COURTS HAVE PUT POT LAWS IN LIMBO

Most British Columbians Convicted Of Growing Marijuana Aren't Jailed Or Fined

Pssst! Want to make a lot of illegal money with almost no risk? Try growing
marijuana in British Columbia.

That's what the B.C. court statistics show, anyway. Figures published by
The Vancouver Sun show that, thanks to a lenient court system, the chances
of being jailed after a conviction for growing pot are about one in seven.

Your chances of being fined are also low -- about one in four -- and the
average fine is about $1,800, ludicrously low considering the profits to be
made from pot.

Meanwhile, the majority of those convicted in B.C. courts of growing
marijuana -- six out of 10 -- receive neither jail time nor a fine.

And the odds are even better for those lucky enough to be convicted in
Vancouver: Only about one in 11 gets jail time, while only one in 10 gets a
fine.

Four out of five growers leave court with no penalties at all.

These figures are dismaying for Solicitor General Rich Coleman and for the
province's police forces, who spend time, manpower and money making about
1,500 raids a year against grow-ops.

As solicitor general, Coleman isn't allowed to directly influence judges,
but he's getting the word out that he would like tougher sentences.

"I think we have to recognize that the courts, though independent, have to
be reflective of the needs of the communities they serve," Coleman says.

"I think it's time that they recognize that the whole business of marijuana
growing, tied into organized crime, is a serious pressure on our communities."

Actually, it's likely that the province's judges are trying, in their own
way, to be reflective of the communities they serve.

For a start, pot-growing is a multi-billion-dollar business in B.C.; that
means thousands of people depend on it for their income.

Second, poll after poll shows that a majority of B.C. residents want pot
legalized, although the same polls show people want tougher penalties, but
not necessarily prison, for marijuana growers -- which, when you think
about it, doesn't make much sense. If marijuana were legal, somebody would
have to grow it.

There is considerable harm from illegal grow-ops, including the risk of
fire due to unsafe electrical wiring and their financial support for
organized crime. But most of the harm arises from the fact that growing is
illegal, and therefore cannot be regulated as a law-abiding agri-business.

Meanwhile, of course, the province is losing hundreds of millions in
potential tax revenue, further millions on the costs of policing and
prosecuting, only to be shot down in the courts, and a few million more on
incarcerating the very few growers who do, almost miraculously, actually
end up in jail.

If marijuana were legal, or at least decriminalized, then grow-ops would be
producing a legal -- or not illegal -- product, with fewer of these
problems and expenses.

That said, as the law stands now, the growing of marijuana is illegal, and
until the laws are changed, judges should not be taking the law into their
own hands, as it were, and refusing to enforce the law.

What this does is create grower -- and public -- disrespect for the law in
general, while the very real problems connected with illegal grow-ups
continue to fester.

In other words, we have the worst of both worlds in B.C. because
pot-growing exists in a kind of shadowy Neverland: it's illegal, but not
really illegal.

The law against grow-ops is the law, and B.C. judges should be enforcing
that law until such time as the politicians summon the moral courage, or
just common sense, to change it.