Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Source: Metro (Halifax, CN NS)
Copyright: 2013 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Halifax
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4727
Author: Ruth Davenport

CHANGING DRUG LAWS IS UP TO YOU GUYS, POLICE CHIEF SAYS

Drug Debate: Marijuana Decriminalization Has to Come From Public 
Demand: Chief Blais

Halifax's police chief says he's exploring some new approaches to old 
problems, though he said changes to drug laws - and by extension, 
enforcement - will have to come from the public.

Following a presentation from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition 
(LEAP) Canada on Tuesday, Jean-Michel Blais said the regional force 
is developing diversionary processes to avoid charges and jail time 
for some drug-related offences.

He said he's concerned about avoiding "overkill" while upholding existing laws.

"I just wonder, in the (U.S.,) how many young men who are caught with 
a small quantity of cannabis, are put into prison - what happens to 
them afterwards?" he said. "You put them among hardened 
criminals...they learn how to become a hardened criminal."

Blais said he saw the reason in finding what LEAP Canada president 
David Bratzer called a "sweet spot" of regulation between absolute 
prohibition and an open market for pot.

However, the chief noted that there's rarely a straightforward 
solution to any problem involving crime.

"It's not by making one tweak in legislation, it's not by changing 
the hours of a bar, it's not by forcing people to pay for their gas 
ahead of time that's going to stop crime," he said. "It's all of 
these little effects together which hopefully will have a larger effect."

Blais said that although prohibition has never succeeded in 
eradicating a banned substance, legalizing those substances hasn't 
worked out so well either.

"Of the drugs that kill the most people in Canada, I think probably 
alcohol may be the first one, if not tobacco, and the third one being 
medicinal drugs," he said.

The chief said drug laws will change when the public demands it, and 
suggested the time is coming.

"If you've been following the debates for the federal Liberal 
leadership party, there are several candidates...who have openly 
talked about decriminalization and taxation," he said. "Can you 
imagine that even 10 years ago? That would have been a form of heresy."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom