by chycho

On 27 February 2009, the Conservative government revived a bill to impose automatic jail terms for drug-related crimes, “which would send people to jail for growing as little as one marijuana plant for the purpose of trafficking.” On June 8, the House of Commons passed this bill, Bill C-15, which “has been widely criticized by criminal justice experts, who point to the total failure of mandatory minimum sentencing in the United States to deter or reduce the amount of drug crimes occurring.” This bill now only needs Senate support to become law.

This is happening in spite of the fact that the majority of Canadians believe the consumption of cannabis should be legalized.

“Adults in Canada believe the consumption of cannabis should be allowed in their country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana.”

To see how your Member of Parliament voted go to:
Vote No. 82, 40th Parliament, 2nd Session, Sitting No. 70 - Monday, June 08, 2009.

What is now going to be implemented in Canada is the same type of system which has bankrupted the United States and has led to the “unprecedented decision to reduce the nation’s largest prison system by one-third.” In February, three federal judges called “for California to cut its prison population by as much as a third, effectively ruling that (the) dysfunctional state government is incapable of overseeing the prison system.”

A 2007 report from the JFA Institute, a Washington criminal-justice research group, revealed that the US prison system is costly, harmful, and a complete failure, requiring a “major justice-system overhaul”.

“The number of people in U.S. prisons has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society … It recommends shorter sentences and parole terms, alternative punishments, more help for released inmates and decriminalizing recreational drugs. It said the steps would cut the prison population in half, save $20 billion a year and ease social inequality without endangering the public.”

A study released in March 2009 revealed that 7.3 million Americans were processed through the US prison system in 2007, which is equivalent to 1 in every 31 adults:

“A record number of Americans served time in corrections systems across the country in 2007, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Center on the States. The U.S. correctional population -- those in jail, prison, on probation or on parole -- totaled 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 adults.”

In the United States, police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006. Marijuana arrests in the US have topped previous records and are costing taxpayers billions of dollars per year.

Based on 2005 population figures for both prisons and cities in the United States, the US “prison population would rank as the 4th largest city behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago while beating Houston out by over 200,000 people.” This is what Stephen Harper and his Conservative Government are proposing, to create a prison population that will rank as Canada’s fourth largest city, at a cost of billions of dollars.

Unfortunately for Canadians, with the passing of Bill C-15, the Conservatives, with help from the Liberals, just turned Canada into a prison State.

The Canadian Government will now mimic the flawed US prison system that the above reports fault in so many ways, in spite of the fact that Canadian crime rates have fallen over the last few years. This will increase the Canadian prison population and divert billions of dollars from needed social programs.

To give people an idea of the sheer madness of this bill consider the following data for the United States: Since the mid-1980’s, marking the new beginning of the American “War on Drugs", the United States prison population has more than doubled. They have over 2.2 million people incarcerated, representing 25% of the worlds prison population from a country that only has 5% of the world’s populace. A staggering $41+ billion is spent annually on corrections alone, even though reports indicate that $37 billion would be saved annually with legalization. They have a private prison industry that is automated for maximum profitability. There is no rehabilitation in the United States because the machine that feeds on these brutal laws is making too much money for the elite. If the majority of Canadians would just review the statistics available from the US Department of Justice’s own website they would be appalled as to what Stephen Harper, his Conservatives, and the Liberals have just done.

The beginning of the Canadian "War on Drugs" and the introduction of the American style of mandatory minimum sentencing are just the start of the changes that Canadians are about to buy into. This stepping stone, geared to create the same type of class structure that dominates the United States is the beginning of the process of dismantling Canada.

What makes Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff think that Canadians want this failed system implemented in Canada, especially during the greatest economic crisis since the great depression?

One final word to all Canadians, including anyone who was foolish enough to vote for Harper, it’s your money that is going to be used to build these prisons, pay the court fees, hire lawyers and judges, and enforce laws which will in turn lead to more violence. The most important thing to keep in mind is that those who consume cannabis are not criminals. They are your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and your children, and many have been sacrificed to further the agenda of certain individuals and organizations who feed off the profits from the criminalization of this simple plant that has the potential to save us and our environment.

We are in desperate need of reeducation if we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated, lied to, and betrayed by these corporate cowards, and the following three documentaries are a good place to start. They summarize the complete disaster known as the ‘War on Drugs’ and the prison industrial complex quite well (Please note that the first few minutes of the first movie are in Dutch, but the rest is in English).

Here is hoping that one day we will realize that our continual war on nature will finally destroy us. Hopefully this realization will come sooner rather than later.

War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex

The Union (1:44:30)

Hemp Revolution part 1 of 2

Hemp Revolution part 2 of 2

Source: http://www.chycho.com/?q=C-15