POLICE CHIEFS SLAM 'FLAWED' POT BILL

Chretien Urged To Scrap Marijuana Plan

Legislation Faces Hurdles In Parliament

OTTAWA -- A unified front of Canada's police chiefs and rank-and-file
officers called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien yesterday to kill what they
said is a "seriously flawed" marijuana decriminalization bill.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Professional
Police Association, joined by representatives of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving (MADD), condemned the Liberal government's effort to fast-track the
bill that would soften penalties for simple marijuana possession offences.

"I think we would be better without it than with it in its present form,"
Toronto deputy police chief Mike Boyd, who also chairs the chiefs'
drug-abuse committee, told a hearing of the special parliamentary committee
studying the bill.

Critics on the other side of the issue — those who support greater
liberalization of marijuana laws — also slammed the bill and said the
status quo would be preferable to what's now being rushed through
Parliament as a piece of Chretien's "legacy" agenda.

Eugene Oscapella, of the Canadian Foundation for a Drug Policy, said the
government is afraid of political fallout and has skirted the real problem
— that criminal prohibition of pot creates the black market that fuels the
profits of organized crime and terrorist organizations.

"I think the bill in its present form should die. I would much rather rely
on the courts in this country to provide a better solution and depoliticize
the issue," said Oscapella.

The combined assault on the bill may not block its passage through a
special Commons committee, which is expected to finish its report late
tomorrow.

But there are real questions now about whether it will pass the final two
Commons votes, and Senate examination, before Parliament rises, or another
election is held.

The reality is the federal government is running out of time and allies to
push its bill forward, and the Supreme Court of Canada may well be left to
decide the issue, because a judgment is pending on three challenges to the
country's pot laws heard in May.

The national police chiefs association once supported a more lenient
approach to simple possession offences, but now says it opposes the pot
bill because it takes away police discretion to lay charges for small
amounts of marijuana — an option police say is needed to deter traffickers
and repeat offenders.

The proposed law would impose tickets and fines from $250 to $400, instead
of a criminal charge for possession of less than 15 grams of cannabis.
Police representatives also condemned as "ridiculous" the lack of funding
for better police training, treatment and rehabilitation programs in the
proposed $245-million, five-year drug strategy.

Sources suggest Justice Minister Martin Cauchon may offer to lower the
amount of "personal use" pot from 15 grams to 10 grams and increase
penalties for repeat offenders.