BY RATTAN MALL

FORMER solicitor general Kash Heed on Wednesday lashed out at Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s marijuana policy, saying that he’s “increasing profits of organized crime with this approach.”

Vancouver last week became the first municipality in the country to regulate medicinal marijuana dispensaries, evoking a sharp rebuke from federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose. The Conservative Government says that such dispensaries are illegal and they expect the police to enforce the law.

Heed pointed out the large market for marijuana. He said: “When you consider that 60 per cent of all illicit drug profits worldwide come from marijuana, you can see the great demand for the product.”

Referring to how some states in the U.S. – Colorado, Washington, District of Columbia, Oregon and Alaska – were dealing with this challenge, Heed added: “We have to learn from those particular approaches and see what’s good for Canada and what’s going to work for Canada because prohibition of marijuana continues to be a failure.”

He said Canada has to replace the current policy with “a realistic, practical approach that does not put proceeds in the pocket of organized crime and does not make it accessible to our youth.”

However, Heed rejected what the City of Vancouver’s approach. He noted: “I am very critical of what is taking place in Vancouver with the dispensary model. I think the City Council has completely taken a backward approach because the way the dispensary model is set up, the people that are supplying the dispensaries are from the illicit market and the illicit market is controlled by organized crime.”

He added: “There’s no other way you can get marijuana into these dispensaries without it coming from the illicit market because if you look at the medicinal marijuana guidelines in Canada, the legal source – of which there are 25 companies operating in Canada – can only send it to the patient by secured courier directly to their doorstep, which is a realistic way of getting the product to them.  The dispensary model, in my opinion and my experience, will only benefit those involved in the illicit drug enterprise and, of course, organized crime.”

Heed reiterated: “The only way you can get marijuana to these dispensaries is from the illicit market. You cannot get it from a legal producer here in Canada.  The regulations that are put in place only allow one way of distributing that product, which is a good way: Once they have confirmed that a prescription is from a legitimate health practitioner, it goes by secured courier straight to your doorstep. What other better way is there to distribute the product?”

He added: “And again, they are ensuring that the health practitioner that prescribes it is a legitimate one. Right now you can go into any one of the 94 dispensaries in Vancouver and walk out with marijuana without a prescription. The majority of the people that are purchasing from these dispensaries are purchasing it for recreational use only, not for medicinal purposes.”

Heed bluntly pointed out: “This absurd policy in Vancouver … is actually going to create more violence. It is going to create more problems than fix them.”