Pubdate: Wed, 21 Nov 2007
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Authors: Richard Foot, Canwest News Service and John Bermingham, The Province
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

OTTAWA CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL DRUGS

Proposed Legislation Will Also Allow Judges To Impose Drug Treatment Over Jail

The Conservative government unveiled historic legislation yesterday 
to create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people 
convicted of trafficking illicit drugs.

The new bill proposes:

- - A one-year mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while using a 
weapon, or for dealing drugs in support of organized crime.

- - A two-year mandatory term for dealing cocaine, heroin or 
methamphetamines to young people, or for dealing them near a school 
or any place young people are known to frequent.

- - A mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little as one 
marijuana plant for the purposes of trafficking.

- - A two-year mandatory term for running a marijuana grow-operation of 
at least 500 plants;

- - A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from 
seven to 14 years.

The government also proposes to allow judges to exempt certain 
offenders from mandatory prison terms on condition that they complete 
drug treatment court programs.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper 
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills before 
Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to keep 
accused young offenders in jail before their trials, and now to 
impose automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act currently contains no 
mandatory prison sentences for anyone convicted under the act. Judges 
use their own discretion about whether to send drug pushers and 
growers to jail.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the changes in sentencing 
provisions are designed to target the people the government considers 
at the root of the drug-supply problem: large-scale growers and 
traffickers, organized-crime groups that finance their operations 
through drugs, and people who push drugs on children and teenagers.

"We've made it very clear that those individuals who are in the 
business of exploiting other people through organized crime and other 
aggravating factors -- through this bill, we want to get serious with 
those individuals and send the right message to them . . . you will 
be doing jail time," he said. "We want to put organized crime out of 
business in this country."

But one expert said the changes will only help organized crime.

"Tougher penalties for people who produce and traffic drugs will only 
scare the ma-and-pa producers, and organized crime will fill the 
gap," says Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug 
policy at the University of Ottawa.

"Organized crime doesn't care about the law. With these changes, this 
government is doing a service for organized crime."

Simon Fraser University drug expert Neil Boyd said the changes will 
only hike the price of drugs, including cannabis.

"It will make increased profitability," he said. "It will be good for 
dealers, who will be able to pass their risks of doing business onto 
consumers."

Mandatory jail terms increase the prison population, with the 
accompanying cost to the taxpayers, he said. "We're going to spend a 
lot more money putting people in jail, which doesn't make any sense, 
because the drug is a whole lot less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco."

Greg DelBigio, a Vancouver lawyer who chairs the national criminal 
justice section at the Canadian Bar Association, said the CBA 
believes that "mandatory minimum sentences interfere with the 
judicial discretion, which is necessary for ensuring that a sentence 
is appropriate in all of the circumstances."

But Vancouver Civil City Commissioner Geoff Plant said the drug bill 
is Ottawa's response "to a great sense of societal frustration."

"It's a very interesting innovation by introducing drug treatment 
into this package as an option. It's too soon to say whether it'll work."

Barry McKnight, who heads the drug abuse committee at the Canadian 
Association of Chiefs of Police, supports mandatory jail terms.

"In order to build safe and healthy communities we must deal with the 
demand reduction as well as the supply management side of the drug 
abuse equation," said McKnight.

The CACP drug policy, adopted in August, said police chiefs are 
committed to smash the criminal infrastructure that keeps the 
crime-cycle going and victimizes communities.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning said at least 80 per 
cent of the city's property crime is linked to drugs.

"Anything that is going to help reduce the drug problem in our city 
we see as a good thing," said Fanning.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom