Ben started selling marijuana when he was a teenager. He was 17 when he was charged with possession of under 28 grams of marijuana.

“I didn’t tell my parents at the time and dealt with it purely on my own, which is a lot for a 17 year old to take on,” he says.

His encounter with the law did not stop him from selling marijuana. Because of this Ben asked to remain anonymous. Ironically his brush with the law had almost the exact opposite effect. Ben was given a conditional discharge fro making a thousand dollar donation to charity.

“I don’t think it did anything to make me not want to sell weed,” he says. In fact it motivate him.

“I thought, ‘I have this fat fine to pay, I better sell more weed.'” he says.

Ben may be a poster boy for how prohibition has not had its intended effects. With the federal government poised to introduce legislation in the spring that would legalize cannabis, numbers are indicating that the legal system is preparing to adapt to legalization.

According to incident based crime numbers from Statistics Canada, possession and trafficking arrests have decreased significantly since 2011. While arrests for possession have dropped by a quarter nationwide, trafficking arrests have ben nearly cut in half. In Ottawa, trafficking arrests have dropped by an astounding 57 per cent.

Eugene Oscapella is a drug reform policy expert and advisor. His company, Oscapella and Associates Consulting, has been researching drug policy since 1985. He says that it is difficult to pin the decrease in arrest numbers on any one cause, but that it is likely a combination of police and prosecutors not wanting to of after small possession and trafficking cases. Particularly given that cannabis is likely going to be legalized within the next few years.

“I doubt very much that it is because of decreased use or decreased activity,” he says.

Despite the drop in trafficking arrests, Ottwa Police cracked down on seven local dispensaries last month. While Oscapella is in favour of legalization, he says there is a difference between small trafficking cases and dispensaries because they appear somewhat legitimate.  “These dispensaries are essentially trafficking,” he says.

Source: Ottawa Police Press Release

Oscapella says that because of the lack of quality controls and regulations, dispensaries could be selling product that is of poor health quality. “All you’ve got are the promises of the people running these dispensaries,” he says.

“This is basically a wild west environment,” Oscapella says.

It is not clear whether the regulatory system introduced by the government would allow for private dispensaries. For now it appears that they are taking advantage of the public mood, assuming enforcement will be minimal and make money. “Its what capitalists do,” Oscapella says.

Like Ben, with his first brush with the law, some dispensaries do not appear moved by the recent raids. Some, such as WeeMedical Dispensary on St. Laurent Boulevard have already reopened. However Ben believes they might suffer some loss of business. “At this point I think they are more sketchy than coming to me right now, because of the raids,” he says.

Ben says that dispensaries are attractive in part because they have an air of legitimacy with an office, as opposed to his small apartment, complete with his personal smoking devices. “They hand out cards but they don’t really mean anything,” he says.

“If it would mean getting people to come here I would make a card. You could get  stamp every time you come.”

However Ben sees dispensaries as a glimpse into what legalization may look like, even though dispensaries may not be included in the new system.

“I think once its legalized people are going to step up their game and leave us street dealers behind,” he says. “But that could be a good thing.”

A dramatic increase in Ottawa’s arrests for sexual assault may indicate a shift institutional shift in the Ottawa Police Services.

According to Statistics Canada crime data, the number of arrests for level one sexual assault, which is assault that results in minor or no bodily injuries, has increased in Ottawa by nearly 50 per cent from 2011 to 2015.

The numbers have surprised some experts. Holly Johnson, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa says that the numbers present a different picture than what the national trend is showing. According to a Statistics Canada 2014 report on criminal victimization in Canada, only five per cent of sexual assaults in Canada were brought to the attention of police, down from eight per cent in 2004. But Johnson says these new numbers suggest Ottawa itself might be going in the opposite direction, “I’m not sure why Ottawa would be running counter to a national trend,” she says.

The same data that shows an increase in Ottawa’s arrests suggests that the rest of the country is not experiencing a similar spike. In fact the number of arrests for both Canada and Ontario have decreased by about two per cent between 2011 and 2015. Other major cities such as Toronto and Vancouver have seen an increase but not on the same scale as Ottawa.

The arrest rate for sexual assault in Ottawa has sky-rocketed in comparison with other major cities in Canada. The nation’s capital once lagged way behind other major Canadian cities, such as Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary in 2011, but in 2015 Ottawa had a higher rate than all four. While Ottawa’s rate is still lower than national and provincial average, the gap has closed significantly.

Yami Msosa, of the Ottawa Sexual Assault Support Centre, says that the increase in arrests is due to the way police are addressing sexual assault. In recent years Ottawa police have been criticized for the number of sexual assault cases reported as “unfounded.” When an incident is reported as unfounded it means that a crime did not occur or that there is insufficient evidence. Msosa says that the increase in arrests is due to the police changing their practices and laying charges.
“The number of incidents hasn’t actually changed, the way they report it has changed,” she says.
However, Professor Johnson does not think that the answer is that simple. Johnson states that it is likely that the increase in arrests could be caused by a shift in police practices. However, she says that there is limited data to suggest an increase in actual incidents or reports by victims of sexual assault.
“My educated guess is that the police are coding it differently,” she says, rather than treating cases as unfounded.
While the increase in arrests may be considered a small sign of a institutional shift in the way sexual assault cases are handled, Mavis Morton, a professor of criminology at the University of Guelph, believes that there is still a long way to go. She says that an arrest does not mean that the charges will proceed.
“An increase in arrests doesn’t necessarily say anything about what that leads to.” says Morton.
Morton says that while an increase in arrests might be a part of a shift towards taking sexual assault more seriously, “it is not the test that things have changed and that we are moving in a positive direction.