Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jun 2003
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
Contact:  http://www.fyilondon.com/londonfreepress/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Kelly Pedro
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

CLARIFY POT LAW, COPS SAY

Until Ottawa Or The Courts Act, Area Forces Vary In Handling Pot Possession 
Cases.

Police in Southwestern Ontario are taking different approaches to enforcing 
pot possession while they wait for the law to be clarified. The status of 
the law was thrown in doubt May 16 when a Windsor Superior Court judge 
ruled simple pot possession is no longer illegal.

The Justice Department has filed a motion in the Ontario Court of Appeal to 
stay the decision.

Until the courts or Ottawa clarify the law, some police departments say 
they won't lay charges for possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana.

Police forces across the region are taking different approaches:

- - In London, police won't lay charges against people found with less than 
30 grams of marijuana. Police will seize the drugs and write up the 
paperwork, but not process it through the courts.

- - In Chatham-Kent, police will arrest and charge people with possession of 
less than 30 grams, but they have delayed issuing summonses to appear in 
court for four months. If the law changes, charges will be dropped, police 
Chief Carl Herder said.

- - In Sarnia, it's business as usual with officers using their discretion on 
whether to lay charges.

- - OPP officers will seize marijuana and document the incident, but will not 
make arrests or lay charges until the law is clarified, a spokesperson said.

"The courts have got to make some decision, but more importantly, the 
Canadian government is going to have to make it clearer," said Sarnia 
police Const. George Linton.

This week, Tom Kaye, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of 
Police, asked Ontario chiefs to advise officers to use discretion with 
simple possession charges.

Kaye said police should process anyone found with under 30 grams of 
marijuana, lock the drugs in a vault, complete the required paperwork and 
await a decision from the appeals court.

London police Chief Brian Collins said he has asked his officers to do that.

"Where we have evidence of possession, we will not be processing the 
charges through the courts until such time as the legal issues around the 
law are cleared up," Collins said yesterday.

But until the law is clarified, Collins said, people shouldn't think they 
can walk around the city smoking pot.

"They would be very foolish, I would say, as an individual to think that 
this is some sort of licence now to go out and abuse because it may turn 
out that they're facing some charges a week or two down the road."

The ambiguity about the status of the law left Collins frustrated yesterday.

He said citizens are getting mixed messages and the federal government is 
creating "utter confusion."

Collins said he has received calls from Londoners who are angry and 
confused about what's happening.

"Our leaders in government have an obligation to put resolve to this 
issue," he said. "The message that's going out is contradictory at best."

The Windsor court decision prompted federal prosecutors in London to stay 
dozens of charges late last month of possession of less than 30 grams of pot.

That move came a day after the federal government tabled legislation to 
decriminalize simple pot possession.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom