THE MAN who wants legislation passed that would all but decriminalize marijuana possession in B.C. is touring the northwest.
Dana Larsen's Sensible Policing Act would direct "all police in BC to stop spending any time or resources on searching, seizing or arresting anyone for simple cannabis possession," said Larsen in a press release.
Larsen also ran for the provincial NDP leadership last year and is the director of the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, a Vancouver business which sells cannabis to people based on a medical need.
He's also leading a campaign to have a referendum on the Sensible Policing Act, putting volunteers in place to collect the official signatures needed from September to November of 2013.
"The lawyers at Elections BC have confirmed that this legislation is within provincial jurisdiction and suitable for a referendum," said Larsen.
"There's no reason we cannot decriminalize possession in our province," continued Larsen. "In 2003, BC joined seven other provinces in refusing to enforce the Long Gun Registry. At that time, Attorneys General said they didn't want to bother with otherwise law-abiding citizens who were in possession of an unregistered long gun. We're asking for the same sensible perspective when it comes to people in possession of cannabis."
Local government officials from across B.C. voted this fall at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Victoria to ask the federal government to decriminalize marijuana possession and to investigate ways to regulate and tax it instead.
Larsen speaks in Terrace at the aquatic centre Nov. 6 starting at 6 pm.