Pubdate: Sat, 13 Aug 2005
Source: Record, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.royalcityrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1654
Author: Mia Thomas, staff reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

COPS BLAST NEW METH LAWS

Words are cheap, but Const. Todd Sweet would like to see action
instead.

Sweet, spokesperson for the B.C. Federation of Police, said Thursday
that extending the maximum sentence for crystal meth offences won't
make a difference.

"It's not going to have any effect at all for policing," said Sweet,
who works with the New Westminster Police Service and is president of
the New Westminster Police Officers Association.

"It is not going to do a single iota of good for anybody on the street
right now that's trying to enforce it."

The federal government has increased the maximum jail sentence from 10
years to life for anyone convicted of possession, trafficking,
importing, exporting or producing methamphetamine.

"All it is is smoke and mirrors to make it look like they are doing
something," said Sweet, adding that what's needed is a minimum
sentence, not a maximum.

"I've never seen anybody get close to that," he said of the previous
maximum penalty.

"I'd be tickled pink to see somebody getting 10 years."

Courts have too much freedom to make judgment calls, Sweet said, which
often sets crystal meth offenders back on the street in no time.

"We have to send the message out that you're going to get a minimum
for doing these kinds of drugs.

"We need to send the message to those people who are
dealing."

If there's a minimum sentence, Sweet said, judges can only use their
discretion to make a sentence harsher when it's needed.

"They can only bump it up from there," he explained.

He said there also needs to be a change of attitude from the bench, a
determination to deal effectively with crystal meth and the problems
it causes.

"What we have to do is get the judges serious."

Sweet said anyone convicted of a crystal meth offence should be
sentenced to at least two years in prison, which would put them in a
federal institution where there's access to rehabilitation programs.

Those who are dealing crystal meth because they are addicts would get
treatment that might prevent future problems.

Those who are dealing for the money should also get fines or have
their assets seized, Sweet suggested.

"You need to be looking at a combination of jail time and fines," he
said.

The alternative is less than two years in the sentence and the
offender sitting out the time in a provincial jail.

In recent years, crystal meth has become a target of health and
law-enforcement officials, as well as politicians, as use has
skyrocketed, especially among young people.

Easily made in small home laboratories using ingredients available in
grocery or drug stores, methamphetamine is a powerful and very
addictive stimulant that keeps users awake longer and makes them lose
weight.

Its appeal for young people lies in what some of them see as desirable
side-effects, especially if they're balancing a heavy study load with
part-time work and a social life.

But the body quickly becomes tolerant to crystal meth and it soon
takes over their lives, an addiction often supported by crime.

The drug, which is also known as crystal meth or meth, had been
considered a Schedule 3 drug under the Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act, a group that includes LSD and mescaline.

The change re-classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug and puts crystal meth
in the company of cocaine, opium and morphine.

Sweet notes, although the maximum penalty for dealing cocaine is life
in prison, it's not a sentence one generally sees.

"When was the last time anyone got life for cocaine trafficking?" he
asks in a press release.
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MAP posted-by: Derek