This Is Just Gross

I find myself in usual agreement with the Bloc Quebecois on crime. Our marijuana/drug laws are increasingly disconnected and way too expensive. 

Parliament's passing of a slew of a law and order bills that will bloat federal and provincial budgets to the tune of billions of dollars without first knowing how much they would cost is a "systemic failure," says Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

You go Page.

In 2007-08, the annual average cost of keeping one person incarcerated was $101,666. Under the old regime, the rationale behind giving prisoners two-for-one credit for time served before sentencing is that remand centres are often crowded and have worse conditions than facilities where people are sent after they've been convicted. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews ( Provencher, Man. ) said initially C-25 would cost the system $90-million over two years, and then ahead of Mr. Page's report revised that figure to $2-billion over five years.

Politicians over budgeting. What a surprise.

The bill, now called S-10, would bring in mandatory minimum sentences for people caught with as few as six marijuana plants. In the last session of Parliament Liberal Senators put forward amendments to the bill that would remove mandatory minimums for those caught with between six and 200 plans, only if no aggravating factors apply, such as if the cannabis plants were produced for the purpose of trafficking, if there were weapons used or found, the production created a danger to the public in a residential area, or the property of a third party ( a rental unit ) was used in the offence. The justice minister said the amendments "gutted" the bill, and the are not included in the reintroduced legislation.

Six fricken plants? Are they fricken kidding me?

Not everyone is off their rocker:

Sen. Carstairs said she is disappointed her colleagues in the House of Commons are not standing up for young people who could be affected by the law.


I am very much opposed to hard drugs, I am opposed to trafficking, but I believe that to criminalize young people for being caught with minimal amounts of marijuana thereby giving them a sentence with which they have to live for the rest of their life is unconscionable," she said.