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Victoria policing priorities need to change
By Hempology | April 3, 2002
From the VICTORIA NEWS (Letters To The Editor)
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
By MATTHEW ELROD – Victoria, BC
Justifying busting medicinal cannabis provider Ted Smith, sending his
chronically ill clients back to the street dealers, (“Pot advocate
faces charges,” Victoria News, March 27), Victoria police
Sgt. Darren Laur explained, “There is a strong and reasonable
suspicion, based upon reasonable grounds, that some of the
individuals that we’re arresting for trafficking in the downtown core
have purchased from the (club).”
I am reminded of the explanation a bachelor friend once gave me for
rarely vacuuming his home. “Eventually an equilibrium is reached
where as much dirt gets tracked out as gets tracked in.”
I appreciate that the police are simply doing what our ancestors
asked them to do in 1923, but cannabis was seldom seen in those
days. Now our streets, schools and communities are awash in
unregulated cannabis and compassion clubs are an improvement.
Two studies were released this week on the success of a pilot
program in Lambeth, England, in which cannabis offenders are
given a warning only. One, from the metropolitan police,
estimates that more than 1,300 hours of police time were saved
during the first six months of the program because of the
change (http://www.met.police.uk).
The scond is a report of the results of a survey by the Police Foundation
of Lambeth of residents, which shows strong support for the
cannabis policing scheme
(http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/site/Reports.asp).
Until the federal government, or more likely the Supreme Court of Canada,
strikes down cannabis prohibition, Victoria council should follow Vancouver’s
lead and make cannabis law enforcement their lowest priority.
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