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Canada Cannabis Cauldron Bubbling Again
DRCNet.org Drug War Chronicle, Issue #354
Friday 17 Sep 2004 Canada has been in a tizzy over marijuana for the last few years. The=20 minority Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin hopes to quiet=20 the issue by reintroducing its "decriminalization" bill, which would make=20 possession of small amounts (less than 30 grams) subject to fines instead=20 of criminal sentences. Liberal parliamentarians announced earlier this year= =20 that the bill would be reintroduced. But earlier versions of the decrim bill garnered only lukewarm support even= =20 from the Liberal Party, while angering old-line drug warriors who thought=20 it was a cave-in to "the drug lobby" and drug reform activists who viewed=20 it as too little too late. Now, a pair of incidents in the last month have= =20 raised more questions about just what a decrim bill would accomplish, while= =20 at the same time putting the issue squarely back on the Canadian political= =20 front burner. In a surprise move, on August 19, a judge in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,=20 sentenced Canada's most well-known marijuana reformer, pot seed=20 entrepreneur "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery to 90 days in jail as a drug=20 trafficker after Emery pled guilty to sharing two joints with supporters=20 after a political speech there. Emery, founder and president of the British= =20 Columbia Marijuana Party (http://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca), publisher of=20 Cannabis Culture magazine, and creator of Pot-TV (http://www.pot-tv.net),=20 has been convicted at least 11 times for his cannabis-related civil=20 disobedience, but never sentenced to serious jail time. Canadian drug trafficking law makes no distinctions based on drug=20 quantities or on the particular drug involved. In theory, if not often in=20 practice, persons who, like Marc Emery, merely shared a joint, can be=20 charged as drug traffickers and sentenced to as much time as a major heroin= =20 or cocaine importer. The decriminalization bill being prepared by the=20 Liberals does not redress this glaring problem. If Emery's imprisonment, the daily protests outside the Saskatoon=20 courthouse by his supporters, and the deluge of media coverage about it=20 weren't enough, the pot issue received another huge round of publicity=20 after Vancouver police raided a Commercial Drive shop for selling marijuana= =20 on September 9. Da Kine Food and Beverage shop (http://www.dakinesmoke.ca)= =20 had been open for four months, selling marijuana in a cannabis cafe setting= =20 reminiscent of Amsterdam. Vancouver police claim to have been aware of the= =20 business, but did not act to shut it down until CTV -- the Canadian=20 equivalent of Fox News -- ran a "shocking expose" revealing the cafe's=20 operations. That raid resulted in the surrealistic scene of dozens of Vancouver police= =20 dragging Da Kine employees off to jail while a large crowd jeered and=20 smoked joints in solidarity with the neighborhood business. What the raid=20 did not achieve was closure of Da Kine. It was back in business the next=20 day, once again selling marijuana. While Da Kine has been raided, police in= =20 Vancouver have turned a blind eye to at least two other, lower profile=20 businesses doing the same thing on Commercial Drive and one, not affiliated= =20 with Marc Emery, selling marijuana on Vancouver's West Hastings Street "pot= =20 block." Cannabis cafe-style shops are also open in at least one interior=20 British Columbia community and reportedly in Toronto. The publicity surrounding Da Kine has put Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell,=20 an advocate of drug legalization, is an awkward position. While the clamor= =20 was growing in some quarters to crack down on the illicit business,=20 Campbell had said the fact it existed was "no big deal." Campbell was=20 forced to elaborate Sunday at a meeting across the street from Da Kine as=20 customers continued to make their way into the cafe. By staying open, Da Kine is "poking a stick at the police," Campbell said.= =20 "Certainly there is a big deal from the point of legality. It's illegal and= =20 there's nothing the city can do to change that. It's a federal law and this= =20 idea that we can pass a by-law that says coffee shops can sell marijuana is= =20 craziness. We can't do it, it's not a municipal responsibility. I support=20 legalization of marijuana but at the same time that doesn't mean they get=20 to flout the law until the law is changed," Campbell said. "My answer is=20 you legalize it and tax the living hell out of it. And every bit of the tax= =20 should go straight to health care, not the general fund," the mayor added. Marc Emery will get out of jail in a few weeks, and Da Kine will either be= =20 busted again or not, but with support for marijuana law reform strong and=20 Canadian activists determined to push the envelope, what is clear is that=20 the gap between social reality and the criminal law on marijuana is growing= =20 wider by the day. "There is an increased divergence between what the law says and what=20 actually happens," agreed Dana Larsen, editor of Cannabis Culture and a BC= =20 Marijuana Party leader. "These cafes will expand over time, just like in=20 Amsterdam," he predicted. "There are already other places