GOING TO POT: BILL 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 recently by Conservative Senator 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 youth under 18; if the
production constituted a public safety hazard; and if the grower sets
a trap likely to cause harm or death.

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

Liberal Senator 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 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."

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

"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.

"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 Senator Wallace, 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. 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 MP Cathy McLeod said she 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. 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."