Pubdate: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 Source: Richmond News (CN BC) Copyright: 2007, Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc. Contact: http://www.richmond-news.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1244 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) BILL UNDERMINES JUDGES' DISCRETION Tapping public outrage over gang-related gun crime to go on a George Bush-style anti-drug rampage is entirely predictable and well within character for Stephen Harper. What is perplexing about the Tories' proposed new drug laws, which includes mandatory sentences for growing pot, is the lack of reaction from the Liberals and NDP. They are acting very much like the Democrats in the U.S. the way they cower before the alpha-male Conservatives. Don't get us wrong -- we wholeheartedly support getting tough on gun crime. We're not convinced a U.S.-style mandatory minimum sentence provision is the way to go, but we understand the intent and the sentiment behind it. If judges in Canada were not so hasty to remove the handcuffs that police slap on gun-toting criminals, they wouldn't be facing the prospect of being handcuffed themselves. And that is precisely what minimum sentencing does: It takes away a judge's discretion. It is hard to argue that anyone caught with a restricted weapon deserves anything less than jail time. Get caught with a handgun in the commission of a crime -- go to jail. We have no problem with that, although it means that, now and then, some misguided kid who has watched too many gangsta videos and really doesn't belong in jail may end up there because he thought it was cool to have a gun. Where the Tory's package of crime bills gets absurd is the mandatory minimum sentences for growing pot. This means a judge can make no distinction between the dreadlocked Lasqueti Islander who grows and sells a little weed to his friends and the gangster who grows B.C. Bud on an industrial scale, when considering a sentence. If these laws pass without serious revision, we probably will have more crowded courtrooms (who would plead guilty to growing pot if he knew it means an automatic jail term of at least six months?) And we most certainly will have to build more jails, because they are already stuffed to capacity. And at the end of the day, we will probably not see a dramatic decrease in marijuana grow operations because, for career criminals, going to jail is an occupational hazard. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake