POLICE CHIEF SAYS POT STUDY 'UNREALISTIC'

A recommendation by a Fraser Institute study to legalize the marijuana
industry is unrealistic, says Port Moody Police Chief Const. Paul Shrive.

"Marijuana in B.C. is like potatoes in P.E.I. - everybody can grow
them," Shrive said.

"So what system could possibly come into place, when people could have
their own marijuana patch? As they're harvesting, they're going to
say, 'Oh yes, here's the portion that I owe the government.'"

The study, Marijuana Growth in British Columbia, released Wednesday by
the Fraser Institute, was written by Stephen Easton, a Simon Fraser
University economics professor.

Comparing it to the prohibition of alcohol, Easton argues that the
prohibition of marijuana is unsustainable in the long term.

He points to the proliferation of grow operations, the availability of
technology to produce marijuana and the level of enforcement.

The multi-billion dollar industry should be legalized and taxed,
Easton says, something that could possibly generate more than $2
billion in revenue.

"Alcohol prohibition in the U.S. expanded organized crime in North
America," Easton states in his conclusion.

"Removing alcohol prohibition generated many problems, but none like
those afflicting society in the days of Al Capone and his ilk.
Removing the prohibition on marijuana production would permit society
to replace today's gift of revenue to organized crime with (at the
very least) an additional source of revenue for government coffers."

But Shrive described the comparisons between prohibition of alcohol
and marijuana as inconsistent.

"These people continue to compare prohibition on marijuana to the same
as the prohibition days on alcohol, and it just makes me crazy,
because alcohol was at the top of its game - that's as high as you
went," Shrive said.

"You didn't go from alcohol to now the next worst thing, where with
marijuana, we see traditional organized crime already shifting their
emphasis from marijuana to methamphetamine labs."

Instead of legalization, Shrive called for tougher consequences for
grow operators and improved proceeds of crime laws.

Legalizing marijuana, Shrive said, would also send the wrong message
to youth.

"This whole approach that 'We've lost the battle, so let's get in on
the good times and squeeze organized crime out, and we'll get the
money instead of them,' - I just don't want to belly up to that bar,"
Shrive said.

"It has no appeal to me whatsoever."