Pubdate: Fri, 16 Aug 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Note: Winnipeg Free Press editorial

HARPER'S DRUG STANCE FALLS BEHIND

If the Harper government needs more evidence it is heading in the 
wrong direction on marijuana laws, it was provided this week by the 
U.S. attorney general, who conceded America's drug laws have been a 
failure and have wrongly punished and injured millions of young people.

Eric Holder told the American Bar Association the Obama 
administration wants to move away from a policy of handing out harsh 
sentences for many drug-related crimes. Low-level, non-violent drug 
offenders, in particular, should no longer be charged with offences 
that impose mandatory minimum sentences, Holder said.

It's a startling turnaround for a country that declared war on drugs 
in the 1980s, even though it already had some of the toughest laws in 
the western world. Federal prisons are overflowing with 220,000 
inmates, nearly half for drug offences.

By American standards, Holder's comments represent a seismic shift in 
attitudes.

Canada, on the other hand, is moving in the opposite direction. As 
part of the Conservative omnibus crime bill, mandatory minimums have 
been introduced for relatively minor marijuana offences, including at 
least six months in jail for cultivating six plants. Trafficking 
offences, which could include relatively minor amounts, would carry a 
minimum sentence of up to two years in jail.

The Conservatives are on the wrong course and the wrong side of 
history, but it is not too late to change.

- - Winnipeg Free Press
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom