MINISTER TACKLES TOKIN' SENTENCES

Grow Ops A 'Serious' Crime: Grit

Canada's new pot reform laws will toughen penalties to combat
dangerous marijuana grow ops -- but judges also need a lesson about
the gravity of the crime, says Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan.
Responding to a Sun story about chronically lenient sentences for
large-scale grow operators, the deputy PM said more judicial education
is required.

"We need to help judges understand how absolutely serious this is --
the social costs, the economic costs, and quite truthfully, the danger
to the lives and safety of first responders when they go into these
houses," she told the Sun.

FEW GO TO JAIL

"This is not a crime that should be taken lightly. This is not a
victimless crime."

Surprised by statistics from B.C. showing the odds of going to jail
for pot offences are less than 1-in-100, McLellan noted the retabled
marijuana decriminalization bill doubles the maximum prison term for
grow ops.

It also requires judges to issue written reasons for not giving a jail
sentence when there are "aggravating" factors, like booby traps,
repeat offences or links to organized crime.

Tory justice critic Vic Toews slammed the reform bill as "inadequate"
and "more lip service than action." The so-called crackdown is a
typical Liberal ploy to give the false appearance of tackling the
problem, he charged.

"They know full well the courts don't even impose the present maximum
sentences," he said. "If they're really serious ... they need to
impose mandatory minimum prison terms."

Failing to have tough mandatory minimum sentences on the books only
encourages a revolving door of criminal grow operators, who set up
shop again after just a few months behind bars, Toews said.

"What they've done is bought a licence to grow marijuana."