Last fall our neighbors to the south, Oregon and Washington State, voted during a referendum to decriminalize marijuana. Since November both have moved forward on making it happen. What seems odd is that this is in the face of the substance still being illegal under federal law.

I was in the library here in town awhile ago and happened to notice a small group of people a corner listening to a speaker. Overhearing what they were talking about, I went over to join the group to hear more. Dana Larsen, activist and leader of the Sensible BC campaign was making the rounds of BC communities to publicize, and garner support for, a similar referendum to decriminalize marijuana here in BC which he hopes to make happen in fall 2014 .

What this referendum is calling for, since we also have federal laws, is that BC law enforcement be directed not to use any resources at all to enforce these clearly ridiculous prohibitions. BC has only had one referendum in its voting history a few years ago when the electorate voted to scrap the blended federal-provincial sales tax. There’s been a lot of talk lately in this province with former Attorneys General, mayors, law enforcement, public health and other groups speaking out against marijuana prohibition, but there’s always talk. In order to make this referendum happen in 2014 they need to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in each and every one of the 85 electoral districts in the province, all within a 90 day period starting September 2013. As you can imagine, this requires a very significant grass roots political effort.

Although this province could possibly following the example of Oregon and Washington in stepping out ahead of the feds, it still looks like it will be a cold day in hell before our current federal government will move forward and do the right thing and legalize marijuana. Our current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when asked if he had ever smoked pot replied, “No I have not. I was offered a joint once and I was too drunk.”

Ha ha. Great joke, big guy. Totally fine to admit to being completely blotto, and to consider it such a badge of honor to say that, unlike over 50% of the population who has tried it, he hasn’t. Moron. There is no doubt that alcohol is far more harmful than pot in so many ways. Harper clearly has never sobered up.

By contrast the late Jack Layton, leader of the opposition party, when asked if he had ever tried marijuana, replied “some might say I never exhaled”.

Me too.

And what I’m also still waiting for, is for the madness, the failed war on weed, to be over.

BC has a huge marijuana growing industry which somewhat ironically began its widespread growth as a result of the completely misguided “war on drugs”. Back in the ’70’s a bunch of geniuses in the US government decided that a good approach would be to fly planes over the marijuana fields in Mexico, which is where most of the weed came from, spraying them with paraquat, a poison which would cause lung damage to the kids who would smoke it. It’s so bizarre I wish I could say I’m making this up, but I’m not. Instead of curbing demand, the inevitable happened and people got their pot elsewhere – places where the DEA couldn’t strong-arm the local governments. Hence, BC Bud.

I’m not holding my breath for Prime Minister Still-Drunk to change anytime soon. After all, it was this government that allowed the extradition of Marc Emery who remains a political prisoner in a US jail, ostensibly for selling seeds, but in reality because of his ‘liberate marijuana’ activism. But I will support the efforts of the referendum group here in BC and anyone else with an idea of how to get this moving. I still find it hard to believe that over 40 years after my first toke, pot is still illegal. Shame.