TARGETING THE DRUG TRADE

This week the House of Commons debated the illegal-drug trade, on
Third Reading of Bill C-10. MPs from all Parties agreed that current
methods are failing to protect Canadians but disagreed about solutions.

For example Conservative health critic Rob Merrifield spoke about
Health Canada cracking down on natural-health products while this
Liberal government sends a 'soft message' regarding illegal drugs,
which principals in his area's schools say is misleading students.
Really marijuana is more potent today than ever.

Additionally, former Solicitor General Wayne Easter described illegal
drugs' impact in B.C.'s Lower Mainland including lives and families
destroyed, rental housing seriously damaged, neighborhood property
values reduced. He described the frustration of police putting their
lives on the line to bust marijuana grow operations, spending hours on
paperwork and all too often 'before they go back to work the next day,
the person is back out on the streets.'

He described Bill C-10 as built on prevention, enforcement, treatment
and harm reduction. But as Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz pointed
out, good intentions don't ensure good legislation. He noted that C-10
imposes no heavier sentence for repeat offences, so fines are treated
merely as revolving-door business expenses.

My office spoke this week with chief David Douglas of the B.C.
Organized Crime Agency. He pointed out that, for a hundred-plant
marijuana grow operation, State of Washington imposes a minimum
five-year sentence. In B.C., the usual penalty is a conditional
sentence, perhaps a fine.

He explained that organized crime sends huge shipments of 'B.C. bud'
south and gets return shipments of cocaine and firearms, including
fire-power which outguns our police. Even the proceeds of crime can
now be used to pay lawyers, with nobody ensuring lawyers' fees don't
get partly refunded back to organized crime.

This has become a multi-billion dollar industry, the kind of money
which can convince accountants and lawyers and probably some police
and politicians to look the other way. That makes it likely some
decisions by government are being made not for the good of law-abiding
citizens but for the profits of crime-lords. For example when RCMP and
CSIS reported on Asian organized crime gaining power in Canada, they
were ordered to destroy their report.

So I think, just as we are learning about the sponsorship scandal,
some people in the old boys' network running Canada do not want to
stop the illegal drug trade. What do you think?