SPEAKERS PUSH FOR LEGALITY, CITY PUSHES FOR HARDER LINE

While the City of Abbotsford aims to push ahead with stronger measures to
purge the city of marijuana growers, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association,
senators and the mayor of Vancouver are calling for its complete legalization.

The association held a Beyond Prohibition conference May 8 and 9 in
Vancouver to see what the world would look like without cannabis prohibition.

"By any objective standards, prohibition is an absolute and utter failure,"
said Kirk Tousaw, past BCCLA policy director and conference organizer.

Tousaw said the likelihood of legalizing marijuana is closer than it was
just six months ago, as the federal New Democratic Party said it will push
for full legalization. He said most Canadians are prepared to see that happen.

"We just need to shake off our fear of what the United States might do and
the fear from the stable of lies promoted by prohibitionists. Some
prohibitionists like Mr. [Langley-Abbotsford MP Randy] White wouldn't
recognize the truth if he ran up and bit him," Tousaw said Wednesday.

The conference reviewed post-prohibition regulation options, potential
effects of legalizing pot and its safe cultivation. Speakers ranging from
Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell, Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin to economists,
former police officers, health experts and growers argued that keeping
marijuana illegal was no longer an option. It wastes police resources,
fuels criminal activity and makes criminals out of regular citizens, they said.

Campbell, a former RCMP officer and B.C. coroner, said he wants pot legal
and taxed, with the money going to health care.

While Nolin is lobbying the Prime Minister's Office to legalize pot, he was
opposed to the proposed Bill C-10 that would have allowed possession of
small amounts of marijuana but still impose criminal sentences against
growers and suppliers. [That bill is now dead.]

"I firmly believe, that for the preservation of life, public health,
personal safety and autonomy, freedom and democracy, prohibition of
cannabis use and production needs to be abandoned," said Nolin, chairman of
the 2002 special Senate committee that called for legalization.

BCCLA executive director Murray Mollard said that dichotomy in policies
doesn't make sense any more.

"As long as you have demand, you'll have supply. You'll get people
criminalized for supplying a relatively harmless substance," Mollard said.

If the Criminal Code was not used to control pot use, "police could be
freed up to pursue real criminals, not criminals we've created through
criminal justice policies," Tousaw said.

"It's silly really. When you're a criminal, you're harming someone. A
cannabis user is not that person. The cannabis producer is not that person.
You eliminate the illegal part of the market and suddenly you have
legitimate business people," Tousaw said.

Abbotsford police chief Ian Mackenzie said while use of illicit drugs was a
complex social and health issue, their use "does relate to criminal activity."

"It's a classic case example of police getting caught in the middle," and
until politicians change the law, while pot remains in the Controlled Drug
and Substance portion of the Canada Criminal Code, the Abbotsford police
will enforce the law, Mackenzie said. He said grow-ops pose a threat to
health and safety in the community, and the police and city hall get calls
every day. However, he said the APD doesn't "aggressively" pursue
possession infractions.

Mackenzie said if the police weren't busting grow-ops, they would likely be
targeting traffickers of hard drugs, such as methamphetamines.

Mollard suggests Abbotsford mayor Mary Reeves' intent to eliminate grow-ops
through an expanded array of bylaws and policing will be a waste of city
money and resources. The black market will be impossible to eradicate,
Mollard said.

"It's nice to see there are still people with their heads in the sand . . .
You're not going to eliminate them, just like they're not going to get rid
of marijuana. Grow-ops aren't inherently dangerous, it's when you
criminalize it you get problems," Mollard said Wednesday.

Abbotsford pot activist Tim Felger said the city will be opening themselves
up to liabilities, "especially in this period of quasi-legal status, if
[the police] hurt someone in a drug bust. The police do have discretion -
they don't shoot a kid for stealing a Tootsie roll," he said.

Meanwhile last week the American Journal for Public Health published a
joint U.S.-Dutch study last week that found cannabis use doesn't lead to
the use of harder drugs. Nor would legalizing cannabis increase its use,
nor does keeping it criminalized keep people from using it, the study found.

"Our findings do not support claims criminalization reduces cannabis use
and that decriminalization increases cannabis use," wrote authors Craig
Reinarman, a University of California sociology professor and Peter Cohen
and Hendrien Kaal of the Centre for Drug Research at University of Amsterdam.

Abby plan would purge city of grow-ops

Abbotsford Mayor Mary Reeves [right] spearheaded a task force to deal to
try to eliminate marijuana growing operations in the city's jurisdiction.

In April, the task force brainstormed and came up with initiatives
including changing criteria for business licences for hydroponic greenhouse
suppliers, inciting public outrage, informing the public on how to report
suspected offenders, pressuring the federal government for stiffer
sentences and smashing and destroying equipment used in grow-ops to
eliminate reuse and storage costs and giving more power and resources to
the Abbotsford police.

Currently about seven police officers work full time in the drug squad,
which uses about 3.4 per cent of the APD's $23-million operating budget.
The city's 2004 operating budget is about $94 million.

Other ideas include identifying growing operations with signs on front
lawns, posting addresses on a web page and having real estate agents
disclose grow-op histories of houses they are selling.

It will also look to other municipalities and cities to see what they're
doing. The task force also looked at ways to make business difficult and
less lucrative for pot growers, with new laws and expanded laws and bylaws.
The 17-member task force is set to meet again in June.