12 Things You May Not Know About Cannabis

12 Things You May Not Know About Cannabis – Waking Times : Waking Times.

March 1, 2013

The Joint Blog
Waking Times

The majority of America has either decriminalized cannabis, or legalized it for medicinal purposes

It’s almost hard to believe when you consider how strong prohibition continues in most parts of the country, but 27 states in the U.S. have either decriminalized cannabis possession, legalized possession and state-licensed retail sales, legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes, or a combination of the three.

A breakdown of states that have decriminalized cannabis or legalized it for medical purposes.

Cannabis is an ancient substance

The cannabis plant isn’t new, and neither is its usage. For example; pounds of cannabis have been found in Chinese tombs dating back thousands of years. Going even further back, cannabis is said to have co-evolved with humans, which is likely why it contains such intense medical value for our species. This indicates that the cannabis plant has followed us through most, if not all, our existence.

A Chinese tomb where pounds of cannabis was found.

Cannabis may reduce infant mortality rates

In a drastically important, yet widely under-publicized study examining thousands of infants, those who had cannabis in their system had nearly half the rate of mortality; 8.9 deaths per 1,000, compared to 15.7. To some, especially those unfamiliar to cannabis as a medicine, this may sound a little far-fetched, but the numbers stand strong, and the study is the most comprehensive we have on the issue. We truly hope we see more in the future.

A chart on the study from examiner.com.

The federal government sends out hundreds of cannabis joints to patients every month

To many legalization advocates this is nothing new, but to those who haven’t heard it before, it’s a shock. As part of a short-lived federal medical marijuana program (yes, the hypocrisy is thick as mud), four people who were grandfathered in receive 300 pre-rolled cannabis joints from the government every month. And they have for years.

The program’s initial existence, and the government’s continuation of supplying these joints, adds an odd layer to the current war on cannabis that sees the feds putting people in prison for years for far less than the 300 joints they supply to these individuals every month.

Four people receive a monthly canister of joints from the U.S. government.

America is one of the only “developed” nations that doesn’t permit the growing of industrial hemp

Over 30 nations across the world allow for hemp to be grown as an industrial commodity. According to congressional research from 2005, America is the only “developed” nation in the world that doesn’t allow it; although we allow for the sale and production of hemp products.

America is the only “developed” country to outlaw hemp production.

Hemp can be used to clean up nuclear disaster sites

A process called phytoremediation is used to clean areas suffering from immense nuclear contamination, by using plants to absorb the toxins out of the soil and water. Hemp is one of the most effective plants for this process, and has been used to clean contaminated soil around the world, at locations like Chernobyl.

 

The process of phytoremediation.

Cannabis was once listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia

Cannabis was used as the primary ingredient in a variety of tinctures and concoctions prescribed by doctors for a myriad of maladies from 1850 up until 1942, when it was removed from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia – much to the protest of many physicians, including the American Medical Association.

Legal cannabis tincture from over a century ago.

Medical marijuana reduces suicide rates

Recent studies have shown states that have legalized the usage of medical marijuana have seen a significant decrease in suicide rates. The most heavily impacted group were males ages 20-29, which saw an 11% decrease. In these same states, there was also a decrease in traffic fatalities.

 

Hemp oil can be used to fuel cars

Although many people are aware of hemp’s use for things like clothing and rope, one capability is often overlooked: the plant’s ability to be processed into effective, environmentally-friendly biofuel. Hemp oil could easily replace most petroleum products, and it can even be used in place of gasoline to fuel vehicles.

This car has traveled over 13,000 miles on strictly hemp fuel.

The U.S. government owns a patent on marijuana compounds

Definitively hypocritical, and a sign that the government knows it’s lying and eventually wants the monopoly over cannabis as a medicine, the feds have patented multiple cannabis compounds, and cannabis-related pharmaceutical drugs. One such patent is for cannabis to be used as an antioxidant and neuroprotectant.

The government owns the patent to cannabis as an antioxidant and neuroprotectant.

Your body produces its own endocannabinoids

Our body is made to accept cannabis as a therapeutic and medicinal substance. As humans, we have our own endocannabinoid system, as well as receptors; the primary reasons it’s so useful as a medicine.Breast milk, for example, is said to contain heavy amounts of naturally-produced endocannabinoids.

