Re: “High time to talk about pot, ” Letters, The Leader, Sept. 2.
The Huffington Post reports that in Canada, mandatory minimum sentences range from six months to three years, depending on the severity of the offence.
Under the law passed in 2012, someone who grows six plants “for the purpose of trafficking” is automatically sentenced to six months in jail.
In the same year the mandatory minimums were introduced here, a U.S. panel of former and current police officials warned the Conservative government about the consequences of launching a war on drugs.
“These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety,” they wrote in a letter.
So who’s not ready to be prime minister and who’s been there way too long?
The Tories cut and slash federal programs and services that will contribute to the death of Canadian citizens (Coast Guard, Veterans Affairs, etc.) and hide huge health care cuts in an omnibus bill, yet are willing to spend (b)millions on a marijuana war they can’t win, even though 65 per cent of Canada’s voting-age population disagrees.
Georges Ducharme, Surrey
