Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Bruce Cheadle
Page: C1
Cited: Stop the Violence BC: http://stoptheviolencebc.org/

TOUGH POT SENTENCES TAKE FORCE IN CANADA

OTTAWA The same day that voters in two U.S. states approved the
legalization of marijuana, the Harper government in Ottawa was
bringing into force tough new mandatory penalties for pot.

The states of Washington and Colorado both voted in favour of
ballot-box propositions Tuesday removing criminal penalties for the
possession and sale of recreational marijuana, while a similar
provision in Oregon went down to defeat.

Tuesday was also the day that drug measures in the Conservative
government's omnibus Safe Streets and Communities Act, passed last
spring, came into full force and effect.

Canada's new law provides a mandatory six-month jail term for growing
as few as six marijuana plants.

"Today our message is clear that if you are in the business of
producing, importing or exporting of drugs, you'll now face jail
time," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a release Tuesday, well
before the American polls closed.

Nicholson was not available Wednesday to comment on the American state
votes but a spokeswoman reiterated in an email that "our government
does not support the decriminalization or the legalization of marijuana."

Julie Di Mambro added that "the production and trafficking of illicit
drugs is one of the single most significant sources of money for gangs
and organized crime in Canada."

Contrast that with Geoff Plant, a former British Columbia attorney
general who supports the Stop the Violence BC coalition that's
campaigning for legal changes.

"The take-away for politicians is to realize voters on both sides of
the border are increasingly wanting this change, and that should make
politicians both nervous about what will happen if they don't listen
to voters and also less nervous about the risk associated with
change," said Plant.

The disconnect highlights a hemisphere-wide debate that is challenging
the decadeslong "war on drugs" that even the most staunch
prohibitionist must concede has not succeeded in eradicating the
illicit trade or use of drugs.

Eugene Oscapella, who teaches drug policy and criminology at the
University of Ottawa, said one of the biggest impacts of Tuesday's
state legalization votes may be on Canadian perceptions. He noted 14
states have decriminalized pot, plus two that have now legalized.

"People have begun increasingly to realize the current system, the use
of the criminal law, imports terrible, terrible collateral harms - and
it doesn't stop people from using drugs," Oscapella said.

The federal Liberals are the only party with a legalization policy,
which came after delegates to last January's party policy convention
voted 77 per cent in favour of legalizing, regulating and taxing
marijuana for personal use.

A spokesman for the Liberal party's youth wing, David Valentin, said a
policy group in B.C. is working to flesh out a fully developed proposal.

Bob Rae, the interim Liberal leader, said the Conservative government
is swimming against the tide.

Legalization, he said, is "a direction the country needs to take and
will take over time."
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MAP posted-by: Matt