FIGHTING DRUGS MEANS TARGETING THE BIG OFFENDERS

According to the Statistics Canada report released Monday, the rate of drug
charges in Canada is soaring, and the rate is highest in British Columbia.
But the report also confirms that B.C. is leading the country in its
approach to dealing effectively with drug crimes.

In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, police
laid 92,000 drug charges across the country, the most in 20 years and an
increase of 42 per cent since 1992.

Among cities, Vancouver was second only to Thunder Bay, Ont., in the per
capita rate of drug charges, and B.C. had the highest rate among the
provinces -- 544 charges per 100,000 people, compared to a national average
of 295.

On the face of it, the numbers seem to suggest that B.C. and Vancouver have
a serious drug problem. And it's certainly possible that Vancouver has more
drugs than other cities. After all, the city is home to the largest port in
Canada, and ports act as convenient entry and exit points for drug shipments.

However, police statistics also reflect enforcement. If police pursue drug
crimes aggressively and take a zero-tolerance attitude toward those who are
caught, drug crime rates are bound to increase.

The report's figures on marijuana-related offences make that abundantly
clear. While surveys suggest marijuana use is on the increase, cannabis
charges across Canada increased by 80 per cent between 1992 and 2002 -- far
above the increase in use.

In fact, 75 per cent of all drug charges in 2002 were related to marijuana,
and 72 per cent of those -- or 54 per cent of all drug charges -- were laid
for possession of marijuana.

Thus while politicians, the public and the courts are taking a more relaxed
attitude toward marijuana possession, most police forces in the country are
going in the exact opposite direction. And that represents a colossal waste
of police and court resources.

After all, it takes a significant amount of police time and paperwork to
gather evidence and lay charges for pot possession, particularly if those
charges are to lead to a criminal conviction. That's followed by an often
lengthy and expensive court process.

And in the majority of cases, the outcome of the entire exercise is the
same: 57 per cent of pot possessors receive fines, while only 12 per cent
(almost all repeat offenders) are jailed. As such, most people found guilty
of pot possession receive exactly what they would receive if marijuana were
decriminalized and police just handed out tickets.

Of course, they also receive a criminal record, which doesn't make society
any safer, although it does hamper their future. And the time and money
spent prosecuting pot possession offences is time and money taken away from
pursuing those who create the drug problem: Organized criminals.

The statistics therefore seem to support the federal government's plans to
decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. The 54,000-member
Canadian Professional Police Association, which opposes decriminalization,
would obviously disagree, but even in the current legal context, police
forces across the country could learn a lesson from B.C.'s approach to
enforcement.

The same day Statistics Canada issued its report, the Vancouver police drug
unit released its figures for 2003. The numbers confirm that the Lower
Mainland contains an abundance of illicit drugs, yet charges for marijuana
didn't increase astronomically as they did in the rest of the country.

That reflects the longstanding practice among most B.C. police forces to
not lay charges for possession of a joint or two. Instead, most B.C. police
forces use their limited resources to pursue organized criminals who profit
from drug trafficking. As a result, B.C. has seen seizures of drugs from
growers and manufacturers, rather than pot charges, increase astronomically.

In a world of limited resources, the B.C. approach makes sense. If you
really want to make a dent in the drug trade and associated crime, you have
to use your resources to fight organized crime rather than the weekend pot
smoker.

Even if marijuana possession is never decriminalized, that's something
police forces across the country would do well to remember.