Pubdate: Fri, 27 Dec 2013
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: James Keller

MEDIA, POLICE NOT TALKING STRAIGHT ON POT: RESEARCHER

VANCOUVER - As it turns out, Nov. 6, 2012, was a big day for marijuana laws.

Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved initiatives to 
legalize pot, setting the stage for the regulated production and sale 
of the drug. Several other jurisdictions in the U.S. have since followed suit.

In Canada, the same day two American states were effectively 
abandoning part of the war on drugs, provisions of a new federal law 
came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums for 
drug-related crimes, including marijuana production.

The contrast, says University of Victoria professor Susan Boyd, could 
not have been greater.

"This new law and our revived war on drugs in Canada is so contrary 
to what's going on around the world," says Boyd, who specializes in 
drug law and drug policy.

"It seemed like Canada was veering towards a very punitive model 
while the rest of the world was taking a closer look at mandatory 
minimums and abandoning them."

But the revisions to Canada's drug laws - contained in the Safe 
Streets and Communities Act, or Bill C-10, as it was previously known 
- - did not happen in a vacuum, says Boyd.

Instead, Boyd argues in a forthcoming book that Canada's recent 
tough-on-crime approach to drugs is, in part, the product of decades 
of skewed media coverage and police messaging that has routinely 
exaggerated the dangers of the marijuana industry and its connection 
to organized crime. For the book, titled Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow 
Ops, Media, and Justice, Boyd examined 2,500 articles from four major 
daily newspapers in British Columbia from 1995 to 2009. She found 
news coverage about cannabis enforcement in B.C. frequently contained 
inaccurate information or exaggerated claims about the size and scope 
of the underground marijuana industry, the sorts of people associated 
with grow-ops, and the industry's connection to gangs.

Assertions by police - particularly the RCMP, which is responsible 
for policing in much of B.C. - were left unchallenged, she says, and 
politicians, in turn, relied on such misinformation to push for 
stricter drug laws.

For example, the news articles she examined repeatedly asserted 
marijuana grow-ops are inextricable linked to gangs and other 
criminal organizations. Police spokespeople were frequently quoted 
explaining that modern day grow-ops are not "mom and pop" operations.

But Boyd says the federal government's own research does not support 
that claim.

She cited a Justice Department study that was completed in 2011, 
obtained by a reporter through an access to information request, that 
examined a random sample of 500 marijuana grow operations. Of those, 
just five per cent had apparent links to gangs or organized crime.

"This study wasn't released by our federal government, and you could 
see why," says Boyd.

"It doesn't fit with their Safe Streets and Communities Act, which 
frames marijuana grow ops as always being associated with organized 
crime and gangs. I would say it's probably the reverse."

Boyd's examination found the RCMP's public statements about the scope 
of the marijuana trade relied on research that tallied the number of 
"suspected" or alleged"cases, rather than instances in which a 
grow-op was confirmed, which almost doubled the rate at which such 
activity had increased.

The RCMP - and, consequently, the news media - often linked marijuana 
grow-ops to guns, says Boyd. In contrast, an RCMP-funded study from 
2005 found police found "firearms or other hazards" in only six per 
cent of grow-op cases examined.

And the value of the industry has been valued by RCMP spokespeople at 
anywhere from $1 billion to $8 billion a year, says Boyd.

Boyd suggests police and politicians may be exaggerating the dangers 
of the marijuana trade because standard say-no-to-drugs messaging 
hasn't worked. She notes almost half of Canadians admit to trying pot 
at least once.

"We can see from our drug-use statistics that Canadians use marijuana 
and a small percentage of people use it regularly," she says.

"So one way to continue with the drug enforcement law-and-order 
mandate is to talk about the dangerousness of the growers, and that 
seems to have created some headway."

The RCMP, which Boyd focuses on heavily in the book, declined to 
respond to her criticisms. A spokesman said the force typically does 
not respond to books, particularly those that have yet to be published.

"The RCMP does not provide responses on personal opinions and views 
expressed by authors," Sgt. Greg Cox said in an email.

In the articles Boyd examined, the RCMP's claims were often repeated 
in the news media without question, she says.

The vast majority of the articles did not display any skepticism of 
the police claims, nor did they appear to have involved any 
independent investigation by reporters, she says.

"The RCMP and the police have become quite proficient in media 
relations," she says.

"At the same time, we saw that the mainstream media became less 
autonomous and there was a downsizing of reporters. The police and 
the RCMP are releasing these statements about marijuana grow ops, so 
they [reporters] take that up, and there's very little time for them 
to do any real investigation."
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