POLICE STILL LAYING CHARGES FOR MARIJUANA

A lot of police work could simply result in cases being dismissed no matter
how the federal government changes marijuana laws in future, says Police
Chief Carl Herder.

Currently, cases involving small amounts for personal use are not being
tried by a number of judges while the government considers reducing the
penalties for small amounts to roughly equivalent to a speeding ticket.

Herder says that could mean a lot of cases will go up in smoke no matter
what happens to the law, but laying new charges isn't taking up a lot of
officers' time now.

"The minor possession charges that this new legislation is going to cover
has not been to court in almost a year," Herder says.

There are provisions in the Canadian Constitution that require a trial
within a reasonable time, and even if the law isn't changed, Herder
believes that by the time judges get to hear these cases they will rule
that provision has been violated.

"They will be dismissed or lost," he guesses.

Herder has stated several times over the last year that he is opposed to
the so-called decriminalization of marijuana. And he hasn't changed that
opinion.

For the time being, Chatham-Kent police are continuing to lay criminal
charges involving minor amounts of marijuana, but Herder admits they are
not spending a lot of resources chasing casual users when there are much
more important issues for police to deal with.

Herder won't say that means that it's virtually safe to smoke marijuana,
but he does say the odds are very slim of someone getting caught just
because they were smoking.

"There's a discretionary power," he said. "There's no question, that I
would bet as a chief or as a former uniformed member, that 99 per cent of
minor possession charges were the result of a search of a prisoner,
arrested for some other offence, and the cigarette or the small amount was
in his pocket."