It would be appropriate now, and it would have been fair and just long ago, to craft a federal policy to urge prosecutors to use discretion in diverting these sorts of charges from the criminal justice system. It is now an offence to possess marijuana, but we know that will likely soon change.
It is a frequent and common misconception that right now people aren't arrested for marijuana offences. That's not true. People are. They're brought to jail, and mostly and largely, those people already suffer disadvantages or are from racialized minorities. They end up in our courts, and people do indeed get criminal records and receive criminal sanctions for simple possession of marijuana. Two weeks ago in an Ottawa court, court time was spent dealing with a young man who possessed half a gram of marijuana.
In the age of judicious use of court resources and the Jordan ruling principles, with charges being thrown out of court, that is something that should not be tolerated and it's something that can be easily fixed through a directive to public prosecutors.