MAN WITH A PLAN
Police chief warns CBRM to plan ahead for marijuana legislation
Police chief says we need to be ready for cannabis legalization.
Once the federal government legalizes cannabis, it may or may not be OK to smoke marijuana while walking down the street.
According to Cape Breton Regional Police Chief Peter McIsaac, it is far too soon to predict exactly how the new regulations will affect the consumption, availability, distribution and enforcement of cannabis products and their use here in Cape Breton.
“There are still so many unanswered questions, but like it or not, agree with it or not, cannabis is coming and we need to prepare for it as a municipality,” McIsaac said during a recent address to Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillors at city hall.
“We are in a wait and see mode while the Nova Scotia government develops its provincial framework.
With the Trudeau government planning to legalize pot as early as July 2018, debate continues to rage across the country on how best to deal with a multitude of cannabis-related issues such as public health and safety, responsible use, protection of children and youth, distribution and enforcement.
And McIsaac advised council to start working on those issues as soon as possible.
“Once the province sets the direction for these areas, municipalities will then be responsible for executing, managing and enforcing them, so these are things you need to start wrapping your head around in terms of some of the work that is coming our way,” he said.
While the proposed legislation restricts marijuana consumption to people over 18, it does allow the provinces and territories to raise the minimum age (Ontario has set the age at 19, while Alberta has gone with 18), to lower possession limits (it will be legal to possess up to 30 grams of weed), and lower the number of plants per household (new rules to allow four, less than 100 cm tall plants per household).
McIsaac also told council that there is a fine line between protecting the public and eradicating the criminal element that has traditionally supplied society with illegal drugs.
“We need to find a balance between minimizing health risk for young people while at the same time eliminating the illegal market — if the age is too restrictive, the illegal market will fill the gap and that’s not what we want,” said the police chief.
“This new legislation will regulate the system under the legal guidelines to keep it out of the hands of the wrong people, especially youth — a regulated system will control the quality of the product, free of contaminants like fungus and fertilizer, for the health and safety of citizens.”
During his hour-long presentation to council, McIsaac also said law enforcement agencies are hopeful the new laws will ease some of the burdens on the justice system.
“With things like seizure, exhibits, testing, Crown preparation and court process, it takes months to prosecute what amounts to a $100 fine in the court compared to the five minutes it takes to write a ticket for having an open bottle of beer on the street which carries a fine of three or four times that much,” he said.
While McIsaac admitted that he’s not pleased with the idea of having marijuana plants growing in CBRM homes, he appeared more than pleased with some of the proposed enforcement measures. And, he said that’s extremely important given that police organizations across Canada have indicated they expect to see an increase in impaired driving once marijuana is legalized.
“As we have seen and heard from the experiences in Colorado and Washington states, we can expect a significant increase in the number of impaired driving offences that we must be prepared for and be equipped to handle,” said McIsaac, who added that the proposed new drug impaired driving offences, roadside oral screening devices and tougher fines will have huge impact for law enforcement.
“Police will be authorized to demand that a driver provide an oral fluid sample if they reasonably suspect that a driver has drugs in their body.”
And, under the new legislation, police will no longer need suspicion that a driver has alcohol in their body in order to demand a breath sample at a roadside stop.
Fines for drunk driving are also set to increase from the current mandatory minimum penalty of $1,000 for a first time impaired driving offence up to $2,000 with the fine to be dictated by blood alcohol concentration.
The police chief also offered comment on how the new legislation will affect his department.
“From a policing perspective I have no doubt that our workload will increase exponentially in response, not only in volume, but in complexity and time,” said McIsaac. “There is new equipment to be purchased, significant training needs to be met, including the demand for more drug recognition officers, who can only be certified in the U.S. through a very lengthy and costly process.”
Prior to his presentation to the CBRM council, McIsaac and other Nova Scotia police chiefs had their latest consultation meeting with the province in late October. And he said the police want a provincial Cannabis Act, stand-alone stores and a nosmoking policy for public places.