Pubdate: Fri, 15 Nov 2013
Source: North Shore News, The (CN QU)
Copyright: 2013 The North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.ns-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4497
Author: Jane Seyd
Cited: Sensible BC: http://www.sensiblebc.ca

POT PETITION PUSHES TO MEET TARGET

Local volunteers collecting signatures in a campaign to change the 
way marijuana laws are enforced say they aren't giving up, although 
they still need several thousand names to meet their target.

"We do have momentum," said Michael Charrois, a former federal NDP 
candidate who is coordinating the campaign for Sensible B.C. in three 
of the North Shore ridings. "It's not too late."

Recently, canvassers in North Vancouver-Lonsdale still had about 
1,000 signatures to go to meet their target, while volunteers in both 
West Vancouver-Capilano and North Vancouver-Seymour still had 2,000 
signatures to get.

Volunteers are aiming for 3,500 to 4,000 signatures in each local riding.

Charrois said he's still optimistic the campaign will collect the 
signatures of 10 per cent of registered voters in each riding needed 
to force the issue to a province-wide referendum. "I've always said 
it's going to be an onerous task," he said.

The Sensible B.C. initiative petition, headed up by marijuana 
activist and former West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country 
NDP candidate Dana Larsen, aims to effectively decriminalize pot by 
changing the way laws are enforced.

Sensible B.C. has until Dec. 9 to get enough signatures, which could 
prompt a referendum. It is the same method campaigners used to 
overturn the Harmonized Sales Tax.

Charrois acknowledges, however, that pot laws are a more touchy topic 
than the HST ever was. "People are afraid of the issue," he said.

Charrois said he's found people under 25 and people over 60 are both 
more likely to sign the petition, while the middle-aged are more 
worried about the message they are sending their children. Some 
people have even heard rumours that if they sign, they won't be able 
to cross the Canada-U.S. border, he said - "which is absurd."

Terry Platt, a perennial NDP candidate who is canvassing for the 
petition in West Vancouver, said she's noticed similar patterns.

Platt said she is supporting the campaign because she thinks the "war 
on drugs" is futile and a waste of money.

"I've never smoked dope in my life and I have no intentions to," she said.

But she added enough prominent people in law enforcement believe that 
prohibition isn't working.

"It's making ordinary people criminals and it's making criminals very 
wealthy," she said.

Province-wide, the Sensible B.C. campaign had collected about 
one-third of the signatures it needed at the halfway point. But those 
signatures have not been evenly distributed. Lower Mainland residents 
in particular have proved a tough sell.

Charrois said elsewhere - like the nearby Sunshine Coast riding - the 
team has been so far ahead of its target that they are sending 
volunteer reinforcements to the North Shore in the coming weeks. He 
said the local campaign doesn't have enough canvassers to go 
door-to-door so volunteers are concentrating in areas of high foot 
traffic like local malls.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom