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 News from Around the Americas | April 2006 
Canada's Plans to Soften its Marijuana Laws Go Up in Smoke
 AFP
| | Marijuana advocate Jason Drayton, with his black cat on his shoulder, waves a flag outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver August 2, 2005. Canada's new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation which would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. (Reuters/Andy Clark) |
Canada will not decriminalize marijuana use, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, ending a half decade of legislative efforts to soften penalties for pot smokers.
"We will not be introducing the Liberal government's marijuana decriminalization legislation," Harper told a police association hours before his minority Conservative government was due to face opposition parties in the House of Commons for the first time since a January election.
"We will work to get drugs off the streets, away from our children and we wil clean up our communities."
Two previous Liberal governments introduced bills to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana no less than three times in recent years.
The plan to treat the possession of 15 grammes (half an ounce) or less of marijuana like a traffic ticket -- with no criminal record being incurred -- was widely praised at home, but strained relations with Washington over concerns about increased trafficking.
Each effort to push through the legislation was thwarted by the calling of general elections before the legislation completed the parliamentary process.
Harper said his new Conservative government, after 12 years of Liberal rule, would instead impose minimum prison sentences and hand out large fines to marijuana growers and drug dealers. |
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