Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to a question I asked the parliamentary secretary earlier. It dealt with the issue of the simple possession of soft drugs. Will his party support decriminalization of the simple possession of marijuana given the fact that the application of this law across the country is extremely varied? It is inhumane when individuals who are 18 or 19 years old are picked up, prosecuted and receive a criminal record that will affect them for their entire lives. This has even been stated by such varied groups as various police groups and the Canadian Medical Association.
My second question deals with prosecution. As the parliamentary secretary knows, what charges are to be laid varies across the country. In some jurisdictions, police forces lay the charges. In others, the crown prosecutors do. I would like to know from the hon. member how the government is going to square this circle in terms of ensuring that there is homogeneity across the country in that charges to be laid will fall either on the arresting officers or on the crown prosecutors.