TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO ABANDON FAILED MARIJUANA STRATEGY

VICTORIA - B.C.'s approach to marijuana makes about as much sense as
America's great Prohibition experiment in the '20s. In both cases, the
governments took aim at substances that are widely accepted. And in
both cases, they decided that the way to achieve the goal was to wipe
out the supply.

It's a doomed approach, as Prohibition established. The only big
winners are serious criminals. Statistics Canada has just released a
new survey on drug use, which found that 16 per cent of British
Columbians 15 and over had used marijuana in 2002. That's about
525,000 people, not nearly as many who knocked back a few beer on a
Friday night but still an awful lot of people to portray as criminals.

Among younger British Columbians marijuana use is even more
prevalent.

Across Canada, more than one-third of people from 15 and 24 have used
marijuana in the last 12 months. The data suggests the percentage is
about 45 per cent in B.C.

You can't arrest half-a-million people. So Solicitor General Rich
Coleman is advocating more enforcement, and tougher penalties, for the
people who supply marijuana. He said the StatsCan results showed the
need for the courts to get tough with people who run grow ops.

It's a doomed approach, like Prohibition. Economic laws are just as
powerful as the ones passed by politicians.

When enough Americans wanted a drink after work, suppliers - from Al
Capone to neighbourhood bootleggers - emerged to meet the demand. When
millions of Canadians have decided they want to smoke pot from time to
time, then suppliers will emerge. That's the way markets work.

When demand is huge, attacking the supply side won't work. Too many
people want to buy and the rewards are too great. And the public is
not going to accept harsher and harsher penalties for people growing
marijuana that one in six of them consume.

B.C. has tried. Despite the relaxed reputation, police lay a lot of
charges. The StatsCan study found the rate of pot use in B.C. was
about 25 per cent higher than the national average, the rate at which
charges were laid was 75 per cent higher. It hasn't worked, prompting
calls for tougher penalties. But look south of the border, where the
war on drugs has been fought by locking up people.

Fewer than one in five people convicted in B.C. for running a grow op
do jail time. In Washington State, almost half those convicted get a
jail term of five years or more, Coleman says. But the only result has
been crowded jails. Marijuana is still readily available, and widely
used. And despite concern about imports from Canada, most U.S.
marijuana is grown domestically.

The B.C. government's stated concern is organized crime, and it's
logical that any illegal activity with big cash profits is going to
attract serious criminals.

But the current strategy isn't working. It's not reducing use, or the
role of organized gangs. That doesn't mean government has to give up.
But it needs a new approach.

One obvious answer is to shift resources from indiscriminately busting
grow ops to focusing specifically on organized crime. The Organized
Crime Agency of BC - now rolled into the RCMP - complained that a
budget freeze left it unable to do its job. That hardly fits with a
commitment to tackling the problem.

Another is an education campaign on all drugs, from alcohol to heroin,
aimed at young users. Many aren't going to stop using, but with good
information they can make much more sensible choices.

And another is to simply be more creative. If the aim is to rob
organized crime of marijuana profits, then an easy answer is to turn a
blind eye to people growing a dozen plants. Supply increases, prices
fall and there's no role for the gangs. (An obvious, more complicated
solution would be to legalize marijuana, placing it under government
regulation.)

The choices are complicated. But one thing is clear - what we're doing
now isn't working.

Footnote: The government also needs to be on the alert for unintended
consequences. The Organized Crime Agency noted last year that efforts
against grow ops had driven gangs into the production of crystal meth, a
drug taking a terrible toll on young British Columbians.