PART TWO - THE DEBATE OVER LEGALIZATION

Nelson planters, police and politicians sound off on the Senate's call to
decriminalize pot possession

You can smell it in the air, either on the local streets or hillsides - and
people in Parliament and the rest of the country are buzzing about it.

Today, in the second part of a three part series on the pot industry in
B.C., Darren Davidson listens to what locals are saying about the Senate's
groundbreaking recommendation that possession of the drug be legalized.

All throughout Nelson there were cheers, ceremonial chuffs and concerns
over potential challenges following last week's announcement that a Senate
committee had recommended legalization of marijuana.

Pot proponents, police and politicians are trying to figure out how the
surprising drug law reform suggestion would affect both business and pleasure.

"We're closer to legalization or decriminalization than we've ever been.
We're moving towards a marijuana economy with decreased risk and increased
profit," says two-time Marijuana Party candidate Dan Loehndorf.

"But that doesn't mean we should stop pushing for relaxed drug laws. In the
past the government has lead us to think they're going to decriminalize,
and they haven't."

Loehndorf says the Senate recommendations have prompted "huge concern on
the part of growers as to what's going to happen to their economy under
legalization."

The 35-year-old, also a writer for Canada's internationally distributed
Cannabis Culture magazine, notes that under slacker pot laws, growers might
still be charged for cultivation.

"We need to have a very clear idea of how we're going to protect our
current economy."

Loehndorf says the marijuana economy in B.C. has an estimated worth of
between four and 10 billion annually.

"And the bulk of money doesn't go to drug barons," he adds, "It goes to
feed, clothe and provide homes for families throughout many communities in
B.C., some devastated by the lagging economy."

Admitting "a little surprise" at the Senate call, local MP Jim Gouk says
Parliament could see new legislation brought forward next year.

"But just because legislation comes out, doesn't mean anything's going to
take place. But it starts debate on it."

Gouk says revised marijuana laws are going to garner a lot of public
consultation.

"This is not something you ram down people's throats."

Gouk, who found favorable response in a door-to-door survey he did on the
legalization of medicinal marijuana three years ago, says he hasn't heard
much debate from constituents regarding the latest pot issue. He suggests
the Senate is simply trying to see what people are thinking about the
issue. Gouk says he has "a lot of mixed thoughts" on legalization but has
said publicly that if law enforcement agencies can find a way to test for
pot in the same way they can test for alcohol, he "sees no more reason for
it to be illegal than alcohol."

"I think we have to do something," he adds, "The reality is it's been
illegal for 80 years and people still use it."

Gouk says processing the average pot possession charge can cost taxpayers
$30,000.

"We're spending an awful lot of money on something we're not preventing, on
something we're not even slowing down."

Nelson City Police share some of Gouk's concerns, admitting that "drug
possession really isn't treated that significantly by the courts,"
according to Inspector Henry Paivarinta.

In B.C., Paivarinta says "you get no more time even if you've got nine
previous [possession] convictions. So what's the point in bringing them in
for a tenth, eleventh and twelfth."

In the past four years the NCP "no-action" case-load - where drugs are
seized and destroyed, but no charges are laid - has increased from seven
per cent to 23 per cent.

But Paivarinta is concerned about the effects legalization will have on
teens, especially those who have dabbled with soft drugs and want to move
on to more harmful narcotics.

"If you legalize it, a lot more kids will experiment with it when they
realize there's no penalty for using it."

Paivarinta has been a cop for 20 years, some of that time he spent on
Vancouver's southeast side, an area where soft drug use was common amongst
kids.

"My experience has been you start at one level, then move on to the next.
With drug use, it takes additional quantities to achieve the same highs,
because your body builds up an immunity to it."

Paivarinta says legalization will only pass some of law enforcement's pot
problems on to the school system.

Philip McMillan doesn't buy the NCP argument.

The 27-year-old is the facility director of the Nelson Cannabis Compassion
Club, a non-profit organization that sells pot to 160 clients who use the
drug to curb suffering from illness and disease.

"Anybody who has smoked marijuana knows the truth," says McMillan.

"Marijuana is a benign drug. This generation of politicians knows the truth
too."

However, while the club's clientele is mostly in their 50s and 60s,
McMillan admits marijuana is "a drug of youth."

Nevertheless, he doesn't think teen drug abuse will get any worse if
marijuana possession is legalized.

"I really don't see it as an issue - like guns in school," he says. "I'd
trade a kid a joint for a gun any day."