Canada Not Interested in Legalizing Marijuana, Would Like to Give Cops the Power to Ticket Marijuana Users Instead

Canada’s marijuana laws may have at some point
been considered relatively lax, but as legalization is adopted in
places like Colorado and Washington and Uruguay, it’s looking
increasingly not so. Canada’s opposition leader, the Liberal Justin
Trudeau,
appears open to legalization, and wants Canada to look toward
U.S. states that have legalized for lessons, while Canada’s
Conservative government slammed him for daring to answer a question
about marijuana legalization asked by during a high school Q&A.
Nevertheless, the Conservative government, too, appears open to
revising the criminal code on marijuana. In what may be becoming a
kind of “Canadian approach,” it suggests imposing fines on the use
of marijuana, to give cops an option less harsh than arrest, but
better than nothing.
Via the Canadian Press:

The Conservative government is seriously considering
looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone
caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice
Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

“We’re not talking about decriminalization or legalization,” MacKay
said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament
Hill.

“The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would
look at options that would … allow police to ticket those types
of offences.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach, he
added.

It’s a transparent attempt at creating a revenue stream out of
people accused of nothing more than enjoying the consumption of a
substance of their choice. Last summer, Canada’s police chiefs
called for
just such a solution, ticketing, in complaining that they were
being forced to do all the work involved with an arrest or “turn a
blind eye.”

Could the U.S. legalize marijuana before Canada? It could, if
the chief executive
grows a pair, and an interest.