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December 2nd– Day of Action
By admin | December 1, 2009
December 2nd– Day of Action
Victoria, B.C. The International Hempology 101 Society, in conjunction with Canadian Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, will be having a national day of action on Weds Dec 2, 2009 protesting Bill C15, which proposes Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for non-violent drug crimes. For example, someone convicted of growing 6 plants for the purposes of trafficking faces a minimum of 6 months in jail.
University of Victoria students and activists will gather in front of the Petch Fountain starting at 11am and continuing until 4:20 to distribute information about Bill C-15 and to encourage student to use their cell phones to call the Senators offices to ask them to kill it.
This legislation has been liberally lifted from America’s take on drug crimes and punishment. It has been suggested that these new laws will help to eliminate gang violence, but the truth is that low level offenders will continue to be persecuted at an astronomical cost to taxpayers while drug kingpins continue to control the streets. We currently spend close to 70% of the entire national law enforcement budget on drug related crimes.
On September 14th we launched the PHONE JAM that drew participants from across the country. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of phone calls were placed to the Canadian Senate Switchboard. The response from senators has clearly been shown in the debates in Ottawa but it has not been enough.
In 2002, the Canadian Senate produced a report recommending legalization entitled CANNABIS: OUR POSITION FOR A CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY; REPORT OF THE SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ILLEGAL DRUGS. This report stated that cannabis should not be a crime and that the evidence used to criminalize the substance in the first place was either faulty or even non existent.
Canadians over the years have been heavily taxed to support imprisoning citizens for a “crime” that upwards of 20% of the population engage in. This bill has not left any room for small gardens that support a family or small community and has made no mention of the dozens of private patient cooperatives that have sprouted up across the country to supply patients that our national Marihuana Medical Access Regulations have failed. For example, cumulatively the two clubs in Victoria, (CBC of C and VICS) have approximately the same number of patients as the whole federal program. The government would seemingly rather spend millions on a federal access program that most patients across the country can not access, while spending millions more prosecuting and jailing small “ma and pa” growers, and criminalizing compassion clubs.
Citizens from across the country are standing together to repel this expensive and ill educated legislation. Please participate in the PHONE JAM and let your voice be heard. Call these numbers to connect toll-free: 1-800-OCANADA(662-6232) or 1-800-267-7362 (senate switchboard) .
list of all senators: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/senate/IsenAssist.asp?Language=E&sortord=N
-30-
Contact Person:
Ted Smith
(250) 381-4220
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