Drug Trends in BC

There could be several reasons why British Columbia has some of the highest recorded drug reports in Canada. To start if you look at Victoria and Vancouver, which has had the highest rates in Canada since 1991, They are both right on an Ocean. There could be more drug busts recorded because it is much easier to traffic drugs on water then on land. These drugs could be coming up anywhere along the coast of the United States, or all the way down to Mexico and Columbia. This could also explain the increasing amounts of Cocaine in Canada.

As for Marijuana, it is extremely popular in the province of BC. It (in comparison) is inexpensive and easy to obtain. Almost anyone can be a dealer, from your Gangs (The Hell's Angels or The Banditos) all the way down to the teenagers roaming around the streets. Not only is it easy to obtain, it is easy enough for most people to grow given the right conditions, thus making it a popular way of making money.

On that note, I think the best theory that explains why people commit crime is Rational Choice Theory. The punishment for being caught with Marijuana is very low, and even so can be said the same for distribution, to a certain extent. If the payout of the crime will be higher then the risk, people are likely to take the easy path with the high payout and a higher paying "career" then what could possibly be a low or minimum wage paying job.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/police+bust+international+drug+ring/9063055/story.html

In the link above, the news article explains that a ring of people based out of Ottawa who were connected with BC Gangsters, were caught trying to smuggle $35 000 000 worth of Cocaine and Methamphetamine's out of Canada in furniture to Australia. In going back on the theory that I used earlier I believe that the reason people would have tried to pull something off like this is because they believed that the payout would be greater then the risk (however, they were wrong) and decided to try and pull it off, even though someone they were connected with tried to pull of a similar international drug traffic and was arrested in the midst of doing so.