Mr. Speaker, it is good to be able to speak to the bill on the decriminalization of marijuana. It is important to me and all members of the House because it is an issue to which Canadians have really paid attention. Sometimes when we amend the Criminal Code it happens without much input but this is one issue in which all sectors of society have been interested.
The first meeting I went to where people had asked me to speak about this issue was quite some time ago. It was in a seniors centre. Some ladies had come to my office to talk about the bill. They were very concerned that any steps would be taken to decriminalize marijuana. When I thought about it afterward, they had probably raised teenagers right in the middle of the 1960s and it had been a big concern to them at that time. It still is now. They have been watching this with interest, as have others.
I spent some time with the local law enforcement people in my riding not too long ago and asked them about some of the issues that Canadians are facing. The marijuana issue was brought up. They are dead set against any decriminalization. They feel that it leads right into harder drugs and more pain for our society.
The non-medicinal use of drugs in our society is an absolutely huge issue. It affects many more people than we realize. It gets into society at all levels. It is not only in the lower end of town, the east side of Vancouver or some of the skid row areas where we see this. It is everywhere. If there is anything that we as a government and as a country can do to stop the availability of or the use of drugs, we need to do it. We need to enact laws that make it harder, not easier, to use these types of drugs.
One thing that was mentioned to me when I was discussing some of these issues was the aspect of organized crime as it creeps into the entire area of marijuana.
As has been mentioned many time here today, across the country we have seen the increase in the number of grow ops. There was one in an old brewery in Ontario not too long ago. The size of the operation and the investment put into it were huge. The amount of illegal drugs cranked out of that place was unbelievable. This goes on and on.
Now people are buying and using residential homes in the upper level areas of cities and towns and not in places where one would associate this type of activity. They are harder and harder to detect. The amount of damage being done to real estate across the country by these grow ops is huge.
Something that needs to be addressed is the involvement of organized crime. Those people who think that organized crime is not involved in the growing of marijuana and its distribution should give their heads a shake because it is involved.
The moneys created by trafficking in these drugs are used to purchase harder drugs and to infiltrate more and more of society. The more people who get hooked on this stuff and the more people who become involved, the better it is for the organized crime rings in Canada. They certainly are using this as a means of funding the rest of their activities. That is a huge issue.
The former solicitor general mentioned the issue of driving under the influence and the inability to have roadside checks. This is important.
It seems that we are trying to put the cart before the horse. We should address some of these other issues before we make any attempts to increase the availability of this drug. Certainly the level of the amount, whether it is 5 grams, 15 grams or 30 grams, is something that is up for debate. The amount that the government has put in the bill is far too much and if it is going to be looked at, it should be far less. There are things that need to be done before we do that.
The whole idea of a national drug strategy is to deal with the whole issue of drugs. Marijuana is part of that culture and part of that circle. We need to have something in place that would allow our police officers and other people in law enforcement to deal with the whole drug issue.
There is also the proceeds of crime. This is something that I dealt with some time ago in connection with child pornography and the equipment used to create and distribute child pornography. There was nothing in the code that allowed for the confiscation of that equipment. That is there now. The same should apply in this instance.
These are the issues that need to be dealt with before we make any move to change what we are doing, in decriminalizing or legalizing this drug.
We talked about fines in great detail and the subsequent fines for people who go back to this activity. It was mentioned that police have shut down a grow op and by the next day the people are out on the streets again. For people who reoffend, the fines and penalties should increase on a very steep ramp. We have to make sure that there is an increasing deterrent for those people who want to be involved in this activity.
One thing that is always remarkable to me is the value of the drugs that are seized in these marijuana grow ops. It does not seem that one has to cover a whole lot of area with plants in order for it to be worth a substantial amount of money on the street. In order to stop people from taking the gamble and breaking the law, we have to make sure that the penalties are such that they are deterred from taking part in these activities. The subsequent fines and penalties for people who reoffend have to a true deterrent and of a nature that would make them think twice before they went back into it.
The other issue is the difference in the penalties depending on the age of the person. The government is proposing in the bill that a younger person would be penalized less severely than an older person. That absolutely sends the wrong message. If the laws are different according to the age of a person, that says to young people that they can get away with this activity because they will not be penalized as severely as adults, so why not take a chance on it.
We have to really be careful that the message we are sending, particularly to our young people, remains that this drug is dangerous. We should not be proceeding down the line that the government has proposed.
Before any steps are made to change the existing laws, we have to deal with some of the other issues. How are we going to decriminalize something that is illegal to purchase or illegal to grow? There are so many aspects of it that just do not add up. It needs a lot more work, a lot more effort and a lot more change before the bill will become acceptable to Canadians.
In closing, I want to register my opposition to what the government has proposed. It is a step in the wrong direction. The use of drugs in this country will increase if we proceed with this bill. We should make every effort to make the needed changes before we take that step.