The Conservative government and the Liberal-dominated Senate may find this a buzz-kill but a drug expert says neither of their approaches to prosecuting pot producers makes sense.

Earlier this year, MPs passed a drug bill that included a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in jail for growing as few as five pot plants. Drug reform advocates slammed the legislation as draconian. Then the Senate began pruning the bill and just passed an amended version.

The rewritten bill would spare pot growers an automatic jail term unless they're caught cultivating more than 200 plants. The Senate has now punted the legislation back to the House of Commons where it could be gutted and redrafted.

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Senator Charlie Watt, how dare you amend a law and base it on race.

This law needs to be struck down immediately. To even be on the books for a single second is a second that spits in the face of Canada and democracy.

A crime is a crime is a crime -- no matter who you are.

To everyone who supports Charlie Watts' amendment to Bill C-15, how dare you?

How dare you vote against Canada, against the people, against democracy, and against our freedoms that so many have sacrificed for.

To the rest of Canada if you value our freedoms, speak up. If you don't speak up, then mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of Canada.

David Hansen

Winnipeg

It's two-tier justice no matter how you spin it.

[end]

Portage-Lisgar Member of Parliament Candice Hoeppner slammed the Liberal-dominated Senate for making amendments to a Conservative anti-crime bill.

Hoeppner said the amendments, made by the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, have weakened the bill and undermined the intent of it.

" Our focus and our goal was to crack down on drug traffickers," Hoeppner said of Bill C-15 in an interview just prior to her annual Tea with the MP event in Portage la Prairie Wednesday.

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The hot Canadian debate over "two-tiered" health care has -- thanks to Canada's unelected and unaccountable Senate -- been suddenly replaced by a hot debate over "two-tiered" justice.

That's what Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge is calling amendments the Senate has proposed for a crime bill currently before them.

The amendments introduced Wednesday have outraged the Conservatives and their supporters.

They've once again accused the Senate of "gutting" a major crime bill - -- this one dealing with mandatory minimums.

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Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge says he's disgusted with Liberal amendments made by the Senate to exclude aboriginal offenders from a bill that established mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences.

Bill C-15 had proposed a person found guilty of trafficking who had previously been convicted of a drug-related offence within the prior decade would receive a minimum prison sentence of one year while someone with a prior record who was convicted of growing five or more marijuana plants would receive six months of mandatory jail time.

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Manitoba's new justice minister Andrew Swan is obviously anxious to put his stamp on the province's justice system.

So he's introduced legislation he's hoping will close a loophole in the punishment handed out to those Manitobans convicted of drug trafficking while using a vehicle.

That being said it's clear Swan's proposed changes to the Highway Traffic Act will have little effect on the drug business.

Under Swan's plan introduced Tuesday, those convicted of a drug-trafficking offence involving driving would have their driver's licence suspended for a year for a first conviction, five years for a second, 10 years for a third and for life for a fourth or subsequent conviction. Not all of the previous convictions would need to be for drug trafficking.

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WINNIPEG - Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge says he's disgusted with Liberal amendments made by the Senate to exclude aboriginal offenders from a bill that established mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences.

Bill C-15 had proposed that a person found guilty of trafficking who had previously been convicted of a drug-related offence within the prior decade would receive a minimum prison sentence of one year while someone with a prior record who was convicted of growing five or more marijuana plants would receive six months of mandatory jail time.

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Border Land School Division has hired a private company to bring in a drug sniffing dog to all four high schools.

Superintendent Tim Mendel said this approach allows the division to look for drugs without being dependent on calling the RCMP.

"If you bring in the police, they may not want to come," he said. "They need some probable cause."

Mendel said this approach, which costs about $300 per visit, gives the division the power as to when and where the dog sniffing unit will go.

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Stony Mountain Penitentiary held a community forum for residents of Stony Mountain to discuss drug throw-overs and drug smuggling at the prison and what people in the community can do to help curb the problem.

Roughly 15 people attended the meeting, held at the Stony Mountain Recreation Centre on Nov. 26, and listened to speakers from both the prison and the community talk about exactly how drugs and other contraband, such as cell phones, get into the prison and how the practice affects the community.

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Former RCMP Officer A Hells Angels Associate Before He Was Arrested

One target of a major undercover police sting operation was a former Manitoba RCMP officer who gave up the badge and later became a high-ranking Hells Angels associate, according to court documents obtained by the Winnipeg Free Press.

Wayne Shuttleworth hid his policing past from fellow Zig Zag Crew members, knowing it would be an automatic ticket to rejection from the gang. But his secret became public on Thursday after a series of arrest warrants were filed with the Court of Queen's Bench.

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Criminals Will Regroup After Arrests, Police Say

Despite a flurry of arrests, the latest crackdown on Hells Angels members and associates won't be the final chapter in the back-and-forth saga between organized crime and law enforcement in Manitoba.

Sources said the local Hells Angels chapter, which has several members on the street, has lost a bit of insulation by having so many of its underlings arrested but, like it has in past setbacks, will regroup.

Plenty of people are waiting in the wings or willing to align with the outlaw motorcycle group to replace those swept up in a 13-month investigation known as Project Divide, sources said.

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One Of 34 Targeted In Major Undercover Assault On Angels

Lea Miller for the Winnipeg Free Press Police prepare to enter a property on Pembina Highway during a major raid Wednesday as 34 arrest warrants were executed.

One target of a major undercover police sting operation was a former Manitoba RCMP officer who gave up the badge and later became a high-ranking Hells Angels associate, according to court documents obtained by the Free Press.

Wayne Shuttleworth hid his policing past from fellow Zig Zag Crew members, knowing it would be an automatic ticket to rejection from the gang. But his secret became public on Thursday after a series of arrest warrants was filed with the Court of Queen's Bench.

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Re: Divide and conquer,' Dec. 3. In conjunction with the RCMP, Winnipeg Police have again penetrated the Hells Angels and the Zig Zag Crew.

As we speak, there is a client-dealer gap being filled by other dealers from other organizations who were waiting for a moment just like this, reaping the monetary benefits of their direct competitors being temporarily out of business.

Every couple of years, a "cell" gets penetrated and shut down and every couple of years we are led to believe that this is going to have an impact on the trade of drugs and weapons in the city.

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Raids Nab 26, More Sought For By Police

For the third time in less than four years, Manitoba's largest police forces have taken down members or associates of the province's Hells Angels chapter, accusing them of importing and selling huge amounts of drugs.

In terms of the number of suspects, this is the largest of the three stings.

"We've hit the higher level of this particular cell. By doing so we know that is going to have a trickle-down effect all the way down to the lower dealers," said Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen. "We've hit the source."

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One Of Biggest Gang, Drug Busts In Manitoba History Sees 34 Arrests

They were starting to show signs of a resurgence with plans to regain their position as kings of Manitoba's criminal jungle.

Now the Hells Angels are in a state of paranoid panic -- and facing an uncertain future -- after an undercover sting operation reached a dramatic end early Wednesday.

Members of Manitoba's Integrated Organized Crime Task Force capped a 13-month investigation by authorizing the arrests of 34 gang members and associates and executing two dozen search warrants. More than 300 RCMP and police from Winnipeg, Brandon, Ste. Anne and British Columbia were involved in one of the biggest drug and gang busts in Manitoba history.

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TJ Wiebe was, by all accounts, a bright and caring 20-year-old man who unfortunately was also involved in using and dealing drugs - a pursuit which ultimately cost him his life.

On Jan. 5, 2003, TJ was told that he was driving with two men, Anthony Pulsifer and Chad Handsor, to look at a car stereo that one of their uncles had for sale. After driving south past Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway, Pulsifer began stabbing TJ with syringes filled with drain cleaner and lighter fluid.

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Re: 'Fund more officers,' Letters to the editor, Nov. 6.

Would we listen to a tobacco worker union telling us tobacco is safe and should be consumed in greater numbers? Letter writer Steek explains clearly how public perception is manipulated by police unions to scare the public into giving them more and more money -- always more money.

The public says their number one concern are gangs and violence, while the police union spokesman is on his podium decrying the dangers of gangs and violence. Gangs are funded by the prohibition artificially inflating the cost of certain drugs and herbs. Violence comes from them fighting over their marketable "turf."

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Politicians hate it when experts shine the light of truth on supposedly unimpeachable government ideology.

The British government had a hissy fit when its top drug policy advisor suggested the U.K.'s drug classification system doesn't make sense.

David Nutt had the temerity to question the government's decision to bump marijuana into a more dangerous drug category. And he had the nerve to state publicly that tobacco and booze are more dangerous than pot.

So it was off with Nutt's head, figuratively speaking, of course.

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Re: 'Small scale, big problems,' Letters to the editor, Oct. 25.

To each their opinion, but neither letter writer Jensen nor the editor has represented my position accurately. I favour cops turning an informed eye away from personal drug consumption so they can focus on crimes against people who physically, sexually or psychologically victimize others, or damage their property. The market for drugs is created by demand, not supply. The drugs pass through channels that are opened by government through legislation. The government turns the blindest eye in the drug war, or have you forgotten that Iran-Contra was a CIA operation that used cocaine as a bargaining tool?

Legal drugs kill about 30 times more Canadians than illegal drugs. Do the math and figure out why illicit drugs are a minuscule problem compared to the corruption that promotes this hypocrisy.

Bruce Codere

Fox Creek, Alta.

(Sounds a little drug-hazed to us.)

[end]

WHEN an indoor public smoking ban took effect in the Netherlands in the summer of 2008, the worry wasn't so much for the one-third of Dutch adults who smoke cigarettes. Bars and restaurants went smoke-free without much problem.

A more intriguing concern was for the effect on the uniquely Dutch institution of marijuana-selling "coffee shops." If a place calls itself a coffee shop, that means three things: One, there is marijuana and hash for sale; two, for the price of a coffee, you may sit and smoke your own; and three, you will not be arrested.

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