LEGALIZE POT - PROS AND CONS

Yes: Snub the Yanks

The discussion about keeping marijuana illegal is bogus. The stale
argument, peddled by the likes of U.S. drug enforcement czars, is
burning out and Vancouver has more important things to worry about.

We are living in a weak economy.

Stability for job security is unrecognizable.

Marijuana is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry, and eliminating
it is neither doable nor desirable. A wild idea, viable to fix this
particular dilemma of marijuana and our weak economy, is to combine
both in a nice and tidy economic package.

The legalization of marijuana would give British Columbia, and
Vancouver in particular, a sizable, economic increase. Even right wing
think tank experts at the Fraser Institute report a retail value of $7
billion dollars a year for marijuana. The report - Marijuana Growth in
British Columbia - proposes that if marijuana is taxed as a legal
product, it could generate over $2 billion dollars for the government.

Put that information with our dependence on the tourism industry and
we may have a match. Oh, but Vancouver wouldn't want drug tourism! The
horror! However, one must keep in mind the blatant attempt of
hypocrisy, when defending a right-wing ideology on legalizing
marijuana. No one talks about drug tourism when it comes to promoting
Canadian beer or BC's luxurious wine industry. There have been
numerous late-night brawls in the streets that often end with gunfire
and other mayhem.

But in order for this to work, there must be cause for the city and
the province to act independently from the nation's capital.

Canadian drug laws are set nationally, so it might seem that it would
be difficult for the city or the province to formally legalize
marijuana without Ottawa.

However, enforcement is carried out at the local level and there are
already major differences in the way marijuana prohibition is enforced
in BC compared to the rest of the country.

Vancouver and other B.C. cities could simply set their own policies
and instruct their police to act within certain guidelines, as the
Dutch do. Marijuana in Holland remains illegal in principal; cities
set their own marijuana policies within guidelines set by the national
government. Vancouver should send a delegation to Holland, and not
just to Amsterdam, to examine their coffee shop style system. But if
Vancouver attempted to venture in these foreign pot waters, what would
the American government say? Undoubtedly the American government would
bluster. But do the Canadian people want their policies set in
Washington? The people of BC are alienated enough from Ottawa, so what
sense would it make to bend over and comply with big brother?