Pubdate: Sat, 02 Aug 2003
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2003 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Ron Ryder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

COURTS STILL PROSECUTING MARIJUANA POSSESSION

Crown attorneys will still pursue marijuana possession cases, despite 
recent legal decisions, a senior member of the federal prosecution service 
said Tuesday. Paula Taylor, the Halifax-based supervisor of legal agents 
for the Department of Justice, works with the private-sector lawyers who 
prosecute federal cases such as those involving the Controlled Drug and 
Substances Act.

Marijuana is a banned substance under the act but the legal waters around 
the drug have become murky.

The federal government has been talking for months about the possibility of 
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of cannabis and of allowing 
consumption of marijuana for medical reasons.

Ontario courts have used the lack of clarity and action on marijuana policy 
as rationale for throwing out some cases of simple possession.

In March, citing those precedents, Provincial Court Judge Ralph Thompson 
stayed a case in Summerside in which a young male was charged with 
possession of under 30 grams of cannabis.

This month, Charlottetown police said they will hold off laying new 
possession charges until the legal situation is cleared up. Police said 
they will still seize drugs and gather evidence, but won't lay charges 
until an appeal of Thompson's decision has been heard.

Charlottetown's deputy police chief Richard Collins said they will still 
have time to lay possession charges in coming months.

In an interview, Taylor said her office still takes simple possession cases 
seriously but that both prosecutors and police always have the right to 
reserve their efforts for cases that they consider to be in the public 
interest.

"The law is the law, the prosecution service has a mandate to uphold the 
law as it exists," she said. "To date there has been no change to the law 
on cannabis possession."

But Taylor said the prosecution service and police alike have a 
responsibility to use their resources in ways that will serve the public 
interest.

"I don't think there's a citizen out there who doesn't have some experience 
of the police using their discretion not to lay charges; maybe it's when 
someone is jaywalking and the officer tells them they should be crossing at 
the corner," she said.

"We have to ask ourselves the same question, whether a prosecution is in 
the public interest. There are a lot of cases that are resolved through 
other measures."

Taylor said that discretion also means police and the Crown are free to 
aggressively pursue simple possession charges in key areas, such as 
drug-impaired driving or possession of drugs in a school area.

"Certain circumstances of possession are going to be in situations where 
the public interest is such that it is very important for these cases to 
proceed," she said.

Taylor said the situation on Prince Edward Island should be clearer once 
the Supreme Court Appeal Division rules on an appeal of Thompson's decision.

That appeal is scheduled to be heard Sept. 3.

She said the legal precedents on possession charges have not all fallen in 
the same direction as Thompson's ruling.

"In Saskatchewan and British Columbia the courts have take positions that 
are quite contrary to that," Taylor said.

"We have an ongoing appeal in Nova Scotia where the provincial judge relied 
quite heavily on the Prince Edward Island ruling."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom