LOCAL MP DECRIES TORY CRIME BILL

Alex Atamanenko says the new crime bill by the federal government
that would impose mandatory minimum sentences on marijuana growers is
ineffective and panders to the party's voter base.

"The Conservatives are selling this bill on organized crime, but the
reality that we're finding is. . . that mandatory minimum sentences
do not deter organized crime. They usually affect small dealers,
street level traffickers, but not violent offenders," the BC Southern
Interior MP said.

The bill was passed in Parliament in December 2009, but amended in
the Senate by Liberal senators to remove the clause that would see
people found guilty of growing six to 200 plants get a minimum of six
months in jail

When the government prorogued Parliament in February for the
Olympics, the bill fell off the table along with a number of others -
but was reintroduced to the Senate by the government on Wednesday.

All that could result from the government's proposed new crime law
would be an overcrowded justice and corrections system which will
place a burden on the provinces to fund, Atamanenko said.

He added that the move is a shift toward an American-style system
that the United States is currently moving away from because of
expensive, overcrowded prisons.

Atamanenko pointed out his party, the NDP, and former Liberal
governments have all focused on a "four pillar" approach to justice
that focuses on prevention, treatment and harm reduction - but the
Conservatives have strayed far from that system.

"It their 2007 budget the Conservatives introduced their new
anti-drug strategy that removed all references to harm reduction,"
Atamanenko noted. "Seventy three per cent of the drug policy budget
is spent on enforcement."

He feels putting people in jail for growing small amounts of
marijuana is not sensible policy.

"The idea of someone with a few plants of marijuana getting a minimum
of six months in jail, it doesn't make any sense at all," Atamanenko noted.

"It's designed to appeal to the hardcore Conservative base. It's
oversimplified. It targets street level users and small traffickers
and doesn't address the problems of organized crime."

The bill must pass through Parliament again before being made into law.