Not unlike any other city in Canada, drugs are an issue in Moncton. "Drugs are prevalent at the street level in Moncton and this is not uncommon for cities," explains Gary Hayden of the RCMP Drug Section. "You can talk to officers in every province and you will see that we all deal with the same issues." Gary has been a member of the RCMP for 35 years, and has spent 27 of those years in the Drug Unit. He explains that the section was born out of a joint force operation in 1984 between City police and the RCMP. [continues 518 words]
To the Editor, MP Moore is correct that a longer sentence for drug dealing will punish the dealer more. However, based on 18 years of experience as police officer in Michigan, I know that each drug dealer arrested will be replaced within days. They accept as a condition of employment death; a long prison term is a puppy compared to death. The war on drugs, war on people strategy the USA has pursued for a trillion dollars has resulted in drugs being cheaper, stronger and much easier to find. Why or why does MP Moore want to jump off the same cliff? Retired Police Detective Howard Wooldridge Washington, DC (via canadaeast.com) [end]
To the Editor, MP Rob Moore and law enforcement unions will benefit from mandatory minimum sentences (Cracking Down On Crime With New Legislation, Dec. 8, 2007) but Canada will suffer, just like the United States has. Rational people are working hard to change those ill-conceived laws in America because they are harmful on every facet. While Canada's 2002 Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs unanimously recommended to regulate cannabis (marijuana) the same way as alcohol, mandatory minimums will do the exact opposite. Mandatory minimum sentences will please prison industry unions, too, but at the cost of making Canada less safe, not more, and statistics in America prove it. Stan White Dillon, Colorado (via canadaeast.com) [end]
Canada's Government is committed to giving police the tools they need to crack down on crime. This is why we have recently introduced three new pieces of legislation that will respond to the problems posed by youth crime, introduce mandatory minimum sentences for serious drug crimes and combat the complex and serious problem of identity theft. Bill C-25 will amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) to allow courts to consider deterrence and denunciation as objectives of youth sentences. [continues 292 words]