Our body produces its own endocannabinoids, and has receptors throughout our body.

[ Editor's Note: Sources are hyper-linked throughout the article. ]

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Brits Want Marijuana Reforms

Brits Want Marijuana Reforms, Drug Policy Review | StoptheDrugWar.org.

Drug Policy Review | StoptheDrugWar.org

by Phillip Smith,

February 19, 2013,  (Issue #772)

According to a new Ipsos Mori poll, a majority of Britons favor either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana and two-thirds support a comprehensive review of all the options for controlling drugs, from legalization to tougher enforcement.

The poll found that 53% of those surveyed supported either decriminalization or one form or another of legalization. Legalization, whether under “strict,” “moderate,” or “minimal” control, was supported by 41%, and decriminalization by 12%.

Only 35% favored the status quo (21%) or harsher treatment of marijuana (14%). Eight percent had no opinion and 4% said “I have never heard of this drug.”

Britain down-scheduled marijuana from a Class B to a Class C drug in 2004, but reversed course in 2008, placing it back on the more serious Class B amid rising fears of the dangers of “skunk” marijuana, Britain’s generic term for high-potency, domestically-produced weed. 

When it comes to other drugs, a majority (60%) favored the status quo, while only slightly more than one-third (36%) favored either decriminalization (14%) or a pilot decriminalization program (21%).

But more than two-thirds of respondents (67%) wanted a comprehensive independent review of Britain’s drug policies. Support cut across party lines, with 69% of Labor supporters and 70% of Conservative supporters calling for a review of drug policy.

Britain’s Conservative-led government has shown distinct disinterest in revisiting the country’s drug policies, although that has led to some friction with its Liberal Democrat junior partners.

“These results just show how far ahead of politicians the public are,” said the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which commissioned the poll. “Whilst Labor and Conservative politicians shy away from the debate on drugs, around half of their supporters want to see legal regulation of cannabis production and supply or decriminalization of cannabis possession, and a significant majority want a comprehensive review of our approach to drugs — including consideration of legal regulation,” the group said.

“Politicians have repeated their ‘tough on drugs’ propaganda for so long that they assume the public are more fearful of change than they really are,” Transform said. “In fact the world has changed, and the public are far more progressive than was thought, right across the political spectrum. At the very least the government should heed long standing and growing calls for a review of all policy options, including legal regulation. And as a matter of urgency the coalition should engage in experiments in the Portuguese style decriminalization of possession of drugs for personal use. Now is the time for the heads of all parties to show the leadership citizens surely deserve.”

United Kingdom

See map: Google Maps

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USA New Poll: 56% of Voters Say Legalize Marijuana

New Poll: 56% of Voters Say Legalize Marijuana | StoptheDrugWar.org.

StoptheDrugWar.org.

by Scott Morgan, May 22, 2012,Everywhere you look, the public is turning further against the war on marijuana and towards reform. The latest Rasmussen poll is another big indication of where we’re headed: 

A solid majority of voters nationwide favor legalizing and regulating marijuana similar to the way alcohol and tobacco cigarettes are currently regulated. Most also don’t believe it should be a crime for people to smoke marijuana in the privacy of their own homes.

A new national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 56% favor legalizing and regulating marijuana in a similar manner to the way alcohol and tobacco cigarettes are regulated.

A slim majority like this was enough to convince the President that he could safely support gay marriage, but I don’t recommend holding your breath waiting for Obama’s pot position to “evolve” before November, or after.

Nevertheless, it’s a sign of the times, and only a fool would dismiss its significance. Individual legalization measures inevitably suffer from quibbling over the specifics, but we’re on a trajectory towards a point at which we’ll win consistently. Wait for it.

StoptheDrugWar.org.

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Canada: Tax marijuana, says B.C. mayors’ coalition – British Columbia

Tax marijuana, says B.C. mayors’ coalition – British Columbia – CBC News.

