Canadian leaders seek marijuana law reform.
 
On Wednesday, September 26, delegates of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities passed a resolution calling for the decriminalization of marijuana across Canada. However, the resolution has no real teeth. The Canadian federal government, as in the United States, determines national marijuana policy.
 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is adamantly opposed to legalization. “It will not happen under our government,” Harper said last November. “We're very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the damage it's doing.” In fact, he’d like to see harsher pot laws across the country. Currently, Canada spends approximately $500 million annually on its Drug War.
 
But former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant says the damage is wreaked by Canada’s marijuana laws. He says that the provinces must “govern and live with this disastrous failure of public policy.”
 
The resolution calls for the UBCM to lobby the “appropriate government to decriminalize marijuana and research the regulation and taxation of marijuana.” Of course, the RCMP is opposed to the resolution. Sgt. Dave Williams, an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) drug enforcement officer, said decriminalization would just push organized criminals underground. Williams seems to be confused by the notion of regulation and taxation; the impetus for passing the resolution is to take the criminality out of the cannabis business.
 
Dr. Evan Wood, a professor of medicine at the University of B.C., has written extensively about Canadian drug policy. He says, “We have been living with the violent, unintended consequences of marijuana … It’s absurd we’ve been flushing time and money down the toilet … this decision is long overdue.
 
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