WESTON'S COMMITMENT LAUDED

To the Editor:

A chance meeting between Cpl. Richard De Jong of the RCMP's drugs and
organized crime section and MP John Weston on our Bowen ferry led to
the current private member's bill C-475 that passed into law
unanimously on March 25, 2011. This bill is only the 15th private
member's bill that has become law since Confederation.

Weston was invited to visit Bowen Island's Orchard Recovery Centre,
where some patients voluntarily shared their life stories with him.
Our Member of Parliament, along with his assistant, Josh Peters, son
of Alan and Cathy Peters, shepherded Bill C-475 through Parliament and
the Senate for over a year.

Bill C-475 criminalizes the possession of precursors to the synthetic
drugs Crystal Meth and Ecstasy. The Bill states that no person shall
possess, produce, sell or import anything knowingly that will be used
to produce or traffic in a substance referred to in {the relevant
sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act].

One of the witnesses who appeared before the Senate was Bowen's Carrie
De Jong, an addictions counselor at the Orchard Recovery Centre.
Carrie says, "John Weston has been untiring in his commitment to see
this much needed amendment to the criminal code be enacted into law.
Bill C-475 has provided another tool in limiting the production and
trafficking of these devastating drugs."

Maryann Smith