Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the honourable Member for Frame Lake for bringing this motion forward.
In looking at this, and listening to the data out there, it's 25 and under. If we really want to have an impact on our youth and the brain development, we shouldn't allow it until the age of 25. When we talk about the possession of 10 grams or less, but it doesn't talk about the possession at home. They could have 10 grams in their pocket, and they can still have a whack of it at home. Ten grams is a lot. As we travelled, a gram works out to be about three joints. What's that? I'm getting educated here.
I'm just going by what the federal government task force said a joint weighed, was 0.3 of a gram. Even if it's half a gram per joint, that's still 20 joints on the person's possession. Having it is not going to be a deterrent. To me, having it on your person is not going to stop them. When I talked to the youth, and we had the pleasure of talking to three classes, they're going to get it whenever they want it. Let's be realistic about it. That is what they told us. They told us straight up that if they wanted to find something, they were going to get it.
I want to support this. If it was zero to the age of 25, and then having it say that it's not a criminal charge, maybe a fine, but the other challenge I have, though, is the ages of 19 to 25. That's our students going off to school. They're going to go off to school in other jurisdictions. The other jurisdictions say 30 grams. They're going to have that possession. They come back home without really thinking about it. I'll use an example of hockey players, beers in the hockey bag. You go into a dry community, and you open your bag, and what is that? A beer. Uh-oh. I mean, R.C. would never, ever say he would do that, but I've done it. I'm not supposed to say names. I apologize to the Minister, but I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen.
I do not want to put our youth into a situation where they're going to end up with a criminal record. Criminal records carry on, even so minor of a possession charge. We're seeing that right now in the mines, where people aren't able to work because of criminal records with drugs, just possession, and there are people not working.
I know people that were 18 years old, did something silly, crossed the border, and they can't cross that border anymore. I don't want to see us putting it in there and giving the youth an opportunity to have a criminal record. As much as I understand what the honourable Member is trying to do, I wish I could support it, but I just can't. If it was 25 and there was no possession, I would jump all over that. That, to me, is a deterrent, and I would have loved to have seen that motion.
I know the honourable Member from Frame Lake is trying to comprise and come up with a solution that works for everybody, but unfortunately, I can't support it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.