EVEN SOME POLICE WANT TO ABANDON WAR ON POT

Alliance party leader Stockwell Day picked a poor day to attack the
Liberals for mollycoddling criminals. While Day busied himself
whipping up middle class fear of criminals run amok, Statistics Canada
reported yet another drop in the crime rate - the eighth in eight years.

Politicians wishing to nurture the crime-wave bugaboo could find
little comfort in the latest Uniform Crime Reporting numbers. Violent
crime fell by two per cent in 1999, property offences by six per cent,
and the total number of crimes reported fell by five per cent. Even
that favourite of fear mongers, youth crime, dropped by seven per cent.

Statscan's crime figures come from the Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics. Police across Canada report incidents that come to their
attention according to a nationally approved set of common scoring
rules, categories and definitions.

Of course, many crimes go unreported, but reporting rates are probably
not declining, so the figures form the basis for a reasonably
confident assessment of crime trends.

Crime rates are still significantly higher than 20 years ago, but they
have been falling steadily since 1991, when most categories of crime
peaked.

What hasn't declined is public perception of crime. Events like the
lurid string of assaults that ricocheted through a north-end Halifax
neighborhood Thurs-day night - two stabbings, one execution-style
shooting, a swarming attack with a steel pipe - generates news
coverage that lodge in the mind far more firmly than dry statistics.

The popularity of crime-oriented TV shows has encouraged more
traditional news outlets to place more emphasis on mayhem. On the day
Statscan released the latest crime figures, the Toronto Star asked
readers if they felt safe in Canada's largest city. Most simply didn't
believe the crime figures.

As a politician, Day is more concerned with perception than reality.
Facts needn't interfere with his effort to win seats by fanning fears
that have little basis in reality.

It's always dicey to speculate on the cause of a change in crime
stats, but a couple of obvious factors suggest themselves - neither
having anything to do with mollycoddling or getting tough on hoodlums.

Canada's population is aging, so fewer of us fall into the 15- to
24-year-old cohort, the group most prone to committing serious crimes.
Throughout the '90s, the economy boomed in most parts of the country,
and rising prosperity generally accompanies a decline in crime.

There is one glaring exception to the nearly uniform drop in crime
rates: a 12-per-cent increase in drug offences.

Except that, even drug offences didn't increase across the board.
Heroin arrests fell by one per cent, cocaine arrests by three per
cent. The overall rate of drug arrests increased only because of a
whopping 16-per-cent jump in arrests for possession or cultivation of
marijuana.

Two-thirds of those arrests involved simple possession
only.

Sensible police officials, including Toronto Chief Julian Fantino,
have urged the decriminalization of marijuana because pursuing these
victimless crimes amounts to a colossal waste of police resources.

Lamentably, such common sense has not yet filtered down to HRM police
officials who, earlier this year, squandered six weeks of a police
constable's time on an unseemly sting operation at Dartmouth High
School. The attractive young female constable suckered nine boys into
procuring what police themselves describe as "small, personal-use
quantities" of marijuana for her.

Police charged them with dealing. If their cases ever come to trial,
it will be interesting to see whether the evidence shows they were
guilty of anything more than currying favour with a comely classmate.

Their cases probably won't come to trial, because the courts typically
deal with minor marijuana busts through diversion programs, whereby
defendants avoid a criminal record by completing a period of community
service. In addition to the waste of police time, the boys will all
lose a school year, having been expelled for their so-called crimes.

What an incredibly stupid outcome for an activity that is utterly
commonplace in all walks of life. This is one police operation that
brought discredit to the HRM police, to the school principal who
invited them in, and to the school board that countenanced the whole,
sleazy scenario.

Although apparently booming as a component of crime, simple marijuana
possession is almost certainly among the most underreported offences
in Canada. In sensible jurisdictions, police routinely confiscate
small quantities of marijuana with a warning - and without laying charges.

If we weren't squandering millions of dollars tracking down and
punishing tens of thousands of harmless marijuana users, perhaps we
could spend that money on home care, AIDS education, school lunch
programs, prenatal care, or teachers' aides for special needs
students. What a concept.