The first thing is certainly the number—the tens of thousands—of Canadians who are continuing to receive criminal records. As someone has already pointed out, in the great majority of cases, these criminal records will do far more harm than the use of cannabis. This type of decriminalization can be done fairly easily, and it's been done.
Canada is actually a bit of an outlier in this regard. There are 32 countries—the last time I looked—that have decriminalized cannabis; that is, they have stopped giving people criminal records for simple possession of small amounts of cannabis. Even in the U.S. we hear so much about.... I think there are seven or eight states now that have either legalized or are in the process of legalizing cannabis. There are actually twice that number that have consciously decided to choose decriminalization over legalization. That's important.
This is something that should have been done a long time ago. I wish it would have been done when this campaign began. I wish it would have begun when the idea was introduced to the House of Commons in June of last year by Murray Rankin. There is a simple solution to this called the Director of Public Prosecutions Act, and it could be invoked to asked enforcement agencies and crown attorneys to cease and desist charging people with cannabis.