stop the violence

By Mona Mattei The Castlegar Source

Grand Forks city council voted a resounding “no” to the idea of supporting the regulation and taxation of marijuana last night.

As a follow up to previous conversations at the council table about the Stop the Violence BC campaign, started by a group of B.C. mayors and law enforcement authorities to pressure provincial and federal governments to decriminalize, regulate and tax the widely used drug, Mayor Brian Taylor put the topic forward once again for a decision. Read more »

By Mona Mattei, The Castlegar Source

A challenge to step up leadership was given to Grand Forks city council when mayor Brian Taylor asked them to join the campaign to end the prohibition of marijuana in Canada.

Taylor wants council to join in with the other B.C. municipalities, now over 13 of a possible 160 and growing, in the Stop the Violence campaign. The campaign asks provincial party leaders to pressure the Canadian government for a shift in attitude in drug policy. The provincial and federal governments need to realize that prohibition has been a costly failure and they need to find some other way to manage marijuana, Taylor said in comments to council.  Read more »

By: Richard J. Brennan, The Star

All the tough talk in the world from the Harper government won’t put a dent in B.C.’s often violent marijuana trade, a Vancouver city councillor says.

The comment from Councillor Kerry Jang, a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, comes on the heels of a letter from eight B.C. mayors urging the provincial government to use its powers to regulate and tax marijuana.

“Marijuana has actually become more available and there’s more crime than there ever has been because of that approach … federal policies have failed British Columbia,” Jang told the Toronto Star. Read more »

BY BENJAMIN ALLDRITT, NORTH SHORE NEWS

MARIJUANA prohibition has "failed miserably," says the City of North Vancouver's council, who voted unanimously Monday to call for decriminalization and regulation of the drug.

"It's an issue whose time has come," said Coun. Rod Clark. "It's a fundamental question for our society. It's now time to embrace a science-based solution, one that recognizes the failures of prohibition and the restrictions of the past."

The vote followed an extensive presentation from Dr. Evan Wood, a practising St. Paul's Hospital physician as well a professor and researcher at the UBC faculty of medicine. He was invited to council to represent the Stop the Violence B.C. coalition. Read more »

The 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. Read more »

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star

Vernon politicians have joined the chorus calling for marijuana laws to  be scrapped.

Council voted Tuesday to ask the federal government to regulate cannabis as a way of reducing crime, rationalizing police resources and creating a new source of revenue for communities.

“Prohibition and criminalization hasn’t worked. This is a possibility of a new approach,” said Coun. Bob Spiers.

Mayor Rob Sawatzky also supports legalizing access to marijuana.

“Most well informed people who have studied the issue  have determined prohibition is a failed policy,” he said. Read more »

By ROBERT MATAS, Globe and Mail

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. Read more »

BY MIKE RAPTIS AND IAN AUSTIN, THE PROVINCE

Four former B.C. attorneys-general have added their authoritative voices to the call for the decriminalization of marijuana.

Former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, along with Geoff Plant, Colin Gabelmann and Graeme Bowbrick, added their experience as the province’s top legal authority to legalization.

“As former B.C. attorneys-general, we are fully aware that British Columbia lost its war against the marijuana industry many years ago,” write the four, who collectively served as attorneys general from 1991 to 2005, a critical period of time when public perception of pot smoking changed dramatically.

“The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight. Read more »

BY EVAN WOOD AND DAVID BRATZER, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

The front lines of the War on Drugs in British Columbia are not for the faint of heart. As an internal medicine specialist and a police officer who has spent much of his career at the forefront of anti-drug enforcement efforts, we’ve witnessed the bloody aftermath of shootings, stabbings and other violent confrontations that are common in B.C.’s drug trade. Read more »

By: CHRISTOPHER POON, Whistler Question

It has been one of the most debated issues in the country and this past week the legalize marijuana movement got some added support with the Health Officers’ Council (HOC) of B.C. saying now is the time for legalization.

As an organization made up of public health physicians, the HOC’s endorsement of a new report by the community health and wellness group, Stop the Violence B.C., adds an educated voice to the side of marijuana legalization proponents. One of those voices is Paul Martiquet, medical health officer of the Sea to Sky region for Vancouver Coastal Health.

“I’m a supporter of this,” said Martiquet, who noted that the prohibition on marijuana is similar to the one placed on alcohol during the early 1900s. Read more »