The simple possession of marijuana should no longer be a criminal offense, concluded a recently released Canadian government report.
“The available evidence indicates that removal of jail as a sentencing option would lead to considerable cost savings without leading to increases in rates of cannabis use,” determined researchers at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) National Working Group on Addictions Policy. The CCSA report, “Cannabis Control in Canada: Options Regarding Possession,” further advises the government to replace current federal law criminalizing the possession of marijuana with a “fine only” option.
“The civil violation option offers the best opportunity to achieve the most appropriate balance between the need to reduce the harms associated with cannabis use and the need to restrain the cost and harms involved in attempts to control use,” researchers concluded. “It would remove cannabis possession from the criminal law, preclude imprisonment due to failure to pay fines, and eliminate the criminal record consequences of a conviction.”
The new policy would remain consistent with Canada’s international treaty obligations to discourage marijuana possession, and mimic the laws of ten U.S. states that have decriminalized offenses involving the simple possession of marijuana. The report noted that criminalizing marijuana seemed to have little effect on an individual’s decision to use the drug.
“The enforcement of current law against cannabis possession has a very limited deterrent effect,” the authors stated. “Cannabis use remains high despite a high level of law enforcement and there is no clear relationship between changes in enforcement and levels of illicit drug use over the past several decades.”
Finally, the study found that Canadians strongly supported decriminalizing marijuana. “The vast majority of Canadians no longer favor jail sentences for simple possession of cannabis,” researchers declared.
Despite funding the CCSA policy paper, the Canadian government remains hesitant of any proposal to relax the country’s marijuana laws. “Moving too swiftly to liberalize the use of marijuana may result in an inability to control problematic use in the future,” stated Health Department officials in a memo obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.
“Virtually every federally commissioned report ever examining the issue of marijuana and the law recommends decriminalization,” said Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation. “It is time for governments to begin implementing the recommendations of the very commissions they appoint.”
The CCSA was created by Parliament in 1988 to promote debate on substance abuse issues and to support organizations involved in drug prevention and treatment.
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in Canada, with possession accounting for about half of the estimated 60,000 drug offenses recorded annually. By comparison, American law enforcement arrested almost 550,000 individuals for possession of personal amounts of marijuana in 1996.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751. The CCSA report is available from The NORML Foundation upon request or on-line at: http://www.ccsa.ca/canfinal2.htm.
