OTTAWA PLAYING CATCHUP

For those who wonder why the government has dared tiptoe into the marijuana
debate by introducing its decriminalization, here's your answer:

Courts are already distancing themselves from the issue until some kind of
resolution is made, and the federal government is just trying to write the
words to what is already more or less in practice.

The courts are avoiding cases of small marijuana possession because of the
debate. Police backing away from laying charges in the first place - what's
the point if the courts aren't going to deal with them.

And that, in turn, has led to a small level of lawlessness in a land known
for its dedication to compliance of the law.

By the book, it is still illegal to possess marijuana. However, there is
not a better time in recent history to smoke a little of it in public and
get away with it.

If by the off-chance a police officer decides to lay a charge, that charge
will likely be delayed in the courts for months - if it's dealt with at
all. By the time it does come before a judge, the penalty will likely be a
fine at the most. But, not to worry, because it will have been delayed for
so long there will be a very good chance it will be thrown out of court for
taking too long.

Ugly, yes, but the bigger picture is even worse.

It's one more example of the courts creating the law rather than following it.

There is no better seat to our justice system than those of judges and
Crown attorneys in courtrooms across Canada. They've got the best view of
what is working and what isn't, as they plow through docket after docket,
case after case, and many witness the results of their work.

But, unlike the United States, our judges are not elected officials. To
have them challenging laws debated and decided by those we vote in to do
the job is beyond their mandate.

Such is the case of the current marijuana conundrum and the reason the
government is now scrambling to play catchup.

When judges decide on their own it is no longer in the court's best
interest to prosecute minor pot smokers, or when a police officer chooses
to let a 15-year-old free rather than chance him having a criminal record,
it removes the teeth from a law.

It also puts it in the hands of the few rather than the hands of the many,
and that's not what our democracy is about.

Don't blame the federal government for trying to put its stamp on a new
marijuana law that has already taken hold in the justice system across the
country without Ottawa's approval. Blame the feds for not clamping down on
the growing trend of letting our courts set the law in the first place.