The debate over Canada’s marijuana laws shows signs of maturing, with the police and federal government talking about tickets instead of criminal charges for simple possession, Thomas Mulcair said Friday.
The federal NDP leader said it would be a “step in the right direction” if the Conservatives moved on a ticketing proposal put forth by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police last week.
“With the Conservatives, we’re always careful because there’s many a slip between cup and lip,” he said. “They’ll say things and you have to look at the fine print. But, overall, it was encouraging to hear the chiefs of police saying that.”
Harper told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday that his government was looking “very carefully” at the chiefs’ proposal to ticket rather than charge people caught with small amounts of marijuana.
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, president of the association, said in a statement last week that sending cases of simple possession to court puts a burden on the entire justice system.
Chu stopped short of supporting decriminalization or legalization, but said current laws leave police with few options. They have to turn a blind eye to possession or lay charges, he said. “The latter [option] ensures a lengthy and difficult process which, if proven guilty, results in a criminal conviction and a criminal record,” Chu said.
Mulcair, who was in Victoria campaigning to get rid of the Senate, said the marijuana debate appears to be gaining momentum.
“Everybody realizes that that has to be the type of direction we’re going in. That’s what the NDP’s been calling for over 40 years,” he said.
But Mulcair said his party also believes that the health effects of marijuana need to be examined closely.
“We should be sitting down, once we’ve got past the decriminalization stage, and looking at the exact state of play in terms of the strengths of what’s on the market right now [and] the potential health effects,” he said. “We’ve got to look at that carefully.”
He pointed to a study released Thursday showing that marijuana may be riskier for teens than previously thought.
“We’ve got to realize that it’s still a serious issue that has to be dealt with in a structured way,” he said. “It’s not something that we can just deal with with a simple one-phrase answer.”
Mulcair declined to comment on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s handling of the issue. Trudeau, who favours legalizing marijuana, revealed that he has smoked pot on a number of occasions, including after becoming an MP.
Harper has accused Trudeau of promoting marijuana use among children, but Mulcair was more cautious. “I’m not a pundit,” he said. “But I can tell you that we’ve always understood that it’s a very serious issue that merits serious attention.”
>Provinces have plenty to say on the Senate, A6
