Pubdate: Sun, 12 Oct 2003
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: David Heyman, The Calgary Herald

CANNABIS BILL FORCES POLICE TO MAKE LAW

CALGARY -- Police officers, not the government, will decide if possession 
of marijuana is a criminal offence in Canada if the Liberals' proposed 
decriminalization bill is passed by Parliament, according to an Ontario law 
professor.

Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall, said with Bill C-38 the 
government is passing the buck to unelected beat officers, rather than 
dealing with the matter itself.

"This government has to make a decision, and they're trying to defer it to 
law enforcement officials -- and I think that is really a big mistake," 
said Mr. Young during a panel discussion on the current affairs show Global 
Sunday, which will air today on Global TV.

The legislation proposes decriminalizing the possession of 15 grams or less 
of marijuana. Police who catch people with small amounts of the drug would 
have the discretion to hand them tickets -- from $100 to $400 -- instead of 
initiating criminal charges.

Currently, possession of any amount of marijuana carries a maximum penalty 
of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Mr. Young believes too much time and money have already been wasted trying 
to keep marijuana possession criminal when the substance has been found by 
several commissions of inquiry, including one recently from the Senate, to 
be "a relatively benign substance."

However, Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP who has doubts about his own 
government's bill, told Global Sunday host Danielle Smith decriminalization 
would, for many, be confused with legalization. That could lead more people 
to drive under the influence of marijuana, he said.

Debates around the bill may be moot, however, as Parliament may not have 
enough time to debate it before its current sitting ends.

Also interviewed during the program was Alison Myrden, a woman who suffers 
from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and associated facial pain. To 
douse the agony, Ms. Myrden told Ms. Smith she consumes marijuana around 
the clock in any way she can, by eating, smoking it and putting it in her 
tea. She claims smoking it, however, is the fastest way to get rid of the 
pain she's suffered for more than a decade.

"I'm only better because of things like medicinal marijuana," said Ms. 
Myrden, who backs the government's bill. "I'm dealing with the worst pain 
in the world."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart