STRAIGHT GOODS ON DOPE

If your friends, their friends, the police and international polling
agencies are to be believed, half of all Canadian adults have, at some
point in their lives, been liable to six months in prison or a $1,000
fine, plus a criminal record, under Section 4 of the Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act.

As it is, there are about 600,000 Canadians who already have criminal
records for being in possession of 30 grams of marijuana or less.

The whole possession debate is back in the public eye as police once
more ramp up to business-as-it-used-to-be, since the death of the bill
that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of dope.

In reality, it's not back to business-as-it-used-to-be. It's a whole
lot crazier than mere reality.

There may be equality under the law as a concept in Canada, but
there's nothing even close to equality of enforcement of the law.

Pot busts have surged nationally since the bill that former prime
minister Jean Chretien put on the order papers back in 2003 died on
the table in 2006.

That bill would have taken simple possession of small amounts of
marijuana out of the criminal courts.

There's many a slip (and three prime ministers) between drafting a law
and getting it onto the books, but in all this time, police pretty
well stopped arresting people under the old Section 4.

What would be the point of clogging up the courts if the law was going
to be changed?

A whole lot of Canadians -- especially teenaged Canadians -- have
recently been surprised to discover the old law is still on the books
and police are now quite willing to enforce it.

In some places at least. Of the major cities, Toronto, Vancouver,
Ottawa and Halifax all report a surge in small pot busts so far this
year. But in Calgary and Montreal, these arrests continue to drop.

So what are we to make of the law now? Does it matter what city you
live in, if simple possession is really illegal, because police
actually intend to enforce the law? That's not how the law should work.

Even the police aren't unanimous in what should be done. In a Canadian
Press report, on Montreal cop (who asked not to be identified) said
some officers can spend an entire career without arresting any of the
people they catch smoking dope. Other officers elsewhere are obviously
making up their share of the quota.

Other officers will happily bust you for dope today, but only to
secure a criminal conviction for being a jerk. If police are called to
a domestic dispute, for instance, and dope is found in the house,
someone's going to jail, dispute over.

Never mind the he-said, she-said aspect of law enforcement, Section 4
can be a peacekeeper, if only because so many Canadian homes have dope
in them -- and a trained sniffer dog can always find it.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged
15 to 64 used cannabis in 2006. For general reference, the world
average was 3.8 per cent. We are fifth in the world, behind Ghana,
Zambia, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia.

The point in this discussion is that a lot of Canadians -- half of all
adults, if some studies are to be believed -- are very ambivalent
toward our possession laws.

If possession of small amounts is not to be decriminalized -- and it
sure won't be under Stephen Harper -- perhaps it would be wise to
re-engage the debate about the need for a law like Section 4 (other
than being a help to police in keeping the peace).

Canadians need to be reminded that cannabis today is different than it
used to be when decriminalization of pot first became a topic of discussion.

Marijuana is not a recreational drug anymore; it's a lot more potent.
If it were new today, it would be a serious threat on the criminal
drug scene, worthy of endless hand-wringing discussion.

Maybe in hindsight, the law should have been kept all
along.

But if that's the case, police should enforce the law
uniformly.

And we should talk about how smoking dope isn't the funny, munchy,
hazy pastime of society's older, longer-haired days.