FEDERAL DRUG PLAN DENOUNCED

The Conservative government's plan to slap drug dealers and marijuana
grow operators with stiff sentences is a U.S.-style "war on drugs"
that won't solve Canada's problems, critics warn.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Stockwell
Day yesterday tabled new legislation that imposes mandatory jail terms
for those convicted of large-scale grow ops or selling kids hard drugs
like cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines. There are also tough
sentences when the drug peddling is linked to violence or organized
crime.

"Those people who are in the business of exploiting other people
through organized crime and a host of other aggravating circumstances,
we want to get serious with those individuals and send out the right
message to them," Nicholson said.

The legislation also allows the Drug Treatment Court to suspend the
mandatory sentence if an addict offender takes part in a treatment
program.

But Liberal justice critic Marlene Jennings said extensive research in
the U.S. shows mandatory minimums with "escalators" on repeat offences
don't work as a deterrent. Many states have actually begun to repeal
the rigid sentencing regime, she said.

Ignoring Evidence

"It's completely ignoring the evidence that shows what is effective
criminal justice, and what would be effective Criminal Code provisions
that would actually ensure that Canadians are safer," she said.

NDP MP Libby Davies also denounced the bill as flawed and fashioned
after the U.S. approach.

"The overall direction of this bill is clearly moving to where the
U.S. has been with its drug policy, the so-called "war on drugs," that
has been a massive failure," she said. "U.S. prisons are filled with
people who have been incarcerated as a result from drug crimes, it's
really been no deterrent. And so for Canada to continue with that kind
of direction and to adopt that model I think we have serious concerns
about that."