Tag Archives: marijuana

Varied takes on marijuana turn Metro Vancouver into a patchwork of unpredictable enforcement

Sarah Bowman was handcuffed by Burnaby RCMP after smoking a joint.
Sarah Bowman was handcuffed by Burnaby RCMP after smoking a joint.

Late one evening last February, Sarah Bowman was on her way home when she was approached by two RCMP officers at the Edmonds SkyTrain Station in Burnaby.

She had just smoked a joint, Bowman recounted in a telephone interview, but she didn’t think she was in real trouble. Bowman explained that she had a doctor’s prescription for the drug and had obtained it with that document at a medicinal-marijuana dispensary in Vancouver.

“I saw police officers making the rounds, so I threw my joint away,” she said. “They walked straight up to me, a gentleman showed me his badge, grabbed my hands, and handcuffed me without me even responding.”

Bowman sat on the ground as officers searched her bags. They didn’t find any marijuana and eventually located both Bowman’s prescription for cannabis and her dispensary membership card. But the RCMP officers dismissed those documents as irrelevant.

They argued that under existing laws, medicinal marijuana must be obtained via mail order from a certified Health Canada supplier. That is accurate (with exceptions) and remains true today.

On November 13, Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a mandate letter that stated the Ministry of Justice should “create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of marijuana”. But Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould (MP for Vancouver Granville) has yet to act on that directive.

Both the Justice Ministry and the RCMP refused to grant interviews. Cpl. Janelle Shoihet, a spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP, did however confirm officers are still enforcing cannabis laws including those that prohibit possession.

Dana Larsen is vice president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. He told the Straight that although the country remains in a period of transition on marijuana, municipal jurisdictions are policing cannabis as they see fit. Larsen suggested that situation has turned an urban region like Metro Vancouver into an unpredictable patchwork where some jurisdictions zealously enforce drug laws while others turn a blind eye to petty crimes like possession.

“In B.C., it totally depends on the mayor and the mayor and city council,” he said.

Bowman was travelling from Vancouver to New Westminster but stopped in Burnaby to visit her boyfriend. The Vancouver Police Department has long maintained it does not consider marijuana possession an enforcement priority. Meanwhile, in 2014, the New Westminster Police Department recorded a seven-year low for drug offences (going as far back as data is publicly available). But Burnaby is policed by the RCMP.

“They left me shaking uncontrollably and terrified,” said Bowman, who was eventually released without charges. “I used to think that police officers were there to help. Now, I’m paranoid. I’m afraid of police.”

Murray Rankin, opposition critic for justice and NDP MP for Victoria, told the Straightthat stories such as Bowman’s should serve as a warning. He said cities like Vancouver and New Westminster may not consider it a priority to go after someone with a joint but anecdotal evidence suggests the situation is different in jurisdictions covered by the RCMP.

“It’s quite a varied landscape out there,” he said. “We want a coherent position across the country.”

Rankin added that the situation on Vancouver Island is similar to that of Metro Vancouver. The City of Victoria (which has its own municipal police force) has tacitly accepted marijuana storefronts and is drafting regulations comparable to those Vancouver adopted last June. Meanwhile, Rankin continued, in Nanaimo (where the RCMP patrols the streets), marijuana is still getting people into trouble with law enforcement.

Barely an hour after Rankin’s call with the Straight, the RCMP issued a news releasestating they had executed search warrants at three marijuana dispensaries in Nanaimo.

Rankin acknowledged that legalizing marijuana—that is, creating a framework for sales similar to rules that cover tobacco—will be complicated and take time. But he argued it would not be hard for the federal government to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis. Rankin noted the Liberals have discussed this as a likely first step, and he wondered when that will happen.

As few as seven percent of B.C. marijuana violations result in charges, according to a 2011 analysis published by the University of the Fraser Valley. But according to B.C. Justice Ministry numbers, from 2003 to 2012, police across the province recorded 173,157 offences related to cannabis.

Larsen emphasized that even without a charge, an apprehension such as the encounter with RCMP Bowman experienced is usually entered into a police database, where it can remain for years and create problems for someone when the apply for a job or travel to the United States.

Like Rankin, Larsen said he accepts that full legalization will likely be a long process. “But there is no reason to continue arresting people for possession,” he said. “Especially when those charges are likely going to be dropped in a few months anyways. What’s the point?”

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This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on December 2, 2015.

Marijuana advocates point to Liberal hints of what legalization might look like under Justin Trudeau

Jodie Emery, a lead advocate for marijuana reform and once in the race to represent the Liberal Party of Canada in Vancouver East, says legalization will be good for everybody, with sales projected to rake in billions for the government. Cannabis Culture photo.
Jodie Emery, a lead advocate for marijuana reform and once in the race to represent the Liberal Party of Canada in Vancouver East, says legalization will be good for everybody, with sales projected to rake in billions for the government. Cannabis Culture photo.

The unofficial leader of Canada’s marijuana-reform movement had a succinct reaction to the Liberal’s October 19 victory over the tough-on-crime Conservatives.

“Holy smokes,” Jodie Emery said in a telephone interview. “We were all joking about how activists are out of a job. Mission accomplished. Now what?”

In his campaign for prime minister, Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau promised his government would fully legalize and regulate the sale and consumption of recreational cannabis. That pledge went significantly further than NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s plan to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot. While decriminalization leaves supply to the black market, Trudeau insisted Canada should regulate cannabis in ways similar to how the country handles other controlled substances, such as alcohol and tobacco.

“It is time that Canada adjusted to the reality that controlling and regulating marijuana is a way of both protecting our kids, protecting the public, and ensuring that we are not financing gangs to millions and millions of dollars,” Trudeau told the Straight at an August 19 campaign stop in Vancouver.

