NEW POT LEGISLATION: A CURSE IN DISGUISE?

The Canadian government is debating decriminalization of marijuana, but
before you go dragging your bong outside and blazing up a big toke, take a
moment to consider the following:

Up until now, the biggest reason you could walk down the street casually
puffing a joint and blowing smoke in clear daylight was the onerous amount
of paperwork involved in punishing you for your bad deed. Cops, like most
people, are inherently lazy, and want to minimize their workload while
maximizing their pay.

Imagine you're a cop and it's summer in Montreal. People are swarming up
and down St. Denis and as you cruise by you catch a whiff of some space
cabbage. You see the perpetrators casually exhaling as they walk down the
sidewalk. You've got them. You can make the bust.

Here's the dilemma. You can pull your car over, approach the youngsters,
search them, arrest them, take them in to the station, fill out the
paperwork, book 'em, print 'em, and put them in a cell until someone posts
bail.

Then you'll probably have to go to court, because the guilty party is going
to do anything to avoid getting a criminal record.

Little did you know that pot-smoking punk has a dad who's got enough money
to hire the city's top lawyer, and you quickly find the focus of the case
shifting away from the pot-smoking criminal and towards your questionable
history with a stripper named Nancy who smuggled cocaine.

All because you wanted to bust a pothead.

On the other hand, you could have just given the person a warning, taken
the weed, and thrown it in the evidence locker. Or, better yet, you could
just forget about it and do nothing, continuing your drive down the street
and enjoying the urban scenery.

Now, imagine the same scenario if this new legislation goes through:

It's hot, you're a cop driving down the street and you smell weed. Now you
no longer have to go through the hassles associated with dealing out a
criminal record. Now it's as easy as signing a ticket. You call the toker
over, give him a stern lecture, take his weed, and fine him $85.

That's it. You never have to worry about that case again, because as soon
as you get to the station you turn in the info to the clerk, who then hands
it over to the courts. It's out of your hands and into the judicial system
now, and you never have to worry about that toker, unless the ticket is
protested and you to testify in court, and even then, cops aren't actually
required by lay to appear in court even if he/she is the one who gave out
the ticket. Nobody's going to fight that hard over $85, and the case is
quickly settled in your favour.

What did it cost you? A few moments, a piece of paper, and an afternoon in
court that spared you the work of busting and paperworking other criminals.

See the problem? The new law, while a step in the right direction, is going
to have the undesirable side-effect of making it much easier to punish pot
smokers.

Maybe too easy.