By Patrick Devlin

In a series of public relations advertisements and tweets the Toronto Police Department is advising citizens that they should not contact the police for stupid reasons, such as, asking for directions, to relay messages to friends or to report fellow citizens who are using cannabis.

The public relations campaign reminds Canadians that, as of today, 10/17/2018, just as “Asking police to call your friend because you are out of minutes”, “asking (police) what to do with your frozen meat during a power outage”, or calling 911 “because you are lost” are ridiculous reasons to contact public safety officials, calling 911 to report “your neighbor’s pot plants” or “smelling weed coming from your neighbor’s home” is “not a 911 call either.” The advertisements advise Canadians, “Do not call the police for this.” The Toronto police point out that all of the ‘reasons’ for calling 911 listed in the advertisements are based upon actual calls received by the department.

As #cannabis becomes legal nationwide in Canada – the first country to legalize cannabis in North America – police are bracing for the anticipated blowback from its demonizing and propagandizing cannabis use and users in synch with the rest of civilization during the 80 year planetary prohibition of the substance.

Politicians and police have done their best to frighten citizens about cannabis use but now, within a single day, after 80 years of propagandizing and disparagement, cannabis use is as legal as baking an apple pie or riding a bicycle. Having trained sections of the citizenry to be cultural custodian snitches and deputy detectives sniffing out all the bad cannabis people, Canadian law enforcement anticipates that it may not be so simple to switch off the prejudicial behaviors that they have been encouraging for so long.

It remains to be seen how the legalization of cannabis in the nation will impact border relations with Canada’s southern less tolerant and less open minded neighbor, America, a country whose highest ranking law enforcement official believes that “80 percent” of heroin addicts got addicted “starting with marijuana” (see v2 02-06-2018).

In The United States, between 500,000 and 700,000 citizens have been arrested for cannabis possession every year over the past forty years. That adds up to between 20 million and 28 million citizens who have a cannabis arrest on their permanent record. The vast majority of Americans arrested for #cannabis possession are poor, young and minority citizens.

its all true:
Toronto police tell people to stop calling them to snitch on neighbours growing cannabis : Independent UK