Pubdate: Thu, 06 Mar 2014
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837

FEDS MAY LOOSEN POT LAWS: MACKAY

Pot smokers could soon be ticketed for indulging their vice rather
than be criminally charged, after Justice Minister Peter MacKay said
Wednesday the feds are looking to take a page from the police chiefs'
book.

"We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay
told reporters. "What we are talking about is very much in line with
what the chiefs of police have proposed."

The debate over pot laws got louder last summer when Liberal Leader
Justin Trudeau said a Liberal government would legalize the drug.

Though the Tories could never sell legalization to their base,
draconian approaches to marijuana are generally ridiculed by the
Canadian public.

MacKay stopped short of calling the possible fines a looser form of
weed policy, but said it would give police more flexibility in
handling individual cases.
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MAP posted-by: Matt