THE TORIES ON POT: CHEECH AND CHONG WERE NEVER THIS SILLY

The media have had very little to say about Bill C-15, a federal
Conservative bill currently working its way through Parliament. This
legislation will require that everyone convicted of growing a single
marijuana plant or more must spend a minimum of six months in jail.
The last decade of cannabis cultivation convictions in our province
clearly shows that if this mandatory minimum is implemented, there
will be close to a 50-per-cent increase in the provincial jail
population, just to house those who cultivate cannabis.

The projected annual bill for the province for housing these
cultivators will be $114 million, and that's not even counting the
capital costs required for the construction of the additional prison
cells that will be needed. I trust that Premier Gordon Campbell and
the Liberals are, at least behind closed doors, lobbying against this
rather significant drain on the provincial purse.

If Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives want to lock
up everyone who grows a marijuana plant, why don't they make the
minimum penalty two years imprisonment in a federal prison? At least
that would make the federal government financially accountable for its folly.

Let's acknowledge that there are features of some large-scale
marijuana grow operations that deserve a strong rebuke: The theft of
electricity, the exposure of children to toxic moulds, and the
presence of guns or other weapons at the site of a grow. Penalize
these activities, not the growing of cannabis itself -- this activity
can be engaged in safely, without risk to children, or the
surrounding community.

At the end of the day, however, using the criminal law against
cannabis is wholly counter-productive. It's criminalization that
causes theft of electricity, violence in the cannabis trade, exposure
to toxic moulds, and provides folks who are sometimes mindless thugs
with millions of dollars in untaxed income.

There's no evidence that cannabis use results in anything close to
the death toll produced by alcohol and tobacco, even when current --
and projected future -- rates of use are taken into account.
Marijuana use by consenting adults is a public health issue, not a
moral problem.

In a more sane world, the financially reckless proposals of Harper
and the Conservatives would be regarded as considerably more silly
than the antics of Cheech and Chong.