It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Health Minister Jane Philpott said earlier this week, on 4/20 no less, that new marijuana legislation is coming by next spring. Philpott was speaking at a United Nations special session on drug policy, the first of its kind in 18 years.
"We know it's impossible to arrest our way out of this problem," she defiantly told an audience that included representatives from countries that still hand down harsh punishments for non-violent drug offences.
Legally, of course, the law is still on the books, so people can be prosecuted and convicted," said Alan Young, lawyer and associate professor at Osgoode Hall. Young has been a key player in the anti-prohibition movement for decades.
"But from a moral point of view, if the change is imminent, that undercuts the whole foundation for arrests and prosecutions, and one would hope the government would stop pursuing very minor cases that have clogged up the system for years."
Grey zone
Police have admitted that until the legislation is enacted, law enforcement officers will find themselves in an awkward position, especially in instances of simple possession.
It looks like the real legalization process is beginning already in parts of Canada, however one should certainly be cautious about thumbing ones nose at leagilty....
Are Canadian ATS members prepared to wait another year to light up?
I doubt it immensely....
originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: bandersnatch
If they're going to legalise anyway, realise it's pointless clogging up the justice system with harmless soft drug users, then it's bizarre to continue to arrest and put soft drug users through the system as though there were no plans to legalise Cannabis.
I know the law is still technically 'active'...but there's is such a thing as common sense and turning a blind eye.
Why waste police time and tax payers money pursuing Cannabis users, after you've decided to stop wasting police time and tax payers money pursuing Cannabis users?