[Dion]

A study by the Fraser Institute estimates the real value of B.C.'s marijuana industry at $7 billion in 2006, the same year the value of all the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting in B.C. totalled $5.3 billion.

The institute says there were 17,500 grow-ops province-wide that year.

"Don't think that all that money [$7 billion] is coming back to British Columbia," Rintoul says.

"Some of that money is going to other countries to support other organized-crime activities" involving cocaine, handguns and human smuggling.

He cites the recent bust of a crime group that was exporting 700 kilograms of B.C. bud worth $3 million per week to the U.S. -- and funnelling the profits to the gang's head office in Vietnam.

"If you legalized marijuana in Canada, you would be telling that organization, 'You now have a free reign in that activity,' because they were not selling their marijuana in Canada, they were always selling in the States. To legalize it here would not shut them down.

"The majority of marijuana grown in Canada is exported. So, to say, 'Oh, we'll tax that as well,' you can't tax it going down there, you can only tax what's in Canada.

"And a lot of people would not pay taxes because they could grow it themselves. "Rintoul also argues that a black market in marijuana would still exist if it were legal, since growers would try to avoid paying tax on it

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ne...1-5c265c7f8024