B.C.'s Health Officers Join Call for Legalizing Marijuana

A budding movement says it's high time for the government to blaze a new path, or else the country could go to pot.

The groundswell of support in British Columbia for legalizing marijuana has grown even larger, with the province's medical health officers adding their voices to the Stop the Violence BC campaign. The campaign is urging provincial and federal authorities to consider legalizing marijuana to take a bite out of organized crime in B.C., which makes the bulk of its money in growing and selling the plant. The medical health officers, which are the top health officials in each municipality, follow in the footsteps of four former Vancouver mayors – Sam Sullivan, Michael Harcourt, Larry Campbell, and Philip Owen – who last month published an open letter calling for an end to marijuana prohibition. Meanwhile, a new poll of B.C. residents has found that a majority of adults in the province – 59 per cent of them – consider alcohol to be more dangerous than marijuana. The Angus Reid poll also found 51 per cent of respondents don't consider marijuana a gateway drug, and 54 per cent don't think that marijuana is dangerous or addictive.