The majority of Canadians want marijuana to be decriminalized. Why is the Harper government not listening and instead following the US model of the war on drugs, which by all accounts is an abject failure ?  Lou

8 mayors join growing call for regulation and taxation of pot

The Canadian Press

Apr 26, 2012

The mayors say that marijuana prohibition is as ineffective as alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. (Joe Bryksa/Canadian Press)

Mayors from eight B.C. communities have added their voices to calls to the provincial government to regulate and tax marijuana as part of a strategy to end gang violence and make communities safer.

Mayors from Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver City, Vernon, Armstrong, Enderby, Lake Country and Metchosin made the argument in an April 26 letter to B.C.’s premier, Opposition NDP leader and B.C. Conservative Party leader.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was unavailable for comment Thursday, but Coun. Kerry Jang, who is also professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, said the current federal laws have failed.

Jang said the laws have led to increased organized crime, policing costs and the presence of grow-ops.

‘It is time to tax and strictly regulate marijuana under a public health framework.’—B.C. mayors’ letter

“To make matters worse, we just look around, certainly we see here in the City of Vancouver, that pot is more readily available than ever before,” he said.

“Whatever the federal government policy is, is not working, and we’re saying that we need a better approach, and that is to regulate it using a public health model, much as we do, for example, with tobacco or alcohol.”

The letter appeared on the website of Stop the Violence BC, a coalition of law-enforcement officials, legal experts, academics and public health officials.

The group wants to develop and implement marijuana policies that reduce social harms like crime.

In their letter, the mayors argue prohibition has led to large-scale grow-ops, increased organized crime, ongoing gang violence, and larger police budgets.

Despite an “endless stream of anti-marijuana law enforcement initiatives,” marijuana remains widely and easily available to youth.

“Based on the evidence before us, we know that laws that aim to control the marijuana industry are ineffective and, like alcohol prohibition in the U.S. in the 1920s, have led to violent unintended consequences,” it states.

$7-billion industry

Based on statistics from the Organized Crime Agency of BC, the mayors state 85 per cent of the province’s marijuana industry is controlled by criminal groups.

Using statistics from the right-of-centre policy group the Fraser Institute, the mayors also state the industry is worth $7 billion annually.

“It is time to tax and strictly regulate marijuana under a public health framework,” they write, adding that such a move would allow the government to address health issues, raise government revenue and eliminate profits going to organized crime.

While the provincial NDP supports decriminalization, New Democrats understand the federal government has jurisdiction on the issue, said the party’s justice critic Leonard Krog.

“It doesn’t appear that the federal government has any interest in decriminalization,” said Krog. “Indeed, they are moving forward with crime legislation that is going to jam our court system.”

The Safe Streets and Communities Act includes mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences and received royal assent on March 13.

Krog said there is a growing consensus among British Columbians that marijuana should be decriminalized and it’s time to debate the issue.

B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins wouldn’t say whether he supports or opposes decriminalization and taxation, but criticized several of the mayors’ arguments.

“I think people are not thinking the things out carefully,” he said.

Legalization will negatively impact trade with the United States and lead to longer waits at the border because border agents won’t absorb extra security costs just to move traffic, he said.

Legalization will also negatively impact B.C.’s tourism industry, added Cummins.

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Irony Alert: Anti-Marijuana Newspaper Runs Ads for Pot Paraphernalia

by Scott Morgan, March 12, 2012,

Christian Science Monitor has a bit of a reputation for launching rabid attacks against the marijuana legalization movement, so you can imagine my surprise to find them advertising the high-end Volcano Vaporization System™ right next to an anti-legalization editorial.

What fun. Thanks to the targeted marketing geniuses at Google, Christian Science Monitor can collect revenue by promoting sleek vaporizers to the marijuana enthusiasts who stop by to laugh at the pathetic anti-pot propaganda they’re constantly publishing.

Now to be fair, it’s very possible that they never even had a clue this was happening. If you let them, Google will sell stuff in your sidebar that relates to the subject of the article on the page, and your site gets a cut according to the number of clicks. We do the same thing here at StoptheDrugWar.org, and we’ve occasionally noticed some really sleazy anti-drug propaganda and other questionable crap popping up in our ad space from time to time. We can reject specific ads, but it’s not an easy thing to monitor 24/7, and frankly I think it’s hilarious when I write an editorial trashing the idiotic drug policy ideas of some prohibitionist politician, only to have an ad for his presidential campaign pop up on the side of the page. It’s like these people are paying me to make fun of them.

Close up shot of some high quality marijuana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So when it comes to Christian Science Monitor running ads for awesome high-tech pot paraphernalia, the point isn’t that they’re being willfully hypocritical. Rather, it just looks really stupid. It’s amusing, and perhaps even significant, that Google’s algorithm recognizes pot products as they best thing to sell to the people reading these articles. Here you have these anti-pot fanatics running redundant anti-drug editorials in a desperate attempt to dial back the forward momentum of the legalization movement, and one inch away you see Google asking, “Would anyone like to buy a badass vaporizer?”

It says an awful lot about the economics of marijuana that Christian Science Monitor can’t even promote prohibition without inadvertently becoming part of the pot economy.

via Irony Alert: Anti-Marijuana Newspaper Runs Ads for Pot Paraphernalia | StoptheDrugWar.org.

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Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: U.S. Law Enforcement Officials Call on Canadian Prime Minister to Legalize Marijuana

I know I posted this one week ago but I am still dumbfuddled about it. I just want to reemphasize what is going on. And this new improved post has a commentary and pretty pics.

All the smart and awakened people on the planet understand the failure and abject horror of the war on drugs. Here in Canada we have a bunch of right wing zealots who still believe in fairy tales (yeah Steven, the world was created 6000 years ago) running the country. The Conservatives won the last election and what do they focus on ? Let’s see, introduce some of the harshest laws on crime when crime is at an all time low and follow the abject American model of the war on drugs. Stupid, conniving, self serving hypocrites. Harper’s government just passed a new law that will send someone to jail for two years for growing six marijuana plants. Lou

Canada Risks Repeating ‘U.S. Mistakes‘ with Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Bill C-10

WASHINGTON, DC —A high-profile group of current and former law enforcement officials from the United States is calling on the Canadian government to reconsider the mandatory minimum sentences for minor marijuana offenses proposed in Bill C-10, arguing that the taxation and regulation of marijuana is a more effective policy approach to reducing crime.

On Wednesday, the law enforcers released a letter outlining their concerns, addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian senators. It is signed by more than two dozen current and former judges, police officers, special agents, narcotics investigators and other criminal justice professionals, all of whom are members of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). The letter strongly reinforces the failure of U.S. crime policies that those proposed in the Canadian federal government’s Bill C-10 legislation seem to be modeled on.

“Through our years of service enforcing anti-marijuana laws, we have seen the devastating consequences of these laws,” the letter states. “Among the greatest concerns is the growth in organized crime and gang violence. Just as with alcohol prohibition, gang violence, corruption and social decay have marched in lockstep with marijuana prohibition.”

“We were deeply involved with the war on drugs and have now accepted, due to our own experience and the clear evidence before us, that these policies are a costly failure,” the letter continues. “Marijuana prohibition drives corruption and violence and tougher laws only worsen the problem.”

Bill C-10, titled “The Safe Streets and Communities Act,” is currently being heard by the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Among other proposals, the bill calls for stricter mandatory minimum sentences for minor marijuana offenses, including minimum six-month sentences for growing as few as six marijuana plants.

“The Canadian government believes the answer is to get tougher on criminals,” said Norm Stamper, retired chief of police in Seattle, Washington. “But as we’ve learned with our decades-long failed experiment with the ‘war on drugs,’ the stricter sentencing proposed in the bill will only serve to help fill jails. It will not reduce harms related to the illicit marijuana trade, make Canadian streets safer or diminish gang activity.”

Said retired Washington State Superior Court Judge David Nichols: “Policies similar to those in the U.S. and now under consideration in Canada have been costly failures in the United States, wasting tax dollars and bankrupting state budgets. Following our path presents obvious and significant risks to Canadians.”

Among the 28 signers of the letter are many law enforcement officials working in border areas. They pointed to the illegal cross-border marijuana trade as sustaining gang activity in the region.

