HEALTH OFFICIALS BACK POT

Experts Say Enforcement Isn't Working, Violence Is Rising

A group of B.C. health officials are throwing its weight behind the
cause of marijuana legalization, 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
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 say it is relatively easy to locate a supplier
willing to sell them a bag of the increasingly potent grass.

The report, compiled by Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of B.C.
law-enforcement officials, health experts and academics, advocates
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) has increased considerably since
the 1990s.

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

Meantime, according to U.S. data, 80-to 90 per cent of American 12th
graders said it is "very easy" or "fairly easy" to buy weed, which is
cheaper and nine times stronger than it was 10 years ago. The report
noted that similar studies weren't available for the Canadian market,
although it did highlight a 2006 report that pegged THC levels in
Canadian marijuana at 10.3 per cent, which is considered high.

"The unmistakable interpretation of these government surveillance data
is that, while increased funding for anti-cannabis law enforcement
does increase cannabis seizures and arrests, the assumption that this
approach reduces cannabis potency, increases price or meaningfully
reduces cannabis avail-ability and use is inconsistent with virtually
all available data," the report concludes.

Dr. Evan Wood, a Vancouver physician and founder of Stop the Violence
B.C., told The Province that 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?"

By regulating the market, he said, the distribution and use of the
drug would be more controlled and would also eliminate organized crime
from the equation. It would also provide a source of tax revenue in
the hundreds of mil-lions, he added.

To coincide with the release of the report, the Health Officers
Council of B.C., a registered society of B.C. Public Health
Physicians, will announce today the passing of a resolution offering
full support to Stop the Violence B.C.

The council has about 90 members, consisting of approximately equal
numbers of public-health physicians, medical-health officers and
retired medical-health officers.

Accompanying the report is a new Angus Reid poll that found 59 per
cent of 800 British Columbians surveyed disagreed that pot is more
harmful than alcohol, 54 per cent disagreed that it was dangerous and
addictive and 51 per cent don't believe it to be a gateway drug.