Marijuana.com

Plainsman1963

A smart response to B.C.'s pot habit
10-06-06 | Canada.Com

Stephen Harper should take a hard look at this week's study on marijuana use from the University of Victoria's Centre for Addiction Research. It signals certain failure for the kind of law-and-order crackdown on the drug the Conservatives appear to favour.

That shouldn't be a surprise, just as the study's findings shouldn't come as a shock. British Columbians are more likely both to use marijuana and to believe that it should be decriminalized.

About 1.8 million British Columbians say they have used marijuana, a majority of the adult population.

More significantly, some 590,000 people have used it in the past 12 months. That is an awful lot of people Harper thinks should be considered criminals. (Conservative candidates in B.C. only attracted about 680,000 votes in the last election.) All those pot-smokers represent a market so large that efforts to choke off the supply through law enforcement are doomed, just as Prohibition was doomed in the 1920s. When a product is widely accepted and in demand, the market will respond. Even with a massive investment in policing and the criminal justice system, new suppliers will continue to emerge.

That's already happened. A University of the Fraser Valley study on growops found that in 1997 police across B.C. investigated more than 90 per cent of grow-op reports within one month.

By 2003, that had fallen to 50 per cent.

Up to 25 per cent of reports were never followed up. The study found almost two-thirds of British Columbians reported pot was easy to find.

None of this is to suggest that marijuana use is harmless. The study suggests that about 10 per cent of those surveyed were at moderate risk of problems related to their marijuana use.

The consequences of pot use may be less serious than other drugs, including alcohol. But they shouldn't be ignored.

But a strategy based on arresting more people and locking them up for longer periods isn't going to work. As long as demand is strong and the public considers marijuana use acceptable, supplies will be there.

Real solutions start with defining the problems. If marijuana production has become a major revenue source for organized-crime groups, then perhaps the most effective measure would be to legalize possession of a small number of plants, cutting the criminals out of the game. If the concern is with abuse, especially by young people, then increase fact-based education and counselling about sensible substance use.

There are practical ways to reduce the harm from drugs. But the experience of the last several decades -- and the results from this study -- should have shown us that a tough law-andorder approach isn't one of them.

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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." - Claire Wolfe

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And if sales are taxed and regulated, like sales of alcohol and tobacco, pot will be less available to minors than it is under prohibition. American teens who were surveyed said that marijuana is readily available and easier to get than tobacco or alcohol.

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