Pubdate: Tue, 12 Oct 2010
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 Russell Barth
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Russell Barth

BIGGER ISSUE THAN LONG GUNS

Dear Editor,

While the Canadian media blathered endlessly to each other and
distracted the public with the Long Gun Registry issue, something that
is literally 15 to 20 times bigger is about to run right over Canadian
taxpayers - something that already costs more each year ($1.2-1.5
billion) than the LGR has cost to date. And that cost is about to
climb steeply.

It's something that - unlike the LGR - actually increases crime and
subsidizes criminals.

Recent changes to the Controlled Drugs And Substances Act make just
about anything involving marijuana a "serious" crime. That means
bigger fines, and more chance of jail for longer stints, for smaller
offenses. That means less "pleading-out", which will mean even longer
and more expensive court backlogs - on the taxpayers' dime.

Bill S-10, set to pass into law this fall with the help of the
Liberals, will impose mandatory minimum jail sentences of six months
for growing as few as five pot plants - nine months if it is in a
rental unit.

Not only will this cost taxpayers a fortune in cops, courts, and
cages, it will actually increase crime significantly.

Those 12 news jails - for "unreported crimes" o are actually cages for
pot users and small-time growers. The cost will be at least $3-4
billion per year, and will climb every year. No one knows exactly how
much it will cost, because the government is hiding the numbers.

This policy will increase crime, and saddle tens of thousands of
Canadians with criminal records. Mostly men, mostly between 18 and 40
years of age.

Recent science shows how pot might cure cancer - something supported
by the fact that the US government holds a patent on the
cancer-fighting properties of marijuana

Why don't Canadians care bout this? Because they don't know - because
the media distracted them with a small issue that is monumentally
important to a tiny number of people.

The media played right into Harper's hands, and the taxpayers are the
ones who will suffer for it.

Russell Barth,

Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D