MINIMUM SENTENCES WRONG

I would like to express my opposition to the bill requiring mandatory
minimum sentences, especially in regards to the cultivation of
marijuana. In light of the fact that a Senate committee report on
marijuana found that marijuana is relatively harmless to society
especially when compared to alcohol and other drugs. I ask that Canada
decriminalize its use and production, in small amounts for personal
use.

Let me make it clear that I do not want to see my fellow citizens
serving six months in prison for growing a plant. It is clear to me
and many other citizens that the marijuana issue is, and always has
been, a victim of politics, and not reason or scientific principle.
While I do not claim that using marijuana is particularly beneficial
to all people, it is certainly less harmful than most other drugs
including tobacco and alcohol, and less addictive as well.

We have seen that in the U.S. harsh mandatory minimum prison sentences
have done nothing to end the brutal drug war; all they have done is
put more money in the pockets of the black market. I'm sure we would
all like a safe, drug-free society, but mandatory minimum sentences
are not going to get us there.

Allan Myk

Winnipeg