GOING TO POT? BILL S-10 RAISES CONCERNS

Marijuana producers growing as few as six plants for sale could face
minimum jail sentences if a new bill becomes law in Ottawa.

The Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act, or Bill S-10, was
introduced in the Senate on May 5 by Conservative Sen. John Wallace.

If enacted, it will change laws surrounding drug charges,
particularly those involving cannabis.

The bill has been considered twice before, dying first due to the
general-election call in 2006 and again in December 2009 when
Parliament was prorogued.

Bill S-10 contains an entire section pertaining specifically to
marijuana. Under it, growers with as few as six plants face a minimum
prison sentence of six months.

The new bill separates quantity of plants into two sections: Less
than 201 and more than five or less than 501 and more than 200.

Minimum jail terms for those quantities increase if any aggravating
factors apply.

Factors include: If the grower used a third party's property, which
has implications for renters; if the production is seen to be a
potential security, health or safety hazard to kids under 18; if the
production constituted a public safety hazard; if the grower set a
trap likely to cause harm or death.

However, minimum sentences only apply if the plants are deemed to be
for trafficking.

Kamloops RCMP Sgt. Scott Wilson said trafficking can be determined a
number of different ways.

This includes the presence of equipment associated with trafficking,
such as scales, baggies of measured drugs and client lists.

"You have to show that they're actually engaged in selling," he said.
"I don't think that quantity is a sole indicator of trafficking."

Wilson pointed to what he called "level of sophistication" as being
an important factor in determining whether the pot is for trafficking.

Sophistication could include a hydro-bypass, specialized lighting and
high-tech growing equipment.

However, sometimes trafficking is not that complicated.

Liberal Sen. Joan Fraser expressed concern, in a May 11 Senate
debate, with the broad definition of trafficking in the Criminal
Code, a definition that can determine giving, rather than selling,
drugs as trafficking.

"Someone in a suburb who grows 20 plants so that he can have a nice
pot party once or twice a year with his neighbours, just good
respectable suburban folks, would be considered to be growing those
plants for the purposes of trafficking even if it were only for the
three or four immediate neighbours," Fraser said, according to Hansard.

Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal questioned what the bill's minimum
sentences, starting at only six plants, may mean for youth.

"If one looks at the studies on what might be going on in university
residences across the country, I am led to believe by those who
understand this more than myself that

there might be as many as three, four or five plants found on
occasion in a student's room, maybe as many as six or seven," Segal said.

"Last I checked, the police are pretty busy dealing with serious
crime, such as the real traffickers and the big grow-ops . . . On
occasion, local police officers may find that hard to enforce."

According to Conservative Sen. John Wallace, who introduced the bill,
the decision to pursue minimum sentencing was one that was deliberated on.

"It is the government's view that production from six plants and up
does constitute serious drug crime," Wallace said. "Canadians want
laws that impose penalties that adequately reflect the serious nature
of these crimes, and Bill S-10 does just that."

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod believes
critics focusing on the portion of the bill dealing with marijuana
have it all wrong.

"That isn't, I think, an accurate portrayal of what this bill is
intended to do or what it's for," she said. "It's about serious drugs
associated with serious crime."

According to McLeod, the bill is more about dealing more seriously
with certain drugs.

"It's taking things like the date-rape drug and moving it into a
schedule that has more penalties associated with it," she said.

Concerns surrounding the bill are wide-reaching.

Bob Hughes, executive director of the Aids Society of Kamloops,
wonders if research has been done suggesting "cracking down" on drugs
will work.

"I wonder if it actually has any solid proven grounds," he said.

Hughes looks back to the failure of the country's prohibition of
alcohol in the 1920s and anticipates further crackdowns will create a
similar effect in the case of the drug trade.

"It's an issue of supply and demand," he said. "People are going to
produce it no matter what the risks attached to it are."

Kevin Ortner, the Green Party of Canada candidate for
Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, agrees.

"It introduces crime and an underground society," he said. "What
they're actually doing is creating more crime."

Instead, Ortner favours a decriminalization approach to dealing with
marijuana, arguing decriminalizing pot could serve to break the link
between organized crime and the drug trade.

"We'd create a disconnect between the pot smokers and the drug
dealers," Ortner said. "This is working in Amsterdam. It's something
we could do here."

Michael Crawford, the NDP candidate for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo,
said the bill doesn't address the real problem.

"We're always harder on crime than we are on the causes of crime," he
said. "The Tory hard-on-crime initiative is really disproportionately
focused on crime and not enough on prevention. I think it's more
politics than practical."

Crawford is also concerned with what minimum sentences would do to
the justice system.

"It really ties the hand of judges," he said. "Conservatives tend to
think they need to be prodded and guided and restricted."

Judges would be allowed some discretion under another section of the
bill that allows a delay in sentencing if the offender wants to enrol
in a drug-treatment program.

"The hallmark of a good justice system is that the punishment fits
the crime," Crawford said, noting he doesn't think minimum sentences
can anticipate different circumstances. He said he's concerned such
measures will move Canada's justice system closer to that operated in
the United States.

Crawford also had a guess about what might happen with the bill
during the next few readings.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we had a call from a number of political
parties for decriminalization," he said.