Canadian Police has Challenged the Legalization Deadline

September 20,2017

Although most of the Canadians are happy with the federal government’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana from July next year, the people responsible for enforcing and implementing the new laws are criticizing this development.

Rick Barnum, the deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, has clearly showed his concerns before the parliamentary health committee in Sept 12. He stated his concerns without mincing any words, “If legislation is ready to go in July 2018, policing will not be ready to go in August. It’s impossible”.

He also said that legislation signifies “greater step” but added that it should be implemented “slowly and properly”.

Co-chair of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Drug Advisory Committee, Mike Serr, also asked parliamentarians to grant law-enforcement agencies more time to get geared up. This request has already been submitted in writing as well.

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Law-enforcement officials across the country share the same concern of teaching police officers to enforce the new laws. Departments need to double the number of certified officers to conduct roadside tests for drug-impaired driving, and this process will take time. According to Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police President, Mario Harel, around 2000 certified officers will be needed after the implementation of new laws, more than 3 times the current total.

Vice chair of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police’s substance abuse committee, Wayne Kalinksi, explained why police need more time to get ready. According to him, Canadian police officers have to be sent to Arizona for training to detect drug impairment in drivers. This process is time-consuming as well as costly because departments will have to find replacements of the officers during their training period.

Ottawa has responded positively to the police department’s plea for more resources by allocating $274 million to assist police and border officials. However, timing is still an issue because funds will start to pour in after the ratification of new laws and law-enforcement community needs those funds before that.

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Kalinski raises another concern that there is scientifically accurate breathalyzer available to measure the amount of alcohol in driver’s bloodstream, but there is no such device that can detect and measure the amount of THC in blood.

Even if there is a device that can measure the amount of THC in the bloodstream, there will still be conflict on declaring the THC impairment because there is no scientific and medical consensus on how much THC constitutes impairment.

What will happen if the government refuses to delay legislation?

As Deputy Commissioner told the parliamentary committee, if legislation is ratified in July 2018, the police won’t be able to smoothly implement the new laws in the next six months to a year. This transitional time will give organized crimes an opportunity to flourish and afterwards, according to his own words “very, very hard [for law-enforcement to] ever regain a foothold.”

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Kalinksi said, “[The] Police would continue to enforce laws as best they could” if the legislation was implemented in next July, but they are still hopeful that the government will provide law-enforcement agencies with more time and resources.

As of now, it seems like Ottawa is not going to extend the legalization date. In June, Prime Minister said that government had given law-enforcement agencies “lots of time” to prepare themselves for legislation and it was “time to move on.”

Bill Blair, former Toronto police chief, who is now parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice and also served as the chairman of federal task force on marijuana legalization also shared his thoughts with journalists, “I think it’s important that we focus on getting this job done as quickly as we are able. We have established a pretty tight timeline, a difficult timeline, but that challenge is I think an important one, and everybody is working hard to get it done.”

According to Kalinksi, “there is no point in enacting legislation without us being prepared. That would just put us behind the eight ball.”

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