NIAGARA POLICE USED DISCRETION WHILE POLITICIANS DEBATED POT LAW

It really was a case of law enforcement playing wait and
see.

In 2005, while the House of Commons debated whether to decriminalize
the possession of small amounts of marjiuana, police officers took a
liberal approach to applying the law.

Niagara Regional Police responded to nearly 200 cannabis possession
calls that year but only laid charges in 46 of them. The rest where
cleared without charges being laid.

That changed in 2006 when the Conservative government dumped the
decriminalization plan. The number of charges laid jumped 124.

"That is really what was going on," said NRP Deputy Chief Gary
Beaulieu.

"Police officers were using their discretion."

The problem for officers, said Beaulieu, was they had no way of
knowing if a possession charge against someone for a small amount of
pot would stick in court.

Had the government legalized small amounts of marijuana, some charges
could have wound up being a waste of time and money.

"So officers would confiscate the drugs, and do the paper work to
have them destroyed," Beaulieu said. "They would probably give the
person a warning and that would be it."

In other cases involving multiple suspects, he said charges cannot be
laid because there is some doubt over who is in possession of the
drug. So again, the drugs are seized and destroyed, but no one is
charged.

Once the status quo was maintained by the Stephen Harper government,
it was business as usual for the NRP and officers began to lay more
charges.

That trend continues into 2007, where 47 possession charges have been
laid as of July 9.

The NRP is not unique in this regard.

Statistics show that several large Canadian police services saw a
significant jump in the number of marijuana possession charges laid
in 2006 over 2005.

Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa reported increases of 20 to 50 per
cent once confusion over possible changes to Canada's drug laws passed.

And 2006 also saw an NRP crackdown on marijuana grow operations in
the region, supported by provincial funding for the so-called "guns,
gangs and grows" operations.

As the frequency of drug busts increased, more possession charges
were laid.

However, Beaulieu said most simple possession charges are not laid by
the NRP drug squad or by special operations targeting the growing and
trafficking of marijuana.

"We are talking about charges laid by patrol officers, dealing with
marijuana possession on the street level," he said.