Pubdate: Tue, 06 Dec 2005
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Nelson Daily News
Contact:  http://www.nelsondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Paul Willcocks
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

HARPER'S LAW-AND-ORDER DRUG TALK THE SAME FAILED APPROACH

Conservative Leader's Plan Lacks Any Real Substance And Would Not 
Result In Change

It's hard to take seriously any politician who calls for mandatory 
minimum sentences.

That's what Stephen Harper did on his first campaign stop in B.C., 
casting himself as the non-nonsense sheriff from an old Western. It's 
time get tough on crime, especially drugs, said Harper. No 
conditional sentences, an end to harm reduction efforts like safe 
injection sites and mandatory minimum sentences for people who sell 
heroin, cocaine and crystal meth.

Mandatory minimum sentences are popular with politicians who can't 
figure out what else to do, in spite of two problems - they don't 
work, and they guarantee injustices.

In an earlier life I stood in a Red Deer church and watched a young 
mother and her three small children make their way to their usual pew 
without the dad who was there every Sunday. He was in a federal 
penitentiary. The family business had been on the brink of collapse, 
and he was desperate, depressed and terrified. To get enough money to 
keep going for one more week he took an unloaded rifle and robbed a 
local bank branch, a stunningly stupid plan. He got about $2,000, was 
stopped by the police within five minutes, surrendered and admitted everything.

The sentencing guidelines then demanded a five-year minimum sentence 
for robbery with a weapon. So off he went to prison.

He had done a crime, and a serious one. The bank tellers were 
terrified, and despite the unloaded weapon something very bad could 
have happened.

But a five-year prison term made no sense.

Sentencing serves three purposes - to deter others who might offend, 
rehabilatate the criminal and express society's anger.

This sentence wasn't going to deter similar offenders; the essence of 
the crime was its lack of judgment and foresight. A five-year term 
wasn't needed to ensure rehabilitation, just some counselling. And 
most people reacted with compassion, not anger.

All that was really achieved by the strict sentencing rule was to 
wreck a family, leave three children without a father for a couple of 
years and send someone off for an expensive, destructive jail stay.

I have little doubt that without the minimum requirement, the court 
would have imposed house arrest or a brief jail stay.

Harper's proposed two-year minimum sentences for people arrested for 
drug trafficking would create the same injustices. A long sentence 
for a hapless addict for making a delivery or for people growing a 
dozen marijuana plants is not going to reduce crime.

Despite the promised minimum sentences, it's not even really going to happen.

There isn't space in jails, for starters. B.C.'s prison costs are 
already expected to be $4 million over budget this year because of an 
increased number of inmates.

In fact mandatory minimum sentences often result in reduced 
penalties. Criminal Code penalties for impaired driving have become 
increasingly tough. The practical result has been that more people 
have fought the charges, and police and prosecutors can't handle the 
workload. Today only one-in-six drinking drivers caught by B.C. 
police is actually charged with a Criminal Code offence. The rest 
receive 24-hour roadside suspensions and are sent on their way.

Expect the same approach to small-time drug traffickers if Harper gets his way.

Harper's drug strategy is based on two basic fallacies - that drugs 
can be dealt with by attacking the supply side, and that addiction is 
a moral issue.

"Our values are under attack," he said in Vancouver.

 From Prohibition to today attacks on the supply side have failed. 
When enough people desperately want a product, others will profit by 
providing it.

The solution lies in reducing demand, through education, accessible 
treatment and and an attack on the issues - like poverty and mental 
illness - that drive addiction.

In the meantime, safe injection sites, methadone and even prescribed 
drugs help stabilize the problem and reduce the crime that comes when 
addicts scramble each day to stay alive.

Harper's drug plan is just more of the same tired, failed exercises.

Footnote: Crime is likely to continue to be an issue, because of 
high-profile killings in Toronto and a perception that 
addiction-driven property crime is a growing problem in many 
communities. But the fact remains that the rate for both violent 
crimes and homicides are lower today than they were a decade ago, 
according to StatsCan.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman