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April 3, 2009
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PrintJodie Emery: Ending drug prohibition could save our economy and stop gang violence
By Jodie Emery
See also
B.C. general election candidate statements for the Georgia Straight
Gang violence is a major concern for Vancouver and British Columbia. Shootings and murders happen so often that people feel unsafe in their own homes and communities. There was another time in history when gangsters terrorized society, bought fancy cars and weapons, lived lifestyles only criminal activity could afford, and shot rivals as they fought for control over the market. Law enforcement was unable to stop the violence, regardless of how severe the penalties and policing were. This happened under alcohol prohibition, and it’s happening again now under drug prohibition.
The modern-day example of prohibition’s absolute failure is Mexico. The United States’ southern neighbour is awash with gangs and drug cartels. These violent groups are murdering not just rivals, but also police, military personnel, politicians, and innocent victims. Over the years, Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, has called for more law enforcement and military deployment, but every escalation of policing and imprisonment has resulted in rising gang violence and executions. In addition, government and law enforcement officials have been corrupted by the cartels, paid enormous sums of money in order to turn a blind eye towards drug-related criminal activity.
Is this what the province of British Columbia is headed towards? I strongly believe that, if we continue to fund and expand the failed policy of drug prohibition, Mexico’s drug war situation is a harbinger of our future. But there is a solution. Numerous experts and organizations are coming out en masse with the suggestion that repealing prohibition—ending the “war on drugs”—is the only way to stop the increasing violence, drug production, and gang growth happening across North America.
Additionally, with the worldwide economic situation getting worse every day, it’s become clear that the financial expense of investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning drug users and dealers is too much a burden to bear. Even the Americans are repealing mandatory minimum prison sentences for drugs because the enormous cost of jailing one in every 100 Americans is bankrupting many states.
At this very moment, California and Massachusetts are both proposing a tax-and-regulate model for marijuana to bring the enormous underground criminal industry into government control. British Columbia can lead the way in Canada by introducing similar legislation for cannabis marijuana, which would eventually result in taxing and regulating all psychoactive substances. The cannabis industry in B.C. is worth currently $7 billion to $12 billion, and in a legal environment, the gross revenue to producers would be about $1 billion with a corresponding $2 billion in tax revenues at the retail level.
B.C.’s legislative assembly would implement a taxed and regulated system for marijuana. The health minister will establish regulations for the production and distribution of cannabis in the same way the province is responsible for regulating the distribution of alcohol and tobacco. (The B.C. regulatory system for alcohol is, in fact, how we emerged from alcohol prohibition.) The solicitor general would instruct all police to cease arrests for marijuana, and the attorney general of B.C. would no longer accept any prosecutions of marijuana-related cases. The reduction in imprisonment would reduce incarceration costs, keep families together, and prevent youth from joining gangs. Children who have a parent in prison are at greater risk to seek life guidance from gangs, and prisoners are often recruited into gangs while behind bars.
The minister of finance would determine taxes and licences for the production and distribution of cannabis products, and collect income taxes from producers, and retail sales tax from retailers. (California’s proposal is a $50 tax per ounce.) The Ministry of Small Business would issue licenses for producers, giving preference to outdoor greenhouse cultivation using the sun and organic nutrients, and employing numerous farmers and agricultural technicians in B.C.’s economically depressed resource towns and regions. Municipalities would have the prerogative of inspecting unlicensed grow-ops and ordering them removed if they pose a safety hazard. The education minister would abolish the DARE program and teach drug education in schools through programs run by health officials. Youth drug education outside of the schools would operate similar to alcohol and tobacco campaigns, which have been proven to reduce the use of these substances among young people.
This model would be effective in drastically reducing gangs, their control over the drug market, and the related violence and murders. Repealing prohibition in favour of a legal model would not only save billions of dollars in law enforcement, courts, and prosecutions, but would also move billions of dollars from the underground economy into the legitimate market to be taxed and regulated. Criminals who try to produce and distribute marijuana outside the regulated industry would be investigated and tried for tax evasion, just as the gangsters were in the 1930s when alcohol prohibition was repealed. Once we end prohibition, gangs will be dealt a severe financial blow, our economy will be buoyed, the streets will be safer, and B.C. will be a leading example for the rest of Canada.
Jodie Emery is the Green Party of B.C. candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview.
Comments
Remember Greenies for Gordo.
Yes Jody many excellent points but poorly researched like a lot of Greenie initiatives. This sort of provincial tinkering with federal law would simply result in your neocon friend - you know the one your federal Greenies almost handed a majority government - Stephen Harper ordering the lieutenant governor to refuse your proposed ultra vires legislation.
If the attorney general refused to enforce federal drug laws your friend Harper would simply toss him in the can.
The Social Credit party in Alberta in the 1930's tried to get through some enlightened banking legislation and got a thorough butt kicking from the feds at that time.
Still some excellent points and many NDP party members agree with you. You could have contributed immensely by working for change on the inside helping the NDP defeat Gordo in Vancouver - Fraserview by seeking and undoubtedly winning the NDP nomination. Instead you are actively seeking to attract left leaning NDP votes to your lost cause ensuring the reelection of Mr Brown himself Gordo "the ogre" Campbell. Rest assured Gordo and gang would love to see all the province's ganga users locked in some federal prison.
The BC Greens are true champions of safe streets, reduced crime, and reined in police. End prohibition, ban tasers, end the surveillance cameras on Vancouver streets, abolish the RCMP and reinstate a BC provincial police service, establish a powerful board of civilian oversight on policing, ban all future megaprojects requiring massive tax subsidies, end fish farming in BC, complete primary, secondary and tertiary treatment of the sewage systems throughout the province. No more Olympics, convention centers or transit lines to nowhere that soak the resources of this province and impair the ability of BC to have optimum hospital, school and housing care. Spending priorities under the BC Greens are clearly more transparent and consistent than the NDP's self-indulgent spreading of taxpayer largesse to the public service unions and their ilk.
The federal NDP has blessedly wonderful MP's in Ottawa by the names of Bill Siksay, fearless on the issues like his mentor Svend Robinson was, and Libby Davies, a courageous and correct woman on crime, policing and justice issues.
The BC NDP has no such luminaries in Victoria, no such visionaries of social justice. And for voters who place value on principles and correct theory, the BC Green Party is the choice for change.
You just don't get it Mark.
Greenies are for Gordo. A greenie vote simply attracts low information voters from the left to vote Green not NDP and thereby insuring Mr Brown Gordo "the Ogre" Campbell wins reelection. He then gets to spend the next four years damning up rivers all over the province for his pirate power projects wasting tens of billions in taxpayer revenues and wrecking hundreds of pristine rivers, building fish farms in every inlet that can support them thereby destroying countless salmon runs, drilling for oil off the coast and leaving more kids starving than in any other province in Canada. One thing for sure he will be throwing all his support into Harper's tough new drug laws and do his best to throw you and Jodie and Dana Larsen and Kirk Tousaw in the slam. None of those things would happen under a Carole James government. As much as you despise her I can't believe you like Gordo more.
As I stated earlier most NDP rank and file support a lot of your police/ ganga issues and you and homies would help the people of BC a lot more if all joined the NDP attended policy conventions and overwhelmed the law n' order/labour wing off the party. Carole James has to get elected and she can't do it with candidates openly breaking the law. Your friends in the neocon mainstream media would eat her alive.
You Emery's need to compare yourselves to another well meaning Greenie idiot named Ralph Nader who by attracting 5% of the progressive vote in 2000, singlehandedly gave the world one million dead Iraqis and the worst economic crisis since the 1930's. You really need to think of the damage you will do to BC by reelecting Gordo "the Ogre" Campbell.
The NDP did themselves a favor by 'bouncing' the "crystal methamphetamine promoter, Dana Larson" (Cannabis Culture Sept-Oct, 2000) from their nominations. Hey, Marc Emery owns that rag, is he a 'promoter of crystal methamphetamine' also? Most uneducated don't understand that it's these "dangerous drug and their promoters" that are the biggest "players in prohibition", not the 'healing herb Cannabis'.
Charge the 'players' with 'tax evasion' and take their product and give it to those that need it, under a very supervised program, weaning them off the 'poisons' on a weekly basis. This might not be the right answer or the best way to proceed, but it's a lot better than what the federal, provincial and Vancouver's health professionals and providers are doing about these 'dangerous diseases', drug addictions.
Jodie sure writes a lot like Marc, using the Spanish American colloquialism, 'marijuana', in favor of the botanically correct name 'Cannabis". Does she belive like Marc, that The Sovereign Canadian border is 'just an imaginary line'? Imagine going to the u.s.a. every time you want to see him. All over his "own stupidity". Don't be misslead by those that don't know.
And no, it wouldn't mean there would be no more gangs. But they will definitely be kneecapped financially, thus reducing their ranks drastically, and once again relegated to the dank corners of society from whence they came.
Pornography and gambling are regulated and taxed and we even have gaming grants to kids sports regimes like Little League. So why is the real organized crime into gambling? Because its a money maker and if you keep a low profile the cops do not pay any attention to it. That's why its been around for so long, as opposed to the local in your face riff raff.
Just look what our NDP Mayor has given Vancouver so far: Chickens, spy cameras on every street corner, turning City Hall lawn into a garden, canceling the moratorium on deadly Tasers, and lots more homeless shelters. Yes, that's what Vancouver needs most.
As to repealing prohibition, it would start with ending marijuana prohibition, then once a regulatory regime has been tested and verified, the repeal of all other prohibitions would proceed.
Very little gambling has organized crime involved, because legal gambling is virtually everywhere, including online and in licensed facilities everywhere. It used to be called 'running the numbers' when the various mobs controlled it, but its been a while since I heard someone in BC go to a "bookie", when they can buy lottery tickets on every street corner, play poker in 10 casinos in the lower mainland, etc.
I haven't seen many liquor bootleggers either since BC ended alcohol prohibition in the early 30's and put in place the regulations on alcohol we see today.
With all the legal escorts permitted to advertise, the number of pimps in this town is pretty small relative to the thousands of women operating as escorts.
All these casinos, lotteries, escorts, alcohol outlets are subject to regulation, tax collection, age restrictions, etc.
This is simply the way that drug distribution will be done also, to similar beneficial effect to BC.
The BC NDP is mostly likely to change for the better if the NDP under Carole James is defeated this election and a new BC NDP leader is chosen from amongst their admittedly gutless and cowardly caucus. Perhaps if that new leader develops a backbone, vision, and some new ideas, perhaps the BC NDP of the future will be worth a look. But certainly not in 2009.
Once we get STV in the province, then electing Green MLA's is a certainty and we can finally be rid of this lose-lose paridigm of having to select the lesser odious of two stinky corrupted, parties.
If you smoked something other than pot, you would know the corner stores to get your cheap (smuggled and repackaged) cigarettes from. If you indulged in good scotch, you would know where to buy "discount" bottles. If you spent any time in a casino, you would have chatted with the nice oriental lady about a small loan to help you regain your losses for the day. If you ever drive through the seedier parts of the city you would see the pimps in action. Maybe even read a report or two on the subject. If you have ever lost money in the stock market in a bogus shell company on the exchange you will have fed organized crime in a regulated industry. If you ever had fraudulent charges on your credit card, you have contributed to the "Big Circle Boys" organized crime group.
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the abuse of prescription drugs is set to exceed consumption of illicit narcotics worldwide and Canadians are among the heaviest consumers of pharmaceutical opiates globally.
Moreover, the findings of a recent national study indicate that in many communities across Canada, heroin is being replaced with prescription drugs such as Oxycodone
(e.g. OxyContin) and Hydromorphone (e.g. Dilaudid). Several organized crime groups, particularly in Atlantic Canada, are involved in the illicit retail distribution of prescription opiate drugs. Gee whiz, and this is taxed and severely regulated!!!