Now, Emery said, there are a thousand questions about how that will happen.

“What kind of system are we going to have?” she asked. “Now it really comes down to the details….But right away, they have to stop arresting people. The first step has to be an immediate decriminalization-type system where nobody is arrested for possession anymore.”

In March, Trudeau told CKNW Radio that a Liberal government would begin by decriminalizing marijuana “in a very rapid fashion”. That requires removing cannabis from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which would save a lot of people from negative interactions with police. From 2003 to 2012, the B.C. Ministry of Justice recorded charging 44,522 people for crimes related to cannabis. (Though it might be further down the road, Trudeau has also said a Liberal government would be “looking into” how it might “overturn previous convictions” for crimes related to marijuana.)

Exactly what comes next is less certain, but a 38-page Liberal party draft “policy paper” dated January 2013 provides many hints.

It recommends marijuana be sold in retail storefronts, perhaps similar to those already operating in Vancouver. That document repeatedly emphasizes a legitimate marijuana industry should be heavily regulated. It points to tobacco and alcohol sales as examples, noting there are strict rules for how those products are supplied, sold, and advertised.

It also analyzes American states that have legalized cannabis such as Washington, and acknowledges a number of issues with which those jurisdictions have struggled.

“To be successful and prevent organized crime from maintaining a black market, the price of legal marijuana must be lower than it is now,” it reads. “At the same time, the product’s quality must be at least as good – if not better.”

As the owner of a number of Vancouver dispensaries, Don Briere conceded he stands to gain a lot from Trudeau’s plan. “We were dancing in the streets,” he recalled of election night. But Briere argued people who have nothing to do with pot also stand to benefit.

He explained that while he’s paid federal GST on weed sold through his dispensaries, he hasn’t paid PST to the province. That’s because authorities consider cannabis sold through Vancouver storefronts to be medicinal, and medications are exempt from PST. Briere said if a new Liberal government permits the sale of recreational marijuana, those sales would be subject to PST, and that would translate into millions of dollars in new money for the provinces.

“I alone have paid over $200,000 in GST on marijuana,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of time, and we’ll continue to add to that.”

In the Liberals’ policy paper, it’s calculated that legalizing marijuana will bring in $4 billion in government revenue each year. In addition, an older special senate committee report, from 2002, estimates between $300 and $500 million spent on law enforcement and the justice system annually could be saved by legalizing cannabis. Meanwhile, the Liberals project implementing a new regulatory scheme will carry a price tag of just $65 million over five years.

In a telephone interview, Joyce Murray, the re-elected Liberal MP for Vancouver Quadra, was reluctant to predict what tangible form legal marijuana sales might take. She said the initial emphasis will be on consultation and discussions with the provinces and municipal governments.

“What’s important is the principles,” she said. “And the principles are to prevent under-age access to marijuana as well as to stabilize the safety of the product.”

Dan Werb is director of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and the lead author of an August 2015 report that summarized existing research related to marijuana use and the consequences of proposed regulations. He noted legalizing cannabis can lead to increases of reported use among youth, but emphasized that’s not an inevitable outcome.

“From a public health standpoint, look to the successes we’ve had with tobacco regulation,” he said. “We’ve seen an incremental decrease in the use of tobacco among young people. And I think that is a responsible framework to use.”

Emery warned that Trudeau hasn’t acted on the marijuana file yet.

She stressed that a number of players will not be jockeying for influence over how new regulations take shape. She said those could include reform advocates, health watchdogs, industry stakeholders, and representatives and lobbyists for potential competitors to recreational marijuana such as pharmaceutical corporations and beer and liquor retailers.

Emery also emphasized that today, police across Canada still have the authority arrest anybody caught with a joint.

“The Harper legacy of prohibition will continue for some time,” she said. “And now the Liberals will have to make sure they don’t over-regulate.”

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This article was published in print and online at Straight.com on October 21, 2015.

2015 stats for marijuana offences show police tactics changed before Vancouver’s dispensary boom

One of Vancouver's largest dispensary operators, Don Briere of Weeds Glass and Gifts, has said he welcomes the city's proposed regulations and hopes they will help bring the industry into the light. Travis Lupick photo.
One of Vancouver’s largest dispensary operators, Don Briere of Weeds Glass and Gifts, has said he welcomes the city’s proposed regulations and hopes they will help bring the industry into the light. Travis Lupick photo.

Over the last several years, the number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries operating in Vancouver has ballooned, from fewer than 20 in 2012 to more than 100 today.

That might have people wondering how police enforcement of marijuana laws has changed during that time, especially since the City of Vancouver lent a great deal of legitimacy to dispensaries when it proposed a legal framework for marijuana sales last April.

As the VPD turned a blind eye to over-the-counter marijuana sales, one might expect the department’s overall numbers for cannabis offences experienced a sharp decline.

But it turns out VPD enforcement numbers have barely changed at all.

During the first six months of 2015, the VPD registered 473 cannabis offences. Multiply that number by two and one can very roughly project 946 for the year.

That compares to 1,048 marijuana offences in 2013 and 864 in 2012.

This means the VPD is on track to record a very average number of marijuana offences this year, despite the proliferation of dispensaries likely giving many people the perception Vancouver police tactics have shifted.

(Numbers for 2015 were obtained via a freedom of information request. The Straightrequested statistics for 2014, but the VPD withheld that data citing a section of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act that allows a public body to refuse disclosure of information previously scheduled for release within 60 days.)

In a telephone interview, the Straight asked Sgt. Const. Brian Montague why it looks like the VPD is continuing to bust people for marijuana while letting dispensaries go about their business.

“The numbers might seem a little misleading until you explain the fact these aren’t arrests, they are not charges; they are criminal offences,” he said. “In the vast majority of cases where we come across cannabis, there isn’t a charge for cannabis recommended.”

