Four former Vancouver mayors are urging all elected officials to join a movement to liberalize marijuana laws.
Even though the federal government has the exclusive jurisdiction to decriminalize marijuana, former mayors Mike Harcourt, Philip Owen, Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan say in an open letter that they “are asking all elected leaders in British Columbia to speak out about the ineffectiveness and harms of cannabis prohibition.”
Harcourt told Business in Vancouver that for decades he has favoured decriminalizing marijuana.
What brought him and the other mayors together?
“The wreckage of the existing laws,” said Harcourt, who was Vancouver’s mayor between 1980 and 1986.
He equated the impact of the prohibition on marijuana with the prohibition on alcohol in B.C. between 1917 and 1921.
The mayors’ letter calls marijuana prohibition a “failed policy” that creates violent gang-related crime and fear among citizens, adding financial costs for all levels of government at a time when the cash-strapped public sector can least afford it.
Harcourt pointed to the Fraser Institute’s estimate that B.C.’s cannabis trade may be worth up to $7 billion annually.
“That’s just the raw crop,” Harcourt said. “If you were to sell it like we do booze, if you regulate the industry, the amount of revenue that would come in would probably be on the scale of the natural gas revenues, which is about $1 billion a year.”
A recent Angus Reid poll showed that 69% of British Columbians believe that chasing and arresting marijuana producers and sellers is ineffective and that British Columbians would be better off taxing and regulating the adult use of marijuana.
“You’d decrease the cost of policing, courts, correctional institutions and not stigmatize a whole bunch of people,” Harcourt said.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom