About one in five people arrested were released unconditionally with no charges going to court, but their names and noted offences remain in a police database. And just as this police practice of stopping, questioning and documenting impacted Black people disproportionately, so did marijuana charges. Police note that in about half of the cases, an arrested individual was facing another criminal charge or charges, not related to marijuana possession. As it moves to legalize marijuana by July 2018, what should it do for citizens with possession records? (Aggregate data from 2014 to 2016 sent to the Star by Toronto police shows a sharp decline in the use of unconditional releases for marijuana possession charges.

Source: thestar July 07, 2017 15:33 UTC