CRIMINALS WANT ILLEGAL POT

The recent release of a report on marijuana growth and trade by the
Fraser Institute has sparked, yet again, the debate about the
legalization of pot.

Yet, unlike the often-touted benefits of marijuana used medicinally,
as well as the rights of personal consumption, this report makes a
clear distinction that is elemental to the issue - it makes good
dollars and sense for government.

By the report's estimates, British Columbia's $7-billion pot industry
is booming, with some 17,500 grow-ops in this province alone. Add to
that the fact that more than 23 per cent of Canadians admit to having
used pot, and 7.5 per cent admit to using it regularly, and you've got
a law that harkens back to the alcohol prohibition of the early 1900s.

While the report, entitled Marijuana Growth in British Columbia, uses
these stats to urge the decriminalization of pot, they are merely the
peripheral, traditional arguments. What's compelling about this report
is that it addresses the financial reality of legalization.

"The broader social question becomes less about whether we approve or
disapprove of local production, but rather who shall employ the
spoils," states the report. "Growers and distributors . . . reap all
the benefits of the multibillion dollar marijuana industry, while the
non-marijuana-smoking taxpayer sees only the costs."

When I was in university, the startling return on pot production was
apparent to a number of my acquaintances, who, even though they didn't
toke the reefer, operated some of the most sophisticated operations
you could imagine. These people weren't the "criminals" selling weed
to school children or trading it for crack and guns, which police
would have you believe, but were growing it to pay for school rather
than mount $50,000 in debt.

The reality here is that the return on grow-ops is simply too tempting
and ridiculously easy to get away with. For every bust paraded in
front of media cameras, another operation gets underway. And, it's a
growing industry.

However, most of the growers out there aren't college students; they
are run by skilled professionals with real organized crime middlemen
and the associated criminal activity. They are there only because the
money is there, not because they believe in the right for people to
smoke and certainly not for the medical benefits it provides to people
with cancer and glaucoma.

The single worst thing that could happen for professional growers is
the legalization of the herb. It would eliminate the middleman, often
the organized criminal element, and would severely impact profits, not
to mention regulations regarding safety of production (and an end to
the destruction of private rental properties).

It would also take away the demand; people who smoke pot
recreationally usually do not do so in large quantities (if they do
they grow their own), and would just as easily go pay the potential
taxes to get a legal "marijuana cigarette."

The Fraser report estimates, based on current cigarette tax markup,
that the sale of legal pot could generate as much as $2 billion for
governments. This, along with the cost-savings of RCMP enforcement and
re-deployment to other hard-drug activity, would equate to money in
Ottawa's coffers, and a better bang for the taxpayers' buck.

This is a matter of simple economics. We haven't seen a proliferation
in illegal alcohol production since prohibition was lifted, nor would
we see such activity if the profit margin and demand were removed
through legalization.

Toke or no toke - pot laws are simply a joke. Ethical arguments and
personal convictions aside, we simply can't afford to keep loosing
this futile war on marijuana's production and trade.

* Ryan Kuhn is the city editor for Kamloops This Week. To comment,
e-mail editor@kamloops thisweek.com.