The B.C. government pledged Tuesday to co-operate with federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on his promise to legalize marijuana.
Premier Christy Clark deflected a question about her personal feelings on the issue by noting that it falls under federal jurisdiction.
She said her government will work with the federal Liberals “in whatever moves they make” in the weeks or months ahead.
“It’s a Criminal Code provision,” she said. “The Criminal Code is a federal responsibility, so if and when they make changes, we’ll work with them to make sure the changes can be effective in B.C.”
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said B.C. expects to be consulted on any change, but she declined to say what feedback the province might provide or whether it would support a move to legalize the drug.
“I’m expecting — given what they’ve said in the election period — that they’re going to be proposing changes to that,” she said. “We would expect to be consulted. The federal government’s traditionally very good about consulting, and we will participate in that.”
Trudeau and his party have criticized Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition as ineffective.
“It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug,” the Liberal platform states.
The party promised to “legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana” to keep the drug away from children and profits away from criminals.
“We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor vehicle while under its influence and those who sell it outside of the new regulatory framework.”
B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake seemed more supportive of the proposed policy change.
“We have to be thoughtful, obviously,” he told reporters at the B.C. legislature. “This is federal legislation, so we’ll work with the federal government on any policy changes.
“I’ve always maintained that if you want to protect children, then you regulate and ensure that they’re not able to access it as easily as they can today.”
B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan said his party will reveal its stance on the issue at a later date.
“I’ve got some ideas on that,” he said. “We’ve been talking about that inside the caucus and we’ll have more to say about that in the days and weeks and months ahead.”
The states of Alaska and Washington, among others, have already legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste, who was in Victoria on Tuesday for a forum on cross-border law enforcement, described the situation there as a “work in progress.”
“We’re still learning,” he said. “It’s ongoing. We are seeing an uptick in incidents on our roadways related to folks driving under the influence of marijuana and other drugs in general.”
Batiste said police have responded by teaching state troopers how to better detect and deal with that situation.
“What we’re trying to do is discover a way [that] we can do roadside detections as we do with alcohol,” he said.
