Pubdate: Thu, 24 Sep 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Gordon Clark
Page: 19

VANCOUVER POLICE SHOULD ENFORCE CANADA'S POT LAWS

If you want to read an unprofessional, self-justifying and 
politically frightening document by a police department, check out 
the report by Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Doug LePard, urging the 
police board to dismiss a citizen complaint against his department 
for neglecting to shut down the city's 120 or so illegal pot shops.

The complaint was made in June by Pam McColl of Smart Approaches to 
Marijuana Canada, a group that opposes the liberalization of 
marijuana laws. Appallingly, the board took just 10 minutes last 
Thursday to unanimously dismiss McColl's complaint, which at its core 
simply asked the VPD to do what every other police department in 
Canada seems to have no difficulty doing - upholding the country's drug laws.

What is frightening about LePard's one-sided report is that it makes 
clear the Vancouver police is taking its marching orders from our 
pot-friendly leaders at city hall. Evidence of this political 
interference into policing was provided Monday by Vision Coun. Kerry 
Jang, a research psychologist who likes to pretend he's a medical 
expert. Jang told 24 Hours that city hall was behind the decision not 
to close the shops and, instead, to make the ridiculous policy 
decision of trying to regulate the criminal activity.

"So our police are doing their job," Jang is quoted as saying. "It's 
not just a matter of going in and wiping everybody out because that 
is worse, and it would cost the city a lot of money."

Since when did it become OK not to enforce the law because it would 
cost money? It sure wasn't the case in the decision to spend more 
than $13.5 million prosecuting every drunken lout who participated in 
the 2011 Stanley Cup riot. That's more than three times the cost of 
the $4 million in damage caused by the riot that occurred, in part, 
because recently fired city manager Penny Ballem wouldn't approve 
extra funds for policing that night and the mayor's foolish decision 
to host a street party downtown.

In his report, LePard, who, like all cops, took an oath to uphold the 
law, also justifies not closing the shops because of cost, noting 
that one 2014 raid resulting in four charges against two people 
required 560 person-hours of police time worth $34,000, including 10 
detectives and a forensic expert on the day of the raid. Perhaps 
LePard and other members of the VPD leadership, including new Chief 
Adam Palmer, should be looking at ways to be more efficient. No doubt 
shutting a pot shop requires more than two beat cops with green 
garbage bags, but it really shouldn't take months and involve dozens 
of officers.

LePard also discusses the police's right to use discretion in 
enforcing the law, including the right of police chiefs to set 
priorities. While individual offers should show discretion in whether 
to issue traffic tickets, show compassion with a young person caught 
committing a minor offence and the department should have the right 
to prioritize the deployment of resources, it shouldn't extend to 
effectively refusing to enforce a law, which reduces the general 
public's expectation that laws should be obeyed even if we don't 
agree with them.

LePard also defends his department's decision to conduct just 11 
raids on the pot outlets in two years by stating that police only act 
when there are "overt public-safety concerns," such as when shops 
sell pot to kids or organized crooks are involved.

Perhaps, he and other VPD leaders should read the 167-page report 
released last week by their brothers in arms in the Rocky Mountain 
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the U.S. federal police agency 
tracking the impact of marijuana legalization in Colorado. The report 
lists a litany of general-public harms that rose quickly in the year 
after pot was legalized in that state in 2013, including a 
32-per-cent increase inmarijuana-related traffic deaths; that 11.2 
per cent of Colorado youth ages 12 to 17 years old were considered 
current marijuana users in 2013, compared with the U.S. national 
average of 7.2 per cent; and, that the number of marijuana-related 
emergency-room visits jumped by 29 per cent and the number of people 
admitted to hospital for pot jumped by 38 per cent. Those are just a 
few of dozens of examples of increased public harm from easily available pot.

LePard even stoops to cherry picking opinion polls that show public 
support for liberalizing our pot laws and names individuals who hold 
that view to support the lack of enforcement. But since when did 
upholding the law become a popularity contest?

He justifies his department's inaction, which absolutely caused the 
proliferation of the pot shops unique to Vancouver, by stating that 
"the VPD recognizes the importance of carefully considering the views 
and policies of democratically elected councils which represent the 
public and bear the significant costs of policing." Interesting. But 
why isn't the VPD recognizing the "democratically elected" federal 
government and its laws?

Which other laws will the police mostly stop enforcing because 
Vision's political supporters don't like them? We already know that 
the department turns a blind eye to cyclists who run red lights, fail 
to wear helmets and breach other rules in the Highways Act, such as 
riding in the middle of lanes. Will minor assaults soon be OK?

Last Thursday was a sad day for the law and average Vancouver 
citizens, who apparently now will need to sue the police and city 
hall to demand that Canada's laws are enforced to end the blatant, 
shameless drug trafficking in their neighbourhoods. With the mayor 
chairing the police board, LePard's report was preaching to the choir.

If LePard or Palmer want Canada's drug laws changed, here's an idea - 
quit accepting the $240,000 and $330,000 you receive, respectively, 
each year in salary from city taxpayers and run for federal office. 
Until then, do the job you swore to do and uphold the law.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom