Pubdate: Sat, 26 Sep 2015
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Michael Spratt
Page: 29

FAILED WAR ON DRUGS PROVING DEADLY

Michael Swan was watching Canada play the United States for Olympic
hockey gold while the three young men who would kill him were driving
to Ottawa down a dark highway.

The "Toronto three", as they would come to be known, had a plan to
make some easy money: They were going to steal Swan's marijuana.

Swan was murdered later that night on Feb. 21 2010 -- killed by a
single bullet that pierced his lung and tore apart his heart.

Swan's life was taken for a small amount of marijuana; as were the
lives of Travis Votour and Amanda Trottier -- killed in January 2014,
allegedly in a marijuana drug rip, as was the life of Yazdan Ghiasvand
Ghiasi, who apparently died over a bag of weed in 2010.

This is the result of the failed war on drugs.

A year ago, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report 
entitled Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies That Work. The report 
provided a substantive analysis of current global drug policy. The 
Commission was comprised of international experts, former presidents and 
prime ministers, and former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Arbour.

At its core, the commission's report emphasized that a fundamental
shift in policy -- health, social and criminal -- was required, to
alleviate the harms associated with drug use.

The report was unequivocal: The world's war on drugs has been an
abject failure.

As a criminal defence lawyer, this comes as no surprise.

Every day I see the ravages of illegal drugs in our
communities.

Canada has a drug problem, but it is a problem of policy. Canadian
politicians and our police forces are still waging an out-dated war.

Canada has turned its back on the wave of international
reform.

Our Conservative government has legislated mandatory minimum sentences
for many drug offences, rejected a therapeutic evidence-based drug
policy, and sought to demonize critics as being soft on crime.

Over the past 10 years, arrests for possession of marijuana have
increased by 28%. In 2014, approximately 50,000 people were arrested
for possessing marijuana. Ultimately about 24,500 of those people
ended up in court. The numbers fluctuate.

In 2014, there was a slight decrease nationally in the marijuana
charge rate and this decrease was reflected in the local numbers.

However, this slight decrease did little to offset the 10% increase in
pot charges seen in the city of Ottawa in 2013 (an increase that was
10 times the national average).

Senseless and needless deaths are only the tip of iceberg.

Our current laws criminalize and stigmatize thousands of people a
year.

In reality, a drug record means limited employment opportunities,
travel difficulties, and many other devastating collateral
consequences.

And who bares the brunt of these costs?

People who are already marginalized, members of over-policed
communities, and racial minorities.

Our court dockets are not filled with Rockcliffe kids caught smoking a
joint. These kids are cut slack -- police decline to charge and
prosecutors often divert or withdraw the marijuana charges.

Most of the clients I have represented over the past decade for simple
pot possession are poor, from a minority group, or live in an area
with a heavy police presence. In our drug laws are echoes of racism
and bias.

And we all pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to continue
criminalizing a substance that is no more dangerous than alcohol.

Here, the City of Ottawa is facing a $40-million deficit yet we
continue to funnel more and more money to the local police to enforce
outdated drug laws.

It appears that Canadians are ready for change. Most Canadians support
the decriminalization of marijuana. Change cannot come to soon. And
when it does, Ottawa and Canada will see healthier communities, fewer
lives destroyed and fewer kids falling victim to the harms of drug
crime.

Michael Spratt is a partner at the Ottawa criminal defence firm Abergel 
Goldstein & Partners.
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MAP posted-by: Matt