Canada Watch: New Conservative Government to Scrap Plan to Decriminalize Marijuana Use
Marijuana advocate Jason Drayton, with his black cat on his shoulder, waves a flag outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver August 2, 2005. Canada’s new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation which would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.
Reuters: Canada scraps plan to decriminalize marijuana use
Canada’s new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation which would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.
The legislation, drawn up by the previous Liberal government, alarmed police officials in Canada and the neighboring United States who said it would only encourage the already booming trade in pot.
Once the Liberals lost the January 23 election after 12 years in power, the bill looked to be in deep trouble. One of Harper’s five priorities is to clamp down on crime.
“We will not be reintroducing the Liberal government’s marijuana decriminalization legislation,” he told a meeting of the Canadian Professional Police Association.
“I thought we might find a receptive audience here,” he told his audience after winning a round of applause.
Under the Liberal bill, people found with small amounts of marijuana would have been fined but would not have received a criminal record.
Decriminalization indeed.
Just what we need more illicit marijuana smuggling……
Technorati Tags: Canada, marijuana, ConservativeGovernment, StephenHarper
One Comment
Aiden Wiechula
Discriminalization is pretty damn weak sauce as we need legalization. It is too bad Harper continues to ignore the facts regarding cannabis. I dont even think he has read the 2002 Canadian Senate Report on Illict Drugs which specifically called for the legalization of marijuana. “The continued prohibition on cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than the substance itself”- P.45 The committee was headed by Sen. Pierre Nolin who is from the same Conservative party as Stephan Harper.
And don’t worry too much about marijuana smuggling to you guys:
FACT: “Canadian-produced marijuana accounts for only approximately 2% of overall U.S. marijuana seizures at its borders.”
– U.S.-Canada Border Drug Threat Assessment, Oct. 2004
FACT: Mexico supplies about 46% of the U.S. demand for cannabis.
– United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCCP) Global Illicit Drug Trends 2002
FACT: “Most of the marihuana available on the American illicit market still originates primarily in the U.S. and in Mexico. Canada ranks far below Mexico as a source for the U.S.” – RCMP report:, “The Drug Situation In Canada – 2003”
FACT: “The U.S. are basically their own main source of marihuana.” – RCMP Report: Marihuana Cultivation in Canada, Nov. 2002
FACT: “Marijuana transported from Canada clearly amounts to only a small percentage of all marijuana smuggled into the United States.” – U.S. Justice Department report, 2003
-www.cannabisfacts.ca
Oh well at least the useless discriminalization bill is gone- it was really a alternative penatlies bill and would have doubled the sentences for marijuana farmers.