Thank you for having us here today.
My name is Hugh Lampkin. I represent VANDU as vice-president. Our membership consists of approximately 2,500 people.
I will read our submission.
The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users is a group of users and former users who work to improve the lives of people who use illicit drugs, through user-based support and education. Located in Canada's poorest urban neighbourhood, the downtown east side of Vancouver, most of our members are economically and socially marginalized. Drug prohibition serves to further marginalize our members because, in Canada, police profiling centres on poor, visible street users and sellers. Canadian jails and prisons house the poor, and our most visible drug users and sellers and aboriginal and people of colour are overrepresented.
Bill C-15 will increase the harm to illegal drug users in society. Similar to our current drug laws, mandatory minimums will affect people who are visible street-level users and small-scale sellers. We only need to look south of the border to understand the long-term effect of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences.
In the 1970s and the 1980s, Congress and many states legislated in mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences. By the 1980s, it became apparent that the poor and people of colour were the most vulnerable to police profiling and imprisonment for drug offences, even though drug-use rates were no higher than in other subgroups.
For example, one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars in the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States, 2008, page 8. In the United States, over 7 million people are moving though the criminal justice system: in prisons, 2.3 million; or on probation or parole, 5 million. That's from the Pew Center on the States 2009, page 1.
However, there is no empirical evidence that demonstrates mandatory minimum sentencing decreases illegal drug consumption and selling. In contrast, numerous studies demonstrate that mandatory minimums in the United States contribute to a higher incarceration rate, the highest incarceration rate in the world, where one in 100 people are in jail or in prison, according to the Pew Center on the States, 2008.
In its report, “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008”, the Pew Center on the States points to three decades of prison growth that is bankrupting states without making a dent on crime, recidivism, or illegal drug-use rates. Significantly, they point out on page 3 that
...current prison growth is not driven by a parallel increase in crime or a corresponding surge in the population at large. Rather, it flows principally from a wave of policy choices that are sending more lawbreakers to prison and, through popular “three-strikes” measures and other sentencing enhancements, keeping them there longer.
The rising cost of corrections and the economic crises in the United States have led policy-makers to examine sentencing and correctional policy more closely. For example, the New York State legislature and Governor David Paterson have reached an agreement that would end mandatory sentencing codes for drug offences, the infamous Rockefeller drug laws enacted in the 1970s. Today it is recognized that mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences is costly and ineffective.
Bill C-15 will have a negative outcome in Canada. Around the world, drug-user groups like VANDU and policy-makers, judges, and elected officials point to the health and social harm of prohibition. They state that addiction should not be criminalized. The Health Officers Council of British Columbia and other groups advocate for a regulated legal market for currently criminalized drugs. Prohibition fuels not only a black market but also a drug trade, related violence, and stigma and discrimination against illegal drug users.
Bill C-15 will disproportionately impact poor racialized street users and sellers and impose unjust sentencing and expense. Instead of moving toward harsher mandatory sentencing and costly prison, Canada should look toward other nations—Portugal, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, etc.—that are abolishing harsh drug laws and adopting drug policies that reflect our health and human rights.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent VANDU at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. VANDU opposes Bill C-15.
Thank you.