“Organized crime groups move marijuana to the U.S. from British Columbia and return with cocaine and guns,” said Stamper. “Prohibition continues to fill the coffers of organized criminals, making communities on both sides of the border less safe.”

Eric Sterling, who helped the U.S. Congress write the federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws, cautions: “As counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee during the 1980′s, I played a major role in writing the mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws which later turned out to not only be ineffective in reducing drug use, but which directly contributed to the disastrous overincarceration problem in this country. I urge policy makers in Canada to learn from our mistakes.”

Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, a member of LEAP’s advisory board and a former member of the RCMP and its drug squad, added: “I am hopeful that my Senate colleagues will listen to the voice of experience, and take into account the advice from leading U.S. law enforcement officials to avoid mandatory minimum sentences. The U.S. and many of its citizens have suffered greatly due to the inflexible and dogmatic nature of mandatory minimum sentences, and Canada would be wise to learn from and avoid that costly and socially destructive mistake.”

U.S. Becoming More Progressive than Canada with Marijuana Policy

While Canada moves towards stricter sentencing with Bill C-10, many states in the U.S. are shifting in the opposite direction, toward control and regulation of the marijuana trade. The law enforcement officials pointed to the 16 U.S. states and the District of Columbia that have already passed laws allowing medical use of cannabis, the 14 states that have taken steps to decriminalize marijuana possession and the initiatives to fully tax and regulate marijuana that are likely to appear on statewide ballots this November in Washington State, Colorado and possibly California.

“We assume this news will not make you consider closing the borders with the United States,” the law enforcement officials write in their letter.

For a copy of the law enforcement letter, please visit http://www.leap.cc/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/regulation-in-canada.pdf

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, prison wardens, federal agents and others who want to legalize and regulate marijuana and other drugs after fighting on the front lines of the “war on drugs” and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence. More info at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

via Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: U.S. Law Enforcement Officials Call on Canadian Prime Minister to Legalize Marijuana.

Study: Passage Of Medical Marijuana Laws Correlated With Fewer Suicides

Study: Passage Of Medical Marijuana Laws Correlated With Fewer Suicides | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform.

• by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director February 21, 2012

  

  The enactment of statewide laws allowing for the limited use of cannabis therapeutically is associated with reduced instances of suicide, according to a discussion paper published recently by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany.

  Researchers at Montana State University, the University of Colorado, and San Diego State University assessed rates of suicide in the years before and after the passage of statewide medical marijuana laws.

  Authors found, “The total suicide rate falls smoothly during the pre-legalization period in both MML (medical marijuana law) and non-MML states. However, beginning in year zero, the trends diverge: the suicide rate in MML states continues to fall, while the suicide rate in states that never legalized medical marijuana begins to climb gradually.”

  They reported that this downward trend in suicides in states post-legalization was especially pronounced in males. “Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20- through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30- through 39-year-old males,” they determined.

  Authors theorized that the limited legalization of cannabis may “lead to an improvement in the psychological well-being of young adult males, an improvement that is reflected in fewer suicides.” They further speculated, “The strong association between alcohol consumption and suicide-related outcomes found by previous researchers raises the possibility that medical marijuana laws reduce the risk of suicide by decreasing alcohol consumption.”

  They concluded: “Policymakers weighing the pros and cons of legalization should consider the possibility that medical marijuana laws may lead to fewer suicides among young adult males.”

• Full text of the discussion paper, “High on Life: Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide,” is available online here.

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U.S. law panel (LEAP) calls on Harper to reconsider mandatory marijuana penalties

A high-profile group of current and former U.S. law enforcement officials has sent a letter to the Harper government with a surprising message: Take it from us, the war on drugs has been a “costly failure.”

The officials are urging the Canadian government to reconsider mandatory minimum sentences for “minor” marijuana offences under its “tough-on-crime bill” and said a better approach would be to legalize marijuana under a policy of taxation and regulation.

“We are . . . extremely concerned that Canada is implementing mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for minor marijuana-related offences similar to those that have been such costly failures in the United States,” the letter reads. “These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety.”

The letter was signed by more than two dozen current and former judges, police officers, special agents, drug investigators and other members of the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The release of the letter comes just days after four former attorneys general in British Columbia called for the repeal of Canada’s marijuana prohibition laws, saying they have done nothing but fuel organized crime and gang violence.

