Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for his fine discourse on the subject. I would like to broaden it a little on the relationship between organized crime and terrorism.
We know that in our hemisphere Colombia is the major producer of cocaine. We know that organized crime gangs are working with guerilla groups such as FARC and ELN in Colombia. Through these groups working together, the proceeds from the trafficking of cocaine are actually being used to fuel terrorist activities.
West Africa is another example. The trade in blood diamonds is also used to fuel terrorist organizations.
Terrorist organizations are actually intimately involved in failed and failing states and they derive moneys from the trafficking of contraband. As this relates to marijuana, as an example, we have a situation in our country in which organized crime gangs derive an extraordinary amount of money from marijuana.
I would like the hon. parliamentary secretary to talk about the bill the government has put forth, which has engaged in a few amendments that I think are quite clever, and actually would decriminalize the simple possession of small amounts of marijuana. It would allow people to possess up to three marijuana plants. First, possession would still be illegal. Second, the bill would take this out of the courts. Third, a fine would be attached to it. Most important, for the casual user it would disconnect that individual from the large grow operations in the process from which the marijuana is ultimately purchased.
By doing this, the bill is very clever. It disarticulates the small time 18 year old or 19 year old users who might have a couple of joints on them from going to the structure that produces pot and derives the profits connected to organized crime.
Does the member think this is a very good step in the right direction to try to address organized crime and cut the financial underpinnings out from under these parasitic organizations in Canada?