Legal recreational weed became a thing across all of Canada on Wednesday, and just one hour into the day of celebration, Winnipeg police issued its first ticket to a driver for getting high while in a car, reports the CBC.
The ticket was issued hilariously quickly around 1 a.m. Wednesday, Winnipeg Police Service traffic division Insp. Gord Spado told the CBC.
“An hour into legality, and something illegal,” Spado said Wednesday
Spado said while the cannabis was likely illegally purchased — online sales started at 12:01 a.m. but weren’t being delivered yet at 1 a.m. — no ticket was issued for that.
Ha, the Canadian cop’s name is “Gord.” Winnipeg police still took the time to pooh-pooh the driver publicly, and use the ticket to remind folks that, hey, smoke weed outside of your car.
Spado also offered up the very wise observation that it’ll be difficult for officers going forward to “determine if cannabis has been illegally purchased,” as the CBC put it. Tickets for consuming edibles in a vehicle will also be an issue, the news outlet says.
“If somebody has an edible in a car and we can prove it, that’s also an [offense],” Spado reportedly said. “Sometimes we can [prove it], sometimes we can’t. And when edibles are legally produced commercially, then it might be a little bit easier, because there’ll be packaging and things like that that might be visible.”
Unless, you know, there isn’t packaging on it.... Canadians.
All told, this story is worth mentioning as a service to any would-be tokers up in the True North: if you get caught and ticketed for any offenses prescribed under Canada’s legal marijuana law, it’ll come with a $672 fine, the CBC says. Think of all the legal weed you could buy with that kind of loot.
h/t to Nolan