B.C. MEDICAL GROUP URGES LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Some B.C. medical health officials are advocating for the legalization
of marijuana, arguing that the government's costly enforcement
activities are making little difference.

The Health Officers' Council of B.C., which represents B.C.'s medical
health officers and other physicians, researchers and consultants, is
endorsing a report being released today that suggests a direct link
between the province's $7-billion illegal cannabis industry and the
increase in gang-related homicides in B.C. from 1997 to 2009.

The report, based on Canadian and U.S. data, finds that Canada's
anti-marijuana enforcement strategies are failing to keep pot out of
the hands of teens, who said it is relatively easy to locate a
supplier willing to sell them a bag of the increasingly potent grass.

The report has been compiled by Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of
B.C. law enforcement officials, health experts and academics
advocating marijuana law reform.

Geared toward "debunking" the government's argument that current
anti-drug measures are working, the report, titled "How not to protect
health and safety: What the government's own data say about the
effects of cannabis prohibition," assesses the effects of both U.S.
and Canadian anti-drug funding on marijuana supply, potency and use.

The report said that despite expenditure of an estimated $260 million
in drug-law enforcement since 2007, pot smoking among Canadian youth
(defined as being 15 to 24 years old) increased considerably since the 1990s.

In B.C., 27 per cent of youth said they had smoked pot "at least once"
in the past year, according to a 2009 study cited in the report.

This compares to the 20 per cent of Ontario high school students who
responded "Yes" to the same question in 2009, a doubling of the 10 per
cent who did so in 1991.

Dr. Evan Wood, a Vancouver physician and founder of Stop the Violence
B.C., said the report provides a strong argument against the federal
government's current "blanket prohibition" policy on pot, which he
said has contributed to a "range of serious unintended consequences in
terms of organized crime and gang violence."

"By every metric, this policy is failing to meet its objectives," Wood
said. "Why wouldn't we [look at a regulating model] when we know that
what we are doing now is both ineffective and harmful?"