TORY TOEWS WANTS POT GROWERS PUT AWAY

The Conservative Party justice critic Vic Toews wants two-year minimum jail
sentences for people caught growing marijuana to deter others from entering
B.C.'s billion-dollar industry.

Toews told the Courier in a telephone interview last week from Toronto that
people in the Lower Mainland tell him they're fed up with pot growers
receiving fines and brief jail terms.

"A two-year minimum sentence would not violate the Constitution in terms of
cruel and unusual punishment," said Toews, Manitoba's attorney general from
1997 to 1999. "I don't see any opposition coming from ordinary homeowners
who are very concerned about this problem."

The Criminal Code has no minimum sentence for pot growers. Growers who are
caught are charged with producing the crop and possession of the pot for
the purpose of trafficking.

A maximum sentence for a person in possession of less than three kilograms
of pot is five years-and seven years for producing the crop. Sentences are
usually imposed concurrently.

If the crop could produce more than three kilograms of pot-which the
average size operation could-the maximum sentence is life in prison. That
length of sentence has never been imposed.

"Judges themselves keep saying, 'Go to your parliamentarians if you're not
happy with the sentences,'" Toews said. "So, I'm taking up that request by
the judges and saying the way to approach this is by the establishment of
mandatory minimum sentences."

He agrees with Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham that marijuana is a
"gateway drug" to cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs. As for
Mayor Larry Campbell's belief that marijuana should be legalized, Toews
said his party is completely opposed.

"It addresses nothing, especially if you leave production in the hands of
organized crime. It simply leads to a fueling of the demand and an increase
in the number of grow-ops. So that's not a good solution."

To get the two-year minimum sentence imposed, Toews has to get the ear of
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who recently introduced a bill to
decriminalize marijuana.

But Toews said the government's obsession with the same-sex marriage bill
is "overshadowing" other issues such as changing drug laws.

"I want the same-sex marriage bill put to the back of the bus, so to speak,
so that we can deal with other pressing issues that need to be dealt with,
including the marijuana bill."

Marc Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, said a mandatory
two-year sentence for growing pot would only fill up already overcrowded
prisons.

The increase in inmates would translate to huge costs, likely in the
millions of dollars, for taxpayers, Emery said.

"You'd have to build some new prisons, and for what? If they just legalized
marijuana, everybody would get what they want. We'd end organized crime,
there would be no indoor grow-ops, everybody would have the weed they want."

Emery said Toews' position shows the "underlying cruelty" of the
Conservative Party, noting it doesn't have its priorities straight.

"It's all about punishment, it's all about putting people in jail. They
want to punish the gays, punish the pot people, punish the poor."

As the debate continues surrounding the marijuana industry, police continue
to spend money creating specialized teams to bust grow-ops in the Lower
Mainland.

Last year, Vancouver police's drug squad busted 224 grow-ops, compared to
148 busts in Surrey, 68 in Burnaby and 75 in Coquitlam. Some of the busts
in Vancouver were on grow houses previously dismantled by police.