DA KINE EXPOSES OUR POT FOLLIES

It's hard to see the people who run the Da Kine pot shop as criminal
masterminds.

The little store on Vancouver's Commercial Drive has been the city's
most famous site for the last two weeks.

Hundreds of hours of police time, lots of media coverage, police and
politicians running to and fro - all for a small store that's
committed the crime of openly selling marijuana.

No doubt it was a good business, especially once the media told
everybody about the opportunity.

When police - some 30 of them - finally raided Da Kine, they scooped
up $63,000. Despite the cash, and the involvement of a convicted
big-time pot grower, Da Kine looks mostly like disorganized crime.

If the goal was big profits, they could have quietly kept on
selling.

Instead, the store operators embraced the publicity, and pretty much
dared the police to do something.

Which, or course, they did.

The whole weird saga says something about our doomed war on
marijuana.

The story broke that Da Kine was selling over-the-counter marijuana
about two weeks ago.

Customers had to say they needed the drug for medicinal reasons, but
the rules were, shall we say, relaxed.

So the reporters asked police what they knew, and what they were going
to do.

We know they're selling marijuana, said Vancouver Police. And we're
not going to do anything, because, in case you haven't looked around
lately, Vancouver has bigger crime problems.

Vancouver city councillors mostly expressed the same ho-hum attitude.
As long as nobody gets too upset, they had other issues to worry about.

But then Da Kine kept making the news.

Solicitor General Rich Coleman said he was sure police would act.
Vancouver politicians started getting a little more worried.

Instead of quietly skirting the law, the Da Kine operators were making
police look like they weren't doing their jobs.

So they did, scooping up half-a-dozen people.

The next day the store was open for business again.

If it keeps making news, the police will probably have to arrest some
more people.

It's a bizarre story, and one that shows just how muddled our approach
to marijuana has become.

Marijuana possession is a crime, sort of, at least until Prime
Minister Paul Martin changes the law.

Selling marijuana is a crime, but not one ordinarily of high police
interest unless you work at attracting their attention.

The confusion is understandable, since police and prosecutors are in
an impossible position.

One in six B.C. adults, according to StatsCan, likely used marijuana
in the last 12 months.

That's more than half-a-million people - too many to arrest.

Those people are also a significant market, one that is virtually
certain to attract people keen on supplying it.

The tougher enforcement efforts against them, the higher the profits
for those who are successful, the more people who enter the business,
and the more likely organized crime becomes involved.

(See the U.S. attempt at alcohol prohibition, and the rise of big-time
gangsters).

Arresting the staff of the Da Kine cafe didn't even shut down the
store, let alone make a dent in the marijuana supply.

There was no real alternative to raiding Da Kine, given the operators'
provocations.

But there is an opportunity to rethink our overall approach to marijuana.

In a perfect world, nobody would go looking for drugs to alter their
reality - not marijuana,alcohol, crystal meth or anything else.

But this isn't a perfect world, and that poses three key challenges.

First, we need to make sure potential users, especially young ones,
get an accurate understanding of the specific risks of the various
drugs out there. Then we need to have adequate support and treatment
for people who are dealing with drug problems.

We also need to come up with an effective enforcement approach.

One thing we don't need to do more of, however, is rush around ripping
up grow-ops and/or raiding stores.

Neither accomplish anything. The marijuana supply isn't reduced;
organized criminals are only inconvenienced; drug use is unaffected.
And what is the point of that?

Footnote: Wondering about alternatives? If the concern is organized crime,
then we need to come up with more money for law enforcement.

The now-defunct Organized Crime Agency of B.C. cites a budget freeze
for making its work impossible.

For a more radical approach, simply legalize possession of a few
marijuana plants. The commercial grow-op business - which exists to
supply the domestic market - would wither away.