"The courts will need to address this, and I think they will in the 
future," Heed told the Straight in a phone interview.

He noted that there is a "de facto decriminalization" in Vancouver, 
where police officers do not pursue simple possession of cannabis. 
"But you just have to step outside of the jurisdiction of Vancouver 
and you find a different practice in place by the RCMP," Heed said. 
He added that other independent municipal police departments do not 
have consistent policies regarding this matter.

Sensible Change Society director Dana Larsen is leading a campaign 
for an initiative vote to amend the Police Act. It aims to direct all 
police forces in the province to stop going after people who possess 
marijuana for personal consumption.

A study prepared by SFU criminology professor Neil Boyd and funded by 
Larsen's Sensible B.C. campaign indicates that the province doubled 
its spending on pot enforcement between 2005 and 2011.

Heed anticipates major challenges to Larsen's campaign. "I think if 
this initiative passes, there will be roadblocks put up by not only 
law enforcement-that being mainly the RCMP-but certainly the 
provincial government will put up roadblocks to this," he said. "And 
they'll use the easy way out, and say this is a federal issue."

Although the B.C. Green Party supports in its platform the 
decriminalization and regulation of marijuana, it is only going to 
watch the initiative-vote campaign from the sidelines.

Part of this is due to "complications" related to the nature of 
policing in the province, according to Green Leader Jane Sterk.

"I think there are complications in the fact that we have a federal 
police force as a policing service in most of British Columbia," 
Sterk told the Straight in a phone interview. "I think it would be 
very difficult for the province to say to the RCMP, 'We're asking you 
not to enforce federal laws. "

The RCMP E Division for B.C. declined to comment on the marijuana 
initiative-vote campaign.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom