Four former B.C. attorneys-general -- Colin Gabelmann, Ujjal Dosanjh, Graeme Bowbrick and Geoff Plant -- are calling for the legalization of cannabis.

"No, I'm not smoking anything," Dosanjh cracked when contacted.

"It's just time - 77 per cent of Canadians are telling us it's time to change the law."

The former provincial justice ministers, who cross party lines, on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of academics, four Vancouver mayors, the Health Officers Council of B.C., the Liberal Party of Canada and others who say the 89-year-old marijuana prohibition has failed.

The ex-AGs say regulating and taxing pot will reduce gang crime and violence, raise government revenue, ease the burden on the overcrowded court system, better protect communities and improve health outcomes.

In a letter to Premier Christy Clark and NDP leader Adrian Dix, they cited mounting evidence reinforcing the harms of the current policy.

They said ending the pot prohibition was a "major opportunity for leadership from the provincial government."

Clark, however, won't go near the idea with a barge pole.

"I am going to leave the marijuana debate to the federal government," she told reporters in Victoria.

"It's in their sole sphere of responsibility so as a premier I respect that former attorneys-general have taken this stand, people who are outside of politics. But as a premier I'm going to leave this to the federal government."

And in case people didn't get the message of stiffer drug sentences in the controversial omnibus crime bill, the federal Tories say unequivocally this government won't discuss legalization.

The four erstwhile AGs said they released their letter in the aftermath of escalating gang violence in the Lower Mainland and recent public shootings.

They wanted to add their weight to the campaign initiated by Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of law-enforcement officers, legal experts, public health officials and academics from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and the University of Northern BC.

"The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight," write the attorneys general in their letter.

"Massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety and significant-and escalating-costs to taxpayers."

More than 50,000 or so Canadians are busted every year for possession; throw in 20,000 traffickers and producers, and the so-called war on drugs is costing us as much as $400 million annually in law enforcement, court and corrections.

The AGs' letter urges provincial politicians to lead the change in marijuana policy and encourage Ottawa to abandon its plans for mandatory minimum sentences for minor and non-violent pot-related offences.

They argue a regulation and taxation strategy will better protect our communities while eroding the profits of organized crime.

"It's time for our political leaders to accept and act on the overwhelming evidence linking marijuana prohibition to organized crime

and gang violence," said Geoff Plant, who served as Liberal attorney general from 2001 to 2005 in the first administration of Premier Gordon Campbell.

"Punitive laws such as mandatory minimum sentences are clearly not the solution. Instead, taxation and regulation under a public health framework is the best way forward."