NEW POLICE ASSOCIATION TO FLEX MUSCLE

A new national police organization that is meeting for the first time
this week wants to stop Ottawa from softening Canada's marijuana laws.

The new 54,000-member Canadian Professional Police Association plans
to use its increased clout to persuade federal politicians that
loosening the laws is the wrong tack to take in the battle for the
street, said president Tony Cannavino.

"The marijuana issue is very important," the former head of the Quebec
Provincial Police Officers Association said Tuesday.

"It has a major impact on Canadian citizens, on families and on the
security of communities."

The organization, created by the merger of the Canadian Police
Association and the National Association of Professional Police,
believes soft pot laws give up too much ground to organized crime.

"Organized crime is making huge, huge profits," he said. "They are
selling drugs to our kids, to our brothers, to our families."

An intelligence report released last week suggested mobs and bike
gangs are extending their reach across Canada in part through
lucrative marijuana grow operations.

The police association, made up of rank and file municipal and RCMP
officers, will get a chance to bend the ear of federal Solicitor
General Wayne Easter on the issue when he addresses the meeting Friday.