Madam Speaker, I want to clarify what I said. I did not say that most people were not concerned about whether drugs were being moved from schedule III to I or vice versa. I said that people who are addicted to drugs do not really care about that. They are addicted.
However, concerning date rape drugs, this is a huge issue. It is very much a women's issue. Who knows? Perhaps we should look at taking date rape drugs out because that is not what the bill is about. The bill is not about date rape drugs. If that were the big pressing issue, then we would have a bill about date rape drugs. What we are doing is creating these mandatory minimums.
I would like to share with the member a conversation, an email exchange, that I have been having with a professor at Dalhousie Law School about these kinds of changes and mandatory minimums. That is what the bill is really about.
He pointed out that a huge problem with the Criminal Code is the practice of making ad hoc changes on a regular basis that are entirely inconsistent with each other. The last comprehensive review of the sentencing provisions by Parliament specifically aimed at reducing the use of jail. Section 718.2(e) states: “All available sanctions other than imprisonment that are reasonable in the circumstances should be considered for all offenders“.
This proposal flies in the face of that, preventing the use of anything but imprisonment.
Further, I would point out why a minimum sentence for having one marijuana plant when say manslaughter does not even have a minimum sentence. Aggravated sexual assault, section 273, has no minimum sentence. Abduction of a child under 14 has no minimum sentence. Abandoning a child under 10, so its life is likely to be endangered, section 218, has no minimum sentence.
However, if someone has a marijuana plant we are going to send them away to jail for six months. This is ad-hockery at its worse.