cannabisnews.com: Our Top Cop Wants Pot Potency Studied





Our Top Cop Wants Pot Potency Studied
Posted by CN Staff on July 17, 2002 at 07:46:33 PT
By Andrea Wiebe, Edmonton Sun
Source: Edmonton Sun 
Edmonton's top cop says he's not surprised Canada's justice minister is considering decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of pot. And Chief Bob Wasylyshen told The Sun yesterday he hopes the government examines the issue of THC levels - marijuana's active ingredient - when it releases a Senate committee report late this summer on non-medicinal drugs in Canada. "Hopefully it will address this issue of high THC levels, because that's the reality of the landscape today, and if they missed that they missed an important point," he commented. 
"Obviously the federal government is concerned about the enormous amount of resources that are invested both on the police side and on the court side to deal with those very, very small amounts of marijuana that become the subject of possession charges." Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he's considering the bold move so people nabbed with weed for personal use get tickets instead of criminal records. The news comes shortly after the British government made a similar move. That doesn't mean pot will be legal, Wasylyshen noted. And though the chief has said before he's warm to the idea of decriminalizing small amounts of the drug, he's still worried about the "gateway" argument that smoking grass leads to harder drug use. "If we were talking about a fairly benign substance, something that's fairly weak, I might be convinced that, well, maybe it's not that much of a gateway drug," he said. "But I know for a fact that the hydroponic stuff that's grown today is very high potency, and I'm concerned that even the use of small amounts of that can have quite a profound effect on people and might, in fact, introduce them more rapidly to using other drugs." Sgt. Peter Ratcliff, president of the Edmonton Police Association, said he hopes the feds leave the drug laws alone. "It's kind of startling that the minister of justice and the solicitor general are at opposite ends of the spectrum on this one," he said, noting that Solicitor General Lawrence McCauley has voiced concerns about decriminalization. And Ratcliff added that current practice in Canada is that anyone found with less than 30 grams of marijuana won't be thrown in jail. "There's no fingerprinting, there's no photographing and you get a fine in court," he said. But the president of the Marijuana Party of Alberta - who's facing pot charges in a Fort McMurray court - said he thinks the government is too afraid to take the full plunge. Pot should be legalized and taken right off the street level, said Reginald Normore. "Put an age limit on it, just like alcohol or cigarettes, then put it in the stores," Normore said from his home in Fort McMurray, 437 km northeast of Edmonton. Complete Title: Grass Action: Our Top Cop Wants Pot Potency StudiedSource: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Author: Andrea Wiebe, Edmonton SunPublished: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: sun.letters ccinet.ab.ca Website: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:Marijuana Party http://www.marijuanaparty.org/Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmGovernment Considering Decriminalizing Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13431.shtmlMarijuana Party Denounces Cauchon's Idea http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13403.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by Robbie on July 17, 2002 at 10:14:02 PT
Here come the last desperate gasps.
The prohibs in England, Canada, and the US are going to be fighting this `til the end.What is it? High-grade is 5 or 10 times more potent than 30 years ago?5 or 10 times 3 percent still isn't that much, and, correct me if I'm wrong, you can't produce strains with 30% very easily. Same old tired arguments.
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