Ottawa considering to allow ticketing for pot offenders

By Laura Payton, CBC News Posted: Sep 24, 2014 2:13 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 24, 2014 8:22 PM ET

ustice Minister Peter MacKay says he disagrees with the head of the RCMP that smoking pot isn’t as big a deal as it once was, arguing young people in particular are “very negatively affected” by marijuana use.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson was quoted in a news story Wednesday as saying he doesn’t think “marijuana usage is as big a deal as it used to be.”

• Marijuana crime: Are police turning ‘a blind eye’ to pot charges?
• Marijuana reform: 5 things to know about possible changes to the law​
• Dec. 2013: Pot fine proposal draws no opinion from RCMP’s Bob Paulson​

“It’s still vulnerable to exploitation to organized crime, but you know, less and less as it becomes more and more commercially available,” Paulson told Global News.

Last December, Paulson told CBC News that he had no opinion on the idea of giving police a ticketing option for people found with small amounts of marijuana.

MacKay said Paulson is entitled to his opinion, but that he disagrees.

“We know that there are young people in particular who are very negatively affected by marijuana use. We know that it can have a very severe impact on early childhood development. We know it certainly isn’t a motivator, it doesn’t make people want to get up and go out and lead productive lives,” MacKay said.

Police chiefs want more options

The federal government is looking at changing Canada’s drug laws, however, and giving police the option of ticketing pot users rather than charging them with a crime — or turning a blind eye.

Canada’s chiefs of police last summer voted overwhelmingly in support of having a ticketing option for people found with 30 grams of marijuana or less.

MacKay wouldn’t go as far as to say that Paulson was wrong to speak his mind.

“Well, this is free speech, right? And he’s a police officer, he has views, but I personally disagree,” he said.

• Ticket system for pot possession pushed by some Tories

Earlier this year, an Ipsos Reid poll suggested 70 per cent of Canadians want to see the current pot laws at least relaxed — and one in three Canadians back full legalization.

Ipsos Reid polled a total of 3,000 randomly selected Canadian adults by phone — including both land lines and cellphone numbers — which gives the poll a countrywide margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20, with higher error rates for data broken down by region.

The poll commissioned by the Justice Department was conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 7, 2014.

Article source CBC News

Peter MacKay Invokes Stereotypes to Justify Stance on Marijuana

By Michael Luba on September 25, 2014

Justice Minister provides lazy answers. Just like a stoner?

On Wednesday, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said, “marijuana usage isn’t as big a deal as it used to be.” Paulson reasoned that marijuana could still play a role in organized crime, but that the role is diminishing as marijuana becomes more commercially available. This should not have made news- Paulson was merely stating facts. Unfortunately, facts are increasingly irrelevant on Parliament Hill, the site of Canada’s political news factory. Canada’s Justice Minister Peter MacKay, famous for the blank stare and glazed look  he often gives reporters when asked to answer even the most basic questions about his government’s marijuana policies, took issue with Paulson’s comments. For some inexplicable reason, the CBC decided to report on it.

According to that CBC report, MacKay countered Paulson’s assertion by saying that young people are still “very negatively affected” by double dank chron. This is a valid point. Some people, both old and young, are very negatively affected by it. Still, that doesn’t mean that the number of people negatively affected today isn’t less than the number negatively affected 10 or 20 years ago. There’s no way around it; MacKay’s response was flawed. But that didn’t stop him. Pretending it addressed Paulson’s comments, he added, “We know that [marijuana] can have a very severe impact on early childhood development.” Aside from being completely irrelevant in the context of Paulson’s comments, this claim is also very bizarre. The BC Ministry of Children and Family Development defines early childhood development as, “a period of rapid growth and development from conception until age six.” Does MacKay seriously think Canadian kids age 0-6 are smoking skunk on the regular? (Of course, excluding whenHealth Canada forces them to smoke up.) Is this the type of scientific research his government has been funding: “An investigation into the effects of a weed butter on toddlers”? Pardon the obvious question here, but is Peter high?

 

So it’s NO stems, NO seeds? Sorry guys…my bad.
THE CANADIAN PRESS

As the press gallery undoubtedly questioned his sobriety, MacKay’s responses became even less intelligent. “We know [marijuana] isn’t a motivator,” he said, and continued, “it doesn’t make people want to get up and go out and lead productive lives.” Has the Justice Minister seen Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle? If he has, he should know that marijuana can motivate people to get up off the couch. But is this really the problem? No. Everyone who knows anyone is aware that recreational marijuana use doesn’t turn people into useless blobs. The real problem is that Canada’s Justice Minister seems to let stereotypes inform his opinions of marijuana.

If our government plans to make useful public policy (whether it has this intention is debatable, but for now let’s assume that it does), it has to do so on the basis of actual information, not just uneducated opinions. Peter MacKay’s comments suggest that he holds many uneducated opinions, and betray an inability or a lack of desire to conduct research or access any information beyond his uneducated opinions when addressing the topic of marijuana use. Is he too lazy to bother with research? Unmotivated to get up off the couch and learn something? Too slovenly to do his job like he is supposed to? If so, it probably isn’t because he used marijuana. Sure, he could be a total stoner, but that isn’t why he’s a lousy Justice Minister. No shoddy stereotype can save him the blame for his ineptitude.