Call to legalize pot goes beyond wanting a puff
Clogged courts, cash- strapped governments and the failed American war on drugs point to urgent need for public policy reform in Canada
The B. C. budget has no extra money for justice at a time when Ottawa is thumbing its nose at cash- strapped voters with an omnibus crime bill that threatens to ramp up criminal costs.
Not surprisingly, there was plenty of hand- wringing by the bar and other legal stakeholders who delivered a similar response: Victoria is maintaining the status quo, which means the situation remains a crisis.
It’s bad news for families in conflict, children in care and victims hoping to see justice done. But it’s welcome news for accused criminals who continue to have a good chance of walking free because of clogged courtrooms.
While the government has launched two key studies to see if there are efficiencies in the legal system to free money to address the worsening situation, it continues to avoid discussing the elephant in the room — the need for drug- policy reform.
A change in drug laws would slash dockets, free space in overcrowded provincial prisons and save a fortune in policing and legal costs.
Yet federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson maintains he has “no intention to decriminalize or legalize marijuana” — the single easiest way to save big dollars.
He has his fingers in his ears and his eyes closed — and Premier Christy Clark is not about to disturb him given her “it’s- a-federal-issue” stance.
Nevertheless, a high- profile group of current and former U. S. law enforcement officials gave Nicholson a nasty prod Wednesday in a letter delivered to the Harper government: Hey Rob, Uncle Sam got it wrong and the war on drugs was a catastrophic mistake.
More than two dozen current and former judges, prosecutors, police officers, special agents and drug investigators — members of the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — urged the Conservatives to abandon the mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences in Bill C- 10, ironically dubbed the Safe Streets and Communities Act. Their solution? Legalize, regulate and tax pot.
With an advisory board that includes ex- drug- squad- officer-turned- Vancouver- mayor-cum-Senator Larry Campbell, the blue- ribbon group says American tough- on- drug- crime policies “bankrupted state budgets” imprisoning non- violent offenders instead of supporting programs that improve community safety.
“In addition to gang violence, incarceration and criminal records for non- violent drug offenders have ruined countless lives,” said the U. S. experts, who include Eric Sterling, former counsel to the U. S. House Judiciary Committee that drafted mandatory-minimum drug laws in the 1980s.
In 1986, when the controversial sentencing laws started to come into effect, about 36,000 people were locked up in U. S. federal prisons on drug offences; the letter says now there are about 200,000.
Counting those in state prisons, perhaps a half a million Americans are behind bars on drug charges at a cost of billions of dollars annually.
“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.
They noted 16 states and the District of Columbia now have passed laws allowing medical use of marijuana; 14 states have taken steps to decriminalize possession, and three — Washington, California and Colorado — are preparing ballot initiatives this year to overturn the pot prohibition.
“We assume this news will not make you consider closing the border with the United States,” the Americans cheekily said.
What has happened — are public policy wonks suddenly getting good dope?
It seems so — there is a ton of research supporting these ideas.
In recent weeks, the Liberal Party of Canada, former mayors of Vancouver, and four former attorneys- general of the province all joined the growing list of those arguing that the pot prohibition causes more damage than it prevents.
Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told a Senate committee studying the Tory bill that intervention and rehabilitation, not incarceration, is the right approach for aboriginal peoples — for all people.
Legalization isn’t a call for people to start puffing.
It’s a call for sensible public policies that address drug use in a more effective manner ( such as the anti- tobacco campaign), that end the practice of branding young people with a criminal record and that provide substantial savings in scarce tax dollars that can be channelled into health care and education.
Who cares what has caused it? It’s about time common sense and evidence- based research drove drug- law reform: Our courts need the relief, and so do our wallets.