But the Harper government remains unswayed.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government has “no intention to decriminalize or legalize marijuana” and “remains committed to ensuring criminals are held fully accountable for their actions.”

Nicholson has said mandatory minimum sentences related to marijuana are designed to target organized crime, gangs and grow-ops.

The government’s omnibus crime bill, Bill C-10, is now before the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs.

The letter from American law enforcement officials suggested that the U.S. is becoming “more progressive” than Canada with its marijuana policies.

“Sixteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing some degree of medical use of marijuana, and 14 states have taken steps to decriminalize marijuana possession,” the letter said.

The letter also noted that three states — Washington, California and Colorado — are all preparing ballot initiatives in 2012 to overturn marijuana prohibition.

“In addition to gang violence, incarceration and criminal records for non-violent drug offenders have ruined countless lives. Based on this irrefutable evidence, and the repeal of these mandatory sentencing measures in various regions in the United States, we cannot understand why Canada’s federal government and some provincial governments would embark down this road,” the U.S. officials wrote.

U.S. law panel calls on Harper to reconsider mandatory marijuana penalties.

Dquan@postmedia.com

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Why a former B.C. attorney-general is supporting the pro-pot movement

Why a former B.C. attorney-general is supporting the pro-pot movement – The Globe and Mail.

“Around 12,000 people in B.C. were charged annually with possession of marijuana while Mr. Plant was attorney-general. The number has increased since he was replaced in 2005. In 2010, 15,638 people in B.C. were charged, Statistics Canada has reported.”  (BC has a 3.5 million population)

robert matas

VANCOUVER— From Monday’s Globe and Mail

Feb. 19, 2012 8:51

Geoff Plant has felt for years that the prohibition of marijuana is wrong. Now that the former B.C. attorney-general is out of government, he has decided it’s time to push for the legalization of the drug.

“I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it,” Mr. Plant said.

Last week, Mr. Plant joined three former NDP attorneys-general to support a campaign against federal legislation that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor, non-violent marijuana-related offences.

The campaign, backed by police officers, B.C. public health officers and the current and four former Vancouver mayors, calls for the federal government to regulate and tax marijuana, rather than prohibit it.

Mr. Plant was not a stranger to controversy when he was attorney-general from 2001 to 2005 in the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell.

He had a reputation as a moderate in the Campbell caucus. But the B.C. Law Society censured him after he closed courthouses and cut legal aid by 40 per cent in 2002. First nations leaders didn’t trust him after he led the debate on the province’s referendum on treaty rights.

However, when he was asked about the thorny issue of legalization after a Senate committee in 2002 had recommended that the drug be sold like tobacco or liquor, Mr. Plant sidestepped the controversy.

“This is a matter for the federal government. It is not a matter on which the government of British Columbia has a position and not a matter on which I have an opinion,” he told a Vancouver newspaper.

Times have changed. Mr. Plant was asked in November by Evan Wood, director of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, to lend his voice to the drug campaign organized by a coalition called Stop the Violence. The coalition was set up in response to gang-related violence associated with the drug trade.

Dr. Wood has an international reputation based on his ground-breaking research related to HIV and drug addicts. He was one of the founders of Insite, the supervised injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Dr. Wood is also associated with St. Paul’s Hospital, and Mr. Plant is chair of the board of directors of Providence Health Care, which runs the hospital.

Dr. Wood said he came into contact with Mr. Plant through his work at St. Paul’s. “I said to him, ‘What do you think about this?’ He said he totally agreed, and he would be willing to go on the record,” Dr. Wood said.

Mr. Plant was so enthusiastic about efforts to reform marijuana laws that he made the suggestion that other attorneys-general should be contacted to see if they would add their voices to the call for reform. He thought the voices of four former attorneys-general would maximize the impact of his endorsement.

“What has happened, in my view, is that increasingly the prohibition of cannabis is not just an ineffective policy,” he said, “but is having the effect of increasing certain harms, as organized crime increasingly relies on the cannabis trade to support its activities, to make huge profits and to fight with each other with guns increasingly in public over their market share.”

