RICH COLEMAN: COURTS NEED ANTI-POT PUSH

A local MLA believes that drug laws are already tough enough, but that
courts have to be convinced to take a harder line.

Communities have to tell the courts to toughen up on the illegal marijuana
trade, says Rich Coleman.

The Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA talked about the marijuana laws on Shaw
TV's Constituency Report when he was a guest on the show's Sunday, Jan. 19
broadcast.

Coleman said communities throughout the province need to consider the
amount of crime caused by marijuana grow operations and speak out for
stronger sentences for grow operators.

"In British Columbia, organized crime controls the marijuana grow
industry," said Coleman, BC's Minister for Public Safety and Solicitor
General. "B.C. marijuana is traded, kilo for kilo, for cocaine across the
border. We have got to step up to the plate on trafficking, because people
are being killed as a result of the drug trade."

In this province, police break up hundreds of grow-ops every year in the
Fraser Valley, Coleman said, while just across the border in Whatcom
County, that number is only 10 to 15.

"The difference between B.C. and Washington is that Washington carries
through on their penalties," Coleman said. "B.C. is becoming an attractive
place to grow marijuana.

"The laws are tough enough; communities have to tell the justice system
that they want those laws enforced to their fullest extent."

Coleman's next scheduled appearance on Constituency Report is Apr. 27.