STAY OFF THE GRASS

NRP Resumes Pot Possession Charges

NIAGARA FALLS -- Pot smokers who enjoyed a three-month period of legal
ambiguity in which local police were not laying criminal charges for
simple marijuana possession have had their immunity go up in smoke.

"Right now, as we speak, marijuana is illegal. You can't have it, you
can't smoke it," said Niagara Regional Police deputy chief Donna Moody.

Moody was responding to Tuesday's decision by the Ontario Court of
Appeal involving the constitutionality of provisions under the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

The court of appeal ruled certain provisions of the legislation as it
related to the medical use of marijuana were flawed.

The court made it clear, however, that any constitutional limitations
do not apply to people who otherwise possess the drug.

"Even the smallest amount of marijuana is now illegal ... whether it's
a cigarette or a pound of marijuana," Moody told The Review Thursday.

For police services across the province, the ruling has clarified
confusion created by a May decision in the Ontario Superior Court of
Justice in which a judge declared the law relating to simple
possession of cannabis was invalid and therefore no longer an offence
- -- and drew a distinction between recreational and medicinal use of
marijuana.

Since June, local police had been exercising discretion when it came
to people nabbed with small amounts of marijuana. Officers were
advised to investigate such incidents and to seize the narcotics, but
not to lay criminal charges.

"The law was ruled invalid and that decision caused courts throughout
Ontario to either dismiss charges of simple possession or to stay
proceedings until the law was clarified," said Const. George Bench,
referring to the May court ruling.

"What we encountered was that local justices of the peace would no
longer swear to information regarding simple possession so our ability
to enforce that law was dissipated," he recalled

With Tuesday's ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal, enforcement has
resumed.

"A directive was sent out to all our officers last night (Wednesday)
informing them to resume enforcement immediately with respect to
simple possession of marijuana."

Moody, who is also the co-chairwoman on the substance abuse committee
for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, applauds the court's
decision.

"For us, grow operations, organized crime, problems in our schools ...
they are all related to the possession of marijuana," she said.