Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jul 2007
Source: Intelligencer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.intelligencer.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2332

QUIT MAKING CRIMINALS OUT OF POT SMOKERS

It's hard to believe, but nearly half of all Canadians  have committed
a criminal offence.

Fortunately, however, only about 600,000 of the  15-million plus have
criminal records. We say  'fortunately' because the criminal offence
they have  committed is largely harmless - so harmless, in fact,  that
some police officers can't be bothered making an  arrest and laying
charges when they happen upon the  crime in progress.

That crime is possession of cannabis, or marijuana.  Section 4 of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act  sets out a maximum six-month
prison sentence and a  $1,000 fine for anyone caught with 30 grams of
marijuana or less.

Imagine how full our jails would be and how much those  fines would
total if police cracked down on the  estimated nearly half of all
Canadians who have ever  possessed and/or smoked the weed. Imagine,
too, how  difficult it would be for half the population of the
country to find work with a criminal record, or to  travel abroad.

That's why we argue it's 'fortunate' that only about  600,000
Canadians have criminal records as a result of  their consumption,
experimentation, or even flirtation  with pot.

But this is not to argue in support of the legalization  of marijuana.
The country isn't ready for that step and  all the complications it
would entail - from impaired  driving to supporting criminal groups
who grow and sell  it, to its abuse by youth.

Rather, what the federal government should do is  decriminalize small
amounts of marijuana, in favour of  fines similar to a traffic offence
rather than facing a  criminal trial, as the Liberal government of
Jean  Chretien proposed in 2003. At that time, every party in  the
House of Commons except the Conservatives supported  a bill to do just
that, but the Liberals never brought  the bill to a vote - Chretien's
government was a tad  busy at the time with the forces of Paul Martin
who  were anxious to put their man in the PM's chair and  with a
little controversy involving federal  sponsorships in Quebec that had
yet to blow wide open.

While the Liberal government's bill was never  resurrected and passed
into law, it stood no chance of  becoming law with the election of the
Harper government  on Jan. 23, 2006. And that, apparently, is why the
number of people arrested for smoking or possessing pot  rose
dramatically across the country last year.

While official numbers have yet to be released,  preliminary figures
obtained by The Canadian Press from  interviews with municipal police
forces and through  Access to Information Act requests suggest the
number  of arrests jumped by more than 33 per cent in several
Canadian cities. As a result, thousands of people have  been branded
as criminals for an offence that was  almost abolished, an offence
that, as noted earlier,  almost half of all Canadians have committed.
Several  police officials said the increase in charges is linked
directly to the earlier Liberal legislation.

Terry McLaren, president of the Ontario Association of  Chiefs of
Police, said many forces simply stopped  laying charges after the
Liberals first introduced the  decriminalization bill in 2003.
"Everybody was waiting  for what was going to happen," he said.
"There'd be no  use clogging up the court system with that
decriminalization bill there.

"When that was defeated, I'd say it was business as usual."

Business as usual, however, continues to clog our court  systems and
to distract police from more-important  pursuits.

Decriminalization for possession of small amounts of  pot won't
eliminate the ongoing problems associated  with its use that we noted
earlier. But it would stop  making criminals out of average Canadians
and free up  the resources to address those problems.
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MAP posted-by: Derek