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Jail too stiff for growers?
12/15/07|Burnaby Now | by Brooke Larsen, Burnaby Now

A plan to put more pot growers behind bars has a Burnaby activist smoking mad.

Adam Scriven said a handful of people will gather outside Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian's office Monday, part of a nationwide day of protest against mandatory jail sentences proposed by the Conservative government.

Introduced last month, Bill C-26 includes a one-year mandatory prison sentence for those dealing marijuana while involved with organized crime or using a weapon. It also includes two-year prison sentences for those running a grow operation of 500 plants or more.

Scriven, a stay-at-home dad, says the bill won't reduce grow operations or drug violence.

"Mandatory minimums don't work," Scriven said in interview Thursday.

"This is taking us to an American-style drug policy."

Scriven also said grow operations are only dangerous because they aren't inspected.

"There's nothing different about growing pot than growing any other plant," Scriven said. "You could have the exact same fires if you were improperly growing tomatoes."

By legalizing pot, the government would take profits away from crooks and reduce the violence associated with Canada's drug trade, he said.

"People don't get shot up for codeine. People don't get shot up for Aspirin," Scriven added.

"Why give them a gold mine when you could sell it for the price of coffee?"

Burnaby MPs say they will vote against the bill.

Bill Siksay, NDP MP for Burnaby Douglas, says similar laws have already failed in the U.S.

"They fill up the prisons, they disrupt families, but they don't solve the problem," Siksay said in an interview Thursday.

"We've given fare to many people's criminal records for marijuana use, and we've clogged the courts for way too long."

Instead, the government should decriminalize marijuana, Siksay said.

"We need to upset the apple cart when it comes to drug policy, he added.

Peter Juilan, NDP MP for Burnaby New Westminster, agreed, saying the federal government should spend more money on front line policing.

"The bill is the wrong approach to take," he added.

James Moore, Conservative MP for Port Moody-Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, did not return phone calls Friday,

But Rob Nicholson, the Ontario MP who introduced the bill, said the bill sends a message to crooks that the government won't tolerate drug trafficking.

"Drug producers and dealers who threaten the safety of our communities must face tougher penalties," Nicholson said in a news release.

"That's why our government is moving to impose mandatory jail time for serious drug offenses that involve organized crime, violence or youth."

The bill also included a mandatory two-year jail sentence for dealing drugs such as cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines to youth, or for dealing those drugs in places normally frequented by youth.

It would increase the maximum penalty for pot production from seven to 14 years, and includes tougher penalties for trafficking date-rape drugs.

A 2004 addiction survey found the number of Canadians who reported using an injection drug at some point in their life rose to 4.1 million in 2004 from 1.7 million in 1994. The release also states that cash, guns and cocaine are smuggled into Canada in exchange for locally grown marijuana.