Pubdate: Thu, 29 May 2003
Source: Monday Magazine (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Monday Publications
Contact:  http://mondaymag.com/monday/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1150
Author: Andrew MacLeod
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

POT CHANGES WORRY ADVOCATES, BORE POLICE

While the federal government moved to decriminalize simple possession of
marijuana this week, pot smokers expecting big changes for the better
shouldn't inhale and hold. Pot activists say the new laws simply don't go
far enough and may even be a step backwards.

As expected, federal officials announced Tuesday that possession of less
that 15 grams of pot will get a fine of up to $400, but no criminal record.

"There are a lot of changes going on right now," says Philippe Lucas,
executive director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, an
organization that supplies cannabis to some 300 members, all of whom are
medical users of the drug. "I'm not sure all of them are going to be
positive . . . I don't think it comes far enough and I think Canadians are
going to find that, and I think judges are going to find that."

A similar law was passed in parts of Australia a decade ago, says Lucas,
with some telling results. "They found the year they started the fines, the
police fined three times as many people as they had ever arrested for
personal use."

That amounts to a cash grab, he says. Except that nearly half the people who
received fines never paid them, forcing the local governments to spend as
much time and resources as before on marijuana-related court cases. Even
more disturbingly, says Lucas, the main recipients of tickets were young
men, many of them aboriginal. "Those are many times the people in the worst
position economically to pay those fines."

In Canada, the decriminalization of simple possession of marijuana is being
accompanied by additional penalties for cultivating and trafficking, which
Lucas says undercuts the goals of decriminalization. He expects prices will
go up, there will be more incentive for growers to break the law, and people
buying pot will still have to deal with "criminal elements" running the
black market.

"We're being hypocritical in our approach to drug policy here," he says. It
will also make compassion clubs more vulnerable to arrest and prosecution,
he says. "It's really going to have a negative impact on the users of
medicinal cannabis."

Victoria city councillor Rob Fleming says he'd prefer to see marijuana
legalized and sold through stores. That way it could be regulated, kept out
of the lungs of minors, and its use could be treated like a health issue,
much as is done with tobacco or alcohol. "It would take away a lot of the
vice and stupidity around the drug."

The federal changes are an "important first step," Fleming says, and may
eventually open the door to full legalization. "We're happy to see some
progress here, but it will be a shame if the intent is to not make real
changes but to package it up and say the issue's been dealt with."

Whatever decisions are made in Ottawa, they are unlikely to change how
Victoria police officers deal with marijuana use and cultivation.

"I think in terms of enforcement priority, simple possession of marijuana
has not been at the top of the pyramid for quite some time," says the
Victoria police department's Bill Naughton. Cops will likely remain more
worried about cocaine, heroin and "diverted" pharmaceuticals. Police are
seeing a rise in methamphetamine use and an increase in local production of
the so-called rape drug GHB, he says. "Those ultimately may be more
significant than writing tickets for less than 30 grams of pot."
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