Castanet

"We are not going after the small guys - we are going after the gangs"

"These new drugs laws will only effect gangsters".

Heard these lines recently?

"Having said that, I will tell you that I don't think you could give me an incident where we have charged anyone for simple possession of marijuana here over the last 12 months,"

That' s Kelowna's own Bill McKinnon in this article. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/75 ... bud-battle

Despite this statement, Kelowna RCMP charged 187 people with pot possession in 2011. Pot possession charges are up a whopping 88 percent across the province.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/illega ... story.html

Using the above link, search a community to find out how much money the RCMP are wasting in your area. 88 percent increase despite the talking point of "we hardly charge people anymore". Ridiculous.

Good for the RCMP. Last time I checked pot was illegal. People caught with it should be charged.

It's such a waste of time. I can't wait for this to be voted on, do with away with this archaic law and go deal with actual crimes.

Looney wrote:Good for the RCMP. Last time I checked pot was illegal. People caught with it should be charged.

Seriously that's you're reasoning? Obey the law, doesn't matter one bit how much it costs me.

Lock them up and throw away the key! Marijuana is the #1 enemy - a dangerous drug that results in criminal behaviour such as potato chip eating and tv watching.

Ridiculous.

Damn cops doing their job, how dare they.

Ohhhhh.... 187 charges. That's 150 per 100,000 population, well at the bottom of the list. I'm sure they really do have better things to do but sometimes you have no choice but to charge someone.

I say you have to spend money to make money. Sometimes have to climb the ladder, rember snakes and ladders!

The big busts usually are as a result of several small fries!! There are many snakes out there.

I'm betting you wouldn't see those number drop much and possibly even increase if it was legalized. It will probably be controlled very similar to alcohol. You will still be caught on occasion with it in your car or on your person in a public place. It will still be against the law. Probably sold in a sealed package like alcohol and it will be illegal to have it open the same as alcohol. One article I read said Washington was considering using a blood test if you were caught driving impaired or possibly impaired. Probably means they would demand a blood test meaning you would go to a hospital and take up a lot of yours and police time. If you refused you would probably be automatically charged like alcohol. And on and on and on. There would be nothing but complaining just like there is now and as I said possibly as many if not more charges. Open MJ in your vehicle, possession by a minor. I doubt it will be as perfect as many believe or hope.

Ohhhhh.... 187 charges. That's 150 per 100,000 population, well at the bottom of the list. I'm sure they really do have better things to do but sometimes you have no choice but to charge someone

.

If there is a problem with current drug laws, it is an issue that must be dealt with by politicians. The police cannot simply stop enforcing laws that you, I, or they don't agree with. And with the law as it stands now, you cannot go after the gangs without working your way up the ladder starting at the users.

SurplusElect wrote:"We are not going after the small guys - we are going after the gangs"

"These new drugs laws will only effect gangsters".

Heard these lines recently?

"Having said that, I will tell you that I don't think you could give me an incident where we have charged anyone for simple possession of marijuana here over the last 12 months,"

That' s Kelowna's own Bill McKinnon in this article. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/75 ... bud-battle

Despite this statement, Kelowna RCMP charged 187 people with pot possession in 2011. Pot possession charges are up a whopping 88 percent across the province.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/illega ... story.html

Using the above link, search a community to find out how much money the RCMP are wasting in your area. 88 percent increase despite the talking point of "we hardly charge people anymore". Ridiculous.

If they eliminate pot , 2/3 of the justice system will get lay off notices .

This statistic would seem to support the contention that there are an awful lot of people out there smoking pot. It would be interesting to have statistics to reflect the age group most prevalent within the charged individuals. What is also of concern to me is the number of people that are out there on the roads everyday who are stoned out of their minds while driving. There are lots of them out there folks.

FreeRights wrote:If there is a problem with current drug laws, it is an issue that must be dealt with by politicians. The police cannot simply stop enforcing laws that you, I, or they don't agree with. And with the law as it stands now, you cannot go after the gangs without working your way up the ladder starting at the users.

The police in this case were commenting on "changing the laws" or rather the need not to change the laws because according to the chief, nobody in Kelowna gets charged with possession. Oops.

Working your way up the ladder only goes as far as murder. Meaning - you can only arrest so many lowlifes until you reach the point where "ratting" out superiors means death for them or their family. Small fish go to jail while the guys running the show continue on. Get lucky and busty a big guy - someone will take his place in less than a hour.

Aren't charges for "simple possession of marijuana" and "possession of marijuana" two different things? I can understand not much emphasis and resources being allocated to "simple possession", but possession beyond that small personal degree can warrant a lot of attention being paid to it IMO.

And I agree that something significant must be done to be able to identify those who use and drive.

Treblehook wrote:This statistic would seem to support the contention that there are an awful lot of people out there smoking pot. It would be interesting to have statistics to reflect the age group most prevalent within the charged individuals. What is also of concern to me is the number of people that are out there on the roads everyday who are stoned out of their minds while driving. There are lots of them out there folks.

I don't think its just pot, either. Some time ago I heard there's a lot of middle income, job-holding coke users out driving on the roads, too. Can anyone comment on that?

How about prescription drug users - even for all the right reasons - not the abusers of the Rx drugs? Are there many of them who use poorer judgement because they are taking meds for some condition?