POT POSSESSION MOST COMMON DRUG OFFENCE: STATISTICS CANADA

OTTAWA - The most common drug offence in Canada is one that the
federal government plans to decriminalize, according to a Statistics
Canada report released on Monday.

The report, which looks at drug offences for 2002, shows that three in
four drug crimes involved marijuana - and about 72 per cent of those
were for possession.

That means more than half of all drug-related offences are possession
of pot.

The federal government has plans to decriminalize possession of small
amounts of cannabis. Under the proposed legislation, possession would
be treated like speeding, with the offender getting a ticket and
paying a fine.

The overall drug crime rate was at a 20-year high, the report says, up
about 42 per cent in a decade. About 93,000 drug offences were
reported by police in 2002.

StatsCan compiled its numbers using police and court statistics from
across the country.

British Columbia reported the highest rate of drug crime in 2002, with
544 incidents per 100,000 people. The national rate was 295 per
100,000. B.C. has had drug crime rates above the national average for
25 years.

Pot possession charges increased by 80 per cent between 1992 and 2002.
Over that period of time, pot trafficking charges decreased.

People aged 18 to 24 had the highest rate of drug offences.

Drug offences account for nine per cent of all adult court cases, and
seven per cent of youth court cases. Possession cases tended to result
in fines for adults and probation for youths.

Drugs are often related to violent crime, the statistics show. About
11 per cent of all homicides over the 10-year period had to do with
drugs, either trafficking or settling of debts.

Of the 684 drug-related homicides, 60 per cent had to do with cocaine,
20 per cent were related to cannabis. And gangs were involved in 26
per cent of those killings.

Written by CBC News Online staff