The problems have gotten worse over the past decade, which is why the campaign is timely, he said.

“And that’s why when they approached me and asked me if I would agree to lend my name in support of [the campaign], I was happy to do so,” Mr. Plant said.

He was impressed with the Stop the Violence campaign. “They’re organized, they have built a research base, they are taking the time and trouble to try to mobilize public opinion,” he said. “I was flattered they would ask me, they would think my voice would matter.”

Despite Mr. Plant’s role in the right-leaning B.C. Liberal government, his response did not surprise Dr. Wood. “I am more surprised when I hear people say they think the current system is working,” he said.

“In Victoria, what politicians will tell you off the record, in terms of their beliefs and understanding of issues, and what they say on the record are two very, very different things,” Dr. Wood said.

Around 12,000 people in B.C. were charged annually with possession of marijuana while Mr. Plant was attorney-general. The number has increased since he was replaced in 2005. In 2010, 15,638 people in B.C. were charged, Statistics Canada has reported.

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Canada: Legalize pot, say former B.C. attorneys general

Four former B.C. attorneys general are joining a coalition of health and justice experts calling for the legalization of marijuana.

Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant have all signed a letter to B.C. Premier Christy Clark and B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix, calling on the politicians to endorse legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana.

The former attorneys general say the move would help reduce gang violence associated with the illegal marijuana trade, raise tax revenues and ease the burden on the province’s court system.

“As former B.C. attorneys general, we are fully aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago,” the letter reads.

“The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight. The evidence? Massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety, and significant — and escalating — costs to taxpayers.”

‘Dismayed’ by mandatory minimum sentencing

The letter goes on to say that as attorneys general, the four men were responsible for overseeing the province’s justice system and are well aware of the “burden” imposed on the court system by the enforcement of marijuana prohibition.

“We are therefore dismayed that the B.C. government supports the federal government’s move to impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor cannabis offences,” says the letter. “These misguided prosecutions will further strain an already clogged system, without reducing cannabis prohibition-related violence or rates of cannabis use.”

The letter goes on to compare today’s marijuana laws to alcohol prohibition in the United States in the 1920s.

“It is time B.C. politicians listened to the vast majority of B.C. voters who support replacing cannabis prohibition in favour of a strictly regulated legal market for adult marijuana use,” the letter reads.

Premier Christy Clark responded to the letter Tuesday, saying the decision isn’t hers to make.

“I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government,” she said. “It’s in their sole sphere of responsibility, so as a premier I respect that former attorneys general have taken this stand, people who are outside of politics, but as a premier I’m going to leave this to the federal government.”

Growing organized crime network

In an interview with CBC News, Plant acknowledged B.C. politicians can’t change federal law, but said this is about adding to the chorus of voices calling for the legalization of marijuana.

The four former B.C. attorneys general say the illegal marijuana trade is fuelling gang violence.The four former B.C. attorneys general say the illegal marijuana trade is fuelling gang violence. (Canadian Press)

“I think the goal here is to add momentum to what is an increasingly public groundswell of a demand that governments recognize that the so-called war on drugs, the marijuana prohibition — it’s not reducing the incidences of the use of marijuana,” he said.

“Instead, it’s feeding this huge and growing organized crime network that’s causing people to get shot in the streets.”

Plant said the aim is to get public policy in line with reality.

“There’s evidence that indicates as many as 400,000 British Columbians that are regular consumers of marijuana. When they are possessing it, they’re breaking the law and yet it seems that that’s tolerated,” he said.

“We like to think that in Canada we live in a society governed by the rule of law, but if one in 10 British Columbians exist outside that … it’s almost kind of a joke to think that we truly believe in the rule of law when we are willing to tolerate behaviour that is, on the face of it, unlawful.”

The former attorneys general join four former Vancouver mayors and the Health Officers Council of B.C. in their endorsement of Stop the Violence BC’s call to legally regulate the sale of marijuana under a public health framework.

Stop the Violence BC is a coalition of law enforcement officials, legal experts, public health officials and academic experts from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and the University of Northern B.C.

via Legalize pot, say former B.C. attorneys general – British Columbia – CBC News.