OTTAWA GETS TOUGH ON DRUG OFFENCES

VANCOUVER -- The Conservative government continued its law-and-order
blitz Friday by reintroducing tougher penalties for drug offences.

The changes came a day after Ottawa announced Criminal Code amendments
aimed at gang violence.

But a veteran defence lawyer gave the government's lock-'em-up
strategy a failing grade, saying it doesn't get at the roots of
gangsterism -- alienated young people and widespread demand for
illegal drugs.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan
and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson have all been in Vancouver in the
last two weeks as the region reeled from 18 shootings this month --
seven fatal.

Homicide investigators were probing another suspicious death after a
body was found in an overturned SUV on Thursday.

As the amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act were
being tabled Friday in Parliament, Nicholson talked tough on crime at
a news conference at the RCMP's B.C. headquarters.

"I think the message is: If you want to bring drugs into this country,
you are going to jail," he said as some of the region's top police
officers looked on.

The new package, similar to one Nicholson tried to pass last year,
includes:

- - A one-year mandatory prison sentence for dealing drugs for
organized-crime purposes or when a weapon or violence is used;

- - A two-year minimum term for dealing harder drugs such as cocaine
and methamphetamines to youth, or dealing near a school;

- - Two years minimum for running a pot grow-op with at least 500
plants, plus increasing the maximum term for producing marijuana to 14
years, and

- - Stiffer sentences for trafficking in so-called date-rape
drugs.

Nicholson said the changes don't target drug addicts who sell just to
support their habit. They can receive suspended sentences in drug
courts if they go through a treatment program, he said.