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Canada: Vancouver mayor touts pot legalization

CTV, Canada

Sunday 09 May 2004

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Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell has weighed in on the marijuana debate, and
left no doubt where he stands.

Speaking at a conference on legalizing pot Saturday, Campbell said he
supports the plan but added it pot were available legally, he would "tax
the hell out of it."

Campbell said every tax dollar would go to health care, noting that without
the pot industry, British Columbia would be in a recession.

If pot ever is legalized, don't expect Campbell to spark up.

"In fact, I've never even smoked marijuana," the mayor told the conference.
"My biggest fear is that I may like it more than cabernet, and then what
the hell am I going to do?"

Campbell says it's time to take the marijuana industry out of criminals' hands.

"What I do want is to stop seeing people go to jail. I want to stop seeing
the waste of resources, our resources, taxpayers' resources," he explained.

According to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which helped organize
the conference, punishing pot users doesn't make sense. The herb has been
around for centuries but was only declared illegal about 80 years ago.

"You have to speak out," says the BCCLA's policy director, Kirk Tousaw.
"You have to say, 'Hey, I do smoke cannabis and I'm not a criminal.' That's
the next step people have to take. They have to come out of the closet."

The forum's keynote speaker was Conservative senator Claude Nolin, who
recently completed an 18-month Senate inquiry into marijuana use and laws
in Canada, concluding marijuana should be legalized.

Ottawa's plan to decriminalize marijuana is about to go up in smoke. The
legislation hasn't made it to a final vote -- and won't if the prime
minister calls an election.

Still the issue will continue to burn, with the NDP vowing to make
legalization a major election platform.

 

 

 

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