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“Pro-charge” is the new zero tolerance in Halifax
By Hempology | July 10, 2007
Chronicle Herald, NS
July 10, 2007
Josh Visser
Cops take ‘pro-charge’ approach
Deputy chief makes no apologies for tough stance on crime
Not only are arrests for marijuana possession up in Halifax, the city’s tough-talking deputy police chief said Monday, but arrests for all illegal drugs are significantly on the rise in metro.
“It’s safe to say that our numbers of drugs arrests are generally up . . . in the area of about 20 per cent,” said Deputy Chief Chris McNeil of Halifax Regional Police.
The comment comes hot on the heels of a Canadian Press report that said that marijuana arrests have spiked 20 to 50 per cent in several Canadian cities, including Halifax, after the Conservatives came to power in 2006 and the Liberal bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession was dropped.
Deputy Chief McNeil said that there were two reasons for the rise in marijuana arrests in Halifax: one national and one local.
First, he cited several court decisions that occurred in the earlier part of this decade in regards to the constitutionality of simple marijuana possession because of the medical marijuana issue.
For example, in January 2003, Ontario Court Justice Douglas Phillips made a decision declaring that Canada’s laws prohibiting the possession of marijuana were invalid.
This left many police forces and Crown attorneys unsure of the laws regarding simple possession of marijuana.
“Through that period, charges weren’t being laid for various reasons because of prosecution decisions,” Deputy Chief McNeil said.
But he said that recent court decisions clarified the murky legal issue, making police comfortable again with laying marijuana possession charges for small amounts.
Locally, he said Halifax Regional Police have taken a new “pro-charge” approach toward tackling Halifax’s problem with public disturbances and street violence.
He said that many marijuana charges were “secondary offences.”
“You get picked up for assault and when you’re searched it’s found you are in possession of marijuana,” Deputy Chief McNeil said. “I wouldn’t call it zero tolerance, but what you’re seeing is a pro-charge approach. And I make no apologies for that.
“If you’re going to engage in public disorder, if you’re going to engage in criminal activity, you can expect to be charged with whatever offences are available.”
But the veteran cop stressed that marijuana charges were still at the discretion of investigating officers.
“The notion that these charges relate to the high school kid or that university kid caught with one joint is not an accurate perception,” he said. “Most of those charges are being dealt with discretion, with a warning being issued.
“This isn’t one kid got caught with a one joint and then has a criminal record for the rest of their life. . . . To suggest that that is the profile of these charges is inaccurate.”
But Deputy Chief McNeil’s words would not soothe the fears of Terry Collier with Med Marijuana Products, a Lower Sackville company that sells legal cannabis health products.
He said that the spike in arrests make him worry that the Canadian government is taking a U.S.-style “war on drugs” stance and that people who have been prescribed marijuana by doctors for health reasons might be caught in the crossfire.
“These are sick, sick people that need it,” he said.
Mr. Collier added that the last four years of ambiguous marijuana laws have confused many people, especially youth.
“There’s a whole generation of kids in Ontario that think pot is legal now because of what happened up there with the court,” Mr. Collier said. “But it’s just as illegal now as it was in 1923.”
Deputy Chief McNeil agrees that the marijuana debate was confusing for youth, although for different reasons.
“There’s a mixed message being sent out (to youth) over the debate of marijuana,” he said.
“We’d be better served with a fully funded drug strategy than a debate around whether marijuana is bad or good.”
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