Pubdate: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Stephen Maher, The Gazette TOUGH-ON-CRIME MESSAGE GOLD AT THE BALLOT BOX Here's what I learned from reading the government's new crime bill: It is best to avoid a career as either a marijuana farmer or a politician. The Conservatives are bringing in stiff new penalties for anyone caught growing weed, which will increase our prison population without doing anything to make us safer. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who seems to be a very intelligent fellow, likely knows that, but it's his job to go around saying the opposite. That can't be any fun at all, but he doesn't have much choice. Throughout the minority years, the Conservatives promised that they would get tough on crime, using crime bills to cow their opponents during games of parliamentary chicken. Now that they have a majority, they must keep their promises and get tough. So on Tuesday, Nicholson introduced the Safe Streets and Communities Act, combining measures from nine bills. Many of the measures may provide some modest benefit, since some horrible people will be kept off the streets. That will cost us a lot of money - and it's not a magic crimekilling bullet since most of the bad guys will get out some day - but there is logic behind it. The measures aimed at marijuana growers, though, seem awfully stupid. The government wants to lock up everyone caught growing six or more pot plants for at least six months. The maximum penalty will be 14 years. This is going to cost us all a lot of cash, but the government won't say how much. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, in 2008-09, each federal cell cost taxpayers $162,376. Most people busted for running grow ops now get off with a fine or house arrest, so we are going to need more prisons. Last year, police reported 18,256 cases of cannabis production or trafficking. Drug offenders make up 21 per cent of federal offenders, many of whom now serve their sentences under house arrest. After this bill passes, a lot of small-time pot farmers will end up in the big house. Since many of the sentences will be less than two years, much of that cost will be borne by the provinces. All that might be worth it, if it were going to make our streets safer, but it will not do that. Grow ops pose a fire risk, they provide cash to criminal organizations, and smoking marijuana is bad for you. It would be nice to shut them all down, but anyone who thinks that is possible has been smoking too much B.C. bud. An ounce of pot fetches between $150 and $200, so there will be never be a shortage of suppliers. Nicholson is obviously no fool, so I'm sure he knows that. And he knows that mandatory minimum sentences are bad policy, because he was vice-chairman of the justice committee that reviewed criminal sentencing in 1988. That committee concluded that mandatory minimum sentences couldn't "be designed to deal with the complex variables" in criminal cases. Say a single mother grows a dozen pot plants in her backyard to make a few extra bucks. Under the law as it stands, a judge could let her off with a slap on the wrist. After this law passes, she's going to the slammer for six months and her kids are going into custody no matter what the judge thinks. That's the kind of discretion that judges are supposed to exercise, Nicholson's committee pointed out. "Moreover, there is some evidence that guidelines have had the undesirable effect of contributing to rapidly increasing prison populations in the United States," his report said. No kidding. Every year, a million Americans are imprisoned on drug charges, about a quarter of them for marijuana. The number spiked after mandatory minimum sentences were introduced in the 1980s. This huge, painful war on drugs has done nothing to reduce the supply of street drugs, and U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for a huge prison population. They are now tiring of paying. Cash-strapped state governments have begun to release drug criminals from overcrowded prisons to save money. Conservatives - including Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush - have formed an organization aimed at reducing the prison population. In Canada, though, we are just getting started, and the tough-on-crime message is gold at the ballot box, even though crime rates are moving steadily downward. According to demographer David Foot, author of Boom, Bust & Echo, crime rates are falling because there are fewer people in the age group that commits most crimes - late teens and early 20s. The crime rate was highest when the baby boomers were wearing bell-bottoms and listening to Jimi Hendrix. Now that they're older, boomers feel vulnerable, and are more likely to support "tough-on-crime" policies. Since there are so many boomers, and they vote - unlike young people - politicians design policies that appeal to them, whether those policies are wise or not. It's the kind of thing that could drive you to drink. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.