TORIES SEEK PRISON TERMS FOR TRAFFICKERS

Mandatory Jail Sentences Latest Chapter in Crackdown on Crime

THE Conservative government unveiled historic legislation Tuesday to
create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people convicted
of trafficking illicit drugs.

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 currently contains no
mandatory prison sentences for anyone convicted under the act. Judges
use their own discretion about whether to send drug pushers and
growers to jail.

However, the new bill proposes:

* a one-year mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while using 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;

* a mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little as one
marijuana plant, for the purposes of trafficking;

* a two-year mandatory term for running a marijuana grow operation of
at least 500 plants;

* a doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from
seven to 14 years.

The Conservatives are also proposing to allow judges to exempt certain
offenders from mandatory prison terms, on condition they complete
drug-treatment court 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 the 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 in this country."

But one expert says the changes will only help organized crime groups
do more business in Canada.

"Tougher penalties for people who produce and traffic drugs will only
scare the ma-and-pa producers, and organized crime will fill the gap,"
says Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug policy at
the University of Ottawa and once advised the Law Reform Commission of
Canada on the issue.

"Organized crime doesn't care about the law. With these changes, this
government is doing a service for organized crime."