RUNCIMAN: MARIJUANA POSSESSION LAWS TOO TOUGH?

Ontario's top cop says a teenager caught with a joint shouldn't get a
criminal record, says his chief spokesman.

Bob Runciman, Ontario's minister of public safety and security, is
supporting a growing call to decriminalize marijuana possession, says Jamie
Wallace, a ministry communications officer.

Decriminalization would mean someone caught with a small amount of marijuana
would be ticketed and fined rather than be saddled with a criminal record.

Wallace said he was surprised at the reaction to a statement on the matter
Runciman made Monday during an interview at a meeting of justice ministers
in Calgary.

"This is really consistent with what he has said before," Wallace said this
morning. "Bob has talked about this for quite some time. Maybe the newspaper
people weren't paying attention."

"He talked with the chiefs of police about it and agrees the focus for
policing resources shouldn't be on some kid with a small bag of pot and the
focus should be on the organized criminals who are making billions of
dollars from this industry."

Runciman wants to free resources to deal with problems such as grow houses
which are spouting up in areas of Ontario, particularly in the Peel region.

"The people who run these grow houses are affiliated with biker gangs and
other organized crime groups and they're not nice people," Wallace said.

Runciman is not the only politician who has been talking about the issue.
Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is planning to table legislation in
the new year decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, making it an
offence punishable by a fine rather than a criminal record. British
Columbia's attorney general has also given his guarded support for the idea.

Not everyone is on board with the idea though. The Canadian Police
Association fiercely opposes decriminalization.

And Runciman has not always supported the idea either. In an interview with
The Recorder and Times in April 1999, then Solicitor-General Runciman
opposed recommendations made in an Association of Canadian Police Chiefs
report which suggested Canada's police departments favour fining those
convicted of simple marijuana possession.

At the time, Runciman said he was not a strong fan of the suggestion.

"You're going to continue to see our government take a strong stand on it,"
said Runciman at the time.