As Mr. Davies said, this topic comes up several times. I thought that maybe members would jump in and have a conversation about it rather than repeating things each time it comes up. Now might be a good time to have that discussion.
As Ms. Gladu said, both Colorado and Washington have sat, and we've used them as good models of how to carefully and thoughtfully go forward, particularly in the first phase of introduction of what's quite a significant social change for Canada in the act. These are their limits metricized, if I can say it that way. Theirs are a bit different because they were in ounces, but this is metric.
The second thing is that it isn't you're over and you get five years in jail. Officers have a choice to ticket and seize, which is very different and doesn't have the same consequence. They can do it summarily, or they can charge with an indictable offence. There's an open range.
The goal of the legislation, in this phase I believe, is to stop organized crime and to deter the activity of organized crime. We heard from many of the witnesses that it was going to be very difficult for us to step in and deter organized crime in this space. Having some kind of consequence, I think is important, recognizing that if somebody is caught with 30 grams to 50 grams, they can be ticketed. If it's simply somebody, as Mr. Davies said, caught moving across from one province to another for a month's holiday, that would be ticketable at the officer's discretion.
I think those are important considerations.
The other piece with organized crime is that at some point we need to realize that this is not about opening up recreational marijuana. It's not about choice for consumers. It's not about promoting marijuana. It's about restricting youth to access. It's about deterring organized crime, and it's about safe production.
As Mr. Davies said, people can have unlimited amounts in their home. It's simply if they're caught in public with it. The issue about stopping organized crime is that with people carrying amounts that are over 30 grams or 50 grams, that doesn't look like personal use in public. That looks like trafficking.
I don't think it's arbitrary. They've used guidelines from other jurisdictions. I think it's a conservative approach to introducing this particular topic.
Those are the points I want to raise on this one.