Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This amendment deals with the punishment sections over the distribution offences that are in clause 9. Clause 9 states that it is prohibited for an individual who is 18 years of age or older to distribute cannabis of more than 30 grams, to distribute cannabis to an organization, or to distribute cannabis that they know is illicit cannabis. It's also an offence for a young person to distribute more than five grams of dried cannabis, for an individual to distribute one or more cannabis plants that are budding or flowering, or to distribute more than four cannabis plants that are not budding or flowering.
The section I'm going to propose we amend has to do with the punishment for the violation of those. I have so far consistently replaced the criminal penalties with monetary fines, or at least put in limited criminal sanctions to narrow circumstances and to make the maximum penalty no more than two years less a day. As we all know, two years less a day subjects a person to incarceration in a provincial institution and not a federal one. Basically, the rationale that I would have for this is similar to what I've already expressed, so I won't belabour the point.
Again, I would point out that making it a criminal offence for, say, a 19-year-old to distribute cannabis to a 17-year-old, or, in the case of a young person who has more than five grams, to subject them to criminal provisions under the Youth Criminal Justice Act maintains a criminalized approach to cannabis that we know doesn't work and that we know will cause more harm than the cannabis itself.
This amendment would replace lines 20 and 21 with “a fine of not more than $300,000 or imprisonment for a term of not more than two years less a day, or to both”. That's for the most serious repetitive crime.
Then, for the most common offences and infractions, we'd see, “for a first offence, to a fine of not more than $3,000 and, for any subsequent offence, to a fine of not more than $50,000”.
Then we'd have the same approach for lines 9 to 12, “a first offence, to a of a fine of $3,000 and, for any subsequent offence, to a fine of not more than $50,000”, so that there's no criminal penalty or jailing of people for offending these except in the most serious or repetitive case.