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Talking pot and politics
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Charla Huber/News staff
Carving a niche Songhees First Nation carver Clarence Dick works on a totem pole across from Admirals Walk in View Royal. He’s spent the past three years working full time carving totem poles and traditional Salish house posts for the Songhees Wellness Centre.
rovincial politicians need to step up and reveal their views on the legalization of marijuana, according to several B.C. advocacy groups. Ted Smith, former head of the Victoria-based Cannabis Buyers’ Club of Canada, said the province needs to take action on marijuana decriminalization and stop deflecting responsibility onto the federal government. “The provincial government (has always given) a lame-duck excuse that it’s not their responsibility, because it’s a federal law,” Smith said. “But it is their responsibility, because the provinces and municipalities are paying for bad policy every day through our police departments. (The province) isn’t even defending these laws at all anymore, they’re just saying Daniel Palmer ‘it’s not our job.’” Reporting Advocates argue public opinion has reached a tipping point, as evidenced by a recent Angus Reid poll that shows 73 per cent of British Columbians want the province to undertake a comprehensive pilot study on the regulation of marijuana. Stop the Violence B.C. – a lobby group of law enforcement and health officials, legal experts, academic professionals and ex-politicians – commissioned the poll. The group argues a regulated marijuana market will improve public health and safety by taking the drug out of the hands of criminal organizations and allowing government to develop a message for its responsible use by adults. “We manage to regulate one of the deadliest drugs, and that’s tobacco, and we want to examine that same model … for legalizing cannabis, much in the same way some of the U.S. states have done,” said John Anderson, a criminologist at Vancouver Island University and a Stop the Violence B.C. member. The poll also shows only 12 per cent of British Columbians would look unfavourably on their own political party for supporting a trial study on cannabis regulation. Please see: Candidates should step up on marijuana, Page A3
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