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Police Losing Battle Over Pot, Says Prof
Pubdate: Mon, 19 Sep 2005
Source: Sun Times, The (Owen Sound, CN ON)
Copyright: 2005, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1544
Author: Scott Dunn
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
POLICE LOSING BATTLE OVER POT, SAYS PROF
People Shouldn't Be Misled Into Thinking These High-Profile Drug
Seizures Will Stem The Tide Much, Says Eugene Oscapella
Police are losing the war against pot and it's time to make it legal
and regulate the cultivation and use of it, says Eugene Oscapella, an
Ottawa University criminology teacher who co-founded the Canadian
Foundation for Drug Policy.
Police say the number and size of local marijuana operations they're
discovering is increasing.
In the last several weeks, police have laid charges after discovering
more than $43-million worth of marijuana, mostly from four big busts.
Monday West Grey police discovered another $1.3-million worth of
marijuana growing south of Flesherton.
The biggest of recent busts have often involved young, Asia men.
Police here can't say if there are local links to Asian crime gangs.
Last week, New Brunswick police blamed Asian gangs for moving east and
setting up for large-scale grow operations in their province.
But regardless of who's growing it, police say some of the larger
marijuana grow operations are linked to organized crime.
Oscapella says people shouldn't be misled into thinking these
high-profile drug seizures which police present at news conferences
will stem the tide much.
"Typically, they probably only get five to 10 per cent of the drugs
that are coming into the country or being produced in the country,"
said Oscapella, who lectures on drug policy issues to third-year
criminology students at Ottawa University.
"These seizures make virtually no difference into the availability of
the drug after a period of time. What they might do is take a few
players out of the market, then others will move in."
Oscapella is an Ottawa lawyer who has served on government
commissions, chaired the Law Reform Commission of Canada's drug policy
group and is director of law reform for the Canadian Bar
Association.
He helped found the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, an
independent organization to study Canada's drug laws and policies.
He says police and courts have failed to stop marijuana growers and
traffickers and their futile efforts have wasted hundreds of millions
of dollars.
Half of all high school students in Ontario have tried marijuana by
the time they graduate, he said. Fifty to 80 per cent of the students
in his university classes have probably tried it too, he said.
The auditor general in December, 2001 determined the federal
government spends $500 million a year dealing with drugs, 95 per cent
of which goes to law enforcement.
"The people who are rigidly prohibitionist, they think that the police
have the answer . . . and they trust the police," he said. "Basically
I trust the police but on drug policy issues, the police organizations
are flat wrong."
Oscapella says the same thing has happened with the cultivation and
sale of illegal marijuana as happened when alcohol was prohibited
early last century.
"The use of the criminal law to prohibit the production and sale of
drugs like marijuana creates a fantastically profitable black market."
He says a bushel of marijuana costs little more than a bushel of
tomatoes to produce. "By criminalizing it, by prohibiting it on the
black market, we have made it worth more than its weight in gold in
some cases."
Oscapella said the criminalization of marijuana use and production
encourages the development of modern day Al Capones.
He favours a model proposed by a Senate special committee on illegal
drugs in September, 2002. It basically recommended legalizing and
regulating marijuana. It would be sold much like alcohol is today,
with minimum ages for purchase at state-licensed outlets, like the
Liquor Control Board of Ontario, including in some specially
designated stores. Penalties for driving under the influence of
marijuana already exist.
There would also be a licensing system for commercial marijuana
growers, like large-scale alcohol distillers require. But anyone could
grow small amounts in their own gardens.
"Yes, some people are harmed by marijuana," he said. "People are
harmed by jogging, by rock climbing, by snowmobiling -- big in Owen
Sound. People are harmed by many, many things. But do we ban those
other things?"
Owen Sound Police Chief Tom Kaye said the reason police don't have the
upper hand on drug-growers is because of lenient court sentences.
"There is a huge amount of money involved in it, with little in the
way of penalty that's being handed out by the courts -- not that the
penalties aren't on the books -- but it's just that the courts have
taken a very laissez-faire approach," to sentencing.
The 2004 former Molson factory marijuana grow operation in Barrie
produced sentences of about 18 months, Kaye noted. That was touted as
Canada's biggest ever marijuana grow operation, with 30,000 plants
which police said would be worth $30 million on the street.
"Down in the United States, the average sentencing down there for a
grow op of much less is seven years in the penitentiary. So who's got
the bigger problem with grow ops? We do."
Kaye, a former head of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police,
said that organization is having second thoughts about endorsing the
federal government's intention to decriminalize the possession of
small amounts of marijuana, which would remove the threat faced by
young people who smoke a joint. Under the bill, possession of up to 15
grams of marijuana could lead to a fine of up to $150. Growing more
than 50 plants could attract a prison term of up to 14 years.
Kaye said the police association is concerned that the legalization
lobby has moved beyond decriminalization and is pushing to make the
use of marijuana legal and it's confusing the public. Even if people
could grow marijuana in their backyards, he thinks governments would
still be spending lots of money for police to chase marijuana growers,
just like police are fighting contraband cigarette producers -- to
protect tax revenue.
Kaye said legalizing marijuana would be asking for trouble. He called
it a "proven gateway drug," meaning its use leads to harder drug use
and polls show most people don't want it legalized.
Oscapella says he's never used marijuana and he's not seeking to relax
laws to allow him to start now. But using the law to enforce social
policy doesn't work, he argues.
"Why do some people use methamphetamines? Why do some use heroin? Why
do some use cocaine? Prohibition never asks those questions, it just
punishes everybody. It never looks at what we call the root causes of
harmful drug use."
Money would be better spent preventing the "small percentage" of
people who are harmed by these drugs through education and
understanding root causes, Oscapella said.
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