POLICE MUST ENFORCE POT LAW FOR NOW

Bloc Pot leader Hugo Saint-Onge is pressing ahead with plans to open
the Chez Marijane cafe, in spite of police warnings that they will
arrest anyone they find puffing pot in Montreal's first
bring-you-own-joint joint. In fact, Saint-Onge sounded downright
sanguine about the whole thing. ''The police are there to do their
job,'' he said, ''and we will do ours.''

Which is a pretty succinct description of the status of marijuana in Canada:
The police are, indeed, doing their job, and Saint-Onge is doing his. The
only people who aren't are members of Parliament and the government. Once
again, this country's elected lawmakers seem content to let judges do their
job for them. In this case, it was Ontario's Superior Court that blew a huge
hole through Canada's marijuana possession law when it upheld the acquittal
of a teenager charged with possessing less than 30 grams of pot. That was
more than four months ago, and still, Parliament has done nothing to clarify
matters, creating just the kind of ambiguity that a smart activist like Hugo
Saint-Onge can exploit.

This paper has long supported decriminalizing (but not legalizing)
marijuana-possession. But until Parliament acts, police should
continue to enforce the law in Quebec.