Statistics Canada released its annual comparison of police-reported crime statistics today for 2016, showing cannabis-related arrests declining for the fifth year in a row. However, cannabis-related offences still make up over half of all drug-related arrests in Canada.
The report looks at police-reported crime for 2016, across Canadas 33 Metro Areas.
The rate of possession of cannabis went down by 12% from 2015 with all provinces and territories reporting declines, except for Prince Edward Island, which went up 15% and New Brunswick, which went up 7%. Quebec reported no change.
The report notes there were about 95,400 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA)offences reported by police, representing a rate of 263 per 100,000 population. Of these, more than half (58%) were cannabis-related offences.In 2016, there were about 55,000 cannabis-related drug offences reported to police, about 6,000 less than were reported in 2015. The majority of these offences (81%) were possession offences which represented a rate of 122 per 100,000 population, 12% lower than in 2015.
The report also says that the largest declines in rate of possession of cannabis were reported in the Territories, Alberta (-25%), Manitoba (-18%), Saskatchewan (-16%) and Ontario (-16%). British Columbia reported the smallest decline (-13%) among the Western provinces and the highest rate among all provinces (232 per 100,000 population). The lowest police-reported rates of possession of cannabis were recorded in Manitoba (66 per 100,000) and Prince Edward Island (77 per 100,000).
The rate of youth accused of cannabis possession was down 15% in 2016, all other cannabis related offences (trafficking, production or distribution) were lower or the same as in 2015.
The number of Canadianscharged with a cannabis related offence has also been going down. In 2016, the ...