selling over the= =20 counter on Commercial Drive. We are really seeing the coffee shop movement= =20 develop before our eyes now here in Vancouver," he told DRCNet. "We already= =20 have a safe injection site for heroin users, and a safe inhalation site for= =20 crack smokers is in the works here," said Larsen. "Da Kine is a safe=20 inhalation site for marijuana people." The incidents with Marc Emery and Da Kine have roused the New Democrats=20 (NDP), Canada's third national party, whose platform implicitly calls for=20 the complete legalization of marijuana. "We are seeing huge legal problems= =20 with the lack of rational and just laws governing marijuana," said federal= =20 party head Jack Layton in a statement Monday. Vancouver NDP Member of Parliament Libby Davies elaborated. "In light of=20 Marc Emery's arrest last month for 'passing a joint' and the recent arrests= =20 on Commercial Drive, parliament needs to have a realistic discussion about= =20 the laws governing adult marijuana use," she said. "Many are likely not=20 aware but sharing a joint is considered trafficking under our current=20 federal laws," said Davies. "I had an amendment when parliament considered= =20 changes to the marijuana laws last fall which would have stricken this from= =20 the books, but the Liberal-dominated committee voted it down. These sorts=20 of situations are going to continue if Paul Martin and the federal=20 government refuse to face the issue, and as a result lives are ruined=20 because of criminal convictions and communities and local business are=20 unfairly affected by police raids," said Davies, whose district includes Da= =20 Kine. "We are making it clear that we think this legislation needs to be dealt=20 with urgently and it needs to be changed," Davies told DRCNet. "We will=20 work to amend the bill and make it more realistic, but even so, we see the= =20 decrim bill as only a first step; we want to go far beyond that," she said.= =20 "This year we will try again, and we will try to win support from the Bloc= =20 Quebecois [while only a regional party, the Bloc has the third largest=20 number of seats in parliament; the NDP is fourth] and negotiate with the=20 Liberals." If the renascent marijuana controversy has roused the NDP, it has also=20 roused the Conservative opposition. "The Liberal decriminalization bill is= =20 a waste of time," said Member of Parliament Randy White, the Conservative=20 drug policy critic. "It will not satisfy either those who want legalization= =20 or those who want abstinence," he told DRCNet. The Conservatives will not=20 support the Liberal decrim bill unless it is part of a larger national drug= =20 strategy, White said. "We need a national drug strategy. You may not like the American strategy,= =20 but at least they have one," White said. "We should have done this 12 or 15= =20 years ago. Now we have a situation where anything goes, from arresting=20 someone with one joint to giving no punishment for someone with 40 joints.= =20 This is a result of not having a drug policy." Most Canadian marijuana activists consider White a Neanderthal on the=20 issue, but White, too, sounded like he was being swept by the same tides=20 sweeping the country. "I am open to looking at cannabis policy," White=20 said, "and my position has changed. Once upon a time, I believed in total=20 abstinence for everything. I still believe in abstinence, but I am no=20 longer na=EFve enough to believe that is possible. Let's talk about=20 marijuana, but let's do it in the context of a national drug strategy. I'm= =20 not prepared to talk about decriminalization if we are going to be ignoring= =20 crystal meth labs." Dana Larsen and Randy White don't have much in common other than being=20 Canadian, but one thing they do share is the prediction that the Liberal=20 decrim bill will die a lonely, neglected death. "I don't expect it to=20 pass," said Larsen. "It's contentious, and the Liberals are famous for not= =20 dealing with issues like that. But we are approaching the end game," he=20 contended. While continued public support for marijuana prohibition may be waning and= =20 even waning rapidly, it is unclear what will happen next. The Canadian=20 Supreme Court last year had an opportunity to throw out the marijuana law,= =20 but declined. That leaves parliament. But with the Liberals offering up=20 only a weak bill that pleases no one, a parliamentary exit appears a long=20 way off. The other option is for Canadian authorities to follow the Dutch=20 model and allow for the regulated sale and consumption of cannabis. But, as= =20 was evident in Vancouver this week, that will only fly as long as=20 authorities are allowed to ignore the fumes wafting up from Commercial=20 Drive -- or until Canadian officials make ignoring the pot laws official=20 policy. Meanwhile, Marc Emery is about halfway through his jail sentence. And while= =20 Saskatoon authorities can lock him up, they haven't been able to shut him=20 up. Emery posts regularly to a blog on the BC Marijuana Party web site and= =20 even addressed a Saskatoon rally in his support via telephone. We are=20 seeking an interview for next week's issue of Drug War Chronicle. In the meantime, if you want to support Marc Emery, send him a postcard at:= =20 Marc Emery, c/o Saskatoon Correctional Centre, 910 60th Street, East=20 Saskatoon S7K 2H6, CANADA. -- END --
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