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Conservative Party wants 2 yr min for growers
By Hempology | February 10, 2005
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.
Vanc. Courier
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.
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