MINISTER: POT USED AS CURRENCY IN DRUG WORLD

Canada's justice minister says people who sell or grow marijuana
belong in jail because pot is used as a "currency" to bring harder
drugs into the country.

"This lubricates the business and that makes me nervous," Rob
Nicholson told the Commons justice committee yesterday as he faced
tough questions about a controversial bill to impose automatic jail
and prison sentences for drug crimes, including growing as little as
one pot plant.

"Marijuana is the currency that is used to bring other more serious
drugs into the country."

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act currently contains no
mandatory prison sentences and judges use their own discretion about
whether to send drug pushers and growers to jail.

But the Conservatives have proposed legislation that would impose
one-year mandatory jail time for marijuana dealing, when it is linked
to organized crime or a weapon is involved.