JUDGES DEFINE COKE RULES

Jail terms not mandatory for low-level cocaine dealers Jail terms are not
mandatory for low-level cocaine dealers, Alberta's top court has ruled.

A rare, five-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel rejected a Crown bid to
have six convicted drug dealers thrown behind bars.

Instead, the judges, in a ruling obtained yesterday by the Sun, said
non-custodial conditional terms are an option when drug peddlers are sentenced.

"There is no presumption against a conditional sentence for specific
offences when the statutory prerequisites are satisfied," the court said.

The judges said although the starting point guideline for cocaine
trafficking is three years, mitigating circumstances can lower the
punishment to below two years.

A conditional sentence is only available where the offender is eligible for
a jail term of less than two years.

"Starting point sentences continue to provide useful guidance to sentencing
judges," the court, led by Chief Justice Catherine Fraser, said.

"There will be cases in which the sentencing judge decides ... that a
conditional sentence is available or possible notwithstanding a three-year
starting point."

Crown Argued Risk

Drug prosecutors from Calgary and Edmonton suggested that except in
extraordinary situations all cocaine dealers should be given jail terms.

"The Crown argued that there was a risk that conditional sentences would
undermine public respect for the law," the Appeal judges said. Prosecutors
said "there was a risk (conditional terms) would be compared to suspended
sentences with probation."

"The Crown argued that where denunciation was paramount, a custodial
sentence was ordinarily appropriate."

All six drug dealers -- two from Calgary and four from Edmonton -- pleaded
guilty to trafficking cocaine on "more than a minimal scale."

Each was given a conditional sentence that included either house arrest or
a curfew. Four were ordered to submit to drug testing. The Appeal judges
said the Supreme Court has already ruled no crime that doesn't carry a
minimum sentence, such as murder, mandates a jail term.

"If there was ever any doubt, it must now be considered that 'a conditional
sentence is available in principal for all offences in which the statutory
prerequisites are satisfied.' "