CANNABIS MOVE BACKED

A proposal by police to ticket those found with small amounts of marijuana
instead of charging them with a criminal offence is a step in the right
direction, say advocates of the drug.

`It would be better than what they're doing now - saddling people with
criminal records,' said Jim Wakeford, one of two people in canada legally
permitted to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The resolution, announced by chiefs this week at the end of the Canadian
association of police chiefs conference in Hamilton, calls for alternative
ways of charging people with pot.

But they don't want to legalize cannabis, they emphasize.