Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A4

CITY'S POT BYLAW ONLY BENEFITS CRIMINALS

Blowing Smoke: With No Legal Supply and No Tax Regime, Regulation 
Just Muddies the Water

Vancouver City Council and the police department have clouded the 
national debate on cannabis with their approach to pot and are 
pumping money into the pockets of organized crime.

Anyone who has followed the controversy about marijuana since the 
heyday of the Le Dain Commission can only shake his or her head at 
the lack of common sense.

Every intelligent person who has studied marijuana and the laws that 
criminalize it has concluded the century-old prohibition should end 
and the easily cultivated weed more appropriately regulated to help 
the sick and stop the imprisonment of our kids.

Vancouver is neither promoting those goals nor helping resolve the 
current conflict over the federal government's misguided approach to pot.

Instead, council is blowing smoke trying to hide its failure to shut 
down drug traffickers who operate supposed "medical dispensaries" or 
demand the reform of a bad law.

There is no legal supply for any of the 100 or so shops in the city - none.

The only suppliers are supposed mom-and-pop scofflaws or organized 
criminals - ask Amsterdam with its gang problems how that has worked.

It is a myth that the cannabis retailers operating in Vancouver are 
paying appropriate taxes or are somehow not fuelling violence and crime.

What's the tax rate on pot? Same as tobacco? Liquor? What are 
producers paying in tax?

There is no tax regime or court ruling in place - that allows illegal 
growers and traffickers to pay what they think Ottawa deserves for an 
illegal product.

The opaque nature of these operations means there is no believable 
paperwork or auditing in place: If the provincial Liberals don't keep 
emails, why would pot dealers keep records of subterranean illegal suppliers?

And it seems foolish to think that if they register as non-profits, 
somehow they become transparent and OK. Nothing could be further from 
the truth. But I guess we should just trust to be honest people who 
ignore the criminal law.

Police Chief Adam Palmer admits all this, but says he's more 
concerned about the "violence" associated with heroin and cocaine.

Does he really think there are two types of gangsters in this town - 
those selling heroin and cocaine and those dispensing pot? That one 
group is better than the other?

Or doesn't he get it that the money made from the low-hanging 
cannabis fruit pays for the soldiers and street dealers pushing other drugs?

The city's stance on that shows what little thought went into the new bylaw.

Barely days earlier, the Supreme Court of Canada exposed the 
stupidity of the federal ban on non-smoking and highly concentrated 
cannabis medication by striking it down.

I guess council and city manager Penny Ballem, who still calls 
herself a doctor, didn't notice - the city bylaw approves only stores 
selling bud for smoking.

Let's be clear, there are dispensaries supplied by standup guerrilla 
growers serving appropriate medical patients - but they are a 
minority. Most are selling pot to people who want to get high or who 
want to self-medicate symptoms with scant supporting medical evidence.

There would be nothing wrong with that, if there were a level playing 
field for all investors instead of a market open to only the brazen 
who are willing to thumb their nose at the Criminal Code.

The bylaw mocks investors who played by the rules and pumped millions 
of dollars into authorized production companies to supply legal patients.

One approved Nanaimo firm has already fired dozens of employees.

Less than three months into the new corporate medical program and 
they must restructure that severely? Gee, I wonder why?

Vancouver council, stand up and take a bow! The bylaw allows unfair 
competition from people who don't have to declare their ownership, 
file proper tax returns, be properly inspected or meet security protocols.

Our criminal cannabis laws need to be eliminated and a new legal 
regulatory regime established, something akin to what Colorado (not 
Washington) has done.

This province and the country need to begin moving forward with a 
real discussion about the best system to adopt.

Vancouver is doing nothing to achieve or promote that goal. In fact, 
it is mischievously helping frustrate it by muddying the water.

Our drug laws come from early in the last century and were the 
product of misguided, racist policies against immigrants from China 
and Mexico - they did not deal with health concerns.

The city bylaw does not address the injustice of ill-conceived 
criminal sanctions that have failed miserably, does nothing to help 
real patients get cheaper or better medication and does nothing to 
reduce gang profits and the attendant violence.

It exacerbates an already bad situation by encouraging those with the 
chutzpah to jump into the business and make their profits in spite of 
federal drug laws.

It does nothing to promote better health or a more civil society.

With its laughable $30,000 licensing fee, it is a cash grab at best 
and, at worst, simply irresponsible.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom