Four former B.C. attorneys general are joining a coalition of health and justice experts calling for the legalization of marijuana.
Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant have all signed a letter to B.C. Premier Christy Clark and B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix, calling on the politicians to endorse legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana.
The former attorneys general say the move would help reduce gang violence associated with the illegal marijuana trade, raise tax revenues and ease the burden on the province's court system.
"As former B.C. attorneys general, we are fully aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago," the letter reads.
"The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight. The evidence? Massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety, and significant — and escalating — costs to taxpayers."
The letter goes on to say that as attorneys general, the four men were responsible for overseeing the province's justice system and are well aware of the "burden" imposed on the court system by the enforcement of marijuana prohibition.
"We are therefore dismayed that the B.C. government supports the federal government’s move to impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor cannabis offences," says the letter. "These misguided prosecutions will further strain an already clogged system, without reducing cannabis prohibition-related violence or rates of cannabis use."
The letter goes on to compare today's marijuana laws to alcohol prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.
"It is time B.C. politicians listened to the vast majority of B.C. voters who support replacing cannabis prohibition in favour of a strictly regulated legal market for adult marijuana use," the letter reads.
Premier Christy Clark responded to the letter Tuesday, saying the decision isn't hers to make.
"I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government," she said. "It's in their sole sphere of responsibility, so as a premier I respect that former attorneys general have taken this stand, people who are outside of politics, but as a premier I'm going to leave this to the federal government."
In an interview with CBC News, Plant acknowledged B.C. politicians can't change federal law, but said this is about adding to the chorus of voices calling for the legalization of marijuana.
"I think the goal here is to add momentum to what is an increasingly public groundswell of a demand that governments recognize that the so-called war on drugs, the marijuana prohibition — it's not reducing the incidences of the use of marijuana," he said.
"Instead, it's feeding this huge and growing organized crime network that's causing people to get shot in the streets."
Plant said the aim is to get public policy in line with reality.
"There's evidence that indicates as many as 400,000 British Columbians that are regular consumers of marijuana. When they are possessing it, they're breaking the law and yet it seems that that's tolerated," he said.
"We like to think that in Canada we live in a society governed by the rule of law, but if one in 10 British Columbians exist outside that … it's almost kind of a joke to think that we truly believe in the rule of law when we are willing to tolerate behaviour that is, on the face of it, unlawful."
The former attorneys general join four former Vancouver mayors and the Health Officers Council of B.C. in their endorsement of Stop the Violence BC’s call to legally regulate the sale of marijuana under a public health framework.
Stop the Violence BC is a coalition of law enforcement officials, legal experts, public health officials and academic experts from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and the University of Northern B.C.

When they had the chance to do something, they did nothing.

Now they sit outside and bark.

“It’s time for our political leaders to accept and act on the overwhelming evidence linking marijuana prohibition to organized crime and gang violence,” said Geoff Plant, who served as attorney general from 2001 to 2005. “Punitive laws such as mandatory minimum sentences are clearly not the solution. Instead, taxation and regulation under a public health framework is the best way forward.”
...
To provincial and federal politicians who do not support taxation and regulation of marijuana, the former AGs asked that they outline their plan to:

* Reduce gang violence related to the illegal marijuana trade
* Ensure the judicial system works effectively in the face of escalating convictions
* Pay for increased prison and court system costs while the BC government runs deficits
* Prevent criminal enterprises from targeting BC’s youth for cannabis sales

“Laws that more aggressively enforce prohibition are obviously not the solution,” said Graeme Bowbrick, attorney general from 2000 to 2001. “It’s time for our politicians to listen to their constituents and reconsider our failed approach to cannabis policy.”

Using regulatory tools proven effective at reducing tobacco use will undercut the huge profits cannabis driving violent organized crime in BC. Not only that, cannabis regulation may also improve community health by making cannabis harder for young people to access, lessening cannabis grow-op associated property damage, and freeing up law enforcement resources to focus on criminal activity where law enforcement can reduce harm.

When they had the chance to do something, they did nothing.

Now they sit outside and bark.

Actually they're opinions are worth about 1,000,000 times what ours are because we're NOT former AGs.
Unless you're prepared to day my opinion on medicine is as important as a doctor's.

Come one, I have got grandchildren and it's still a criminal offence. It takes a week to make a law and over 50 years to correct a bad one. Hell the Tories don't even realize it's a bad law yet, that's where the politics come in. The Libs had decades and didin't do anything either.

It's all moot anyway. All the arguments mean dick until the US gets its head out of its ass in regards to pot.
Until that day, the best we can hope for is a re-decrimming of it for simple possession, AND more importantly to decrim the cultivation of enough for personal supplies.

Although,I can see all the dope smokers freaking out when they discover that you can still go to jail for growing since the only place you'll legally be able to get the stuff is from government run dispenseries.

I totally agree. This would have had way more impact if these guys had the gonads to say this while they were in office.

Typical sales-guys. No gonads.