Contraband tobacco in Canada is primarily supplied by organized crime groups based in Ontario and Quebec, and is facilitated by inter-provincial, cross-border and international distribution networks. According to the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council, an estimated 22% of cigarettes smoked in Canada are illegal. Of these, some are legitimately manufactured, smuggled and illicitly sold through Aboriginal reserves and, to a lesser extent, illegally introduced through Canada’s ports. Two out of every 10 smokes supports organized crime. It is because of the regulation and taxation that this illegal industry thrives.
A small number of organized crime groups, mostly based in B.C. and Quebec, are involved in the facilitation of international trafficking in human beings. Conversely, several street gangs are active within the domestic trafficking market for the purposes of sexual exploitation. These groups facilitate the recruitment, control, movement and exploitation of Canadian born females in the domestic sex trade, primarily in strip bars in several cities across
the country.
Just because you do not see or know what is happening do not assume that it is not.
So what you are saying Mark is because of your childish dislike of the NDP you would prefer the Liberals win.
I had to laugh at your leader's claim that you Greenies take as many Liberal votes as you do NDP. Greenies have a radical left wing agenda. What Liberal (ie Neocon) voter would support ending taser use, legalizing ganga, shutting down pirate power and salmon farms - none or close to it.
I however have no doubt that many Liberal party insiders send you buckets of campaign donations. A dollar spent on the Green campaign is a far more effective way of ensuring a Liberal victory than a dollar spent on the Liberal campaign itself.
You are well aware you will not win a single seat and you don't give a rat's ass about starving, children, destroyed pristine rivers, lost salmon runs, and a hundred billion in taypayer dollars flushed down the pirate power toilet. Like Ralph Nader the American Greenie who's 5% vote gave us the first 21 century depression and one million dead Iraq's you have no apologies, you are going for it.
Have any of you Greenies ever even tried to stack a single NDP constituency meeting by having your supporters buy memberships - electing a new board. No I think not.
Stephen Harper was able to turn a progressive centre left conservative party into a Neocon evangelical one almost overnight. You could have Greened the NDP the same way if you had tried.
No Mark you and the your greenie political types are in it just plain and simple to get a platform for your agenda. You could care less about the environment, the people of BC and the damage you are doing.
Your constant attacks on the Green Party are a great example of the true spirit of the BC NDP.
I actually was an NDP supporter at one time but realised that I would never vote for the BC NDP let alone get involved with a party that is as corrupt and evil as yours. I have volunteered on the campaign of Libby Davies in the past, and don't find the federal NDP as objectionable - I do think that there are some good people and candidates within your party. You are clearly not one of them.
I sincerely hope you are least paid by the party for all the time you spend in your negative rants - I would hate to call them American style attacks because the BC NDP takes it to a whole new level which would be insulting to American politicians. If not I would suggest you find a hobby or a romance or something to balance your life.
Carole James is such a poor leader, and within your party the leader and party leadership run the show, that there is sentiment within the Green Party we might be better off with Gordo. The fact is that for our party, and for British Columbians in general, neither choice is a good one.
Just using the environment as one example, Carole James demanded a carbon tax in 2007, then when the Liberals introduced it her and Mr. Shane Simpson came up with 'axe the tax'. If your party was truly concerned with flaws within the carbon tax they should have worked with the government to address them instead of coming up with such a crass attack on what almost every climate change expert agrees is necessary to reduce the 50% of emissions caused by individuals. The NDP claim to promote cap-and-trade, but they voted against the Western Climate Initiative in January. They said they were against Gateway, but now they say if they are elected they are going to go ahead with it anyway. Then Carole James has the gall to insult British Columbians (assuming she was trying to convince them to vote for her) by stating in the televised leaders debate that we need a government with a consistent plan for the environment!
It is the BC NDP who ruthlessly and balatantly attempt to steal Green votes - not the other way around.
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