FEWER CANADIANS FACING POT CHARGES

Police Say Numbers In Calgary Are Up

Police in Calgary say they're bucking a national trend that has seen
a decline in the number of marijuana possession charges that make it
to court.

Statistics show that three times as many Canadians avoided the
justice system for marijuana possession in 1999 than in 1989, and
University of Ottawa criminologist Julian Roberts predicts it will
eventually be decriminalized or become an offence on a par with a
traffic ticket.

"My guess is that 10 years from now it will be decriminalized or
become some sort of provincial offence," Roberts said.

"I think we're drifting in that direction. There are a number of
straws in the wind."

But the drug unit expert with the Calgary Police Service said the
number of possession charges he sees going through the court system
isn't declining.

"I'm in federal court just about every day and I don't think there's
a decrease at all - I think there's an increase," said Det. Pat
Tetley.

With a national debate on decriminalization gathering steam, the
Canadian Centre for Justice provided figures upon request this week
after the Canadian Police Association told a Senate committee on
illicit drugs that pot possession should remain a criminal offence.

Statistics for 1999, the most recent year for which figures are
available, show police reported almost 40,000 cases of catching
Canadians with marijuana, but they did not pursue criminal charges in
13,500 cases, roughly 34 per cent of total.

A decade earlier, police caught 29,000 people with marijuana and
pressed charges in all but 4,700 cases, or 16 per cent.

Police in British Columbia were the most likely to turn a blind eye
to marijuana possession, pursuing charges in only 17 per cent of
cases in 1999, followed by Quebec, in which 55 per cent of people
caught with cannabis ended up in court.

P.E.I. and Saskatchewan were the most likely to pursue charges, in 78
per cent and 76 per cent of cases respectively.

In Alberta, people caught with the drug were charged in 67 per cent of cases.

The mellowing of the police force is due, in part, to changes in the
justice system in 1997 which led to alternate measures rather than
court, including sending people to educational courses or other
diversion programs, says a report on drugs compiled by the centre for
justice statistics.

Tetley said Calgary police focus their attention on dealers and growers.

"As long as possession laws are on the books, we'll enforce them," he said.