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Where are you folks getting your information from re: potential jail times, fines, etc for marijuana possession and/or trafficking?
Possession of 30g of marijuana or less is a summary conviction offence which carries a maximum penalty of a $2000 fine and/or six months imprisonment. In practice, possession of small quantities is very unlikely to lead to jail time but imprisonment is a definite possibility and the attainment of a criminal record is probable.
There is no such thing as a designated fine for marijuana possession. Under the proposed 'decriminalization' bill introduced by the previous Federal Liberal government, the Contraventions Act and the CDSA would have been amended such that possession of a certain amount of cannabis would result only in a monetary fine under the former act and not any kind of punishment under the latter (although there was a gray area in the bill wherein it was unclear whether it would be possible for one to be held criminally responsible after having received two previous violations under the Contraventions Act). This bill, however, died when an election was called; under the Tories, the legislation (as one would suspect) has and will not been reintroduced.
The bottom-line: Canadians are still being criminally prosecuted for engaging in an activity that i) official stats tell us three million Canadians participate in every year and ii) opinion polls have shown time and time again the majority of Canadians do not believe should be dealt with via the criminal law. Furthermore, two separate special committees (one under the HOC, one under the Senate) created exclusively for the purpose of investigating the question of how Canada should deal with cannabis concluded unambiguously that reform of the system of prohibition currently in place is required.
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