Contributed by: Lothar
Canadian Legal FAQs
All of the following relate mostly to the Canadian legal system, unless otherwise noted. If you require specific American information, then I suggest you seek out the NORML web page as they have state-specific information. However, most western legal systems operate on similar principals, so the knowledge here is still useful for a grower with legal questions.
Introduction
Can I be charged with…? The answer to that question, no matter what follows it, is: YES. Police rarely understand the laws they purport to enforce.
The important question is: Will if be convicted if I am charged with (Insert atrocity here)?
Are seeds illegal? Can I be charged?
Yes, seeds are illegal in Canada. The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Hereinafter referred to as the CDSA) includes seeds, leaves, flowers and resins as part of the marihuana plant. The stalk and roots are not included. Ironically, the stalk and roots are included in the event of a bust, so that police may publicly claim that a large quantity of drugs have been seized in another fruitful expenditure of taxpayers money.
Can you be charged? yes, as they are still technically illegal.
Will you be? - Not likely.
There is a concept in both Canadian and US courts called De Minimus Non Curat Lex - which translates to the law does not trouble itself with trifles meaning that there is so little substance in question (THC) that seeds are a waste of the courts time and in reality do not qualify as the drug that the CDSA was enacted to prohibit in the first place. In short, dont sweat it, if some police officer is obtuse enough to try and lay the charge, it would not likely even make it past a Crown Attorney.
The seed bank wants a money order, is this a problem?
Getting access to banking records requires either a search warrant or an order from a judge. They may ask you for your name and the name of the party to whom the order is to be paid - don’t panic. There are no grounds to do a mass-search of bank records unless the bank has been indicted on some kind of major fraud scheme.
You have nothing to worry about when it comes to money orders. Banks are not interested in screwing over their customers and disrupting their business by calling up the DEA, RCMP or whomever.
Seeds and the Mail:
Is Canada Post monitoring the mailing of things like seeds, dope etc.? A guest mentioned that Canada Post used to keep a “porn list” and therefore was likely it was keeping a list on other things I doubt this is the case.
Canada Post is, or at least was, obliged to keep the porn list because distribution of porn through the mail is a criminal offence. - Section 168(1) , Criminal code of Canada, “Mailing of obscene matter”. They HAD to keep track of that.
(SugarDaddy) asked if mailing weed was a similar problem, and I had mentioned that there were a bunch of fairly serious offences having to do with the mail.
After researching the appropriate statues I can now say (to my surprise) that there is no criminal offence associated with using the mail to distribute seeds or drugs. It is still trafficking or possession if you are unlucky, but using the mail is not an offence in itself.
This would mean that Canada post is in no way required to catalogue or “blacklist” people who may have received seeds in the past. This would require an agreement with the RCMP and a great deal of money from the government to set up and keep track of such a system. I think Canada Post is uninterested in dipping into their manpower and coffers to track you and your seeds, especially when they have no obligation to do so.
Customs are the people you need to worry about; they are obliged to check everything.
I would think the bus system might be a better bet for larger packages.
What about car searches?
In Canada, every province has an act regarding highways and the authority of police to detain drivers or vehicles. In Ontario, its the Highway Traffic Act.
Police DO NOT have the power to search your vehicle under any of these acts. A traffic infraction does not translate into grounds for a search. If they tow your vehicle away because its unfit or impounded; however, they can search it.
The plain view doctrine also applies. If you leave the dope on the dashboard, they can now take apart the whole car. Also, if the car smells like weed because you just smoked a joint, they can search for the rest of the weed. Most lawyers can beat this charge, but be smart.
If a cop asks of he can search the vehicle, the answer is No.
*Important note on evidence obtained as a result of a search or warrant:
In the US, there seems to be a hard and fast rule that a breach of your rights, or a bad warrant, will automatically exclude any evidence subsequently obtained. This is not so in Canada.
Here we have a two types of evidence: Self-Conscripted and Real.
Conscripted evidence is that which you provide to the state (Confessions, DNA, blood or breath samples, etc.) - These will almost always be excluded if there is a breach of rights.
Real evidence (Objects, as The Gun, The Dope) - may or may not be excluded depending on the nature and severity of the breach. So dont assume that just because the search was bogus that the evidence wont go in. This is a matter to be argued at trial.