POT GROWING BILL UP IN SMOKE

Liberals Won't Support It

The Conservative government's controversial bill that would impose
mandatory jail time for offenders caught growing a handful of
marijuana plants appears headed to the trash can.

The Liberals announced Wednesday they will not support Bill S-10,
which has already been passed by the Senate.

"I'm very disappointed that they have had this complete flip-flop,"
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told Postmedia News.

The Liberals, who supported previous versions of the bill, now say it
would excessively punish some people for minor offences and would
cost too much to implement because it will jam prisons that are
already filled to the brink. The Conservatives have said they will
spend $2 billion over the next five years to expand prisons.

"We just think this is bad criminal justice policy," Liberal Leader
Michael Ignatieff told reporters Wednesday. "It's going to cost this
country billions of dollars. We think it's the wrong way to go."

The NDP and Bloc Quebecois have always been against the bill, first
introduced in 2008, but the Liberals helped the Tories pass it
through the House of Commons and onto the Senate in December 2009.
Liberals in the upper chamber watered the bill down and it was in its
final stages when Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament,
killing the legislation.

A new bill -closer to the original version that ignored the Liberal
amendment -was introduced in the Senate in May 2010.

The Liberal senators tried again to amend the bill at the Senate
legal and constitutional affairs committee but failed after losing
their majority in the upper chamber. The bill passed on Dec. 13, 2010.

It's now in the hands of MPs and on Wednesday the government put S-10
on notice, meaning it could be raised for de-

bate in the next few days. That move prompted the Liberals to
announce their new position, which effectively seals the fate of the
bill and will force the Tories to start from scratch, again.

Nicholson, however, isn't prepared to accept that the bill is headed
for defeat.

He's hoping enough Liberals will break party ranks and defy
Ignatieff, siding instead with the government. "I'm hoping that they
will lean on him to get this bill passed. So I'm not giving up."

While the Liberals say the bill could unfairly target young people,
Nicholson said the proposed changes to the existing laws are aimed
squarely at drug traffickers and organized crime.

The bill would impose a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in
jail for an offender convicted of growing between five and 201
marijuana plants for the purpose of trafficking. The more plants that
are grown, the longer the minimum sentence.

The bill also proposes a series of other changes to current drug
laws, including mandatory sentences for drug crimes committed near schools.

"This bill sends out the right message and the idea that we shouldn't
be jailing people who are selling drugs around schools or people who
are bringing drugs into Canada is something I completely disagree
with," said Nicholson. "And I think most Canadians agree would agree with me."

Critics of automatic sentencing say the measures will flood prisons
that are already overcrowded, will strip judges of their discretion
to impose sentences as they see fit and are ineffective in reducing
drug use and improving public safety.

"It's going to add huge amounts of money to Canadian prison costs,
it's going to target young people, a guy who gets messed up with
Tylenol 3 or has six marijuana plants," Ignatieff said. "We just
think this is not the right way to go for Canadian justice policy. It
follows a failed American model so we're going to vote against it."