When an officer does catch somebody smoking a joint, Montague said the most likely outcome would be for them to destroy the drugs but otherwise let that citizen go about their day. The encounter still goes into a police database as a marijuana offence (along with the offender’s name and related information) but that’s usually where the matter ends.

Montague explained what statistics for 2015 and recent years actually show is that the VPD changed its enforcement strategies on marijuana long before the dispensaries started showing up at the rate they are today.

“We ask, is a recommendation of criminal charges proportionate to the offence that is being committed?” he continued. “And a lot of times, the answer to that is no.”

On September 17, the Vancouver police board formally received a complaint regarding the department’s alleged failure to enforce drug laws against storefronts selling marijuana.

Ahead of that meeting, the VPD prepared a written response to those allegations.

“In the case of dispensaries, the VPD must consider evolving community standards,” it reads. “The City’s decision to create a regulatory framework rather than using its bylaws to shut down dispensaries; the prioritization of police resources when weighed against other more serious drug offences occurring in Vancouver, and the costs and benefits of taking enforcement action against marihuana dispensaries. As a result, the Chief Constable has decided that such actions will only be taken when there are overt public safety concerns present.”

It’s noted there that since 2013, the VPD has executed 11 search warrants against dispensaries when complaints against those locations were filed and found to have merit.

The police board dismissed the September 17 complaint.

After reviewing the data for 2015, Kirk Tousaw, a B.C. lawyer who specializes in drug law, similarly said it’s his experience that in Vancouver, very few of those offences proceed to see people charged with a crime.

“It is a maintenance of the status quo,” he said. “Enforcement of simple [marijuana] possession does not appear to be a high priority.”

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This article was originally published online at Straight.com on October 1, 2015.

From activists to CEOs, here are 14 women who run Vancouver’s booming marijuana industry

Village Dispensary owner Andrea Dobbs is part of a wave of women at the forefront of Vancouver-based cannabis businesses. Travis Lupick photo.
Village Dispensary owner Andrea Dobbs is part of a wave of women at the forefront of Vancouver-based cannabis businesses. Travis Lupick photo.

One of the first lessons a marijuana enthusiast learns is to purge a grow operation of males. Only the females of the cannabis plant—identifiable by pistillate flowers, in contrast to a male’s staminate flowers—produce the cannabinoid chemicals sought for their psychoactive effects. So gardeners pull the male plants out by their roots and discard them as useless.

On the human side, nobody is actively purging Vancouver’s burgeoning marijuana industry of men, but many facets of the business are similarly dominated by women.

“Here in Vancouver, women have been at the forefront of this industry from the very beginning,” said Jamie Shaw, president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD).

She recalled that one of North America’s first marijuana storefronts, the nonprofit B.C. Compassion Club Society, was founded in 1997 with feminist ideals at its core.

“In our early days, 70 percent of the Canadian workforce was male, so we made it policy that 70 percent of our staff had to be female,” Shaw told the Georgia Straight. “And we still have that policy.”

Hilary Black, who cofounded the Compassion Club alongside Shaw, recalls that things happened a little more organically.

“I was 20 years old,” Black recounted. “We were all in our mid- to young 20s. It was just a group of women who were willing to engage in civil disobedience and provide services for marginalized and chronically ill people.”

Regardless of how conscious the group was of its feminist bent back then, Black said the tradition is something worth keeping alive today.

“Women were the roots and the pioneers of medical cannabis in this country,” she emphasized. “And I think it is really important that we continue to see them having a leading voice and influence as the movement moves into an industry.”

Almost 20 years after the Compassion Club opened its doors on Commercial Drive, there are plenty of Vancouver women following in its footsteps. Shaw pointed to Dori Dempster of the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, the Village Dispensary’s Andrea Dobbs, and Jessika Villano of Buddha Barn Medicinal Cannabis. Women are also behind some of the city’s most popular oils and edibles, Shaw continued—Brina Levittof Green Penguin Delights, for example, and Apothecary Labs’ Gabriele Jerousek. Another is Mary Jean Dunsdon, better known as Watermelon, whose online cooking show has earned her an international following. (Dunsdon also appeared on the cover of the Straight back in 2008.)

It’s not just in the dispensary industry that women are running the show.

UBC’s Rielle Capler has focused on marijuana and patient care as a research area for more than a decade. Before that, she was another woman involved early with the Compassion Club. More recently, Capler has become a big contributor to evolving legal frameworks, having helped draft the standards and certification program for dispensaries that the City of Vancouver adopted last June.

On the research front, Capler called attention to a cannabis study that was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review on September 14. Bucking the academic trend of papers often being dominated by men’s names at the top, that study was coauthored by eight B.C. researchers, including Capler, plus Kim Crosby, Lynne Belle-Isle, andSusan Holtzman.

“To do the dispensaries, that was civil disobedience,” she said. “And research was an area that needed pioneering as well because it is still a taboo topic.”

Of course, the Canadian cannabis movement’s most visible face is also a woman’s.

Jodie Emery has carried the crown since her husband, Marc, began a five-year prison sentence in 2010. He was released in August 2014 but has appeared content to see Jodie remain the lead spokesperson for the push to reform marijuana laws.

In a telephone interview, Jodie Emery speculated that one of the reasons women have risen to the top of marijuana reform is that pot—or at least its more legitimate areas—is a relatively new industry that’s going mainstream after efforts began to force old-boys’ networks and institutional sexism out of the workplace.

“Because the legal or semilegal marijuana industry is new, there are positions available for women that men may have otherwise filled before,” she said. “Women have had an equal opportunity to be involved.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, she added. For example, Emery agreed that her husband’s name often still comes first in media reports on the reform movement, despite Marc taking a back seat for some time.

