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Arrests are down across Canada this year and have been declining steadily for the past five years. However, a large chunk of Canadian society is actually being arrested at record levels. Thieves? Nope. Violent predators? Not them either. The group being targeted by police and arrested at all-time highs are those nefarious cannabis users. You know, the guy that smokes a joint instead of cracking a beer at the end of a hard day of work. The mother of three that has a few puffs to relax after a day of chasing young ones around the house. The cancer survivor that uses cannabis to relieve pain and allow her to eat.
These “criminals” are the ones that police seem bent on busting for simple possession – an offence that reached a 30-year record levels of arrests in 2007 and, amazingly, increased by 5% more in 2008.
“It’s shocking, really,” said Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation. “Arrests are falling across the board and yet arrests for simple possession have never been higher. Every one of the 50,000 people arrested is going to have their life harmed more by the arrest than by their cannabis use. We’ve known this since Le Dain in 1971. I can’t fathom why, with arrests down, police appear to be targeting simple possession. I would hope that they have better things to do with their time.”
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