T.O. COPS WARY OF TOKEN FINE FOR DRUGS

Veteran Toronto drug cops say Alberta might want to think twice about
encouraging a more blase attitude towards marijuana possession.

But they concede cops in Hogtown find it much easier to ticket marijuana
smokers and know they'll plead guilty to get a free pass in an Ontario
court.

"It comes down to community standards, and here you're generally looking at
an absolute discharge in court," said Det. Rick Chase of the Toronto police
drug squad.

"These people wind up with no criminal record - that goes back to community
standards. I'll use the term 'Upper Rubberboot, Alberta,' and say standards
there, I believe, would be different.

"The judge or justice of the peace sees fit there to send a message that
it's a community outrage to possess this drug."

Alberta Justice Minister Dave Hancock told The Sun this week he'd like to
examine ways to keep minor possession charges from clogging the justice
system.

Edmonton interim police Chief Bob Wasylyshen said yesterday he'd also like
to see minor dope cases use less time in the justice system. "I strongly
oppose decriminalization, however, I believe it's important to streamline
the process to ease the burden on the courts."

Chase, a 15-year veteran of drug investigations in Canada's biggest city,
said courts and cops there routinely deal with pot as quickly as the law
allows.

"I am not one of those who agrees that marijuana is necessarily so
harmless. But because we are so busy here, and the community standards are
that marijuana is such a soft drug, it is dealt with very quickly.

"The law says you could be jailed for up to six months for a summary
conviction for possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana. Here it's very
very unlikely anything approaching that would ever happen."

But an even softer approach - such as setting a specific fine and letting
tokers mail in a cheque just like a speeding ticket - is going too far,
Chase said.

"That probably would free us up even more, especially the uniformed
officers who make most possession busts, but as far as I am concerned
that's letting it go too far."

Colin McDonald, a detective in Toronto's 52 street crime unit in the city's
downtown, says he's seen Canada's differing views of pot smoking on the rap
sheets of people he's arrested. "We see criminal records on some of these
people from arrests somewhere else in Canada. Here it's a ticket and in
court, generally, an absolute discharge."

A cop for 24 years, McDonald said that's not necessarily the way it should
be, but it is the way it has to be in the busy city.