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

Bill c-15 is designed specifically to increase crime. By imposing
mandatory minimum sentences for pot growing, the government scares
off the small time mom 'n pop growers who offer direct market
competition to the gang-affiliated growers. This leaves more
business, and more profit for the gangs, which will increase the
violent competition between rival factions.

The police and government will use that increase in crime as
justification for even more increases in police powers and budgets,
and justify the further usurping of Canadians' basic right to choose.
The best way to thwart the gangs is to set up a legal, regulated
marijuana market that can compete with the criminal market.

The best way to further subsidize the gangs is to make something
illegal even more illegal. Their motivation to make money far
outweighs their motivation to avoid jail. The "War On Certain Drugs"
was never meant to be won, it was meant to be continuous. It was
designed to reduce the civil rights and liberties of the general
population, accustom them to an ongoing and ever-growing police
presence, drain taxpayers' dollars, and to keep lawyers rich, cops
busy, and jails full.

Police don't want the "War On Certain Drugs" to ever end because it
gives them all the leverage they need to harass the young, people of
colour, the poor, and people with non-regulation hairstyles. It makes
their job relevant and never ending. Prohibition is a growth industry
as big a cash cow for police and lawyers and jailers as it is for
gangsters. They are two sides of the same coin.

Russell Barth, Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis