Initiative Petition to Amend the Police Act

A well known pro-marijuana activist, Dana Larsen, has filed in an initiative petition to amend the police act. The summary of the petition is the following:

The initiative draft Bill entitled, “Sensible Policing Act” proposes to amend the Police Act to no longer use provincial police resources on the enforcement of current laws in relation to simple possession and use of cannabis by adults. The draft law would prohibit the use of provincial police resources for this purpose, would require police to report in detail to the Minister of Justice any actual use of resources for this purpose and why it was necessary, and require the Minister to publish that report. The Bill also proposes that the Province would call upon the Federal Government to repeal the federal prohibition on cannabis, or give British Columbia an exemption, such that British Columbia is able to tax and regulate cannabis similar to the regulation of alcohol and tobacco. As well it proposes that British Columbia shall establish a Provincial Commission to study the means and requirements necessary for the province to establish a legal and regulated model for the production and use of cannabis by adults. Last, the Bill would make non-lawful possession and use of cannabis by minors an offence similar to possession and use of alcohol.

More information can be found on Election BC’s website.

The petition will be issued on November 19, 2012 and they will have until February 18, 2013 to collect 10% of the registered voters in each electoral district. I would not hold my hopes too high for this petition as the threshold is extremely high and marijuana is not quite the hot trigger issue as the HST was.