People caught with marijuana in B.C. are half as likely to be charged for simple possession as users in the country as a whole, an analysis of crime statistics by The Vancouver Sun shows.

But that doesn’t mean pot smokers are being let off the hook in this province. More than twice as many people as the national average are caught with the drug in B.C. , so even with a reduced rate of criminal charges, the same percentage of British Columbians—about 0.065 per cent—are charged as in the country as a whole.

While the law prohibiting pot falls under federal jurisdiction and is administered nationally by the justice department, police and a criminologist say there just isn’t much of an appetite in this province to target people for possession.

B.C. police issued reports on more than 8,800 people caught possessing pot in 1996 -- the most recent figures available—and charges were laid against 2,487, or 28 per cent.

Nationally, police reported 33,059 incidents of simple possession of marijuana in 1996, and charges were laid against 19,557 individuals, or 59 per cent.
(Ed. note: The population of Canada is approximately one tenth that of the US; consequently the arrest rate would appear to about one half that of the US.)

The percentage of people charged with possession across the nation, compared to the numbers caught, has plummeted in the past 20 years from 80 per cent in 1977 and close to 100 per cent in 1967, but the numbers have fallen even more dramatically in B.C., plunging from 74 per cent in 1977 to the current 28 per cent, an examination of numbers collected by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics shows.

The judicial hammer falls more heavily on marijuana traffickers both in B.C. and across the country, but there are still discrepancies in the percentages of people charged.

Nationally, charges were laid in 74 per cent of confirmed reports of marijuana trafficking, but in B.C., just 66 per cent of reported offences resulted in charges, the numbers show.

Superintendent Vince Casey, officer in charge of the RCMP’s drug enforcement branch in B.C., said police do not condone the possession of marijuana but he acknowledged the crime is a low priority.

"The drug problem overall is significant here and we have to use our resources in the priority levels," he said, adding that his officers focus on high-level drug traffickers such as gangs and organized crime.

Vancouver city police rarely recommend charges for simple possession of marijuana, preferring to focus on curtailing grow operations, trafficking, the sale of marijuana to juveniles, and the proliferation of hard drugs, media liaison Constable Anne Drennan said Sunday.

"It’s a matter of priorities and resources," she said.

Neil Boyd, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University who has studied the issue of drugs and the law for 30 years, said Sunday he was not surprised at the disparities.

Boyd said police and federal justice department prosecutors practise "discretionary enforcement." The reason, he said, is that attitudes in B.C. toward marijuana are more tolerant than in the rest of the country.