Cannabis still a hot potato
Valérie Plante wants Montreal to be exempt from laws banning pot-smoking outside, saying that the city’s large population of renters would mean a lot of folks could neither smoke indoors nor out.
In addition, the police chief says he simply doesn’t have the manpower to police all open spaces where someone might light up.
As well, François Legault is adamant on making Quebec’s law say you can’t legally smoke till 21.
Mark Côté 10:46 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
Montreal police were rather tolerant of smoking pot in public when it was totally illegal. I wonder how much time Legault and Carmant have spent outside in Montreal if they think the police will care more if it becomes a ticketable offiense.
Carmant’s response that tenants who aren’t allowed to smoke indoors should just consume edibles instead speaks volumes to how little they’ve thought about this whole affair. The biggest problems that states down south have faced after legalization is with edibles, since the effects come on much more slowly and last much longer. Having a brownie that’ll stay with you all night is no substitute for a joint in the evening.
This government is working as hard as possible to mitigate any of the positive things about legalization, which overall wasn’t handled particularly well to start with.
jeather 11:22 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
Smoking pot was essentially legal well before it was legal. Hell, even selling it was often ignored. I would be fine with some locations/parks being smoke free (all smoke) and some not, but “nowhere outside at all” is just unworkable.
Faiz Imam 12:51 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
The fact that Montreal’s police commissioner seems to be on the same page as Mayor Plante seems to me a good sign.
He’s the one setting the tone for the cops on the ground. We know from many other subjects and jurisdictions that if cop leadership doesn’t care about arrests being made, they tend not to be.
Ideally the law in the books says no public consumption, yet its totally unenforced in practice.
Its not ideal, and one common side effect is that the law will be arbitrarily used to punish people cops have a problem with (usually itinerants, visible minorities, younger people).
Really though, I cannot imagine them enforcing this strictly, its a complete waste of police resources.
Ian 13:12 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
So basically it’s going to end up being a harassment charge like before, i.e.; if the ops are looking to bust you for something and you happen to be smoking a joint…
Mark Côté 13:23 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
“Ideally the law in the books says no public consumption, yet its totally unenforced in practice.”
Strongly disagree. What is ideal about this exactly?
Faiz Imam 15:51 on 2019-02-20 Permalink
Yeah. “Ideally” isn’t the right word.
I meant that the best case scenario of this law going through is for it to be minimally enforced.
Bill Binns 12:39 on 2019-02-21 Permalink
I agree with the mayor in principle on this but still suspect she is just using this as an opportunity to be seen resisting the big bad CAQ. The Montreal Police have a very long history of selecting which laws they will agree to enforce. Unless the CAQ is ready to send provincial cops onto Montreal’s streets to enforce smoking laws, this is a non-issue.