COQUITLAM, British Columbia — The illegal growing of “B.C. Bud” is this province’s largest cash crop. Hundreds of high school students show up in downtown Vancouver each year for a 4/20 smoke-in. A Whistler snowboarder nearly lost an Olympic gold medal after testing positive for pot. Esteemed British Columbians regularly call for decriminalization of marijuana.
Yet, even as the province nicknamed Canada’s “lotus land” gets ready to elect a new provincial government on Tuesday, there is not one millimeter of movement toward legalization of marijuana north of the 49th Parallel.
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“In our jurisdiction, it is a federal issue,” said Adrian Dix, leader of the New Democratic Party and the person favored to become British Columbia’s next premier. Dix favors decriminalization, but is not of a mind to cross swords on this issue with Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Incumbent Premier Christy Clark is hands-off on the issue, even though wars over the B.C. drug trade have led to gangland-style slayings. “I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government: It’s their sole sphere of responsibility,” in Clark’s words.
A recent Angus Reid poll found that 73 percent of British Columbians believe the province should at least, as a trial run, remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot.
It is, of course, all around and has been for decades. Asked the did-you-inhale question, Premier Clark answered: “I graduated from Burnaby South Senior Secondary in 1983 and there was a lot of that going on when I was in high school and I didn’t avoid it altogether.”
Four former British Columbia attorney generals — one of whom, Ujjal Dosanjh, is a former B.C. premier and Canadian health minister — have advocated decriminalization, and movement toward a health and education-based drug strategy. Vancouver, B.C. Mayor Gregor Robertson and four of his predecessors have argued likewise, pointing out that the vast illegal drug trade enriches gangs spreads violent crime.
But Harper’s government is not listening — or budging.
A frustration can be heard in watching the election here.
“This is the challenge in Canada: Our federal government is pretty clear that there will be no revising drug laws in the direction of a health or prevention strategy,” said David Eby, former director of the B.,C. Civil Liberties Assn., who is running for the New Democrats against Clark in her riding (district) for the B.C. Legislature.
“The province is in a position of building prisons for persons arrested under federal drug laws,” Eby added.
The Harper government, at one point, tried to shut down Vancouver’s safe injection center. The center, on the downtown east side, provides clean needles to addicts — stopping the spread of hepatitis — but also medical care and counseling and treatment for a path out of addiction. It has helped reduce the death rate among addicts.
The federal government was shot down in a 9-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, which found: “During its eight years of operation, Insite (the injection center) has been proven to save lives with no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada.”
Vancouver has gotten used to being lectured by U.S. drug brass. The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration blew in to pontificate — and threaten — the Vancouver Board of Trade about consequences of allowing the safe injection center. Ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, giving a speech for which he was handsomely compensated, lectured the Canadians about permissive drug policy.
But the hardest nose of all belongs to Prime Minister Harper. The federal government allows medical marijuana, but has drawn the line on decriminalization or legalization.
“The reason drugs are illegal is they are bad,” Harper said in a revealing 2010 interview.
“I’ve been very fortunate to live a drug-free life,” said the PM, “and I don’t meet many people who’ve led a drug-free life who regret it.” And, Harper added, “Even if these drugs are legal, I can predict with a lot of confidence that these wouldn’t be respectable businesses run by respectable people.”
As former AGs and mayors argue that prohibition enriches organized crime, Harper argues otherwise. He has barely acknowledged that enforcement policies are not working.
Chris Wilson is a former world champion wrestler, now a civil leader in Coquitlam and candidate for the B.C. Legislature. He shakes his head at the frozen-in-time federal policy and says British Columbia will be watching closely as Washington experiments with a voter-passed policy of legalizing, taxing and regulating possession of marijuana by adults.
But Ottawa controls Canada’s criminal code. The issue of marijuana policy “will be settled in the 2015 election,” said Dix. That is when Canada elects its next national government.
In the meantime, British Columbia soldiers on, with a vast underground economy and a sweet smell even found in elevators of posh downtown Vancouver hotels.
