Pubdate: Wed, 21 Dec 2016 Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2016 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531 Author: Heather Yeats Page: 4 LONG-TERM JAIL SENTENCES Editor: The time has come for Canadians to stand up and deal with street drugs in a different way. No matter how much money, time and heartache goes into trying to cope with the current plague of overdoses, there will never be an end to it. When a drug dealer/manufacturer is caught, the repercussions do not fit the crime. A slap on the wrist, confiscation of property, fines or even short prison terms do not stop these entitled criminals. They are dealing death. They know what they are doing. They plan their actions and they make huge sums of money on the pain and suffering (and possible death) of their customers - not to mention the grief and loss inflicted on the victims families. With such meticulous planning required to obtain supplies and cut the product, there can be no excuse. Dealers are knowingly dealing death and there should be mandatory jail sentences to reflect the country's determination to deal with the problem from the source of the problem rather than having to spend millions of dollars trying to cope with the devastating fallout. The problem is infiltrating all levels of society; there is no longer the defence "It could never happen to my family." Fentanyl and other drugs are out there and proving to be dangerous to even the first responders trying to save people from overdose. Yes, the drugs fentanyl and carfentanyl are that dangerous. Your child might easily come into contact with unscrupulous dealers; what then? Now is the time for something to be done. Let us take action against these death-dealing criminals. Mandatory long-term sentences (and confiscation of property) will impact dealers. We need to make sure that there is enough of a deterrent. It needs to happen quickly as the plague of death dealing drugs is spreading so very rapidly. Heather Yeats, West Kelowna - --- MAP posted-by: Matt