“Something that women have always dealt with is being somebody based on their husband being somebody,” she said. “I struggle with it.…But I’ve never encountered anyone belittling a female [marijuana] activist.”

At the Village Dispensary in False Creek, Dobbs similarly told the Straight that the marijuana industry is better to women than most but is still far from perfect.

“You get a lot of people calling you ‘darling’; you get a lot of references to ‘the kind of girl that smokes weed’,” she said. “Or, ‘She’s pretty for a girl that smokes weed.’ So there is a lot of that kind of stuff.”

Dobbs also noted that as Canada inches closer to legalizing recreational marijuana, she has started to see the industry adopt chauvinistic advertising strategies, like those on display in beer commercials.

“You see a lot of young, hypersexualized girls handing out leaflets and flyers feeling kind of excited to be part of it but not recognizing that they are not being taken seriously,” she explained.

Working to counter that sort of sexism is Women Grow, a professional association with groups in more than 40 cities across North America.

The Vancouver chapter was founded by Shaw and Shega A’Mula, CAMCD chief operating officer and a relatively new face in B.C.’s marijuana movement.

In a telephone interview, A’Mula gave credit to the women who blazed a trail for her and said she hopes Women Grow can help do the same for the next generation. She invited anybody interested to the group’s next meeting, a networking event scheduled for this Thursday (October 1).

“It’s a really empowering environment,” A’Mula said. “It’s not all big business, like other cannabis events.…It’s a way to have fun, connect, and have conversations you probably can’t have elsewhere.”

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This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on September 30, 2015.

Marijuana advocates warn NDP plans for decriminalization would leave organized crime in control

On July 1, Vancouver police scuffled with advocates for marijuana reform at the annual Cannabis Day demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Pot TV photo.
On July 1, Vancouver police scuffled with advocates for marijuana reform at the annual Cannabis Day demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Pot TV photo.

In November 2001, Kash Heed stood before the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs and outlined why his police department had essentially stopped arresting people for marijuana possession.

“It was de facto decriminalization,” the retired commanding officer of the Vancouver police drug squad told the Straight. “I took a lot of heat from the RCMP for doing that.”

Published in September 2002, the committee’s final report is a serious document more than 800 pages long.

“In our opinion, Canadian society is ready for a responsible policy of cannabis regulation,” it concludes. “A regulatory system for cannabis should permit, specifically: more effective targeting of illegal traffic and a reduction in the role played by organized crime.”

Thirteen years later, the committee’s recommendations remain ignored and the report is all but forgotten.

As for Heed, who also served as B.C. solicitor general, he said he’s come to see problems with the position he took back then in favour of decriminalization; mainly, that it doesn’t go far enough.

Heed explained decriminalization would put an end to police busting people for smoking a joint. But he quickly added the illegal supply of marijuana would remain unaddressed.

“We’ll continue to have the murders, the kidnappings, the home invasions,” he said. “All of the violence that’s related to that black market will continue.”

“Decriminalization will do nothing to deal with that aspect of it,” Heed concluded. “Decriminalization is good business for organized crime.”

Ahead of this October’s federal election, two out of three leading political parties have pledged to reform laws concerning the prohibition of recreational marijuana. The New Democrats’ Thomas Mulcair has promised to pursue that policy criticized by Heed, arguing decriminalization is the best first step for marijuana reform and one that can occur while the issue receives further study. Meanwhile, the Liberal party led by Justin Trudeau has said it wants to fully legalize and regulate the drug.

In separate interviews, a number of prominent advocates for marijuana reform told theStraight they have nearly as many concerns about decriminalization as they do about the current system of prohibition.

While some aspects of decriminalization are similar to legalization, activists called attention to the most obvious difference between the two: the space it leaves for organized crime and the violence that follows.

Jodie Emery was an early supporter of Trudeau’s plan to legalize cannabis. She explained the NDP’s version of decriminalization only pertains to the demand side of illicit marijuana sales, leaving the supply side as it exists today. On the other hand, Emery explained, legalization would likely involve a regulatory system that would institutionalize the production and sale of cannabis similar to Canada’s existing systems for tobacco.

“The NDP’s decision to just look at reforming policy—to have another long investigation or discussion about reforming the laws—means that the criminal control of the market will remain in place, that gang violence will not be addressed in Surrey or anywhere as long as marijuana remains illegal,” Emery said.

John Anderson, a former B.C. Corrections officer and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, described decriminalization as “a victory for organized crime”.

Dan Werb, director of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, explained the changes legalization would bring that decriminalization would not.

“In the case of B.C., we estimated that over $500 million in retail sales is going into the hands of organized crime every year,” Werb said. “If you remove that market, it is the most effective way of kneecapping organized crime and reducing the power of organized crime.”

Even the RMCP—a conservative organization that generally avoids even the appearance of disagreements with Ottawa—may be warming to the idea of reform.

In a telephone interview, Cpl. Scotty Schumann, a media relations officer for Surrey RCMP, confirmed drugs have played a “primary role” in a spate of more than three dozen shootings that have occurred in Surrey since last spring.

Asked how the legalization of marijuana could affect gang violence, Schumann replied: “I suspect that if marijuana was legalized, that would reduce the amount of black market activity surrounding marijuana. I would just be speculating on how that would affect the outcome. But I guess when you look back to alcohol prohibition, certainly, when that was removed, I think it benefited the country.”

There are few jurisdictions comparable to B.C that have legalized marijuana. One is Colorado, where recreational cannabis became legal on January 1, 2014. According tonumbers published by the city, from 2013 to 2014, robberies in Denver declined 3.3 percent, aggravated assault increased 1.2 percent, and homicides dropped 24.4 percent.

The Colorado experiment is still in its early days. There is however substantial research that shows existing police enforcement policies have little overall positive influence on violence related to drug dealing.

For example, a 2011 paper authored by academics with UBC and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS reviewed 15 studies that examined law-enforcement agencies’ effects on gang violence. It found that 14 of them recorded an “adverse impact” and 10 showed a “significant association between drug law enforcement and drug market violence”.

That is, police enforcement of drug laws did not reduce violence but actually led to increased numbers of incidents.

Holding front seats for the violence Surrey has experienced this year are Sukh Dhaliwal, the Liberal candidate for Surrey-Newton, and his NDP incumbent rival,Jinny Sims.

In a telephone interview, Dhaliwal noted he’s historically voted in favour of tough-on-crime legislation. But he argued where marijuana is concerned, it is time for change.

“Every parent is concerned about this gang activity and this gang war going on right now,” he said. “One way we can work to ending this war is to take that criminal element out. And this evidence-based policy—legalizing marijuana—will get that element out. And decriminalization, as the NDP is saying, would keep that factor in.”

Dhaliwal called it a “smart on crime” approach.

In a separate interview, Sims didn’t disagree with the Liberals’ plan in principle. She criticized its potential execution.

“Nobody denies—except for maybe the Conservatives—that our marijuana laws need to be modernized,” Sims said. “But we need to base our decisions on evidence and public health principles.

“It’s not a simple matter of just coming out one day and saying, ‘We’re going to legalize marijuana’,” she continued. “That could lead to major transition problems.”

Neil Boyd, director of the SFU school of criminology, cautioned legalization won’t automatically translate into the evaporation of B.C.’s illegal marijuana trade.

“Regulation isn’t going to be easy,” he said. “How are you going to get rid of the black market? You have to set the price carefully.”

(A 38-page Liberal party policy document acknowledges those types of concerns. “To be successful and prevent organized crime from maintaining a black market, the price of legal marijuana must be lower than it is now,” it reads. “At the same time, the product’s quality must be at least as good – if not better.”)

Boyd said that while the NDP’s plan fails to address the problem of organized crime, the Liberals have yet to explain the details of their plan.

“Decriminalization, to many people, seems a safer approach,” he said. “I think that is mistaken. But I understand the logic. There is a fear that with legalization, we’ll have promotion.”

Boyd suggested it is unlikely legalization would ever take the form of unfettered distribution for marijuana as if it were a harmless product like milk or eggs. He argued Canada should follow examples for how it regulates controlled substances such as tobacco and alcohol.

“We’ll want to regulate it in the public interest,” he said.

This article is part of a series.
Part one: Liberals and NDP promise marijuana reform but pot crimes could still haunt Canadians for decades
Part two: Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform
Part three: Marijuana advocates warn NDP plans for decriminalization would leave organized crime in control

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This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on September 19, 2015.

Ottawa threatens to bypass VPD and send in RCMP to bust Vancouver marijuana dispensaries

Don Briere of Weeds Glass and Gifts is just one of dozens of Vancouver marijuana dispensary operators whose businesses could be at risk if Ottawa makes good on a threat to shut them down using the RCMP. Travis Lupick photo.
Don Briere of Weeds Glass and Gifts is just one of dozens of Vancouver marijuana dispensary operators whose businesses could be at risk if Ottawa makes good on a threat to shut them down using the RCMP. Travis Lupick photo.

The Vancouver Police Department is playing it cool in response to the suggestion the RCMP could be on its way into the City of Vancouver to shut down marijuana dispensaries.

“We have a great working relationship with the RCMP,” VPD Const. Brian Montague told the Straight. “I’ll let them [RCMP] respond to any insinuation that they are going to come into Vancouver.”

The spokesperson for the force made those remarks in response to the distribution of letters sent from Health Canada to a number of Vancouver marijuana dispensaries. In those documents, Ottawa threatens to send RCMP officers into the City of Vancouver.

“If the [named dispensary redacted] does not immediately cease all activities with controlled substances, we will contact, within 30 days of the date of this letter, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for enforcement action as they deem necessary,” reads a copy of the letter posted online at LiftCannabis.ca.

“The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) prohibits any person from engaging in activities such as production, provision, sale (including offering for sale, import, export, transport, delivering of controlled substances unless authorized under its Regulations),” it continues.

The letters do not include an individual’s signature but are marked “Office of Medical Cannabis” and “Health Canada”.

In an email to the Straight, Health Canada spokesperson Patrick Gaebel subsequently confirmed the letters’ authenticity.

“On September 9, 2015, the Department (Office of Medical Cannabis) sent 13 letters to organizations who were found to be illegally advertising the sale of marijuana. The letters require that all advertising activities with marijuana cease,” Gaebel wrote. “Health Canada will attempt to work cooperatively with all parties involved to encourage compliance. If continued non-compliance is identified, the Department may refer the case to law enforcement agencies for appropriate action.”

If RCMP officers did cross into Vancouver and began to shut down marijuana storefronts, that would be a de facto overruling of both the City of Vancouver and the VPD. Those bodies have at least tacitly worked together on a hands-off approach while stating publicly that the illegal dispensaries are simply not a policing priority.

On the prospect of the RCMP conducting policing activities within the City of Vancouver and without the VPD’s cooperation, Montague declined to comment further and directed questions to the RCMP.

Speaking more generally, Montague said the nature of the Lower Mainland means the VPD and RCMP work together on a routine basis and regularly coordinate regional policing efforts.

“The Vancouver police will go into RCMP jurisdiction cities like Surrey, Coquitlam, and Richmond, to investigate crimes that originated in Vancouver,” he explained. “Of course criminals don’t look at city borders so there are often cases that take us beyond the City of Vancouver as well as cases the RCMP would have that would take them into our jurisdiction.”

