TORIES REVEAL MANDATORY JAIL TERMS FOR GROWING MARIJUANA

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government unveiled legislation Tuesday to
create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people
convicted of trafficking illicit drugs, including those who grow
marijuana for profit.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills before
Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to keep
accused young offenders in jail before their trials, and now, to
impose automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has no mandatory prison
sentences. Judges use their own discretion about whether to send drug
pushers and growers to jail.

The new bill proposes:

- - A mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little as one
marijuana plant for the purposes of trafficking, sure to be felt in
B.C., where marijuana-growing operations are common and fines are the
usual penalty.

- - A two-year mandatory term for running a marijuana-growing operation
of 500 plants or more.

- - A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from
seven to 14 years.

- - A one-year mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while armed with a
weapon, or for dealing drugs in support of organized crime.

- - A two-year mandatory term for dealing cocaine, heroin or
methamphetamines to young people, or for dealing them near a school
or any place young people are known to frequent.

The Conservatives also propose to allow judges to exempt certain
offenders from mandatory prison terms, on condition that they
complete drug treatment programs.

Drug treatment courts are designed to help non-violent offenders who
have trafficked in small amounts of drugs in order to support their
addictions overcome their drug habits.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Tuesday the changes in the
sentencing provisions are designed to target people the government
considers at the root of the drug supply problem: Large-scale growers
and traffickers, organized crime groups that finance their operations
through drugs, and people who push drugs on children and teenagers.

"We've made it very clear that those individuals who are in the
business of exploiting other people through organized crime and other
aggravating factors -- through this bill, we want to get serious with
those individuals and send the right message to them ... you will be
doing jail time," he said. "We want to put organized crime out of business."

B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal agreed a strong message has to be
sent to drug growers and traffickers that their trade will not be
condoned, noting that most dealers tend to get off lightly.

Fewer than one in seven people convicted of growing marijuana in B.C.
between 2003 and 2005 was sentenced to any time in jail, according to
court statistics provided to The Vancouver Sun.

Growers were even less likely to face jail time in Vancouver, where
fewer than one in 13 received a jail sentence. Indeed, the majority
of convicted marijuana growers in B.C. -- 59 per cent -- received
only probation or a conditional sentence to be served at home.

"The present sentencing regime has not been a deterrent to the
production and trafficking of illegal drugs," Oppal said. "At one
time trafficking netted people significant time, but now the
sentences are much lower.

"The message will be that if you're going to get involved in the
growing end of it, you'd better think twice because there will be a
significant price to pay."

Although Oppal said he's supportive of the legislation, he was
concerned it will take away the discretion of judges in sentencing offenders.

Vancouver's "Prince of Pot," Marc Emery, said he was alarmed by the
news, and it will clog the courts and jails.

"You can never beat organized crime as long as you have prohibition,"
Emery said. "If we just legalized these drugs and distributed them to
addicts, we'd see an evaporation of organized crime."

Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug policy at the
University of Ottawa, said decades of experience with tough,
mandatory penalties in the United States have proven that the threat
of prison terms doesn't deter drug traffickers or growers.