TIME TO ABANDON POT STRATEGY

B.C.'s approach to marijuana makes about as much sense as America's great
Prohibition experiment in the 1920s.

In both cases, the governments took aim at substances that are widely
accepted. And in both cases, they decided 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.

StatsCan 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 to 24 has 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
neighborhood 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. 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.

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.

The only result has been crowded jails. Marijuana is still readily
available, and widely used. And despite concern about imports from Canada,
most marijuana used in the U.sS. is grown there.

The B.C. government's stated concern is organized crime. 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 fights 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.