B.c.ers want pot legalized: Poll
STOP THE VIOLENCE B.C.: 75 per cent want drug regulated and taxed, up six per cent
Three-quarters of B.C. residents think marijuana should be legalized, sold to adults and taxed like alcohol or tobacco, according to a new poll commissioned by a pro-legalization group.
The survey, conducted by Angus Reid for Stop the Violence B.C., polled almost 800 B.C.ers earlier this month and found 75 per cent wanted to see the drug regulated and taxed rather than continue current enforcement methods.
That figure is up six percentage points from last year. By comparison, 64 per cent of respondents preferred a decriminalization approach.
The poll also found that just 14 per cent of respondents thought simple possession of small amounts of marijuana should lead to a criminal record, down from 20 per cent last year.
“From a scientific and public safety perspective, making cannabis illegal has clearly been an expensive and harmful failure,” STVBC founder Dr. Evan Wood, a public policy professor and Canada Research chair in Inner City Medicine at the University of B.C. said in a statement.
“With 75 per cent of British Columbians supporting change, and the status quo contributing to increasing harms in B.C. communities, it is absolutely time for politicians to catch up with the public.”
Stop the Violence B.C. is a coalition of law-enforcement officials, public health workers, academics and legal experts who believe that our current marijuana laws promote organized crime and drugrelated violence.
They are advocating for law reform to introduce government regulation of the drug.
The latest group to lend its support to the regulation initiative is the Public Health Association of B.C., a group of B.C. public health leaders from health authorities, non-profits and universities.
“From a public health perspective, we urgently need to research alternatives to our current approach to cannabis which has clearly failed to protect public health and has actually resulted in substantial individual and community harms,” PHABC president Dr. Marjorie MacDonald said in a statement.
To read more of the poll visit http:// tinyurl.com/bazpp6e.