LITTLE CHANCE FOR LEGAL POT BONANZA, EXPERT SAYS

Senate Report Unlikely To Put Marijuana On Store Shelves

Marijuana should be legalized and sold like tobacco or liquor, a Senate
committee recommended Wednesday, but a drug-policy expert says doing so
would not add big money to B.C.'s tax revenue.

"It'll never be as popular as alcohol," said Neil Boyd, a criminologist at
Simon Fraser University.

Boyd commented after a committee headed by Conservative Senator
Pierre-Claude Nolin recommended that possession of marijuana, also known as
cannabis, be made legal for people over 16 and regulated as alcohol is.

The recommendation could lead the way to marijuana being sold in stores in
the same way as tobacco or wine, said Nolin, whose committee conducted a
two-year investigation of marijuana use.

The B.C. government's take in taxes and margin from liquor sales is
expected to be $640 million this year. Last year, the government's Liquor
Distribution Branch had sales of about $1.8 billion, making it one of the
largest retail operations in B.C.

Although police statistics put the wholesale value of B.C. marijuana
production at about $6 billion -- making it one of the province's big
industries, including spinoff benefits such as sales of hydroponic growing
equipment --measuring the size of an illegal industry is difficult.

Boyd said legalized cannabis "won't provide that much of an economic
stimulation.

"You need to be careful about analyzing the cost and benefits of legalizing
the crop because you'd put a lot of people out of work," he said, "but if
you take it out of private hands, you put it into the public good."

"Good" was not the word used by Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham, who
told reporters: "We are not in favour of legalizing any drug.

"We believe -- and I continue to believe -- that marijuana is a gateway
drug and it leads to more harmful drugs," Graham said.

Boyd and other supporters of the decriminalization of marijuana were
pleased with the Senate committee's recommendation, but were doubtful it
will become a reality in the near future.

"I don't think anyone should think the government is going to follow this
recommendation," said Boyd, who appeared before the committee, when it held
hearings on Canada's anti-drug laws. "From the perspective of public policy
and public health, it's a very sound recommendation, but from the
perspective of political life, I don't think it will fly.

"In where Canada sits in the world and in terms of the American attitude
[towards drugs] and the general deference the Canadian government has
shown, putting marijuana into the stores alongside liquor won't happen."

He said the same is true for another recommendation calling for an amnesty
for any person who has been convicted of cannabis possession under current
or past legislation.

"The proposal makes a lot of sense," Boyd said. "It's just that I don't
think we're living in a time when it will be implemented.

Hilary Black, of the B.C. Compassion Club Society, which advocates legal
use of marijuana for medical purposes, said the committee made some good
recommendations.

"We hope this will strengthen Canada's political spine and move away from
the draconian laws, she said. "In terms of the amnesty, we're very pleased
that everyone who's had a conviction or a possession charge would have
their record expunged. We'd like to see that extended to growers and
distributors."

Black said about 30 members of the B.C. Compassion Club have received
exemptions by Health Canada to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Recreational-use advocates were happy, too.

"It's a beacon of light from the Senate" said Marc Emery, president of the
Marijuana party and its candidate for Vancouver's mayoral election.

David Malmo-Levine, another long-time pot-legalization activist, said he
was "ecstatic."

He goes to the Supreme Court of Canada, along with two others, on Dec. 13
to argue his appeal of a pot conviction, bolstered now by the Senate
committee's proposals.

"The senators have [made] us all high here on the West Coast," said
Malmo-Levine. "I'm glad that age does not seem to remove common sense from
your brain."

While police have cracked down recently on marijuana production, many
forces still take a lenient attitude towards marijuana use. Unlike police
in other provinces, police here seldom pursue charges for possession in
B.C., and those charged with possession in B.C. almost never make it to court.

Most cases of possession in B.C. are handled outside the court system,
usually through "no-case seizures" where police seize and destroy the
marijuana they find and write a report, but do not recommend charges.

B.C. Attorney-General Geoff Plant said marijuana is not a provincial concern.

"This is a matter for the federal government. It is not a matter on which
the government of British Columbia has a position and not a matter on which
I have an opinion."