Pubdate: Sat, 15 Oct 2016 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Lori Culbert Page: A14 POT POSSESSION TREATED DIFFERENTLY IN RURAL B.C. THAN IN URBAN AREAS Database breaks down marijuana investigations in each community B.C. police more frequently investigate people for possessing pot than officers in any other province, a trend fuelled by the RCMP in rural detachments, according to an exclusive Postmedia database of marijuana crime in Canada. The mountainside communities of Salmo, Clinton, McBride, Hope, Valemount, Merritt and Whistler had the highest number of police probes into pot possession per capita in 2015 in B.C., and are ranked third through ninth in Canada (trailing behind Lake Louise and Jasper, nationally). In Lake Louise, there were 40 pot-possession probes for every 1,000 people last year; the rates in the top seven B.C. towns ranged from 27 files in Salmo to 14 in Whistler per 1,000 residents. These are police-reported numbers compiled by Statistics Canada, which Postmedia downloaded, analyzed and turned into several online searchable databanks and maps that contain information on 1,132 municipalities across the country. The stats show that police attitudes toward pot possession are really an urban-rural divide in the 200 B.C. municipalities we analyzed. The first time a Metro Vancouver city surfaces in the data is at 21st spot - North Vancouver (rural), with 7.5 police pot-possession files per 1,000 residents. (StatsCan defines rural as outside a city's core or fringe areas; North Vancouver City was 74th on the list, and North Vancouver District was in 143rd spot.) The next-highest Metro cities were Coquitlam (rural) in 57th spot and Langley City in 58th, both with around five pot files per 1,000 people. So how about B.C.'s three largest cities? Kelowna was 73rd with four pot-possession investigations per 1,000 residents; Victoria ranked 131st (2/1,000); and Vancouver was 142nd (1.7/1,000). This data suggests that British Columbians like to toke, and that while urban police might be turning a blind eye, rural departments are not. However, what the data also tells us is that although B.C. police might investigate, they are less likely to pursue criminal charges compared to their counterparts in other provinces. B.C. ranks fifth out of the 10 provinces for the number of people aged 12 and older who were charged with pot possession per 100,000 population. Saskatchewan had the highest stats and Newfoundland the lowest. Hope (rural) had the most pot-possession charges laid in 2015, with 14 per 1,000 residents. Vancouver - where the police department's policy is to lay charges based on a person's behaviour while using a drug, rather than the actual unlawful possession - is near the end of the list, with far less than one charge per 1,000 people. The city is home to the country's only supervised injection site, where users can legally take their drugs under the watchful eye of nurses, and to Canada's first Downtown Community Court, which aims to find alternatives to jail to help repeat drug users. The largest 4/20 celebration is also based in Vancouver, where thousands openly smoke on public streets and shop at hundreds of booths that sell edibles and other pot products. At the very bottom of B.C.'s 200-town list, the cities with the fewest pot-possession charges per capita are West Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, New Westminster, White Rock and Saanich. Nationally, B.C. had the highest proportion of pot-related offences cleared by police discretion, meaning officers here more often issued warnings or sent the person to a treatment program rather than have the case handled by the courts. Postmedia also analyzed national statistics on marijuana trafficking. B.C. had the lowest rate of people per capita charged with selling pot in Canada, and the second-lowest rate of police investigations into trafficking. The three provinces with the highest numbers in both categories were Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The top seven B.C. communities for trafficking investigations - and they only had between one and three files for every 1,000 residents - were all rural: Alert Bay, Alexis Creek, Dease Lake, Hope (rural), Slocan Lake, Prince Rupert and Nootka Sound. There were 85 B.C. communities that reported having zero pot-trafficking investigations in 2015. At the bottom of the list for those communities with a tiny number of police files were Port Coquitlam, North Vancouver City, Port Moody, Coquitlam, White Rock and Vancouver. To see the full database, visit: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/o-cannabis-database - --- MAP posted-by: Matt