I am very happy to report that on Sunday, Feb 19, the Provincial Council of the BC NDP passed the "marijuana resolution" which I had tried unsuccessfully to get debated and passed at the BC NDP Convention last year.

This means that the official policy of the BC NDP is now that the party supports a legalized marijuana regime, including regulated access to marijuana, no penalties for personal cultivation and use, and amnesty for all past convictions for marijuana possession.

It wasn't easy getting this debated and voted on at the council meeting, but once we got it to a vote it passed with about 85-90% support.

The Council also passed another resolution calling for harm reduction, expansion of the safe injection site program, and the creation of "safe inhalation" sites for users of smokable cocaine and heroin.

I will post details later on tonight, and will be sending out a press release tomorrow.

I am thrilled about this! This is a huge step forward for our movement in BC and Canada!

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Here's the actual text of the three sets of resolutions passed by the BC NDP at their Provincial Council Meeting February 19.

Together I think the passage of these resolutions indicates a real turn in drug policy for the BC NDP.

Together these resolutions call for the BC NDP to back progressive drug policies and harm reduction through: 1) the creation of "Safe Inhalation Sites" (2) the expansion of the Safe Injection Site program, (3) prescription of banned drugs, (4) expansion of detox sites, (5) legalization of marijuana.

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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the BC NDP support in principle the creation of a Supervised Inhalation Room research pilot project, to be operated under rigorous scientific assessment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the BC NDP support expanding Vancouver's successful Safe Injection Site to 24 hours a day, and support the opening of similar health services in other BC communities struggling to help fellow citizens suffering from drug addiction and at risk of preventable drug related harm and death; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the BC NDP continue to support research and implementation of other harm minimization approaches for stimulants (crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine) including medically supervised replacement and maintenance therapy.

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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that addiction recovery facilities be set up throughout British Columbia for alcohol and hard drugs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that there be local detox facilities immediately available at once for youth so they can become productive adults.

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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that BC New Democratic Party establish an explicit marijuana policy based upon a non-punitive, regulatory approach, including support for a legal supply of marijuana, elimination of all penalties for personal cultivation and possession, and amnesty for past convictions of marijuana possession.

Holy shit thats Freaking Crazy news congradulations

amazing news dana! you are a true prodigy for the cannabis movement

congratulations Dana,

i know how hard you worked to get this accomplished and i am very proud of your efforts through out this, that got this result .
good luck on your speaking tour.
thank you.

Thank you, Dana. It's great to see that the canoe is being kept afloat!

Does "regulated access" refer to medical use only, or regulated sale like in the Netherlands, or full legalizaton?

Under the rules of the BC NDP, all resolutions brought forward at the convention which did not get debated during the convention must be dealt with by Provincial Council within 180 days. The meeting this weekend was the only opportunity for the Council to deal with the many undebated resolutions.

They went through most of them in clumps, with virtually all resolutions being dealt with as had been recommended by the policy committee. Some were recommended to be passed, some were recommended to be rejected, and some were recommended to be sent to the policy committee for further work. There was a little debate here and there, but very little overall, with most people just wanting to work through them all as quickly as painlessly as possible.

The marijuana resolution was recommended to be sent back to the policy committee, which is where it would have gone to die.

I was not an official delegate to the Council, so I could not introduce motions or vote on anything. I could speak only with a formal vote of permission (which is readily granted to any NDP member who wishes to talk).

I had a couple of friends at the meeting, including Sam Heppell, a Young New Democrat who has been very helpful and supportive. He rose to introduce a motion to separate out the marijuana resolution from its cluster so it could be debated and voted on separately. He spoke eloquently on how much support the resolution had enjoyed at the convention, and how it was wrong for it to have not been granted higher priority there.

There was some debate, including the question of whether this is only a "federal" issue. However, no-one stood up to oppose the principle of the resolution, and a few others spoke in favour. I was also able to speak in support of it as well.

When it came to a vote we had about 85% support.

The marijuana resolution was the only one that was recommended to be sent back to the policy committee, but was instead passed after debate.

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This is the actual text of the resolution that was passed:

Be it resolved that the BC NDP formally establish an explicit cannabis policy based upon a non-punitive, regulatory approach, including support for a legal supply of cannabis, elimination of all penalties for personal cultivation and possession, and amnesty for past cannabis possession convictions.
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To my reading, this means that the official policy of the BC NDP is now that "a non-punitive, regulatory approach" is the right one for cannabis, and that the party will have to develop a provincial policy explaining how the province would help to create and regulate a legal supply of cannabis, plus lobby the federal government to eliminate all penalties for personal cultivation and possession, and create a legal amnesty for past cannabis possession convictions.

The next step will be to entrench and expand this policy within the BC NDP.

I will be working on the resolutions in related policy areas, so that we can now say "since the BC NDP supports legal pot, we should also support..." a) dumping the DARE program, b) redirecting police resources, c) expanding med-pot access, and so on.

The other step is to go to the NDP in other provinces, and get them to show "solidarity" with the federal NDP on this issue, like the BC NDP and the Ontario NDP have. We will go into Saskatchewan and Manitoba and pressure the NDPers there to adopt the same kind of non-punitive cannabis and drug policies.

News this morning from saskatoon,

The city wants to get the province to get tough on crime in the city. People that live in my area don't feel safe at home or when they go out, to many stabbings and armed robberies.

Too many poor people in the city that have to beg for food, makes ripping people off a daily occurence. So the only way to get justice is to get a weapon and go find it. There was about 100 assaults this weekend because of rip-offs, mostly.

This is what drives our NDP governmentto be more like a consevative government. It will be interresting when the Sask party takes over to see how much corruption there really is in the present government.
All the best known party members have left for private life, just like the rats leaving the ship as it goes down.

I don't really have a problem with being tough on crimes where there is demonstrable harm. I just differ on what *is* a crime for the most part. The punishment should be more proportional to the damaged caused.

No 3 strikes laws, no letting corporate pirates (like the RIAA) extort the public with wholly abused copyright laws...

How much of Canadas 'crime problem' is really a prohibition related problem?

This is where the cops just don't get it. Given large numbers of people who completley ignore the cannabis laws encourages the truly criminal to much bolder enterprises. Even the average person, faced with the reality that they can ignore some laws *without consequence* they are emboldened to further unlawful acts. By insisting upon laws that most people ignore, they demonstrate they are powerless to enforce the law. ANY LAW.

They can only catch perpetrators, the people 'keep' the law. By and large, the average person does not victimize another because they believe it is wrong, not because they might go to jail. The smart people can always avoid trouble and there is more than enough idiots to occupy the police.

Since Mulroney started cutting back services to pay moneylenders their graft, the tradition carried on through the Lieberal era and is creating a lot of problems. (like the increase in use of all drugs) There's not a lot of industry in Saskatchewan so I bet the Feds used to give Sask. a lot more in transfer payments. So before you start heating up the tar, I would not be so fast to pin it all on the locals.

Essentially the 'right' has pushed canada so far right that insteading of investing in the futures of people, encouraging higher birthrates, and creating industry, they only have coercion to enforce the system. It will not be serving the average person as well as it used to. Rather than a welfare state, they would rather have a prison-industrial complex to commodify us all. Carrots cost money, the forest is full of sticks.