Pubdate: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 Source: Almaguin News (CN ON) Copyright: Almaguin News 2015 Contact: http://www.northbaynipissing.com/almaguinhighlands-on/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3732 TAKE THE STING OUT OF MARIJUANA A lot the focus these past few weeks in the pages of the Almaguin News has been devoted to the Ontario Provincial Police and for good reason. Changes to the force's billing model is coming as a shock to local municipalities and come later this spring to property taxpayers and the resulting budget hikes show up on their bills. But those stories are about a subject that starts and ends above any decisions made at the Almaguin Highlands OPP detachment in Burk's Falls. That isn't the case, however, for another story about the OPP appearing this week regarding enforcement and the much-debated drug widely known as marijuana. For months now we've noticed the detachment has been including simple marijuana possession arrests and charges in incident reports they periodically send out. To be clear, these are charges for having relatively small amounts of the plant on their person or in their car or home, to the point it is not considered to be a sufficient part of any business plan. These are pot users, not pot dealers. Yet in come the names from the local detachment of these 'offenders,' so we asked about it. The reasoning from detachment commander Staff Sergeant Stacey Whaley is unsettling. He wants it to 'sting' a little more. It is reasonable to assume that by 'sting' Sgt. Whaley means having the name published would embarrass or shame the person by having their name go public. It's also presumable he knows that in today's Google age the charge won't just appear once in the pages of the Almaguin News, but for years come up whenever anyone, say a perspective employer, punches the person's name into the search engine. He holds this attitude despite the fact many of Ontario and Canada's judges have ruled the best manner in which to settle the charges is for the accused to pay a set fine or undergo some other diversionary program with the charges floating off into the legal ether and no conviction attached to the person's file. Such a course of action, we understand, does much to ensure it doesn't hinder future employment, attempts to cross an international border, or other delicate situations. At the same time the OPP commander seems to be unaware of the changing conversation the population is having around marijuana. Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada for quite some time with varying degrees of success, depending with whom one speaks, under the boasts of a law and order agenda from the Conservative government. At the same time no less than the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has gone on record saying he believes marijuana use should be dealt with as a ticketing offence and not a criminal charge, while the Vancouver police chief says pot enforcement is not a priority for his force. Recognize that this is not a call for the legalization of marijuana, though many inches of newspaper editorial space has been devoted to that stance, this paper included. Instead it is a reminder that punishments in this country need to be determined in a court of law and not by the officers directed to enforce it. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt