'MAKE PUNISHMENT FIT CRIME'

'It's A National Issue [That] Needs A Federal Response'

Grow more than 30 grams of marijuana and you could go to jail for 25 years.
Set up a meth lab and the longest you could spend behind bars is 6.6 years
before automatic parole.

That's the law as it stands in Canada, and it's got politicians agitating
for change.

Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Randy Kamp wants meth possession, trafficking
and production treated as seriously as cocaine and heroin. He also wants
Ottawa to specifically focus on meth as it contemplates a national drug
strategy.

"It's becoming a national issue and it needs a federal response," Kamp says.

He and other Conservative MPs are pushing Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to
introduce minimum sentences for meth-related drug crimes. "It certainly
would send a signal to the producers that it's not just going to be a slap
on the wrist," he says.

The Conservatives are setting up a crystal-meth task force they hope will
eventually become an apolitical body with the goal of mitigating meth's
huge impact. MPs from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, all alarmed by
the spread and prevalence of meth in their provinces, are echoing Kamp's
demands.

Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Randy Hawes has introduced legislation that would
oblige the province to push for appropriate sentencing, as well as improve
treatment options.

Some MLAs are more strident.

Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Jeff Bray recently referred to meth dealers as
"the vilest scum of the earth."

"The law is not a concern of theirs. If the cost of getting caught is
prohibitive, you may prevent others from coming into the marketplace," he says.

The MLA says his constituents are frustrated by "lax" sentences handed to
meth producers and dealers.

"There is no deterrent and that's what frustrates," Bray says.

"The federal government has to decide whether or not people who sell
crystal meth to 15-year-olds [are] a really bad thing."

What's missing in the political debate is an acknowledgement that many
people who commit crimes while under the influence of meth are addicts
first, criminals second, says Gordy Robson.

Robson is a key organizer of an anti-meth movement in Maple Ridge.

He says 90 per cent of that community's homeless are meth addicts, that 80
per cent of car thefts are meth-related and that 30 per cent of property
crime is rooted in the addiction.

Robson says judges should recognize that users, who often deal the drug,
are the victims.

Longer sentences won't work unless there is some effort made to address the
addiction while in custody, Robson says.

"We've got to get the judges in the system to realize it's not a crime,
it's an addiction," Robson says. "The addiction has to be treated."

As far as Robson is concerned, rehabilitation should be mandatory for
conditional sentences, parole, probation and remand.

Merely elevating the criminality of meth, as demanded by some politicians,
won't make much of a difference by itself, Robson says.