Delegates at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities at Victoria today voted in favour of a motion supporting the decriminalization of marijuana.

The motion argued that marijuana prohibition is a “failed policy which has cost millions of dollars in police, B.C. is responsible for 40 percent of the marijuana produced in Canada and as much as 95 percent of it is illegally exported to the United States, and that much of the production is done by criminal gangs.

Some delegates stated that keeping marijuana illegal is a missed opportunity to raise tax revenue and that too much is spent on policing related to it.

Tom Siddon, a regional director in the Okanagan-Similkameen (OK Falls) and former federal cabinet minister, said we’ve “fried enough brains” and a better solution is to police it better.