Judging by the number of in-custody deaths as compiled by the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, all of which require formal inquests, a cynic might think there should almost be a body wagon parked permanently outside the province's penal facilities.

In 2004 alone, for example, 51% of the 57 inquests conducted in this province were dealing with in-custody deaths, 29 in total.

While not too many inmates are dying to get into prison, a goodly number have died to get out -- some 240 in all between 1999 and 2004, as documented by the coroner office's latest report.

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"Life inside Canadian penitentiaries should mirror Canadian society, and the core concept should be the same: Earn your own way."

With these words, yesterday's report by Rob Sampson on Canada's federal prison system sets the stage for the first meaningful reform of a public institution that has lost its way.

From the day in the early 1970s when Liberal solicitor general Jean Paul Goyer announced that the rehabilitation of prisoners rather than the safety of the public would be the key mission of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the inmates began to run the show.

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Pete Young said he wasn't trying to hide anything -- he was offering marijuana from a downtown location to ease people's pain.

He said doctors knew. So did the police.

So when Richmond Street apartments set up for a medicinal marijuana centre were raided last March and nearly 1,000 plants were seized, Young, owner of the Organic traveller and a director of the London Compassion Society, reached out for support to help those in pain.

Yesterday, after he pleaded guilty to three drug-related charges, Young was still smarting from the drug raid and grieving for the people who lost their source of pain relief.

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Re: Tories Propose Drug Crime Crackdown, Dec. 8, 2007

Canadians should keep mandatory minimum sentences (Tories Propose Drug Crime Crackdown, Dec. 8, 2007) out of their country. Citizens who grow or sell cannabis offer services that should not be illegal since millions of North Americans choose using the relatively safe God-given plant that should already be re-legalized.

Discredited and harmful mandatory minimum sentences will effect cannabis growers and sellers at a time when laws should be moving in the opposite direction.

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The city's addiction counselling centre will get $200,000 annually to hire a full-time staffer to help meth addicts get their lives back together and fund a withdrawal management program.

The provincial funding, announced yesterday afternoon at Choices for Change: Alcohol, Drug and Gambling Counseling Centre, will allow addicts access to withdrawal management services through one-on-one contact with a counsellor.

The funding, through the South-West Local Health Integration Network, will provide the centre with another much-needed counsellor who can intensely focus on a problem that has troubled Perth County for several years.

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Legislation proposed by the Conservative government Nov. 21, aimed at cracking down on drug crime is useless and even dangerous, according to Jody Emery.

Emery is co-editor of Cannabis Culture magazine, and is one of Canada's leading drug activists.

"This will be extremely expensive, ineffective and put a lot of people in jail that shouldn't or wouldn't be there otherwise," said Emery.

The proposed legislation is aimed at fighting drug crime by putting mandatory sentences on crimes such as grow operations and violent drug dealing for a range of drugs, including marijuana.

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Re: 'Tough-on-crime' policies actually make us less safe (Dec 6).

If Canada is going to adopt the failed U.S. drug policies, Canadians should expect a dramatic increase in their taxes or to sacrifice some of their existing services, such as their health-care program.

The key to success in life is to do what successful people do and to avoid doing what unsuccessful people do.

So why does Canada want to adopt failed U. S. drug policies? Would you seek financial advice from a homeless person?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

RE: 'Tough-on-crime' policies actually makes us less safe Dec. 6

When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven failures. If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern neighbour would be a "drug-free" America. That's not the case. The U.S. drug war has done little other than give the former land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world.

The drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Drug prohibition finances organized crime at home and terrorism abroad, which is then used to justify increased drug war spending. It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

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The First Step to Cleaning Up Canada's Worst Neighbourhood Is to Scrap Its Abhorrent Safe Injection Site

Don't call Al Arsenault unless you are prepared to interrupt an awards ceremony. I recently tried but the retired constable was in Victoria receiving two meritorious service awards from British Columbia's lieutenant governor.

The first was awarded to Sgt. Toby Hinton, Sgt. Tim Shields (RCMP) and Arsenault for a short documentary about car theft.

The second recognized Arsenault's work as a decoy in capturing thugs beating up the elderly and helpless in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Barely a month earlier, their company, Odd Squad Productions, had won the Excellence in Cinema for a Feature Film award at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival, this time for their most recent production, Tears For April: Beyond the Blue Lens.

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In the coming months, under the leadership of the former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, U.S. private contractors will likely attempt to fumigate poppies in Afghanistan. Around the same time, the Canadian government will decide whether to shut down the Insite supervised injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The two policies are inextricably linked and unambiguously bad.

In April, the United States appointed William Wood, nicknamed "Chemical Bill," its new ambassador to Afghanistan. In his previous post, Wood championed and oversaw the fumigation of large swaths of the Colombian countryside. The result? For every 67 acres sprayed, only one acre of coca was eradicated. Moreover, production increased by 36 per cent. In addition, the spraying negatively impacted legitimate crops, contaminated water supplies and increased respiratory infections among the exposed populations.

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Two men on a "mission" to rob a marijuana grow operation mistakenly raided the wrong home, putting a Kemptville couple watching television through a horrifying ordeal on Labour Day weekend, a court heard Wednesday.

Jesse Barkley, 21, and Archie Trepanier, 27, were sentenced to seven years in jail for their part in a home invasion on County Road 44 on Sept. 4.

Ontario Superior Court Justice John Waugh said the pair would have got more time in jail if they didn't plead guilty to the crime.

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Belleville - Downtown Belleville's needle exchange program has a new home at the Belleville Freedom Support Centre effective this week.

The program moved as a result of the closure of the Front Street Shopper's Drug Mart store.

The Belleville Freedom Support Centre is one of five in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties managed by the Mental Health Support Network. The support centres are run by and for people with lived experience with mental health and/or addictions issues. The Belleville Freedom Support Centre offers peer support, education, one dollar lunches, and recreational activities and resources on a drop-in basis.

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A new needle exchange site is open for business in downtown Belleville.

Injection drug users are being directed to the Belleville Freedom Support Centre as of today, due to the closure of the downtown Shoppers Drug Mart. The mental health centre is located at 350 Front St., unit C-2, and is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

The program is set up for intravenous drug users to cut down on the chances of getting diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C from reusing dirty needles, said Bill Sherlock of the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit.

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The federal government's recent changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, part of a series of legislative fixes announced in the past month, introduced a number of ideas that are clearly out of step with expert thinking on crime prevention.

Tougher sentences for young offenders, the jailing of teenagers until their trials are over, mandatory minimum jail terms for drug crimes – all were part of a law-and-order agenda introduced by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson over several days in November.

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An Ottawa police officer ordered to resign after stealing crack cocaine for his own use has lost an appeal to keep his job.

Const. Kevin Hall, now 44, was dismissed last December after a Police Services Act hearing officer said his conduct fell "far short" of the "most minimal standards" demanded by the public and his employer.

Const. Hall appealed the decision -- which placed him back under paid suspension -- arguing that the sentence was "unduly harsh and punitive." He said hearing officer Terence Kelly did not give proper consideration to the fact that drug addiction is considered a disability under the Ontario Human Rights Code. His appeal also argued that Mr. Kelly's decision did not give sufficient weight to his rehabilitation efforts.

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You have been receiving letters concerning the Conservatives' minimum sentences law. Many complain that because it has not worked in the United States it will not work here. This argument is unconvincing for two reasons.

First, what Canadians do not realize is that mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed by the U.S. government were mainly put in place to pacify voters. The reality is that the judicial system almost completely ignores them.

Secondly, the U.S. justice system has one very significant difference from the Canadian system. Their penitentiaries are not owned by the government. They are mainly privately owned. They are a business, and are run like a business. They make money when they are full and they lose money when they are empty. So, it is in the best interest of the corporations who own them to keep them full, which they are, to overflowing.

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Re: Tories fixing system before we know it's broken, column by David Teetzel Nov. 21.

If long prison sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern neighbor would be drug-free.

That's not the case.

The drug war has done little other than give the former land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world.

It's worth noting tobacco use has declined considerably in recent years.

Public education efforts are paying off.

Apparently, mandatory minimum sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial profiling are not necessarily the most cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices.

Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, DC

[end]

Tot, 5, Taken While Couple Out on Bail in Grow-Op Case: Police

A 5-year-old girl who was seized by Children's Aid in March from an alleged marijuana grow-op house was still missing yesterday after police say she was abducted by her parents the day before.

Toronto police yesterday pleaded for Peter and Vivene Livas to return their daughter Alana Livas to a safe location -- a police station, hospital or Children's Aid Society (CAS) facility.

Toronto Police Supt. Bob Qualtrough said yesterday the parents were out on bail from charges in connection with the alleged grow op. On Thursday, during a supervised visit with little Alana at a Kennedy Rd. CAS office, police allege mom Vivene Livas took Alana from the care of her aunt and got into a car driven by her husband.

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Re: Crime bill 'a slap in the face' to judges, Gomery says, Nov. 27.

While I am glad to hear retired judge John Gomery thinks that the Conservative government's crime bill is backward and counterproductive, I am concerned of his characterization of so-called marijuana "grow-ops" as a "horrendous crime." Indoor growing, done properly, is perfectly safe, but a well-crafted propaganda campaign on behalf of anti-marijuana groups seems to have infiltrated the national conversation.

When people see sensationalist headlines and pictures of police in unnecessary hazardous-materials gear taking down home gardens, they get the impression that this activity is somehow dangerous.

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Innisfil will be attempting to smoke out drug dealers and grow-ops.

Town council passed a controlled substances bylaw, which sets standards that allow municipal investigators to inspect properties that contain controlled substances like marijuana.

It also sets fees and charges which result from an investigation, said councillor Bill Pring.

The bylaw is expected to crack down on grow-ops and drug laboratories, and deter dealers from selling illicit substances on private property within the town, he said.

"With the passing of this bylaw, the good citizens can inform the police of where these illegal operations are being held," said Pring. "We will be registering the buildings, so they cannot be rented or change hands until such time as our chief building officer is satisfied that the building is free of mold or anything that could create health problems."

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