On Tuesday, voters in three Western states are casting their ballots on an unorthodox way of raising tax revenue: marijuana legalization.
Colorado, Oregon and Washington each have statewide measures to legalize cannabis for recreational use, in the hope that it stimulates the economy and fills state coffers.
"Whatever state votes to legalize, they'll have become the first state to cross the legalization Rubicon anywhere in the U.S.," said Allen St. Pierre, spokesman for NORML, which advocates for the reform of marijuana laws.
For all the hype, says Const. David Bratzer, the life of a downtown cop is about wordplay more often than gunplay. As the scores of drug offenders who’ve served jail time at his insistence will attest, his main weapon isn’t his service revolver, it’s polite, persistent persuasion. As he unrolls his six-foot frame from a floatplane in Vancouver harbour on a humid summer morning, that’s a weapon he plans to level once again at the very drug laws he’s charged with enforcing. “It’s tough for a cop to admit,” he says, heading down the wharf while buttoning his charcoal jacket, “but our laws just don’t make sense.”
A recent report on British Columbia crime trends shows the number of marijuana possession charges continues to climb, despite the fact many British Columbians want to see marijuana decriminalized.
The crime trends report, released in late October by the police services division of the B.C. Ministry of Justice, showed an 88-per-cent increase in possession charges over the last decade: to 3,774 charges last year from 2,004 charges in 2002.
While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney make most of the U.S. election headlines, a referendum in Washington state may have a more profound effect on British Columbians.
The multibillion-dollar B.C. bud industry is watching carefully as Washington, Oregon and Colorado vote on whether to legalize marijuana.
Pot watchers believe Washington stands the best chance of legalizing the drug, which would immediately affect B.C.’s growers and exporters as well as the ongoing campaign to decriminalize marijuana in B.C.
“It’s likely there’s going to be pretty significant changes,” SFU criminology professor Neil Boyd said if Washingtonians legalize pot. “There is a big gap between the science and the marijuana laws.
The stakes are high for marijuana laws in next Tuesday's elections. Three states are voting on some form of a tax-and-regulate law, and two states are voting on medical marijuana. In Michigan, where voters said yes to medical marijuana in 2008, there are proposals in five cities that would further mitigate legal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
Detroit's Proposal M seeks to legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana on private property by adults 21 and older. In Grand Rapids, Proposal 2 calls for making possession or use of marijuana a civil infraction punishable by a fine of up to $100.
"Please vote yes on Amendment 64 so that other vets don't have to suffer." --Corporal Sean Azzariti, United States Marine Corps
That's the poignant message of the latest ad from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the pot advocacy group behind Colorado's Amendment 64 which seeks to end marijuana prohibition in the state.
"I was a Marine for six years, I deployed to Iraq twice," Cpl. Azzariti begins in the ad. "I came home and started having the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Marijuana helped me from the moment I started using it. It calmed me down, it slowed my heart rate down -- my anxiety was almost gone immediately."
New figures from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show recidivism rates are down for the second year in a row.
In a constant attempt to determine what leads to reoffending, CDCR tracks the rate at which released inmates commit new crimes or violate their parole conditions. Its findings are issued in the department's annual Outcome Evaluation Report.
The 2012 report tracked inmates released in 2007-2008 for three years after their release and found that 63.7 percent returned to prison within three years. That's a slight improvement from the 67.5 percent recidivism rate measured two years ago.
Are you aware that passing Initiative 502 is one of the best ways to reduce international gang violence?
Like the violent cartels gripping Mexico, British Columbia is affected by the organized-crime groups which control its huge marijuana industry. These gangs produce and export BC Bud to American consumers, including the 6.8 million residents of Washington state.
When they head to the polls in less than two weeks, voters in Washington State will do more than help elect a new president – they’ll also decide whether to become the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana. And a win for Initiative 502 could have ramifications clear across the border, boosting the bid to legalize the drug in Canada while striking a blow to the multibillion-dollar B.C. bud industry.
Geoff Plant, B.C.’s former attorney-general and a member of Stop the Violence BC, a coalition calling for changes to Canada’s drug policies, said in an interview Wednesday that Initiative 502’s most important impact north of the border would be politically.
France’s health minister, Marisol Touraine (pictured), has said trial centres where drug addicts can safely inject their own drugs could open before the end of the year in a handful of French cities.
Legalised “shooting galleries” where addicts can inject heroin and other drugs with sterile needles provided by medical professionals could soon open in France, Health Minister Marisol Touraine has said.
“I hope that experimental trials will be announced before the end of the year,” Touraine told French BFM television on Sunday, adding that a handful of cities were ready to test the new program.
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On Tuesday, voters in three Western states are casting their ballots on an unorthodox way of raising tax revenue: marijuana legalization.
For all the hype, says Const. David Bratzer, the life of a downtown cop is about wordplay more often than gunplay. As the scores of drug offenders who’ve served jail time at his insistence will attest, his main weapon isn’t his service revolver, it’s polite, persistent persuasion. As he unrolls his six-foot frame from a floatplane in Vancouver harbour on a humid summer morning, that’s a weapon he plans to level once again at the very drug laws he’s charged with enforcing. “It’s tough for a cop to admit,” he says, heading down the wharf while buttoning his charcoal jacket, “but our laws just don’t make sense.”
A recent report on British Columbia crime trends shows the number of marijuana possession charges continues to climb, despite the fact many British Columbians want to see marijuana decriminalized. 
The stakes are high for marijuana laws in next Tuesday's elections. Three states are voting on some form of a tax-and-regulate law, and two states are voting on medical marijuana. In Michigan, where voters said yes to medical marijuana in 2008, there are proposals in five cities that would further mitigate legal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
"Please vote yes on Amendment 64 so that other vets don't have to suffer." --Corporal Sean Azzariti, United States Marine Corps
New figures from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show recidivism rates are down for the second year in a row. 
Are you aware that passing Initiative 502 is one of the best ways to reduce international gang violence?
When they head to the polls in less than two weeks, voters in Washington State will do more than help elect a new president – they’ll also decide whether to become the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana. And a win for Initiative 502 could have ramifications clear across the border, boosting the bid to legalize the drug in Canada while striking a blow to the multibillion-dollar B.C. bud industry.
France’s health minister, Marisol Touraine (pictured), has said trial centres where drug addicts can safely inject their own drugs could open before the end of the year in a handful of French cities.
