BOARDS GO TO POT

Police Bosses Favour Decriminalization

WHAT ARE these guys smoking? That's what one member of York Region's Police
Services Board was left wondering after Ontario's Police Services Boards
voted down his motion opposing the decriminalization of the possession of
marijuana at a conference in Hamilton Saturday.

"I was stunned," said David Barrow, a regional councillor from Richmond
Hill and chairman of the York Regional Police Services Board. "These aren't
hip young guys, or kids of the '70s.

"We're the old boys," said Barrow, who brought the motion after York's
board approved it earlier this year. "I was standing there with my mouth open."

Only three people even bothered to speak on the issue before the
overwhelming vote against it by dozens of delegates.

Barrow said a representative from Welland came up to him after the vote and
said he fundamentally disagreed with personal use of the weed being illegal.

Alan Heisey, chairman of Toronto's civilian oversight board, voted against
the motion, as well. "I personally favour decriminalization," said Heisey,
who went to the meeting with no position from his board and voted his
preference.

Still, Heisey said the decision caught him off guard. "I was surprised," he
said. "The vast majority of smalltown Ontario voted in favour of
decriminalization."

Barrow didn't even fathom the motion could lose after the Canadian
Association of Police Boards had already passed the motion. It is mainly
the larger police oversight boards that belong to the Canadian organization.

York Region, along with many of Toronto's suburbs, is battling major
problems with grow houses in their neighbourhoods, Barrow said.

Canada is also seen as the biggest exporter of pot to the United States.