Pubdate: Thu, 06 Mar 2014
Source: Moose Jaw Times-Herald (CN SN)
Copyright: 2014 The Moose Jaw Times-Herald Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2154

LOOSER POT LAWS MAY BE ON HORIZON AFTER INPUT FROM POLICE CHIEFS, MACKAY HINTS

OTTAWA (The Canadian Press) - The Conservative government is 
seriously considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police 
to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying 
charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

"We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay 
said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

"The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would 
look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach, he added.

The justice minister has hinted in the past that such a move was 
under consideration. The country's police chiefs -as well as some 
Tory caucus members, MacKay says - have long called for ticketing 
people for pot possession instead of laying criminal charges.

But MacKay has also been among the Conservatives' fiercest critics of 
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's stance on the issue. Trudeau supports 
the legalization of marijuana, a position the Tories have mocked with 
gleeful abandon.

MacKay accused the Liberal leader of promoting drug use to elementary 
schoolchildren last fall after Trudeau answered a question about his 
marijuana policies from First Nations high school students in Sioux 
Valley, Man. There were elementary school kids in the audience at the time.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom