BILL C-15 A GOOD IDEA BUT FOCUS SHOULD BE ON CRIME PREVENTION

Bill C-15 -An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to amend other Acts
- - deals with many topics, from protection of children from sexual
exploitation to animal cruelty offences. But the topic that is
creating the biggest fuss is the radical change in Canadian drug
policy that, some argue, will further enrich gangsters, create more
violence on our streets, and fail to reduce either the demand for, or
the availability of, drugs in our society.

This statement may seem bold but it is backed by comprehensive
studies published by the Senate of Canada, the Canadian Department of
Justice, the European Commission, the U.S. Congressional Research
Service, the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives and the Rand Corporation all who support the view that
mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences are useless at best.

The types of mandatory sentences contained in Bill C-15 have been
utter failures in the United States. The United States has five per
cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of the world's prisoners.

Many of those persons are serving time for non-violent drug offences.
Bottom line: the United States has some of the harshest sentencing
system in the non-totalitarian world while also suffering from the
highest rates of drug use, the highest violent crime rates and the
richest, most powerful gangs. According to the studies, instead of
serving a positive purpose, Bill C-15 will increase the power of
organized crime and the violence associated with the illegal drug markets.

Organized criminals are already willing to risk arrest, incarceration
and, indeed, a violent death from other criminals in order to make
the huge profits associated with high-level drug trafficking.
Street-level dealers are often addicted to the substances they sell
and commit the crime out of desperation driven by their addiction to
very expensive drugs. Worse, while Bill C-15 contends to target
"serious" drug offenders, its conditions apply to even very minor
offences such as growing a single marijuana plant. If passed into
law, Bill C-15 would, among its other provisions, throw people caught
with one marijuana plant into the slammer for a minimum of six
months. If growing a single plant is done on a property that belongs
to another person minimum jail time is nine months. Currently,
marijuana offences comprise more than three-quarters of all drug
crimes. I cannot believe that a teenage child getting caught trying a
puff for the first time will end up with a criminal record and
limiting that child's future like some claim.

In my opinion: I agree that there should be tougher penalties for
serious and violent and chronic offenders. But that alone isn't going
to do the job. I believe that Bill C-15 should be emphasizing
crime-prevention, providing resources for youth programs, providing
actual police officers on the ground, and providing prosecutors.