SUBSIDIZE CRIME

It is impossible to believe Justice Minister Rob
Nicholson when he said: "We want to put organized crime out of
business in this country."

All of the Conservatives' policies actually subsidize organized crime.
They also subsidize wildly expensive and and ever-growing police,
court, prison and rehabilitation systems.

By imposing longer or mandatory sentences for large-scale growers, the
government and courts subsidize the other 80 to 90 per cent of the
dealers and producers who will never be caught.

Any time five or more people gathering to commit a crime could be
considered an organized criminal activity. By these new standards
under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, any kind of group
activity involving drugs could be treated more harshly than necessary
- -- even five youths getting together to share a small amount of
marijuana could be considered "organized crime."

"Running a large marijuana grow operation of at least 500 plants will
mean an automatic two-year jail term." This generalization could be
applied unfairly to small groups of people who are growing marijuana
for legitimate medical use or personal recreational reasons.

"The maximum penalty for cannabis production would increase from seven
to 14 years." This will scare off the small-time home growers who
compete with the big-time growers, leaving even more business for the
big guys.

And all this sending of a strong message is just a lot of puffery for
the politicians to placate grey-haired voters who still think that the
fear of jail will deter people from dealing drugs. The desire for
money and the ability to use a gun trumps all the fear the Tories
think they are mustering.

If the Tories really wanted to "put organized crime out of business,"
they would regulate all drugs the way we regulate alcohol and tobacco.
The fact that they refuse to do that leads me to believe they are
completely blinded by ideology, or deliberately in cahoots with
criminals. I suspect the latter.

This legislation will probably pass, too, because the dastardly
Liberals will help them pass it.

Russell Barth, Ottawa

Federal medical marijuana licence holder