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VANCOUVER — Billions of dollars have been put towards nipping the drug-trade in the bud, yet the ease of obtaining marijuana and its potency have bloomed, while its price has dropped, according to a prominent group lobbying for cannabis legalization.
A new report by the Stop the Violence BC coalition of health, academic and justice experts will be released today to demonstrate the result of current anti-drug policy.
It uses government-funded data to show that cannabis trends are thriving, despite decades of huge cash injections to law enforcement agencies in both Canada and the U.S.
"If the goal is to reduce the availability of marijuana, it's clearly been a dramatic failure," said Dr. Evan Wood, a founding member of the coalition and director at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS.
"By every metric, the government's own data has shown this policy has clearly not achieved its stated objective."
The report, called "How not to protect community health and safety," is being released as the federal Conservatives' omnibus crime bill -- which toughens penalties for growing and possessing pot -- heads towards speedy passage into law.
The coalition contends the proposed measures continue to propel policy in the wrong direction, when what the government should be doing is regulating and taxing cannabis under a comprehensive public health framework.
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Since 2007, the majority of at least $260 million in funding against drugs from Ottawa has been allocated to policing. Between 1990 to 2009, arrests have increased by 70 per cent.
Meanwhile, the parallel U.S. budget has increased from $1.5 billion in 1981 to $18 billion in 2002.
Arrests jumped there by 160 per cent between 1990 and 2009, while pot seizures more than quadrupled.
But at the same time, prevalence of cannabis use rose.
The Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey showed 27 per cent of B.C. youth between 15 and 24 smoked weed at least once in the previous year.
In Ontario, the number of high school students using pot doubled from fewer than 10 per cent in 1991 to more than 20 per cent in 2009.
In the U.S., use climbed about eight per cent among Grade 12 students.
"It's just so clear that organized crime has absolutely overwhelmed these law enforcement efforts with the price of marijuana going down dramatically ... (and) the potency has gone up astronomically," Wood said.
Among the groups supporting the initiative to legalize marijuana is the 19-member Health Officer's Council of B.C.
Dr. Paul Hasselback, who chairs the council, said medical experts are not asserting the drug is safe, but that policy as it stands puts the public at even greater risk.
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http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...-bloom-111222/
As a Vancouerite who follows organized crime news closely, there appears to be a shifting of public opinion in the city (and i'm assuming the province). What many people used to acknowledge before in the privacy of their own homes is now seemingly a much more public discussion.
I think the people in this city are very slowly starting to realize that illegal marijuana and public shootings go hand in hand. With the rise of armed violence in very public places escalating, it appears as though BC residents are starting to care a bit more about the laws they are surrounded by.
This public opinion will only get stronger as the
violence gets worse, and I believe it is a relatively short matter of time before a provincial political party will take this on as a major platform issue in order to win an election.
The costs are proving to be far too high, both in terms of dollars and damage to the society inhabited by peaceful, law abiding citizens.
Of course, as the violence has begun to boil over here, the spillage is carried over into Alberta.