While the federal government moved to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana this week, pot smokers expecting big changes for the better shouldn't inhale and hold.  Pot activists say the new laws simply don't go far enough and may even be a step backwards. 

As expected, federal officials announced Tuesday that possession of less that 15 grams of pot will get a fine of up to $400, but no criminal record. 

"There are a lot of changes going on right now," says Philippe Lucas, executive director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, an organization that supplies cannabis to some 300 members, all of whom are medical users of the drug.  "I'm not sure all of them are going to be positive .  .  .  I don't think it comes far enough and I think Canadians are going to find that, and I think judges are going to find that."

A similar law was passed in parts of Australia a decade ago, says Lucas, with some telling results.  "They found the year they started the fines, the police fined three times as many people as they had ever arrested for personal use."

That amounts to a cash grab, he says.  Except that nearly half the people who received fines never paid them, forcing the local governments to spend as much time and resources as before on marijuana-related court cases.  Even more disturbingly, says Lucas, the main recipients of tickets were young men, many of them aboriginal.  "Those are many times the people in the worst position economically to pay those fines."

In Canada, the decriminalization of simple possession of marijuana is being accompanied by additional penalties for cultivating and trafficking, which Lucas says undercuts the goals of decriminalization.  He expects prices will go up, there will be more incentive for growers to break the law, and people buying pot will still have to deal with "criminal elements" running the black market. 

"We're being hypocritical in our approach to drug policy here," he says.  It will also make compassion clubs more vulnerable to arrest and prosecution, he says.  "It's really going to have a negative impact on the users of medicinal cannabis."

Victoria city councillor Rob Fleming says he'd prefer to see marijuana legalized and sold through stores.  That way it could be regulated, kept out of the lungs of minors, and its use could be treated like a health issue, much as is done with tobacco or alcohol.  "It would take away a lot of the vice and stupidity around the drug."

The federal changes are an "important first step," Fleming says, and may eventually open the door to full legalization.  "We're happy to see some progress here, but it will be a shame if the intent is to not make real changes but to package it up and say the issue's been dealt with."

Whatever decisions are made in Ottawa, they are unlikely to change how Victoria police officers deal with marijuana use and cultivation. 

"I think in terms of enforcement priority, simple possession of marijuana has not been at the top of the pyramid for quite some time," says the Victoria police department's Bill Naughton.  Cops will likely remain more worried about cocaine, heroin and "diverted" pharmaceuticals.  Police are seeing a rise in methamphetamine use and an increase in local production of the so-called rape drug GHB, he says.  "Those ultimately may be more significant than writing tickets for less than 30 grams of pot."