MP BLASTS POT STAND

As BC Liberals introduced new laws this week to target pot growers' assets,
their federal counterparts shot down a proposed policy to impose minimum
jail terms for marijuana cultivators.

Conservative MP James Moore, who was at the Liberals' policy convention in
Ottawa this past weekend as a Tory observer, said the decision against
two-year minimum sentences for pot farmers contradicts what the BC Liberal
delegates, the opposition and the Canadian Professional Police Association
have been pushing for.

And it goes against comments made by Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan,
who warned judges to take pot laws seriously (legislation before a commons
committee calls for judges who don't impose jail terms for serious drug
crimes to explain their verdicts in writing).

Monday, the BC Liberals introduced the Civil Forfeiture Act to allow the
government to put the onus on convicted pot growers to prove their financial
assets weren't bought with money connected to crime.

Proceeds recovered from the liquidation of forfeited assets will go into a
Civil Forfeiture Account to pay for policing and enforcement.