Pubdate: Tue, 27 Apr 2010
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2010 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Zev Singer, The Ottawa Citizen
Referenced: Police Chief Supports Marijuana Decriminalization 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n318/a03.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)

MARIJUANA REMARKS PUT WHITE ON HOT SEAT

Chairman of Police Services Board Chides Chief for Comments

The chairman of the city's police services board does not want public 
debate on the decriminalization of marijuana to be led by his chief of police.

Eli El-Chantiry made the point publicly while chairing a meeting of 
the board Monday, the same day that Chief Vern White was quoted in 
the Citizen in an article on the subject.

El-Chantiry asked White at the meeting if he would like to clarify 
remarks the chief made in the paper and on radio Monday.

The chief took that opportunity, explaining that the point he was 
trying to make in media interviews was not to call for 
decriminalization of marijuana, but to call for a broader discussion 
of the effects of the drug in communities, particularly on young people.

That discussion, he said, should include finding ways to spare young 
people from criminal records for simple possession -- but the 
discussion, he said, must also include the potentially serious 
ill-effects of the drug.

White told the board that was the "short version" of the interview 
that led to the newspaper story.

"My short version," El-Chantiry replied, "was police in this country 
don't make law, police enforce law.

"And the discussion has to take place with the people we elect in our 
government to make those decisions."

Although no voice was raised and the chair's criticism was brief, 
that exchange between the city's top police officer and his civilian 
boss is far from typical at a police board meeting.

"I wanted to clarify it, so I did clarify it," El-Chantiry told the 
Citizen later.

"Maybe I was a little bit strong in my position, but that's my job. 
I'm the chair of the police board. I want to make sure we stay on track."

El-Chantiry said his point was not to take issue with the substance 
of the chief's opinions.

"He knows about it more than I do," El-Chantiry said.

"He's entitled to his opinion. My issue is the chief of police or 
chair of police board do not change laws in the country. There's 
people we elect, they call them lawmakers. Let them make the law, that's all."

For his part, White said that legislative change isn't actually 
needed to keep young people from having the black mark of a criminal 
conviction for simple possession.

He said that alternative justice systems like restorative justice are 
already provided for by the law; the problem, he said, is that there 
is not yet funding to create the capacity for such alternatives.

He said he would still like to see a "fulsome discussion" in Canada 
surrounding the dangers -- like the increasing potency of marijuana 
and research studies linking the drug to psychoses -- and the 
benefits of alternatives to criminal prosecution.

Too often, he said, the word "decriminalization" hijacks what should 
be a much broader discussion.

In the meantime, he had no hard feelings about the point that 
El-Chantiry made at the meeting.

It's his point to make," White said.

"I've censured my staff many times and I'm sure that the chair might 
at some point feel it's appropriate. That's why he's my boss and the 
board I report to." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake