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Cannabis Buyers Club protests new minimums
By Hempology | January 7, 2008
Peninsula News Review, BC
21 Dec 2007
Cat George
PROTEST TARGETS NEW MINIMUMS
Protesters waved flags, shook signs and yelled questions outside Saanich Gulf Islands MP Gary Lunn’s office in Sidney on Monday. One even lit up a marijuana cigarette and had a few puffs.
The gathering was part of a national day of demonstration against the proposed federal Bill C-26, which would raise mandatory minimum sentences for cannabis ( marijuana ) offences, including cultivation and trafficking.
“We think they’re spending too much on enforcement and prosecution of drug offences,” said Anthony D’Agati of International Hempology 101 Society, a Victoria organization devoted to marijuana legalization through education. “This just targets the low-end street dealers and puts a lot of power in organized crime. It clogs up the court systems.”
At a similar rally in downtown Victoria, Ted Smith, founder of the hempology society, expressed similar fears. “It’ll scare a lot of them [dealers] out of doing it and the people who will end up doing it will be organized criminals,” he said. He added that the court systems and jails would be bogged down by an increase in charges and longer sentences.
D’Agati told the crowd of about 10 protesters in Sidney the penalties proposed for marijuana are similar to those proposed for trafficking in metamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin. “It [the proposed cannabis sentencing] is more than for firearms trafficking,” said D’Agati. “It’s okay to traffic weapons, but if you grow over 500 [marijuana] plants, it’s two years.”
“Someone who has two plants in the living room, gets the same time as a guy who sells a gun? That’s pretty bizarre,” agreed Steve Bittner, another protester. “If a guy is growing a plant for his aunty, he’s going to get six months,” he added. “This is a step backwards.”
The mandatory sentences proposed in the bill include a six-month sentence for anyone caught with a single plant for sale. Sentences rise with more plants and a number of other factors, including growing in a residential neighbourhood, growing at a rental property, or involving a minor in any way. Smith said that the six-month sentences target people who are passing a joint back and forth and small-time growers who don’t cause problems in the community.
Lunn, who was not in his office during the protest, later said that the government’s number-one priority is an aggressive approach to crime. “It is something we feel strongly about,” he said. “With respect to drugs, trafficking is a serious issue; people have been calling for action.” He said that the government was working to support police in their battle against drugs: “Anything we can do to get aggressive on crime, and support the police in their efforts to keep people from falling into the circle of using drugs.”
Lunn added that the police work hard to detain drug offenders only to find their efforts frustrated in the justice system, something the new bill would address.
Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal MP Keith Martin said he believed the bill would be counterproductive. “The poison pill on this bill is where you can throw somebody in jail for having one plant and for selling or trading one or two joints to somebody else, which could put a whole host of teenagers and young people in jail. That doesn’t serve our community,” he said. Martin has advocated for the legalization of marijuana in the past and said that while marijuana has harmful health effects, regulating sales of the drug would generate money to put into drug education and enforcement for more serious drug crimes.
D’Agati told the crowd in Sidney that the government spends over 30 times more on drug prosecution and enforcement than on prevention or treatment, something that Victoria NDP MP Denise Savoie agreed with during her speech at the downtown rally. She noted that the bill does nothing to curb drug use and suggested the government adopt a structure centred around harm reduction.
Local Kit Spence spoke about the cost of the proposed bill at the Sidney protest. “Taxpayers should recognize the large drain on this country,” he said, calling the bill a “black-and-white solution to a complex and complicated problem.” He mentioned building and maintaining prisons as just one cost of higher mandatory sentences.
“After 30 years of the war on drugs, it’s lost,” said Spence.
For a complete outline of Bill C-26, go to www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/ and search for Bill C-26.
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