LIVES RUINED BY SENTENCING

So Province Editor-in-Chief Wayne Moriarty is "thrilled the work of
the dedicated reporters and editors here at the paper had such an
influence on the health minister." It amazes me that newspaper editors
have such a shallow appreciation of the drug problem in this country.

The feds, at the behest of police forces around the country and the
U.S., are putting enforcement of the possession offence at the
forefront. The result: Thousands of young Canadians caught up in
substance abuse are paraded through our courts, sent to provincial
prisons and recorded in criminal-information databanks for the rest of
their lives.

I have yet to see a single editorial that makes any distinction
between the increased penalties for traffickers and those for people
who use the drug. Why not?

The parents of kids caught up with crystal meth aren't calling for
them to be punished. They're begging for help for their children.

That's not so subtle a distinction, but it escapes the narrow purview
of Canadian newspaper editors.

Mike Bryan,

Tahsis