Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Even if what you are saying is true, that won't result in a decrease in violence. If you legalized marijuana, that's not really going to affect gun violence, which is over the harder and more profitable drugs.
Personally, I don't think legalizing marijuana will make that large of a difference. The cops really don't divert that many resources to marijuana growing in BC. You can pretty much buy it freely already. The full legalization of marijuana sales would be more of a cultural shift/recognition issue than anything. It'd be really just a symbolic move.
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I think you're mistaken.
Marijuana related enforcement across the country accounts for 50 percent of the total enforcement budget. I don't have a figure for BC, but it's not a stretch to believe that percentage would be far greater in this province.
I don't even care about reducing the money spent, I just think there are far more efficient ways to spend the money.
Even if you don't think things like these targeted assassinations are a result of the marijuana trade, talking to people in the interior, they'd welcome a reduction in grow-op related violence.
Small changes have significant impacts. Removing something that isn't worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars from the criminal sphere could constitute one of those 'small' things.