Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Page: A8

HALF WAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT

The Conservatives inched closer to supporting marijuana 
decriminalization this week, while insisting they by no means support 
decriminalizing marijuana. "Our government is still considering ... 
creating a new ticketing proposal for possession of small 
quantities," Justice Minister Peter MacKay's office said in a 
statement. "To be clear," it continued, "any proposed changes would 
not decriminalize or legalize cannabis possession." Earlier musings 
from Mr. MacKay suggest criminal offences would remain on the books; 
police would have the option to lay charges or to issue a ticket.

This idea, long supported by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of 
Police, would represent a small and, on balance, positive step. But 
the only difference between the "decriminalization" proposal the 
Conservatives virulently opposed in the 2000s, when the Liberals 
proposed it, and what the Conservatives are now considering adopting 
as their own policy is the matter of police discretion. And that sole 
difference makes it a worse idea.

Police already have discretion - to charge or to look the other way. 
And we know how they use it. Deliberately or otherwise, they use it 
inconsistently: In 2012, in hippie haven Tofino, B.C., police laid 
marijuana charges at a rate of 588 per 100,000; in hippie haven 
Nelson, B.C., often called Canada's "pot capital," the rate was 
roughly half that. When criminal charges and tickets are totted up, 
it's easy to imagine who's going to get the pointy end of the stick, 
deliberately or otherwise. A 2002 study of more than 10,000 drug 
arrests in Toronto found black suspects were far more likely than 
whites, even after other factors had been accounted for, to be taken 
in to a police station (rather than released at the scene), and even 
more likely to be held overnight pending a bail hearing.

It's not just race, either. "In criminal law we used to call it the 
'I didn't-respect-the-officer-enough' offence. If you apologized 
enough you were unlikely to be charged," Derek Corrigan, a former 
defence attorney and now mayor of Burnaby, B.C., told a 
pro-legalization event in 2013. "I found that to be reprehensible."

Indeed. Circumstances aggravating marijuana possession can be written 
into law. Otherwise, other things being equal, it is not clear why 
police should be afforded this level of discretion.

At the 2012 Summit of the Americas in Colombia, Stephen Harper 
conceded "the current approach [to the war on drugs] is not working. 
But it is not clear what we should do." Being open to marijuana law 
reform is one thing it is clear the Conservatives should do, and it's 
good news they've come this far - even if it's only in response to 
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's embrace of a legalization-and-regulation model.

Still, a party notionally dedicated to free markets must realize the 
absurdity inherent even in the new, quasi-enlightened policy they're 
entertaining. It would leave the marijuana trade in the hands of 
sometimes violent criminals. It would continue to lumber some 
Canadians with criminal records for simple possession of a product 
that's considerably less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, products 
we have been relatively successful at keeping out of children's hands 
through regulation and which we tax to highly lucrative effect.

In short, the Conservatives should be looking miles beyond this timid 
proposal they're considering. If they're not yet ready to contemplate 
Mr. Trudeau's position, they can at least commit to closely monitor 
the legalization experiments currently under way in several American 
states. They know the status quo doesn't work. It's time they started 
working in earnest toward a coherent new approach.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom