The ReeveLaw Blog

LEGALIZATION? Not really. No plans for pardons. Possession is still criminal over 30 grams for adults or 5 grams for youth. Sharing a joint is still a serious criminal offence. And in the interim police will continue to raid storefronts and arrest and charge people for simple possession. Not a good plan.

Teenagers passing joints to slightly younger friends could face sentences of up to 14 years in jail, according to an Ottawa lawyer who testified at hearings on the federal government’s bill to legalize marijuana.

Source: Proposed pot law too harsh on young people, lawyer argues – Ottawa – CBC News

SERIOUSLY? Comments like the industry is run by criminals (duh) and police talking about “how are we going to find out if a person has more than 4 plants in his residence, makes it sound like legalization will bring more police oppression through dynamic entries and more drug charges as the government tries to take over the market.

Senior Canadian police officials tell MPs studying the government’s marijuana legalization legislation that police won’t be ready to enforce new laws by next summer and they ask the government for more time.

Source: ‘Impossible’: Senior police officials tell MPs they won’t be ready for legal cannabis – Politics – CBC News

If anything over the next few years, the legalized sale of marijuana stands to fatten the golden goose that is the black market rather than kill it.

Source: Pot black market wider and deeper than government’s half-hearted plans: Hébert | Toronto Star

HALIFAX: Lorne Grabher, whose personalized GRABHER licence plate was deemed “socially unacceptable” by the Nova Scotia Registrar of Motor Vehicles, will be in court on Wednesday, September 6, 2017 …

Source: Lorne Grabher in Court Wednesday September 6: GRABHER licence plate challenge to Motor Vehicle Act Regulations

It’s all wrong. It’s backward. We need to deal with the demand side. This proudly violent war on the supply side has unconsidered consequences.

With the biggest drug bust in Ontario history—$250-million—the province’s cocaine supply may have just gotten more dangerous.

Source: How Massive Busts Could Create More Harm for People Who Use Drugs

“It’s been obvious for 40 years.”

Source: Ecstasy Was Just Labelled a ‘Breakthrough Therapy’ For PTSD by The FDA

“These policies continue to bring more people than ever in conflict with the law and make it more difficult for those caught up in the system to get out. They have clogged our prisons, drained the public coffers, unnecessarily criminalized minor offenders and contributed to a national crisis of court delays that profoundly undermines both justice and public safety.”

Source: Toronto Star’s View: The Trudeau government should not delay on sentencing reforms

A word to the wise: Read the complete terms of service.

Source: Ancestry.com takes DNA ownership rights from customers and their relatives

News item: The federal Justice Department has hired a pollster to sound out Canadians on their appetite for criminal sentencing reform – a political “testing of the waters,” as it were.

Source: Globe editorial: You don’t need a poll to know mandatory minimum sentences are bad

It seems they’re being forced out of the market as it becomes, during this legal hiatus, occupied by a myriad of other suppliers. The coming government scheme will have to compete with an established market when they finally jump in.

There wasn’t much need to smuggle pot into the country when Canadian cannabis connoisseurs liked the homegrown stuff better, experts say.

Source: Organized crime’s interest in the illegal pot business is going up in smoke | Toronto Star