POT FINES NOT SO FINE

Although the Ontario government has been dismissing a large number of drug
possession cases for some time, students caught using marijuana at McMaster are
being fined $130.

According to Tim Meehan, Communications Director for Ontario Consumers for Safe
Access to Recreational Cannabis, the fact that the provincial court has been
virtually ignoring the issue of drug possession, even though it is listed in
the Criminal Code of Canada, implies pot use is no longer illegal in Ontario.

For Meehan, this means that, "cannabis is no more illegal in Ontario than
possessing Cheerios or Pepsi."

Said Meehan, "police forces across the province are no longer pursuing cannabis
possession charges... while some police forces have said that they will still
seize and document cases where they come across cannabis in the hope that it
might someday be ruled illegal again, they have no legal basis for doing so."

The Canadian Controlled Drug and Substance Act, which says possession of
marijuana is illegal, is still the law today regardless of the way the
provincial government treats these cases. As drug use became prevalent on the
McMaster campus, the issue of providing consequences for it became prominent.
Due to the Hamilton Police Service's dismissal of many on-campus cases,
McMaster decided to take action and address the issue through its Student Code
of Conduct.

"Drugs have just actually become active on campus in the last two years," said
Cathy O'Donnell of McMaster Security Services. "Eight years ago, we didn't have
known drug use on campus... I think we were dealing with the situation as it
came up."

The increasing number of incidences involving drugs prompted Student Affairs to
come up with a way to let students know that drug use on campus was
unacceptable.

"What we were finding was that, when students were caught with small amounts of
marijuana, [McMaster] security would write a report and it would be sent to
Hamilton [Police Services]," said Academic Integrity Officer Andrea
Thyret-Kidd, formerly of Judicial Affairs. "Because it was a criminal offence,
no Crown Attorney was going to process it so very little happened to the
student on campus.

"But what was happening if you were caught drinking underage or if you were
being caught drinking in a public place, security was able to give a Provincial
Offence Notice, which has a fine attached to it.

"So, we were finding that we felt it was really unfair that these things were
both illegal but if students were caught drinking in a public place there was a
fine of about $130 given to them. If students were found smoking marijuana,
nothing was happening, so the university implemented a fine within its own
policy to make it equivalent."

Although this fine has brought the repercussions of drinking and smoking pot on
campus to an equal monetary amount of about $130, the two issues are dealt with
in very different ways.

"If you're walking around with a bottle of beer, the provincial government has
a law that says that's a $130 fine so we [McMaster Peace Officers] issue that
provincial ticket right then," said O'Donnell. "If you have drugs, that's the
Criminal Code--that's the federal government. We will arrest under the Criminal
Code.

"The Student Code of Conduct has a violation that says you can't have it on
campus. The Student Code of Conduct may fine you $130 and then make note of
that $130. If we have enough evidence to proceed criminally, we will."

Meehan feels that the university's issuing of fines is inappropriate and
infringes on students' rights as individuals.

"These fines strike me, as someone who takes civil liberties and our Charter
rights very seriously, as no different than sanctioning people for being gay on
campus, dating someone of another race on campus, or if you want to talk drugs,
taking an Advil on campus," said Meehan. "It's a disgusting attempt at moral
entrepreneurship that the university has no business engaging in."

"The issues for the university are this: we don't condone smoking
marijuana--it's in our Student Code of Conduct," said Phil Wood, McMaster's
associate vice-president student affairs. "The second thing is, how do we
punish this violation of our code of conduct? It got to the point where we
weren't able to deal with it as effectively as we were alcohol.

"We don't really like collecting the fine. If you're breaking a law, you should
deal with authorities in that way. Because we're an educational institution, we
would rather handle it another way instead of fining people... we either had to
change the code or we had to make the punishment in line with similar, in our
view, offences."

Wood noted that, ultimately, "the student, or anyone, is subject to the laws of
the land but also on the campus you are subject to the laws of a student code
of conduct."

In the 2002--03 school year, there were 31 cases reported. The money collected
from the fines was put toward other ways of spreading the anti-drug message to
students. One such effort is a poster campaign entitled "Is it Worth the
Price?" which emphasized the fines associated with violating the provincial
alcohol law and the campus drug policies.

Despite talk of amending federal drug laws, no changes have been made. Should
it be passed, the Cannabis Reform Bill, which was tabled in the House of
Commons in late May 2003, would keep cannabis possession illegal under the
Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substance Act but soften the penalties for
possession of smaller amounts of marijuana and toughen penalties for growers of
marijuana.

McMaster's fine for possession of marijuana on campus has been in place for the
last year and is expected to remain unchanged until further notice from the
government.