SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With preparations underway for a pro-marijuana legalization rally in Somba K'e Park on Saturday, Yellowknife politicians and outspoken marijuana advocate Kim MacNearney seem to agree: it is time the plant was legalized in Canada.
Kim MacNearney says she didn't set out to be a pot advocate, but the medical marijuana licence holder is happy to fill the role no one else seems to want. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo |
"I feel that it needs to be legalized and regulated and worked with, just like alcohol and tobacco," said MacNearney. "It's a plant. It's far less toxic than alcohol is and yet for some reason, it is still under prohibition."
City councillor Dan Wong said he plans to attend the event on Saturday.
"I am supporting the rally," he said, adding April 20 happens to be his birthday. "I stand on the side that says marijuana needs to be legalized immediately, and not just decriminalized."
Wong said there is widespread marijuana use among a broad range of Yellowknife residents, including himself.
"I have smoked marijuana responsibly before and, yes, I did inhale," said Wong. "Recently, I've been far too busy to sit around and get high.
"I'm sure everybody in this town would be surprised to know who in this town smokes pot regularly, or even who in this town has smoked pot before," Wong said. "The amount of money and legal energy being used to prosecute the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans ... it's an outrage. It's an imposition on our basic civil liberties and it's a completely unreasonable use of our social energy. I think the RCMP in this town have much more important things to deal with."
Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington agrees marijuana should be legalized.
"I think there is a very large understanding that the war on drugs is not working and other solutions have to be found," said Bevington, who said he will not be at tomorrow's rally because he will be in Fort Smith for the weekend. "(NDP) party policy is leaning more towards legalization."
Bevington said he believes legalization is preferable to decriminalization - where having a certain amount of the drug would no longer be a punishable offence - because legalization and regulation would undercut the violent illegal drug trade, and could bring in tax revenue. According to Bevington, studies he's seen suggest 80 per cent of money spent on drugs in Canada is spent on marijuana.
MacNearney said she has suffered from chronic pain since having emergency spinal surgery when she was 21 years old for a pinched nerve caused by a compressed disk in her back. The medication prescribed by her doctors destroyed her digestive system, she said. She turned to marijuana as a natural way to cope with her pain. In 2009, she applied for a medical marijuana licence, which she received in 2010.
Being able to consume marijuana legally gives her the freedom to speak out where others cannot, said MacNearney, and on April 20, 2012, she conducted a one-woman public protest supporting the legal use of marijuana, which was something Yellowknifers had rarely seen.
Wong said Yellowknife is a small community in which he believes many people who responsibly use marijuana recreationally in their personal lives are uncomfortable making their views public. However, there are risks, he said.
"The marijuana that we are smoking now is so much stronger than it was in the 1970s," Wong said. "It's engineered in labs and there are real health risks, especially for people who are on the tipping point for schizophrenia and other mental health illnesses connected with schizophrenia, like bipolar (disorder) and other forms of depression."
Marijuana can also impair drivers, said Wong. This concern is shared by Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro, who cited recent findings of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada that an Air Tindi pilot involved in a fatal accident in 2011 was impaired by marijuana, which could have built up in his system after prolonged use.
Bisaro said she does not support legalization or criminalization but her personal views fall somewhere in the middle. On one hand, Bisaro said she worries legalization could encourage more people to use marijuana more often. On the other hand, Bisaro is against mandatory minimum sentences, including those for marijuana possession, which force the territorial government to put more people in jail.
In Yellowknife, whether or not to charge someone for possession of a small amount of marijuana, such as one joint, is at the discretion of the officer involved, said Cpl. Barry Ledoux, spokesperson for the Yellowknife RCMP.
"It's still illegal," he said.
According to Canada's Criminal Code, a person in possession of 30 grams of marijuana or less can be charged summarily with a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
Ledoux said statistics are not available on how many Yellowknifers have been charged with possession for having small amounts of marijuana. However, in his monthly report to city council last Monday, Insp. Frank Gallagher gave updated numbers on all drug possession charges in the city. From January to March of this year, there have been 15 total drug possession charges, and in all of 2012, there were 108 possession charges laid by Yellowknife police.
When asked how officers would respond if participants on Saturday decide to spark up, Ledoux repeated it is up to the officers' discretion.
"We just ask that those attending this event do so in a peaceful manner and be somewhat discreet about it. Don't put us in a situation where we have to act," he said.
