Four of the province's former attorneys general want marijuana legalized to curb gang activity associated with the illegal drug trade.
New Westminster's Graeme Bowbrick, along with Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, and Geoff Plant, signed an open letter on the issue, addressed to Premier Christy Clark and B.C. New Democrat leader Adrian Dix.
The letter was posted on the Stop the Violence B.C. coalition's website on Tuesday.
The letter from the attorneys general endorsed the coalition and urged the politicians to endorse legalizing, regulating and taxing pot.
"The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight," the letter stated. "The evidence? Massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety, and significant - and escalating - costs to taxpayers."
Bowbrick, who was attorney general from 2000 to 2001, said it is time to legalize marijuana, as the current system is not working.
"I think most people can reasonably acknowledge that the law as it stands doesn't work, the system of marijuana prohibition doesn't work, and it hasn't for a long time," he said in a phone interview Wednesday.
The call for the legalization of marijuana matches Bowbrick's personal philosophy, which is that the state should not involve itself in people's lives unless what they're doing is a risk to others, he said. He agreed to sign the letter after being approached by the coalition.
He thinks it is unlikely the federal government will listen at this point, he said.
"Not with the current government," Bowbrick said.
But he added there's no political risk to backing legalization today, as public opinion is overwhelmingly for it.
As a former legislator, Bowbrick said he would ask himself, 'what are we trying to achieve with this legislation?'
In the case of prohibition, it would be to limit marijuana use, but it isn't working, he pointed out.
"We've got this odd situation where it's widely used, there's estimated to be 430,000 users in B.C. and that sounds like a conservative estimate to me," he said. "The model of prohibition hasn't really prohibited the use of marijuana, and on the other hand we've managed to create a black market that has seen the involvement of organized crime.
"It just seems that it fails on all counts."
The attorneys general released the open letter following a number of public shootings in Vancouver and Surrey during the past month, which police have indicated are likely gang-related.
The most high profile incident was the shooting death of Sandip Duhre at the Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver on Jan. 17.
The letter asks that the provincial politicians encourage the federal government to get rid of minimum sentences for minor and non-violent marijuana-related offences, and focus on taxing and regulating marijuana to "protect community health and safety while at the same time undermining gang profits."
As well as endorsing the Stop the Violence coalition - composed of academics, current and former police officers, doctors and others who see a link between marijuana prohibition and gang violence - the attorneys general pointed out that B.C.'s Health Officers Council and the Fraser Institute both support the taxation and regulation of marijuana.
The letter also mentioned a recent Angus Reid poll, commissioned by the coalition, that found that 77 per cent of British Columbians did not agree that marijuana possession should be a criminal offence, and that 78 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the way politicians at the provincial level responded to problems stemming from the illegal marijuana industry.
The attorneys general are not the only public and political figures calling for an end to marijuana prohibition.
Last month, the federal Liberal Party voted in favour of marijuana legalization, and last fall, four former Vancouver mayors also endorsed an end to prohibition.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan told The Record last fall that he could not endorse the legalization of marijuana in an official capacity, but said on a personal level he thought the government should end the prohibition on pot.
"It's caused a great deal of problems in society and I do think we need to find some kind of solution to decriminalizing marijuana," he said.
A decision to legalize marijuana has to come from the federal government, Premier Christy Clark said at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that she won't get involved.
"I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government," Clark said.
The NDP has said that marijuana should be decriminalized.
Clark refused to answer a question from reporters on whether she'd smoke marijuana. Dix said he had once, in 1989, and he didn't enjoy it.
Julie Di Mambro, press secretary for federal justice minister Rob Nicholson, did not address the issue of legalization in her statement to The Record but made it clear things are not going to change any time soon.
"Our government is committed to ensuring criminals are held fully accountable for their actions and that the safety and security of law-abiding Canadians come first in Canada's judicial system," she wrote in an email. "We will continue to fight crime and protect Canadians so that our communities are safe places for people to live, raise their families and do business."
For the entire open letter from the attorneys general, go to www.stoptheviolencebc.org and click on the link for Former Attorneys General Endorse Stop the Violence B.C.