The RCMP refused to grant an interview.

In June 2015, the City of Vancouver responded to a proliferation of marijuana storefronts by adopting a legal framework and regulations that Mayor Gregor Robertson has said will bring order to an illegal industry that the federal Conservative government has ignored.

Today (September 10) Robertson responded to the alleged Health Canada letter by calling it “curious”.

According to the Globe and Mail’s Andrea Woo, Robertson added he is hopeful the federal government “actually does something meaningful here — has some modern policy toward marijuana”.

It’s estimated there are more than 90 cannabis shops operating within Vancouver city limits.

In April 2015, Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose and Public Safety MinisterSteven Blaney co-signed a letter sent to Robertson and the VPD wherein they expressed Ottawa’s disapproval of Vancouver’s plan to regulate those dispensaries.

“Storefront sales of marijuana are illegal and under our government, will remain illegal,” it reads. “Like the vast majority of Canadians, the Government expects that police will enforce the laws of Canada as written.”

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The article was originally published online at Straight.com on September 10, 2015.

Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform

Jodie and Marc Emery have paid a heavy price for the war on drugs, which is why they’re paying attention to the NDP and Liberal platforms. Travis Lupick photo.
Jodie and Marc Emery have paid a heavy price for the war on drugs, which is why they’re paying attention to the NDP and Liberal platforms. Travis Lupick photo.

There are few people in Canada who have suffered a blow from prohibition like the one that hit Marc and Jodie Emery. On September 10, 2010, after deportation from Vancouver, Marc was sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison for trafficking marijuana seeds.

Canada doesn’t actually send many people to prison for cannabis offences. And if a person is incarcerated for such a crime, it is seldom for as long as five years. But Marc’s transgression was trafficking. On top of his political activities (or because of them, many argue), that was reason enough for authorities to throw the book at him.

Marc has held a grudge.

“Canadian politicians are the most gutless group of people I have ever seen,” he said just hours after his release on August 12, 2014. “They don’t want to bring up marijuana. They are afraid of it. After 45 years, really, they’re still afraid of it?”

Ahead of Canada’s federal election scheduled for October 19, candidates for prime minister are talking about cannabis reform. All three leading parties have staked out clear positions that differ significantly from one another.

In 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government implemented mandatory-minimum sentences for marijuana production and trafficking. Since then, the Conservative party has doubled down on its tough-on-crime stance. “We will not introduce misguided and reckless policies that would downplay, condone, or normalize the use of illegal drugs,” Harper said at an August 11 campaign stop in Ontario.

That was a shot at the federal Liberals and party leader Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis.

Speaking in Vancouver on August 19, Trudeau shot back: “Mr. Harper has failed in his drug policy,” he told the Georgia Straight. “It is time that Canada regulated and controlled marijuana to protect our kids, to protect our communities, and to prevent the funds from flowing into the coffers of drug runners and street gangs.”

A more detailed version of the Liberals’ plan for legalization appears in a 38-page draft policy document published in 2013. It states that recreational marijuana should come under a regulatory framework that covers not only the sale of cannabis but also its production, distribution, and taxation. (The end result would be a system like the one that governs cigarettes, Hedy Fry, the Liberals’ candidate for Vancouver Centre, recently told the Straight.)

That document also addresses Canadians stuck with a criminal record of the sort that can turn up in a background check or in the databases of U.S. customs officials. A Liberal government would “extend amnesty to all Canadians previously convicted of simple and minimal marijuana possession, and ensure the elimination of all criminal records related thereto,” it states.

At an August 20 stop in Vancouver, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said amnesty for past offences was an “important question” and one an NDP government would “look at”.

While the Liberals have promised legalization, the NDP has said it will decriminalize marijuana. “It is something that we can do immediately,” Mulcair told the Straight. “I am categorical that no person should ever face criminal charges or a criminal record for personal use of marijuana.”

The NDP has emphasized that repealing criminal penalties for personal-use possession is only a first step in its plan to reform marijuana laws. Communications director Jen Holmwood readily admitted the party is still working out what would come next. She told the Straight another early move would be to “create an independent commission” that consults with provincial governments and studies the issue.

At Cannabis Culture headquarters on West Hastings Street, Jodie Emery emphasized the Liberal and NDP positions sound similar but are actually very different.

For starters, she said, under Mulcair’s reformed system that only abolishes penalties for small amounts of marijuana, her husband still could have gone to jail for trafficking.

The NDP’s plan only addresses demand, Emery explained. Under decriminalization, the supply side of B.C.’s billion-dollar marijuana industry would largely remain as it exists today: illegal, with grow-ops and distribution networks kept in the shadows under the control of organized-crime syndicates and outside the reach of consumer safeguards such as health regulations.

“Mulcair’s current position would maintain prohibition,” Emery concluded.

The differences between decriminalization and legalization are relevant to more British Columbians than one might think.

According to the B.C. Ministry of Justice, during the first six months of 2015, only 327 people were held in B.C. Corrections facilities for drug crimes.

However, according to a Statistics Canada report, B.C. authorities recorded 15,773 cannabis offences during 2014. (An offence is defined as any criminal infraction regardless of its outcome. From there, police officers and prosecutors have discretion for how to proceed. An officer can record an individual’s name and transgression and let them go, for example, or they can recommend the Crown pursue charges that can land a person in prison.) That document suggests this issue is of greater concern to B.C. than any other province. It states that in 2014, B.C. recorded 341 cannabis-related offences per 100,000 people while neighbouring Alberta recorded 181 and Ontario just 145.

John Conroy, a Vancouver-based lawyer and expert in marijuana law, told the Straightthat those two groups—those charged and convicted for marijuana crimes versus people caught with cannabis but then let go—serve as one example of the tangible differences between decriminalization and legalization.

He explained that the NDP’s plan to decriminalize would likely lower the penalty for any of those 327 convicted drug offenders who were imprisoned for marijuana crimes. At the same time, Conroy continued, decriminalization could escalate the punishment inflicted on those more than 15,000 people who were registered for a cannabis offence but let go without police recommending a charge.

“If it is decriminalized, than it is simply not a criminal offence,” Conroy said. “So it would not form part of a criminal record and you would not be subject to arrest for a crime. But you would still be subject to potential police interference from whatever civil scheme that the politicians come up with.”

That would most likely take the form of a legal framework for ticketing, Conroy guessed, similar to the treatment of traffic violations or fare evasions on public transit.

“My expectation would be that with a ticketing system, the charges will go up, not down, and it will maybe become a cash grab,” he said. “So we will still see interference with people’s civil liberties, even more with a ticketing system than with the current approach under the current law.”

Conroy also emphasized that under decriminalization, all of those more than 15,000 people would still see their names entered into police databases alongside the word marijuana. So if a prospective employer or U.S. customs agent runs a check on anyone ticketed for possessing cannabis, they could still lose that job or be barred from entering the United States.

On the other hand, Conroy said, the Liberals’ plan to legalize would truly end prohibition of marijuana in Canada. “Just simple possession, if it is legalized, than it becomes like buying alcohol or tobacco,” he said.

Conroy emphasized that an over-the-counter system would mean no tickets, no names recorded by police, and no problems with prospective employers or international travel.

Emery noted all of that only concerns the demand side of the marijuana trade. On the supply side, the differences between decriminalization and legalization are even more pronounced. (Exactly how will be explored in depth in subsequent articles in this series.) “Some people say that marijuana is not an election issue,” she said. “Well, we’re seeing the NDP, the Liberals, and even the Conservatives speaking about it, which means that people are asking.”

This article is part of a series.
Part one: Liberals and NDP promise marijuana reform but pot crimes could still haunt Canadians for decades
Part two: Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform
Part three: Marijuana advocates warn NDP plans for decriminalization would leave organized crime in control

Follow Travis Lupick on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on September 9, 2015.

Liberals and NDP promise marijuana reform but pot crimes could still haunt Canadians for decades

Burnaby father Trevor Holness still feels the impact of his pot conviction after Vancouver police busted him more than 20 years ago with a third of a gram.
Burnaby father Trevor Holness still feels the impact of his pot conviction after Vancouver police busted him more than 20 years ago with a third of a gram.

It was 20 years ago that Trevor Holness was arrested for marijuana possession in Vancouver. He had just turned 18 and was out with friends at the annual fireworks celebration on English Bay, Holness recounted in a telephone interview.

Today he lives in Burnaby as a family man with a career and a mortgage. But Holness conceded that back then, he was “a bit of a delinquent”.

“I was pulled aside during an altercation between my friends and some other friends,” he said of that night. “And I was arrested.”

Police found a 250-millilitre bottle of liquor and 0.34 gram of marijuana. They recommended a number of charges that eventually saw prosecutors offer Holness a deal: take the charge for marijuana, do one day in jail, and authorities would forget about the rest.

“I pled guilty,” Holness said. “I wish I never did.”

Holness argued that the true penalty he paid was not the one night he spent imprisoned. “It was that charge,” he said, explaining that the record of the crime has hurt him over and over again.

In 2006, for example, he was denied security clearance for a construction job at Vancouver International Airport. He’s afraid of U.S. customs officials and has missed business trips that would have advanced his career. More recently, the drug charge complicated an insurance plan tied to his mortgage. On job applications, Holness is asked if he’s bondable or has ever been convicted of an offence.

“I’ve had to check those boxes and there have been jobs that I didn’t get because of that,” he said.

For this series, the Georgia Straight interviewed a half-dozen British Columbians caught with marijuana by police.

In September 2012, RCMP officers were looking for a stolen boat along the Fraser River when they stumbled on Matt Roan. He admitted that he and a friend were there smoking pot. Neither was arrested but both learned later that their names were listed in police databases alongside a drug offence.

In May 2013, Ucluelet resident Adam Rodgers woke up to find his home surrounded by officers with guns drawn. His five young children still have nightmares, Rodgers told theStraight. “Over three plants.”

In February 2015, Sarah Bowman purchased cannabis with a prescription at a Vancouver dispensary. On her way home to New Westminster, RCMP caught her smoking on the street. Like Roan’s, her transgression was recorded in the RCMP’s computer system but she was released without charge. “Shaking and terrified,” Bowman added.

Holness was caught with one-third of a gram of marijuana in 1994. He emphasized that police 20 years later are still handcuffing Canadians for crimes related to cannabis, and he warned that those people could be living with the consequences two decades from today. Holness suggested the laws that criminalize marijuana inflict far more harm than the drug itself.

That’s despite two out of three leading parties in this October’s federal election having pledged to reform marijuana laws as soon as they take office. At an August 20 campaign stop in Vancouver, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told the Straight he would decriminalize pot “the minute we form government”. A few months earlier and also in Vancouver, Justin Trudeau promised a Liberal government would legalize recreational marijuana “right away”.

For victims of prohibition like Jodie Emery—whose husband, Marc, spent almost five years in a U.S. prison for selling marijuana seeds—it raises a question: if by this time next year marijuana possession is no longer a crime, why are law-enforcement agencies still busting people, with repercussions that last a lifetime?

From 2003 to 2012, the B.C. Ministry of Justice recorded charging 44,522 people under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for crimes related to cannabis. (The Straight is waiting on freedom of information requests for more recent data.) But B.C.’s prisons are not overcrowded with inmates serving time for petty marijuana offences.

According to the ministry, during the first six months of 2015, only 327 people spent time inside a B.C. Corrections institution solely for a drug crime. An additional 1,069 British Columbians were convicted of a drug offence but handed probation or released on a conditional sentence.

However, groups such as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association have warned that the digitization of information means that even a congenial encounter with police can result in devastating consequences. And there continue to be a lot of marijuana seizures that fall into that category.

As few as seven percent of B.C. marijuana violations result in charges, according to a 2011 analysis published by the University of the Fraser Valley. But according to Justice Ministry numbers, from 2003 to 2012 B.C. police recorded 173,157 offences related to cannabis, every one of which remains in police databases today.

All of these numbers have grown since Prime Minister Stephen Har­per’s Conservative government assumed power in 2006. If a Liberal or NDP administration is elected this October, they should decline significantly but to varying degrees, depending on who takes office and how reforms are implemented.

Dan Werb is director of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and the lead author of an August 2015 report that summarized existing research related to marijuana use and the consequences of proposed regulations.

“There is no evidence that our current system is doing anything but making life more miserable for people who use cannabis,” he said in a telephone interview.

Werb told the Straight the NDP’s plan to decriminalize and the Liberals’ plan to legalize are different from one another to a much greater degree than most people understand. (Exactly how the two policies differ will be explored in depth in subsequent articles in this series.)

He explained that although both decriminalization and legalization involve significant reforms on the demand side—repealing laws that prohibit the drug’s possession, for
example—it is only legalization that also brings changes on the supply side.

“When we think about decriminalization, I actually find it to be really problematic,” Werb said. “What decriminalization does not entail is effectively changing the structure by which cannabis is produced or sold.”

In June 2015, the City of Vancouver responded to a proliferation of marijuana storefronts by adopting a legal framework and regulations that Mayor Gregor Robertson has said will bring order to an illegal industry that the federal Conservative government has ignored. The Liberals’ Hedy Fry and the NDP’s Constance Barnes have had a front-row seat to this experiment. In this October’s federal election, they are the top contenders for Vancouver Centre, a riding that is home to more cannabis dispensaries than any other in the country.

In separate interviews, Fry described the current situation as closer to decriminalization. She criticized it for that reason and argued that what is needed is a higher degree of regulation, which she said Trudeau’s plan for legalization will provide. Meanwhile, Barnes argued that what has happened in Vancouver is “legalization without a plan”. She said that is what the Liberals are now threatening to apply to the entire country.

“The use of cannabis is not going away,” Barnes said. “But I do not support going forward with any kind of legalization until we have a plan in place. And at this point right now,
I do not see any plan. It is putting the cart before the horse.”

Fry maintained that legalization will address people’s common complaints about Vancouver dispensaries.

“Decriminalization has been going on and it hasn’t really worked,” she said. “By legalizing it, we can control the substance.”

Holness said he’s waiting for that day. “I’ve never felt any animosity towards police,” he noted. It is the politicians, he said, he holds responsible.

This article is part of a series.
Part one: Liberals and NDP promise marijuana reform but pot crimes could still haunt Canadians for decades
Part two: Decriminalization versus legalization: marijuana advocates scrutinize competing plans for reform
Part three: Marijuana advocates warn NDP plans for decriminalization would leave organized crime in control

Follow Travis Lupick on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on September 2, 2015.

Justin Trudeau: Liberal government would look at overturning convictions for marijuana crimes

Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau has promised to modernize Canadian marijuana laws if he's elected as prime minister this October. Travis Lupick photo.
Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau has promised to modernize Canadian marijuana laws if he’s elected as prime minister this October. Travis Lupick photo.

Canadians sitting in prison or stuck with a criminal record for crimes related to marijuana have a reason to vote Liberal in this October’s federal election.

At an August 19 campaign stop in Vancouver, prime ministerial hopeful Justin Trudeau reiterated a campaign promise to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. He then went one step further, adding that after a Liberal government is elected and has reversed laws that criminalize marijuana, it will begin discussing what should happen with people who have been charged for transgressions that the country no longer considers criminal.

“That’s something that we’ll be looking into as we move forward,” he said, answering a question from the Georgia Straight. “There has been many situations over history when laws come in that overturn previous convictions and there will be a process for that that we will set up in a responsible way.”

Trudeau initially took the question as an opportunity to criticize Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime record on marijuana.

“One of the things that we’ve seen is that Mr. Harper’s approach on drugs is actually financing gun runners and street crimes,” he said. “Mr. Harper has failed in his drug policy. It is time that Canada regulated and controlled marijuana to protect our kids, to protect our communities, and to prevent the funds from flowing into the coffers of drug runners and street gangs. It is time that we did that. It is time that Canada adjusted to the reality that controlling and regulating marijuana is a way of both protecting our kids, protecting the public, and ensuring that we are not financing gangs to millions and millions of dollars. And that is what we are committed to and that’s what we’ll get cracking on when we form a government.”

The federal NDP led by Thomas Mulcair has said it supports decriminalizing marijuana and, if elected, will consult with the provinces on the possibility of further reforms.

Follow Travis Lupick on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

This article was originally published at Straight.com on August 19, 2015.

Documents show B.C. Ministry of Justice determined to stay out of marijuana debate

The office of B.C. Justice Minister and Attorney General Suzanne Anton has repeatedly declined the Straight's request for interviews on the subject of marijuana. Province of British Columbia photo.
The office of B.C. Justice Minister and Attorney General Suzanne Anton has repeatedly declined the Straight’s request for interviews on the subject of marijuana. Province of British Columbia photo.

Prominent marijuana activist Dana Larsen says documents released in response to a freedom-of-information request show the government of British Columbia is bending over backward to avoid taking positions on issues related to cannabis.