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. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt