Pubdate: Thu, 06 Mar 2014
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Jessica Hume

TORIES CHANGE THEIR TUNE ON MARIJUANA LAWS

Potheads could soon be ticketed for indulging their vice rather than 
be criminally charged, after Justice Minister Peter MacKay said 
Wednesday the feds are looking to take a page from the police chiefs' book.

"We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay 
told reporters. "What we are talking about is very much in line with 
what the chiefs of police have proposed."

The debate over pot laws got louder last summer when Liberal Leader 
Justin Trudeau said a Liberal government would legalize the drug.

Though the Tories could never sell legalization to their base, 
draconian approaches to marijuana are generally ridiculed by the 
Canadian public.

MacKay stopped short of calling the possible fines a looser form of 
weed policy, but said it would give police more flexibility in 
handling individual cases.

"That is, giving the police further discretion when it comes to the 
treatment of small amounts of marijuana," MacKay said. "Criminal Code 
offences would s t i l l be available to police, but we would look at 
options that would give the police the ability, much like the 
treatment of open liquor, that would allow the police to ticket those 
types of offences."

MacKay said his party Justice Minister Peter MacKay has "a lot of 
policing experience to call upon" and that Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper "has signalled an openness to this."

MacKay went on that "we have not yet arrived on the exact mechanism 
in which (this) could be done," but said he's met personally with 
police chiefs to discuss.

Medical marijuana activist Russell Barth believes ticketing would 
allow police to "cast a wider net."

He also said pricing of tickets could favour wealthier potheads and 
police will use it as a "cashgrab."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom