If you live in New Westminster, you by-and-large followed the rules around cannabis in the first year of legalization – or, at least, you didn’t get caught when you didn’t follow the rules.
A freedom of information request filed by the Record for a report summarizing all cannabis-related arrests between Oct. 17, 2018 (the day pot was legalized for recreational use in Canada) and Oct. 16, 2019 returned just one result.
According to the New Westminster Police Department, only one file returned cannabis-related offences. The single offence, according to the NWPD, was possession for the purposes of trafficking.
According to the document, an arrest was made in October of this year, but no charges were laid on the file. The pot, however, was sent for destruction, the police said.
The Record also reported in September that a police officer mistakenly confiscated cannabis, believing the pot was over the legal limit for personal possession. However, that cannabis was reportedly returned to its owner, the NWPD said at the time.
