Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Allan Woods, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

NEW CRYSTAL METH POLICY SLAMMED AS MISGUIDED

Tougher Sentences Won't Curb Drug's Spread, Don't Address Patterns Of 
Abuse, Critics Say

The latest shot in Canada's war on drugs is a "throw-away political 
gesture" that will do little to curb the spread of methamphetamine across 
the country, policy experts, academics and opposition politicians said 
yesterday.

Instead, critics believe the government's decision to increase maximum 
penalties for producers, users and smugglers of the drug from 10 years to 
life imprisonment appears designed to draw marginally tougher sentences 
from a reluctant judicial system, and bring Canada's handling of drug 
crimes into line with the expectations of the United States government.

"They're doing the same old thing. They're saying we've got to do 
something, so let's toughen up the penalties," said Ottawa lawyer Eugene 
Oscapella, of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.

The decision, announced jointly by the Justice, Health and Public Safety 
ministries, changes the Criminal Code to put methamphetamine into the same 
class of drugs as cocaine and heroin.

The move is likely to please the U.S., which has expressed concern that 
Canada could become a major source of methamphetamine and the chemicals 
used to make it.

Conservative justice critic Vic Toews said the decision does not go far enough.

"I can't remember the last time anyone dealing in meth received 10 years, 
so what is the point of increasing it to life in prison?" he asked.

Simon Fraser University criminology professor Neil Boyd said it is 
"misguided" to think a get-tough criminal-justice approach will curtail the 
existence of the drug because methamphetamine use historically emerges, 
peaks and dies out naturally because of its intense, self-destructive 
addiction.

"We have a lot of historical data that amphetamine abuse tends to go in 
waves, and that it's self-limiting - that law enforcement isn't a critical 
variable."
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