Reserved to the fact that marijuana will soon be legal in Canada, Guelph’s chief of police says he hopes the government gets it right.
In a presentation made Thursday to the local Police Services Board, Guelph’s member of parliament Lloyd Longfield laid out the federal government’s plans to introduce legal marijuana.
Bill C-45, known as The Cannabis Act, is the federal government’s proposed legislation to legalize marijuana in Canada. It has already received final approval in the House of Commons and is currently before various committees in the Senate.
The bill deals with the quality of marijuana available for sale, as well as safety and distribution.
A 14-year maximum prison sentence is the proposed penalty for selling marijuana to youth.
A minimum age requirement of 18 was selected by the federal government for the purchase of marijuana, but provinces are allowed to set a higher age.
Ontario has passed legislation regulating a minimum age of 19 to legally purchase marijuana in the province.
Longfield said the government expects reports to come back with Senate recommendations before the House of Commons rises on June 1.
Bill C-46, which is a companion bill to C-45 will overhaul some of the current impaired driving laws.
Current impaired driving legislation deals mainly with alcohol, said Longfield.
“In reality we know — with a high use of cannabis in youth and other populations — people that are driving cars while under the influence of cannabis or other drugs,” said Longfield.
Roadside oral fluid drug screeners will detect levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC — in saliva, said Longfield.
In the proposed legislation, a person found to be driving with less than 5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood would face a fine of $1,000 on the first offence.
Combining alcohol with cannabis would result in a $1,000 fine on the first offence, 30 days imprisonment on the second offence and 120 days on the third and subsequent offences.
“We need to get the legislation around impaired driving back to the house so we can start working with police forces and provincial and territorial governments,” said Longfield.
Chief Jeff DeRuyter of the Guelph Police Service told GuelphToday that training officers takes time. First a curriculum needs to be developed, then the trainers themselves need to be taught before passing that information on to officers on the front lines.
“We just don’t have the information, so the training can’t be developed,” said DeRuyter.
To complicate matters further, DeRuyter said the Guelph Police Service usually conducts its officer training sessions in a block between January and June.
“For us to train the necessary officers, we have got to figure out how we are going to fit that in,” said DeRuyter.
Longfield said $2 billion is spent every year in policing and prosecuting cannabis-related crimes, which he said are also choking the court system.
“The doing nothing option that we have been operating under isn’t working, so we have to pick up a new way of trying to provide safety in our communities as well as personal safety for people who are currently using cannabis,” said Longfield.
During the presentation, board member Christine Billings wondered if future health care costs associated with a possible increase in marijuana use will outweigh savings to the court system.
"This was not a cost-savings measure," responded Longfield.
Billings asked Longfield about the effect of marijuana on the developing brain of young people.
“The research shows the brain is still developing until the age of 24," said Longfield. "Cannabis — or THC — has more of an affect on the developing brain than it does on the mature brain.”
DeRuyter said his officers need to know what their authority is in enforcing the proposed laws around legal marijuana.
“We are very flexible and agile in policing and can respond to changes, but I think it is really important that we do get this right,” said DeRuyter.
